Commercial Prize of the Orient 



407 



Foreign fl860 



X 798.461,000 



Commerce! 1904 ■"■^ ™^™ B ^™ 



The Network of Railroads Covering India Today and the Resultant Vast Increase 



in Her Commerce. See page 416 



goods, ivory, and gold dust came from 

 Africa ; leather, tapestry, cloths, cop- 

 per* and iron from Spain and the ad- 

 joining territory, and these were ex- 

 changed at the points already mentioned 

 for the silks, and spices, and woods, 

 and carvings, and pearls, and precious 

 stones from India and China. 



But the most important result to com- 

 merce and geography of this temporary 

 extension of Oriental influence into the 

 Occident was the acquaintance which 

 it gave to the west with that important 

 device of the Far East, the mariner's 



compass. While doubts have been ex- 

 pressed as to the origin of the compass, 

 it is believed that it was developed by 

 the Chinese many centuries before it 

 was known to the West, and used in 

 the desert by the Arabs, and that it was 

 certainly introduced to the Europeans 

 by the Mohammedans during their con- 

 trol of the countries fronting on the 

 Mediterranean. Whatever its origin, 

 its introduction in the West revolution- 

 ized conditions of commerce, navigation, 

 and geographic knowledge . The ocean , 

 formerly considered a barrier to com- 



