Almost all the commercial activity of Europe is south of the parallel and west of the meridian of St. Petersburg. Most of the great industries are controlled by Germanic and Latin peoples, and among these Great Britain and Germany stand first.

Great Britain and Ireland.—The United Kingdom, or Great Britain and Ireland, are commonly known as the British Isles. The British Empire consists of the United Kingdom and its colonial possessions; it includes also a large number of islands occupied as coaling stations and for strategic purposes. All told, the empire embraces about one-seventh of the land area of the world and about one-fourth its population.

The wonderful power and great commercial development is due not only to conditions of geographic environment but also to the intelligence of a people who have adjusted themselves to those conditions. The insular position of the United Kingdom has given it natural protection, and for more than eight hundred years there has been no successful invasion by a foreign power. Its commercial position is both natural and artificial. It has utilized the markets to the east and south, and has founded great countries which it supplies with manufactured products.

The position of the kingdom with respect to climate is fortunate. The movement of the Gulf Stream on the American coast carries a large volume of water into the latitude of the prevailing westerly winds, and these in turn carry warm water to every part of the coast of the islands. As a result, the harbors of the latter are never obstructed by ice; those of the Labrador coast, situated in the same latitude, are blocked nearly half the year.

The high latitude of the islands is an advantage so far as the production of food-stuffs is concerned. The summer days in the latitude of Liverpool are very nearly eighteen hours in length, and this fact together with the mild winters, adds very largely to the food-producing power of the islands.

The highlands afford considerable grazing. Great care is taken in improving the stock, both of cattle and sheep. In the north the cattle are bred mainly as meat producers; in the south for dairy products. Durham, Alderney, and Jersey stock are exported to both Americas for breeding purposes. The sheep of the highlands produce the heavy, coarse wool of which the well known "cheviot" and "frieze" textiles are made. Elsewhere they are bred for mutton, of which the "South Down" variety is an example.

The lowland regions yield grain abundantly where cultivated. The average yield per acre is about double that of the United States, and is surpassed by that of Denmark only. Both Ireland and England are famous for fine dairy products. These are becoming the chief resource of the former country, which is practically without the coal necessary for extensive manufacture. The fishing-grounds form an important food resource.

The cultivated lands do not supply the food needed for consumption. The grain-crop lasts scarcely three months; the meat-crop but little longer. Bread-stuffs from the United States and India, and meats from the United States, Australia, and New Zealand make up the shortage. The annual import of food-stuffs amounts to more than fifty dollars per capita.

The growing of wool and flax for cloth-making became an industry of great importance just after the accession of Henry VII. With the advent of peace, it became possible to manufacture into cloth the fibres that before had been sent for that purpose to Flanders. The utilization of the coal and the iron ore years afterward brought about an economic revolution that was intensified by the invention of the steam-engine and the power-loom.

These quickly brought the country into the foremost rank as a manufacturing centre. Moreover, they also demanded the foreign markets that have made the country a maritime power as well—for an insular country must also have the ships with which to carry its merchandise to its markets.

The development of the manufactures, therefore, is inseparably connected with that of the mineral and metal industries. From very early times the metal deposits of the country have been a source of power. Copper and tin were used by the aboriginal Britons long before CÆsar's reconnaissance of the islands, and it is not unlikely that the Bronze Period was the natural development that resulted from the discovery of these metals.

Coal occurs in various fields that extend from the River Clyde to the River Severn. The annual output of these mines at the close of the century was about two hundred and twenty-five million tons. In the past century the inroads upon the visible supply were so great that the output in the near future will be considerably lessened. Not far from one-sixth of the output is sold to consumers in Russia and the Mediterranean countries, but a growing sentiment to forbid any sale of coal to foreign buyers is taking shape.

Iron ores are fairly abundant, but the hematite required for the best Bessemer steel is limited to the region about Manchester and Birmingham. The shortage of this ore has become so apparent within recent years that Great Britain has become a heavy purchaser of ores in foreign markets. The coal in the Clyde basin is employed mainly in the manufacture of railway iron, steamship material, and rolling stock. The manufacture of Bessemer steel is gradually moving to the vicinity of South Wales, at the ports of which foreign pig-iron can be most cheaply landed. In west-central England the several coal-fields form a single centre of manufacture, where are located some of the largest woollen and cotton mills in Europe. It also includes the plants for the manufacture of machinery, cutlery, and pottery.

The import trade of Great Britain consists mainly of food-stuffs and raw materials.[67] Of the latter, cotton is by far the most important. Most of it comes from the United States, but the Nile delta, Brazil, the Dekkan of India, the Iran plateau, and the Piura Valley of Peru send portions, each region having fibre of specific qualities designed for specific uses. The native wool clip forms only a small part of the amount used in manufacture. The remainder, more than three million pounds, comes from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

The supply of flax is small, and 100,000 tons are imported to meet the wants of the mills. The greater part is purchased in Russia, but the finer quality is imported from Belgium. Jute is purchased from India and manufactured into burlap and rugs.

But little available standing timber remains, and lumber must, therefore, be imported. The pine is purchased mainly in Sweden, Norway, Canada, and the United States. A considerable amount of wood-pulp is imported from Canada for paper-making. Mahogany for ornamental manufactures is obtained from Africa and British Honduras. Oak, and the woods for interior finish, are purchased largely from Canada and the United States.

The export trade of Great Britain consists almost wholly of the articles manufactured with British coal as the power. These are made from the raw materials purchased abroad, and the stamp of the British craftsman is a guarantee of excellence and honesty. Of the total export trade, amounting yearly to about one billion, two hundred million dollars, nearly one-third consists of cotton, woollen, linen, and jute textiles; one-fifth consists of iron and steel manufactured stuffs made from British ores. About one-third goes to the colonies of the mother-country, with whom she keeps in close touch; Germany, the United States, and the South American states are the chief foreign buyers.

For the handling and carriage of these goods there is an admirable system of railways reaching from every part of the interior to the numerous ports. The rolling stock and the locomotives are not nearly so heavy as those used in the United States; the railway beds and track equipment, on the whole, are probably the best in the world. Freight rates are considerably higher than on the corresponding classes of merchandise in the United States. The public highways are most excellent, but the means of street traffic in the cities are very poor.

The harbor facilities at the various ports are of the best. The docks and basins are usually arranged so that while the import goods are being landed the export stuffs are made ready to be loaded. The facilities for the rapid transfer of freights have been improved by the reconstruction of the various river estuaries so as to make them ship-channels. The estuaries of the Clyde, Tyne, and Mersey have been thus improved, while Manchester has been made a seaport by an artificial canal. The British merchant marine is the largest in the world, and about ninety per cent. of the vessels are steamships.

London is the capital; it is also one of the first commercial and financial centres of the world. The Thames has not a sufficient depth of water for the largest liners, and these dock usually about twenty miles below the city. The colonial commerce at London is very heavy, especially the India traffic, and it is mainly for this trade that the British acquired the control of the Suez Canal.

Liverpool is one of the most important ports of Europe, and receives most of the American traffic. The White Star and Cunard Lines have their terminals at this port.

Southampton is also a port which receives a large share of American traffic. The American and several foreign steamship lines discharge at that place. Hull and Shields have a considerable part of the European traffic. Glasgow is one of the foremost centres of steel ship-building. Cardiff and Swansea are ports connected with the coal and iron trade. Queenstown is a calling point for transatlantic liners.

Manchester is both a cotton port and a great market for the cotton textiles made in the nearby towns of the Lancashire coal-field. Leeds and Bradford and the towns about them are the chief centres of woollen manufacture. Wilton and Kidderminster are famous for carpets. Birmingham is the centre of the steel manufactures. Sheffield has a world-wide reputation for cutlery. In and near the Staffordshire district are the potteries that have made the names of Worcester, Coalport, Doulton, Copeland, and Jackfield famous. Belfast is noted for its linen textiles, and also for some of the largest steamships afloat that have been built in its yards. Dundee is the chief centre of jute manufacture.

The German Empire.—The German Empire consists of the kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and WÜrtemburg, together with a number of small states. The "free" cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and LÜbeck, whose independence was purchased in feudal times, are also incorporated within the empire. The present empire was formed in 1871, at the close of the war between Germany and France. The merging of the states into the empire was designed as a political step, but it proved a great industrial revolution as well.

The plain of Europe which slopes to the north and the Baltic Sea, the flood-plains of the rivers excepted, is feebly productive of grain. It is a fine grazing region, however, and the dairy products are of the best quality. Among European states Russia alone surpasses Germany in the number of cattle grown. The province of Schleswig-Holstein is famous the world over for its fine cattle. Cavalry horses are a special feature of the lowland plain, and the government is the chief buyer. The wool product has hitherto been important, but the sheep ranges are being turned into crop lands, on account of the increase of population in the industrial regions.

The midland belt, however, between the coast-plain and the mountains, is the chief food-producing part of Germany. Rye and wheat are grown wherever possible, but the entire grain-crop is consumed in about eight months. The United States, Argentina, and Russia supply the wheat and flour; Russia supplies the rye.

The sugar-beet is by far the most important export crop, and Germany produces yearly about one million, eight hundred thousand tons, or nearly as much as Austria-Hungary and France combined. This industry is encouraged by a bounty paid on all sugar exported.[68] A considerable amount of raw beet-sugar is sold to the refineries of the United States; Great Britain also is a heavy buyer. The home consumption is relatively small, being about one-third per capita that of the United States. Silesia, the Rhine Valley, and the lowlands of the Hartz Mountains are the most important centres of the sugar industry.

Germany is rich in minerals.[69] Zinc occurs in abundance, and the mines of Silesia furnish the world's chief supply. Most of the lithographic stone in use is obtained in Bavaria. Copper and silver are mined in the Erz and Hartz Mountains. During the sixteenth century the mines of the latter region brought the states then forming Germany into commercial prominence and thereby diverted the trade between the North and Mediterranean Seas to the valleys of the Rhine and Elbe Rivers.

These two metal products made Germany a great financial power. The Franco-Prussian War added to Germany the food-producing lands of the Rhine and Moselle, and the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. At the same time it gave the Germans organization by welding the various German states into an empire. As a result there has been an industrial development that has placed Germany in the class with the United States and Great Britain.

By unifying the various interstate systems of commerce and transportation, the iron and steel industry has greatly expanded. The chief centre of this industry is the valley of the Ruhr River. Coal-measures underlie an area somewhat larger than the basin of the river. To the industrial centres of this valley iron ore is brought by the Rhine and Moselle barges from Alsace-Lorraine and Luxemburg, and also from the Hartz Mountains.

In the importance and extent of manufactures, Germany ranks next to Great Britain among European states, and because of the extent of their coal-fields the Germans seem destined in time to surpass their rivals. The manufacture of textiles is one of the leading industries, and, next to Great Britain, Germany is the heaviest purchaser of raw cotton from the United States. The Rhine district is the chief centre of cotton textile manufacture. Raw cotton is delivered to the mills by the Rhine boats, and these carry the manufactured product to the seaboard. Central and South America are the chief purchasers.

Woollen goods are also extensively manufactured, the industry being in the region that produces Saxony wool. In Silesia and the lower Rhine provinces there are also extensive woollen textile manufactures, but the goods are made mainly from imported wool. Argentina and the other Plate River countries are the chief buyers of these goods. There is a considerable linen manufacture from German-grown flax, and silk-making, mainly from raw silk imported from Italy.

The great expansion and financial success of the manufacturing enterprises is due very largely to the admirable organization of the lines of transportation. The rivers, with their connecting canals, supplement the railways instead of competing with them. They are utilized mainly for slow freights, while the railways carry the traffic that demands speed. The possibilities of both inland water-ways and railway transportation have been utilized by the Germans to the utmost, with the result of a very low rate both for coal and ore, and for structural iron and steel. The latter is carried from the various steel-making plants in the Ruhr Valley to the seaboard at a rate of eighty to ninety cents per ton.[70]

All this has resulted in a wonderful commercial expansion of the empire. In 1875 Germany was neither a maritime nor a naval power. At the close of the century it ranked about with the United States as a naval power, and far surpassed that country in the tonnage of merchant marine. The German steamship fleet includes the largest and fastest vessels afloat.

German trade may be summed up as an export of manufactured goods and an import of food-stuffs and raw materials. At the close of the century the annual movement of industrial products amounted to nearly two and one-half billion dollars. About one-half the trade of the empire is carried on with Great Britain, the United States, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A large part of the foreign trade is carried on through the ports of Belgium and Holland.

Berlin, the capital, is one of the few cities having a population of more than one million. It is not only a great centre of trade, but it is one of the leading money-markets of Europe; it is also the chief railway centre. Hamburg and Bremen are important ports of German-American trade, the former being the largest seaport of continental Europe. Breslau is an important market, into which the raw materials of eastern Europe are received, and from which they are sent to the manufacturing districts. The art galleries of Dresden have had the effect of making that city a centre of art manufactures which are famous the world over. LÜbeck is one of the free cities that was formerly in the Hanse League.

The twin cities, Barmen-Eberfeld, in the Ruhr coal-field, form one of the principal centres of cotton manufacture in the world. Dortmund is a coal-market. At Essen are the steel-works founded by Herr Krupp. They are the largest and one of the most complete plants in the world. The output includes arms, heavy and light ordnance, and about every kind of structural iron and steel used. About forty thousand men are employed. Chemnitz is an important point, not only of cotton manufacture, but also of Saxony wools, underwear and shawls being its most noteworthy products. At Stettin, Danzig, and Kiel are built the steamships that have given to Germany its great commercial power.

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