Africa is in a state of commercial transition. During the last quarter of the nineteenth century the partition of its area among European nations left but few of the names that formerly were familiar. At the beginning of the twentieth century the British, French, and Germans controlled the greater part of the continent, although the Portuguese, Belgians, Italians, and Spanish have various possessions.

The partition of Africa was designed for the expansion of European markets. The population of Africa is about one hundred and seventy million, and the continent is practically without manufacturing enterprises. The people, therefore, must be supplied with clothing and other commodities. In 1900 the total trade of Africa with the rest of the world was about one and one-third billion dollars, of which the United States had a little more than two per cent., mainly cotton cloth and coal-oil.

Egypt.—The Egypt of the maps is a region of indefinite extent so far as its western and southern boundaries are concerned; the Egypt of history is the flood plain of the Nile. From the Mediterranean Sea to Cairo the cultivable area is not far from one hundred miles in width; from Cairo to Khartum it varies from three to seven or eight miles wide.

The food-producing power of Egypt depends on the Nile. In lower Egypt a considerable area is made productive at the ordinary stage of water by means of irrigating canals, but in upper Egypt the crops must depend upon the annual flood of the river, which occurs from June until September. During this period the river varies from twenty-five to forty feet above the low-water mark. In the irrigated regions three crops a year may be produced; in the flooded lands only one is grown.

In order to add to the cultivable area two great engineering works have been constructed. A barrage and lock control the flow of water at Assiut; a huge dam at Assuan impounds the surplus of the flood season. These structures, it is thought, will increase the productive power of the country about one-fourth. Rice, maize (an Egyptian variety), sugar, wheat, and beans are the staple crops.

Rice is the food of the native people, but the crop is insufficient, and the deficit must be imported. The wheat, maize, and beans are grown for export to Europe, the last named being extensively used for horse-fodder. The sugar-growing industry is protected by the heavy yield and the cheap fellahin labor. The raw sugar is sent to the refineries along the Mediterranean. Onions are exported to the United States.

The cotton-crop is an important factor, and in spite of its own crop the United States is a heavy purchaser of the long-staple Egyptian cotton, which is used in the manufacture of thread and hosiery. The cultivation of tobacco is forbidden by law, but Egyptian cigarettes are an item of considerable importance. They are made of imported Turkish tobacco by foreign workmen. There is a heavy export duty on native tobacco exported, and the ban on the inferior native-grown article is intended to prevent its admixture with the high-grade product from Turkey, and thereby to keep up the standard of the cigarettes.

Egypt is nominally a vassal of Turkey, paying to the Sultan a yearly tribute of $3,600,000. Great Britain's is the real controlling hand, because the Suez Canal is Great Britain's gateway to India. By a purchase of the stock held by a former Khedive, Great Britain secured financial control of the canal, a necessary step from the fact that more than half the trade carried through the canal is British commerce.

The country is deficient in the resources that make most nations powerful. There is neither coal, iron, nor timber available, and these must be imported. Great Britain supplies the first, and Norway the last. Some traffic is carried on the Nile, but railways have been built through the crop-lands. One of these threads the Nile Valley and will become a part of the "Cape to Cairo" route.

Alexandria is the port at which most of the Egyptian commerce lands. Cairo, the largest city of Africa, derives its importance from its position at the head of the Nile delta. It is a favorite winter-resort. Port SaÏd and Suez are the terminal ports of the Suez Canal; their commerce is mainly the transit trade of the canal.

Other Independent States.—Most of the independent states of Africa are in a condition of barbarism and have but little importance to the rest of the world. Abyssinia has the natural advantages of gold, iron, pasture-lands, and forestry, and the possibilities of cotton cultivation. Valuable mining concessions have been granted to foreign companies. Ivory, coffee, and gold are shipped to India in exchange for textiles. A railway from the coast is under construction, but all the traffic is carried by mule-trains, mainly to Harrar.

Morocco has an admirable strategic position at the entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar, and is most likely, in time, to become a possession of Spain. There are exported, mainly to Great Britain, beans, almonds, goat-skins, and wool. The goat-skins are sumac-tanned and are still used in making the best book-binding leather. Only a small part of the so-called Morocco leather of commerce is genuine. There are no railways; caravan routes from the Sahara cross the country. Tangier and one or two other ports are open to foreign trade. Coal-oil is the only import from the United States.

The state of Liberia was established for the benefit of freed slaves from the United States. The products are those of tropical Africa, including caoutchouc. Coffee cultivation is extensively carried on, and coffee is the leading export. Monrovia is the chief centre of trade.

North African Possessions.—French influence is paramount in northern Africa. Algeria and Tunis are both French colonies, and the caravan trade of the Sahara is generally tributary to French trade. The region known as the Tell, a strip between the coast and the Atlas Mountains, is the chief agricultural region, and the products are similar to those on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. The ordinary grains are grown for home consumption, but the macaroni wheat crop is manufactured into macaroni paste for export. The fruit-crop, especially the olive, date, and grape, and their products, is exported.

Esparto grass, for making paper, was formerly an important export, but the increasing use of wood-pulp for this purpose has had the effect of increasing the grazing area, and therefore the wool-crop. Date-palms grow in great profusion, and the excess forms an important export, going to nearly every part of Europe and the United States. A large part of the crop, however, is consumed by the Arabs. Sumac-tanned goat-skins, for book-binding leather, are also exported.

The colonies must import coal. Manufactures are therefore restricted to the preparation of the fruit and food products. Sponges are an important product. Railways provide the necessary transportation for the crops. Algiers, the metropolis, is a finely built city and a favorite winter-resort. Oran is the shipping-port for grain and esparto grass. Biskra is the market for dates.

The caravan trade of northern Africa is considerable, and the greater part converges at Tripoli, to which not far from ten thousand camel-loads of merchandise are brought annually. This trade is carried on mainly by the Arabs, who cover the region from Timbuctu to Lake Chad. They bring ivory, ostrich feathers, gold, goat-skins, and slaves. In return they carry cloth, fire-arms, ammunition, and various commodities to the negro villages of the Sudan. The district is a possession of Turkey. Its chief exports are esparto grass, sponges, and dye-stuffs.

Central Africa.—Central Africa is divided among the chief European powers. Great Britain and Germany divide the lake-region and the Zanzibar coast. On the Guinea coast the French are an additional factor. The trade of these regions consists of an exchange of tropical products—palm-oil, rubber, ebony, camwood, ivory, and hides—for cloth, tobacco, fire-arms, beads and trinkets, and preserved foods. Most of this trade is carried on by companies holding royal charters.

The Kongo State is a semi-official corporation of this character, the King of the Belgians being its chief executive officer. The active administration is carried on by agents of the company. The chief of each tribe or village is required, under penalty, to furnish a certain quota of crude rubber and other products; and between the agent and the Arab slave-driver the natives have little to choose.

The Kongo River is the outlet of the state, and to facilitate the transportation of the products, railways have been built, or are under construction, around the rapids. This region is about the only remaining source of elephant ivory, but most of the supply consists of the tusks of animals long since dead. A fleet of steamboats carries the commercial products to the coast. Stanley Pool, at the head of the rapids, is the chief depot for collection. Ocean steamships ascend the river to a point above Boma, the place of administration.

Nigeria and Ashanti are British possessions on the Guinea coast,[81] having a trading company organization. Sierra Leone is an organized colony, a product of which is the kola-nut. British East Africa is important for strategic purposes, inasmuch as it includes the upper Nile basin, a territory sometimes known as the Egyptian Sudan. Akra is the trading port of Nigeria, and Khartum of the upper Nile Valley. Zanzibar is the metropolis of the east coast.

The French possessions include a large territory at the mouth of the Kongo, the western part of the Sahara, and the islands of Madagascar and Reunion. In German East Africa the commercial development has been substantial, and large plantations for the cultivation of tropical products are in operation. A railway from the coast to the lake-district is under construction. Mombasa is its commercial outlet.

The Italians have nominal possession of a territory facing the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, and also of the peninsula of Guardafui. Their actual possession, however, is restricted to the island and trading-post of Massawa. Their attempts to conquer Abyssinia have been unsuccessful.

Cape of Good Hope and the South African Colonies.—Up to the time of the Suez Canal, Cape of Good Hope was a sort of half-way house between British ports and India, and this position made it commercially important. Even at the present time more than fifteen hundred vessels, many of them in the Indian Ocean trade, call at the chief port of the colony every year.

Agriculture is the chief industry of these colonies, though not the one yielding the greatest returns. Enough wheat, maize (or "mealies"), and fruit are grown for home consumption, but the climate is too arid for any excess of bread-stuffs. The aridity is a resource, however, in the matter of wool, the superior quality of which is due largely to the deficient rainfall. As a matter of fact the whole country is a great grazing veldt; wool, a very fine quality of Angora mohair, hides, and cattle products are exports.

From December to March the fruits ripen, and these, especially the grapes, are carried in cold-storage vessels to British and other European ports. The wine is likewise of excellent quality and is becoming an export of great value. Both the fruit and the wine are similar to those of Australia and California.

The business of ostrich farming is in the hands of several large companies, and, next to the wool-crop, ostrich plumes are the leading product. There are about a quarter of a million birds, and each produces about one pound of feathers. The ordinary quality of plumes varies from five to ten dollars a pound; very choice plumes command as much as two hundred dollars a pound. London is the chief market for them, but most of them sooner or later find their way to the milliners of the great cities.

The diamond-mines of Griqualand West furnish practically the whole of the world's supply. The mines are operated on a most thorough business system, and the output of rough stones is carefully regulated to meet the demand. All wholesale dealers know the output from year to year, and no more stones are put upon the market than the number required to meet the demand. All the Kimberley mines are now consolidated under one company. The yearly output does not vary much from twenty million dollars' worth of stones. The stones are marketed from Kimberley, but London dealers buy most of them.

The mines that for several years produced more gold than any others in existence are in the Transvaal.[82] Other undeveloped mines in the territory of Rhodesia are known to be extremely rich in precious metals; indeed, there is much evidence that the famous mines of Ophir were in this region. Copper ore is an important export.

The industries of Natal colony do not differ materially from those of Cape of Good Hope. The rainfall is sufficient for the growing of sugar-cane, and sugar is an important export to the mother-country. The colony has productive coal-mines, and these are destined to become an important resource.

The home government has encouraged railway building, and a trunk line through Rhodesia affords an outlet to the ports of the south coast. It is the policy of the mother-country to extend this road along the lake-region and the Nile Valley (known as the "Great Rift") to the Mediterranean Sea. This plan when carried out will give Great Britain a practical control of the trade of eastern Africa. The imports are mainly textiles, machinery, and steel wares.

Cape Town is the most important centre of trade in South Africa. A considerable trade, however, is carried on at Port Elizabeth and at Durban, the port of Natal. Kimberley is the seat of the diamond-mining interests, and Johannesberg of the gold-mines.

Germany and Portugal divide the southwest coast. Walfisch Bay is the outlet of the former. Portuguese East Africa is an outlet for the trade of the Transvaal region, with which it is connected by rail. The port LourenÇo Marquez has a fine harbor.

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