In my introduction to M. Latzina’s book, I glanced at the whole continent of South America, and I remarked that civilisation had scarcely penetrated the interior of this vast continent; that the density of its population was extremely low; that the economic, intellectual and political life of the continent was concentrated, if I may so use the word, upon its periphery; that is to say, upon the shores which are in touch, through navigation, with the rest of the world; that the Argentine Republic formed the southern portion of this belt connecting Uruguay and Chili; that this belt is wider where the penetration of the interior is easier and the climate more favourable. This belt has also been widened in Southern Brazil by the construction of railroads. It is still wider in the Argentine, because the network of railways is more widely distributed, the soil is of even quality and cultivable, and the climate temperate and favourable to expansion.
For the purposes of this present Introduction, let us imagine a vaster area—the whole earth, or, at least, the three inhabited zones of the earth.
The torrid zone contains nearly a third of the land surface of the earth, and only a quarter of its population; the density of population is thus below the average. Original civilisations have existed in the torrid zone—for example, Mexico and Peru before the arrival of Europeans—but these existed on higher plateaus where the climate was not tropical. There were civilisations in India and the East Indies, but these were imported from the valley of the Ganges. There are to-day intertropical countries which exhibit an active economic life: India, Mexico, the Antilles and the seaboard of Brazil. Nevertheless, in the greater part of the torrid zone it would seem that the continuous high temperature saps human energy, and also renders it to a great extent unnecessary, by simplifying life, reducing as it does the number of man’s essential needs by facilitating the satisfaction of those which are, like alimentation, strictly necessary.
The temperate zone of the north is the most favoured of all these. It contains nearly half the land surface of the globe. It is also the most populated, and the average density of population is far higher, for it contains about 1,207,000,000 inhabitants, or roughly speaking, three-quarters of the population of the globe. Here it is that we find massed the four great sources of the ancient and modern civilisation of the world, which also correspond to the four great groups of mankind; China with Japan; India, with the Deccan running down to the torrid zone; Europe, and the United States and Eastern Canada. In the three first centres the density of population is far greater than in any other large country. In the fourth, the number of human beings (some 94 millions) and the density are far less; but this centre has become one of the most important, by means of its activity of production.
There remains the temperate zone of the south. In this zone, the ocean occupies relatively the largest space. The land emerges from it only at the termination of three continents—America, Africa, and Australia, terminated by Tasmania and New Zealand. Before the arrival of Europeans, each of these divisions was absolutely isolated, without any relations with the others, and inhabited by races entirely savage. The coming of the Europeans who peopled them, and the maritime commerce which ensued, have awakened them to civilisation. In the case of America, we have seen that free colonisation was not commenced until the nineteenth century. In Africa, at the opening of the nineteenth century, there were only a few ports occupied, and Australia was still practically untouched. To-day, in the temperate zone of the south, which comprises only a twelfth part of the land surface of the globe, there are 24 millions of inhabitants, nearly all civilised and of European descent. This population amounts to 1·5 per cent. of that of the globe; its density, therefore, is below the average.
It is, however, the zone in which the population has relatively increased most rapidly since the beginning of the nineteenth century, for at the outset it certainly did not count a million inhabitants. The Australian and African divisions have owed their good fortune to gold, and in a
lesser degree to wool; but gold mines are a source of wealth which is exhausted by exploitation. In Australia, where the extent of arable lands is limited, immigration has at present practically ceased. In Africa the soil is little suited to culture, and immigration to the Transvaal has been recruited rather among Asiatic coolies than among free workers of European race.
In this southern temperate zone, the Argentine Republic is the State which has the most numerous population: that in which the population has known the greatest increase, and in which economic conditions promise the widest development in the near future. The perfecting of refrigerating processes will certainly facilitate the exportation of meats, and it is to be hoped that the interests of trade, under the necessities of the food supply of the labouring classes, will finally overcome the obstacles which the European producers oppose in the way of imports. The demand for wheat, like the demand for meat, may vary according to the year and the protective legislation of the nations; but in general we may say that it will increase rather than decrease, because the population of Europe, and especially of Central and Western Europe, is for ever increasing in numbers and in density, so that already it cannot suffice to itself by producing its alimentary needs from its own soil, and in proportion as it becomes wealthier it will consume more white bread and more butchers’ meat. The United States and Canada continue to export wheat; but the rapid increase of the urban and industrial population of the United States will assuredly limit this exportation to a very great extent in the twentieth century.[10]
[10] The consumption of wheat in the United States averaged 200 million bushels between 1871 and 1875, and 531 million between 1903 and 1907. The exportation averaged 62 million bushels between 1871 and 1875, and 122 million between 1903 and 1907.