Commercial Geography / A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges

by Jacques W. Redway

Sind.—The native state Sind includes the greater part of the basin of the Indus. Its importance is military and strategic rather than commercial. The ability of Great Britain to hold India depends very largely on British control of the Indus Valley and the passes leading from it. The Sind-Pishin Railway traverses the Indus Valley from Karachi to Peshawur. Haidarabad, one of the largest cities of India, is the centre of an agricultural district. Karachi, the port near the mouth of the Indus, next to Khaibar Pass, is the most important strategic point of India, and one that the Russians for more than a century have been trying to possess.

Punjab.—The states of the Punjab are mainly at the upper part of the Indus. Amritsar is an important centre for the manufacture of silk rugs and carpets. A large number of these are sold in the United States at prices varying from two hundred to six thousand dollars. The designs for these textiles are often made in New York. Peshawur is important chiefly as a military station.

Burma.—British Burma includes the basin of the Irawadi River. The uplands are wheat-fields; the lowlands produce rice. Mandalay is a river-port and commercial centre. Rangoon is the seaport, with a considerable ship-building industry that results from the teak forests. Although the Irawadi is navigable for light craft, railways along the valley have become a necessity; these centre at Rangoon.

The province of Madras is one of the most densely peopled parts of India. The chief commercial products are cotton and teak-wood. Madras, its commercial centre, has a very heavy foreign trade in hides, spices, and cotton. The cotton manufactures are extensive. A yarn-dyed cotton cloth, now imitated both in Europe and the United States, has made the name famous.

Kashmir.—The native state Kashmir, situated high on the slopes of the Karakorum Mountains, is known chiefly for the "Cashmere" shawls made there. The shawls are hand-woven and represent the highest style of the weaver's art. The best require many years each in the making; they command prices varying from five hundred to five thousand dollars. This industry centres at Srinagar.

Other British States.—The Straits Settlements are so called because they face the Straits of Malacca. They include several colonies, chief of which are Singapore, Penang, and Malacca. The Straits ports are free from export and import duties, a regulation designed to encourage the concentration of Malaysian products there—in other words, to encourage a transit trade.

The policy has proved a wise one, and the trade at the three ports—Singapore, Penang, and Malacca—aggregates about six hundred million dollars yearly. About two-thirds of this sum represents the business of Singapore. Tin constitutes about half the exports, a large share going to the United States. Spices, rubber, gutta-percha, tapioca, and rattan constitute the remaining trade. Rice, cotton cloth, and opium are the imports.

The Federated Malay States, situated in the Malay peninsula, and the northern part of Borneo are also British possessions. Their trade and products are similar to the rest of the Malaysian possessions.

Dutch East India.—The Dutch possessions include nearly all the islands of the Malay Archipelago and the western part of New Guinea. Of these, Java and Sumatra are the most important. They are divided into "residencies," and the administering officers exercise control over the various plantations. In addition, there are numerous private plantations. The colonial administration is admirable.

Cane-sugar, coffee, rice, indigo, pepper, tobacco, and tea are the chief products. The sugar industry has been somewhat crippled by the beet-sugar product of Europe. Java and Sumatra coffees are in demand all over Europe and the United States. Sumatra wrappers for cigars find also a ready market wherever cigars are manufactured. The cultivation of cinchona, or Peruvian bark, has proved successful, and this substance is becoming an important export. The islands of Banka and Billiton (with Riouw) yield a very large part of the world's supply of tin, much of which goes finally to the United States. The mother-country profits by the trade of these islands in two ways: the Dutch merchants are practically middlemen who create and manage the commerce; the Dutch Government receives an import tax of six per cent., and a small export tax on nearly all articles except sugar. Batavia is the focal point of the commerce.