A MARKET-PLACE IN TANGIER
In the past, trade has followed the flag in Africa, but now as elsewhere, in these days of open doors, favored nation treaties, and equal trading, the exclusive right to buy and sell lies less within the hands of the landlord than it did of old. In the first flush of occupation, the landlord even now takes the large percentage; but to the degree in which he administers his estate successfully, so do opportunities for others present themselves, and are quickly taken advantage of. In southern Africa, and to a great extent up and down the east and west coast, it is now a free-for-all game. The same may be said of Egypt in the north.
From a photograph by the Detroit Publishing Co.
THE ENTRANCE TO THE SUEZ CANAL AT PORT SAÏD
At present France is still gathering her harvest of trade in Algeria and Tunis by virtue of military control. The same will be her lot in Morocco for a few years to come; but in this latter case the period of undisputed gain will be shorter, for the German eagle is hovering along the Moroccan coast with eye alert for opportunity to alight upon the land. Once at rest, his free participation in the commercial spoil is now assured through the foresight of those who play the game in Berlin. The French traders will then need to look well to their profits, for in this war for trade Germany has no superior in resourcefulness or tenacity of purpose. As soon as France completes her self-imposed task of policing the African coast from Tunis to Agadir, the only practical advantage which will remain to the landlords of Africa because of their holdings will lie in the fact that a great number of foreign purchases are due to foreign enterprises, and in the conduct of these the purchasing power is naturally more subservient to purveyors of like nationality.
The conquest of Africa, as shown by the political map of to-day, was achieved in the first instance without an appeal to arms except in the case of the Boer republic and the Italian occupation of a portion of Tripoli. Annexations, protectorates, and spheres of influence generally follow conquests at arms. In Africa this method has been largely reversed. Under the plea of establishing stable and peaceful conditions, wars, generally of the bushwhacking variety, have followed the political map-making; but by the time the real fighting began, each one of the overlords was accredited by the world with fighting for his own already established rights and for the ultimate good of the native defenders of the soil. The latter have generally been converted into rebels or outlaws by a decree written in London, Berlin, or Paris before they fired their first arrow or gun at the foreign invader. Italy is almost the only country which has done open violence to this peculiarly African method of territorial aggrandizement, and by way of contrast her action appears brutal, inexcusable, and bungling, and, as many diplomats aver, she is demonstrating its amateurishness by the questionable success achieved. This is specially true in view of the known inherent and acquired leanness of the prize, a plucked bird despoiled of its scanty trade feathers by Egypt on the east, Algeria on the west, and the Kongo development on the south, long before Italy moved to acquire the prize presumably for her own exclusive profit.
Photograph by the Detroit Publishing Co.
A PANORAMA OF ALGIERS