PARIS AND THE GREAT SEAPORTS OF FRANCE
Paris (2,536,834) is, of course, the chief trade centre of all France, but the trade interests of Paris are general rather than special. The manufactures that are most localised in Paris are those of articles of luxury, such as jewellery, perfumery, gloves, fancy wares, novelties, and fashionable boots and shoes. Paris is also a great financial centre. Marseilles (442,000), one of the oldest cities in Europe, is the great seaport of France. Its trade amounts to over $350,000,000 annually, and it ranks next after Hamburg among the great seaports of central Europe. Its specialty is its great trade with the Mediterranean and the East. The opening of the Suez Canal has been of incalculable advantage to Marseilles. Next as shipping port comes Havre (119,000), at the mouth of the Seine, with a total trade not far short of that of Marseilles. Havre is in reality the port or "haven" of Paris. It is the great depot for French imports from North and South America. These comprise principally cotton, tobacco, wheat, animal produce, and wool. Its import of South American wool is enormous, for three fourths of the wool used in France now comes from the region of the La Plata. Recently the Seine has been deepened and now both Rouen and Paris may be considered seaports. By this means Paris has direct water communication with London, and is, indeed, the third seaport in the country. Next comes Bordeaux (257,000), the chief place of export for French wines and brandies. About twenty years ago the wine industry of France suffered tremendous loss from the ravages of the insect phylloxera. Over 4,000,000 acres of vineyard, representing a value of $1,000,000,000, were wholly or partially ruined by this terrible pest. The plague, however, has now been stamped out, but nearly 2,000,000 acres of vineyards have been permanently destroyed and have been devoted to potatoes and the sugar-beet root. The result is that the production of wine in France is now less than what is needed for home consumption, and over fifty per cent. more wine is imported than is exported. The remaining great shipping ports are Dunkerque (40,000) and Boulogne (37,500). Calais (57,000) has a great passenger trade with England.
III. THE TRADE FEATURES OF GERMANY
GERMANY THE MOST PROSPEROUS NATION IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE
The greatest and most prosperous commercial nation in the old world after Great Britain is Germany. Its population is 52,000,000, as against France's 38,500,000; and while France's population is scarcely increasing at all, Germany's population is increasing the most rapidly of any in Europe. Since the Franco-Prussian war France has gained in population only a little over 2,000,000, while Germany in the same time has gained 12,000,000. In the middle of the present century the populations of Germany and France were equal, being each about 35,000,000. Since that date Germany's population has increased by about fifty per cent. and France's by only about ten per cent. Similarly, the commerce of Germany not only greatly exceeds that of France, but is growing much faster than that of France. The total exports and imports of Germany, exclusive of bullion, now foot up to nearly $2,000,000,000 a year. The total exports and imports of France, exclusive of bullion, foot up to only $1,500,000,000 a year. The total commerce of Germany is therefore about one third more than that of France. At the close of the Franco-Prussian war the total commerce of France considerably exceeded that of Germany.
THE CHARACTER OF GERMANY'S INDUSTRIES CHANGING
Germany, like England, is rapidly changing the character of her industries and becoming a manufacturing and commercial nation instead of an agricultural nation. This is the cause of her well-known anxiety to secure control of territories in Africa, Asia, etc., as exclusive markets for her manufactures, for, unlike England, Germany is at present a believer in exclusion in trade, both at home and in her colonies. Fifty years ago about four sevenths of the people of Germany were engaged in agriculture; now only about one third of the people are so employed. The growth of the great cities of Germany is eight times faster than that of the rural districts, and in fifty years the aggregate population of the six largest cities of the empire—Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich, Breslau, and Dresden—has grown sixfold, namely, from 600,000 to 3,600,000. In fifty years, too, the manufactures of Germany have nearly doubled, the commerce nearly trebled, the shipping increased more than fivefold, and the mining output more than sixfold. While all this is true, it nevertheless is also true that the area of cultivated soil in Germany is double what it was fifty years ago. But this is because much land, formerly waste or in pasture, has been brought under cultivation. Yet even now only one half of the land of Germany is cultivated, and thirty-three per cent. of the total food consumption of the people has to be imported. Fifty years ago only five per cent. of the total food consumption was imported, and this small fraction consisted almost wholly of luxuries.
GERMANY'S SUCCESS IN TECHNICAL EDUCATION
Note.—The population of that part of the United States included within the circle is about 10,000,000. The population of the German Empire is about 52,000,000.