Part 28 (1/2)

The export trade of Great Britain consists almost wholly of the articles manufactured with British coal as the power These are made from the raw materials purchased abroad, and the stauarantee of excellence and honesty Of the total export trade, a yearly to about one billion, two hundred million dollars, nearly one-third consists of cotton, woollen, linen, and jute textiles; one-fifth consists of iron and steel oes to the colonies of the mother-country, hom she keeps in close touch; Germany, the United States, and the South An buyers

For the handling and carriage of these goods there is an ad from every part of the interior to the nu stock and the locomotives are not nearly so heavy as those used in the United States; the railway beds and track equipht rates are considerably higher than on the corresponding classes of hways are most excellent, but the means of street traffic in the cities are very poor

The harbor facilities at the various ports are of the best The docks and basins are usually arranged so that while the i landed the export stuffs are made ready to be loaded The facilities for the rapid transfer of freights have been improved by the reconstruction of the various river estuaries so as to make them shi+p-channels The estuaries of the Clyde, Tyne, and Mersey have been thus improved, while Manchester has been made a seaport by an artificial canal The British est in the world, and about ninety per cent

of the vessels are steamshi+ps

_London_ is the capital; it is also one of the first commercial and financial centres of the world The Thaest liners, and these dock usually about twenty miles below the city The colonial commerce at London is very heavy, especially the India traffic, and it is mainly for this trade that the British acquired the control of the Suez Canal

_Liverpool_ is one of the most important ports of Europe, and receives most of the American traffic The White Star and Cunard Lines have their terminals at this port

_Southae share of An steae at that place _Hull_ and _shi+elds_ have a considerable part of the European traffic _Glasgow_ is one of the fore _Cardiff_ and _Swansea_ are ports connected with the coal and iron trade _Queenstown_ is a calling point for transatlantic liners

_Manchester_ is both a cotton port and a great market for the cotton textiles made in the nearby towns of the Lancashi+re coal-field _Leeds_ and _Bradford_ and the towns about them are the chief centres of woollen manufacture _Wilton_ and _Kidderham_ is the centre of the steel manufactures _Sheffield_ has a world-wide reputation for cutlery In and near the Staffordshi+re district are the potteries that have made the names of _Worcester_, _Coalport_, _Doulton_, _Copeland_, and _Jackfield_ famous _Belfast_ is noted for its linen textiles, and also for soest steamshi+ps afloat that have been built in its yards _Dundee_ is the chief centre of jute manufacture

=The Gerdoether with a nu, Bremen, and Lubeck, whose independence was purchased in feudal times, are also incorporated within the empire The present empire was formed in 1871, at the close of the war between Ger of the states into the ereat industrial revolution as well

The plain of Europe which slopes to the north and the Baltic Sea, the flood-plains of the rivers excepted, is feebly productive of grain It is a fine grazing region, however, and the dairy products are of the best quality A European states Russia alone surpasses Ger-Holstein is famous the world over for its fine cattle Cavalry horses are a special feature of the lowland plain, and the government is the chief buyer The wool product has hitherto been i turned into crop lands, on account of the increase of population in the industrial regions

The midland belt, however, between the coast-plain and thepart of Gerroherever possible, but the entire grain-crop is consuentina, and Russia supply the wheat and flour; Russia supplies the rye

[Illustration: GERMANY AND SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES]

The sugar-beet is by far the most important export crop, and Gerht hundred thousand tons, or nearly as ary and France coed by a bounty paid on all sugar exported[68] A considerable aar is sold to the refineries of the United States; Great Britain also is a heavy buyer The ho about one-third per capita that of the United States

Silesia, the Rhine Valley, and the lowlands of the Hartz Mountains are the ar industry

Germany is rich in minerals[69] Zinc occurs in abundance, and the mines of Silesia furnish the world's chief supply Most of the lithographic stone in use is obtained in Bavaria Copper and silver arethe sixteenth century theGermany into commercial prominence and thereby diverted the trade between the North and Mediterranean Seas to the valleys of the Rhine and Elbe Rivers

These two reat financial power The Franco-Prussian War added to Ger lands of the Rhine and Moselle, and the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine At the sa the various German states into an empire As a result there has been an industrial development that has placed Germany in the class with the United States and Great Britain

By unifying the various interstate systems of coreatly expanded The chief centre of this industry is the valley of the Ruhr River

Coal-er than the basin of the river To the industrial centres of this valley iron ore is brought by the Rhine and Moselle barges fro, and also from the Hartz Mountains

In the importance and extent ofEuropean states, and because of the extent of their coal-fields the Germans seem destined in time to surpass their rivals

Theindustries, and, next to Great Britain, Germany is the heaviest purchaser of raw cotton from the United States The Rhine district is the chief centre of cotton textile manufacture Raw cotton is delivered to the mills by the Rhine boats, and these carry the manufactured product to the seaboard Central and South Aoods are also extensively ion that produces Saxony wool In Silesia and the lower Rhine provinces there are also extensive woollen textile oods are entina and the other Plate River countries are the chief buyers of these goods There is a considerable linen , reat expansion and financial success of the ely to the adanization of the lines of transportation The rivers, with their connecting canals, supple with thehts, while the railways carry the traffic that demands speed The possibilities of both inland water-ways and railway transportation have been utilized by the Germans to the utmost, with the result of a very low rate both for coal and ore, and for structural iron and steel The latter is carried fro plants in the Ruhr Valley to the seaboard at a rate of eighty to ninety cents per ton[70]

[Illustration: LuBECK]

[Illustration: BREMEN]

All this has resulted in a wonderful commercial expansion of the empire In 1875 Germany was neither a maritime nor a naval power At the close of the century it ranked about with the United States as a naval power, and far surpassed that country in the tonnage of merchant est and fastest vessels afloat