Part 7 (1/2)

In the early history of nearly every country, military posts formed the beginnings of many centres that have grown to be large cities. Thus, Rome, Paris, London, the various ”chesters”[22] of England, Milan, Turin, Paris, Chicago, Pittsburg, and Albany were established first as military outposts. The trading post was most conveniently established under the protection of the military camp, and the subsequent growth depended partly on an accessible position, and partly on the intelligence of the men who controlled the trade of the surrounding regions.

=Harbors as Factors in the Growth of Cities.=--A good harbor draws trade from a great distance. Thus, with a rate of 14-1/2 cents on a bushel of wheat from Chicago, New York City draws a trade from a region having a radius of more than one thousand miles. In its trade with Chinese ports, Seattle, the chief port of Puget Sound, reaches as far eastward as London and Hamburg.

=Water-Power as a Factor.=--The presence of water-power has brought about the establishment of many centres that have grown into populous cities.

The water-power of the New England plateau had much to do with the rapid growth of the New England States. At the time of the various embargo and non-intercourse acts preceding the war of 1812, a great amount of capital was thrown into idleness. The water-power was made available because, during this time, the people were compelled to manufacture for themselves the commodities that before had been imported.

The manufacturing industry at first was prosecuted in the southern Appalachians as well as in the New England plateau. It survived in the latter, partly because of the capital available, and partly owing to the business experience of the people. In the meantime villages sprang up in pretty nearly every locality in which there was available water-power.

Since the use of coal and the advent of cheap railway transportation, steam has largely supplanted water-power, unless the latter is unlimited in supply. As a result, there is a marked growth of the smaller centres of population along the various water-fronts. In such cases the advantages of a water-front offset the loss of water-power.

=The Effects of Metals on the Growth of Cities.=--The character of the industry of a region has much to do with the character of its manufactures. Thus, coal is absolutely essential to the manufacture of iron and steel; and, inasmuch as from two to eight tons of the former are necessary to manufacture a ton of steel, it is cheaper to s.h.i.+p the ore to a place to which coal can be cheaply brought.

The coal-fields are responsible for the greater part of Pittsburg's population, and almost wholly for that of Scranton, Wilkesbarre, and many other Pennsylvania towns. Iron and coal are responsible, also, for many cities and towns in the vicinity of the Great Lakes. Birmingham, Salford, and Cardiff in Great Britain, Dortmund and Essen in Germany, and St. etienne in France have resulted from the presence of coal and iron.

In many instances man is a great factor in the establishment of a centre of population. Chicago would have been quite as well off in two or three other locations; its present location is the result of man's energy and is not likely to be changed. St. Louis might have been built at a dozen different places and would have fared just as well; the same is true of St. Paul, or of Indianapolis.

Leavenworth at one time was a more promising city than Kansas City, but the building of an iron bridge over the Missouri River at the latter place gave it a start, and wide-awake men kept it in the lead. It has grown at the expense of Leavenworth and St. Joseph, neither one of which has become a commercial centre. Cairo, at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, has the geographical position for a great city; it waits for the man who can concentrate the commerce there.

=Adjustment to Environment.=--San Francisco was wisely located at first, but its grain trade was more economically carried on at Karquinez Strait, while its oriental trade is gradually concentrating at Seattle.

Philadelphia lost its commercial supremacy when the completion of the Erie Ca.n.a.l gave return cargoes to foreign vessels discharging at New York City. Oswego, N.Y., had the advantage of both harbor facilities and water-power, but Syracuse, with practically no advantages except those of leaders.h.i.+p, has far outstripped it.

Such instances of the readjustment of centres of population have been common in the past; they will also occur in the future. In nearly every case the readjustment results from economic causes, the opening of new lines of transportation, the lowering of the cost of the production of a commodity, the discovery of new economic processes--all these cause a disturbance of population, and the latter must readjust itself to new and changed conditions.

Not all peoples have the necessary intelligence and training at first to adapt themselves to their environment. For the greater part, the American Indians were unable to take advantage of the wonderful resources of the continent in which they lived. The Boers occupied about the richest part of Africa, but made no use of the natural wealth of the country beyond the grazing industry; in fact, their nomadic life reduced them to a plane of civilization materially lower than that of their ancestors.

People of the highest state of civilization do not always adjust themselves to their environment readily. The people of the New England plateau were nearly a century in learning that they possessed nearly all the best harbors of the Atlantic coast of North America. When, however, the great commerce of the country had been wiped out of existence, it did not take them long to readjust themselves to the industry of manufacture, the water-power being the natural resource that made the industry profitable.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Were the middle Atlantic coast of the United States to undergo an elevation of 100 feet, what would be the effect on New York City?

Find the factors that led to the settlement of the city or town in which or near which you live. What caused the settlement of the three or four largest towns in the same county?--of the following places: Minneapolis, Fall River, New Haven, New Bedford, Cairo (Ill.), Cairo (Egypt), Ma.r.s.eille, Aix-la-Chapelle, Alexandria (Egypt), Was.h.i.+ngton (D.C.), Columbus (O.), Johannesburg (Africa), Kimberley (Africa), Albany (N.Y.), Punta Arenas (S.A.), Scranton (Pa.), Vancouver (B.C.), San Francisco, Cape Nome?

What circ.u.mstances connected with commerce led to the pa.s.sing of the following-named places: Palmyra, Carthage, Babylon, Genoa, Venice, Ancient Rome, Jerusalem?

COLLATERAL REFERENCE

Any good cyclopaedia.

CHAPTER VIII

THE CEREALS AND GRa.s.sES

Of all the plants connected with the economies of mankind the gra.s.ses hold easily the first place. Not only are the seeds of certain species the chief food of nearly all peoples, but the plants themselves are the food of most animals whose flesh is used as meat. Wheat, maize, and rice are used by all except a very few peoples; and about all the animals used for food, fish and mollusks excepted, are grain eaters, or gra.s.s eaters, or both.

The gra.s.ses of the Plains in Texas, the Veldt in South Africa, and the hills of New Zealand by nature's processes are converted into meat that feeds the great cities of western Europe and the eastern United States.

The corn of the Mississippi valley becomes the pork which, yielded from the carca.s.ses of more than forty million swine, is exported to half the countries of the world. Even the two and one-half billion pounds of wool consumed yearly is converted gra.s.s.

=Wheat.=--The wheat of commerce is the seed of several species of cereal gra.s.s, one of which, _Tritic.u.m sativum_, is the ordinary cultivated plant. Wild species are found in the highlands of Kurdistan, in Greece, and in Mesopotamia, that are identical with species cultivated to-day.