Part 30 (2/2)

Raw silk, wine, olive-oil, straw goods, sulphur, and art goods are exported. Cotton, wheat, tobacco, and farm machinery from the United States, and coal, woollen textiles, and steel goods from Great Britain are the chief imports. Most of the foreign trade is with the nearby states. The raw silk goes to France.

Since the unification of Italy the railways have been readjusted to the needs of commerce. Before that time the lines were wholly local in character; with the readjustment they were organized into trunk lines.

They enter France through the Mont Cenis tunnel; they reach Switzerland and Germany by way of St. Gotthard Pa.s.s; they cross the Austrian border through Brenner Pa.s.s.

_Rome_, the capital, is a political rather than an industrial centre.

_Milan_, the Chicago of the kingdom, is the chief market for the crops of northern Italy and a great railway centre. It is also the market for raw silk. _Genoa_, the princ.i.p.al port, is the one at which most of the trade of the United States is landed. _Naples_ monopolizes most of the marine traffic between Italy and Great Britain. _Leghorn_ is famous for its manufacture and trade in straw goods. A considerable part of the grain harvested in the Po Valley is stored for s.h.i.+pment at _Venice_--not in elevators, but in pits. _Palermo_ is the trading centre of Sicily.

Most of the sulphur is s.h.i.+pped from _Catania_. _Brindisi_ and _Ancona_ are s.h.i.+pping-points for the Suez Ca.n.a.l route.

=Spain and Portugal.=--The surface of these states is too rugged and the climate too arid for any great agricultural development. Less than half the area is under cultivation; nevertheless, they are famous for several agricultural products--merino wool, wine, and fruit. The merino wool of the Iberian peninsula has no equal for fine dress goods; it is imported into almost every other country having woollen manufactures. A considerable amount of ordinary wool is grown, but not enough for home needs.

The fruit industry is an important source of income. Oranges, limes, and lemons are extensively grown for exports; among these products is the bitter orange, from which the famous liqueur curacao, a Dutch manufacture, is made. The heavy, sweet port wine, now famous the world over, was first made prominent in the vineyards of Spain and Portugal.

Malaga raisins are sold in nearly every part of England and America. The olive is more extensively cultivated than in any other state, but both the fruit and the oil are mainly consumed at home--the latter taking the place of b.u.t.ter. Raw silk is grown for export to France.

Although a larger part of the peninsula must depend on the American and Scandinavian forests for lumber, there is one tree product that is in demand wherever bottles are used--namely, cork. The cork is prepared from the bark of a tree (_Quercus suber_) commonly known as the cork oak,[73] which grows freely in the Iberian peninsula and northern Africa.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPAIN AND PORTUGAL]

Metals and minerals of economic use are abundant. Iron ore is sold to Great Britain, France, and Germany. Since the Spanish-American War, however, there have been extensive developments in utilizing the coal and the ore which before that time had been sold to other countries.

The undeveloped coal and iron resources are very great, and must figure in the payment of a national debt that is near the limit of bankruptcy.

The state, however, is entering a period of industrial prosperity.

The most available metal resource is quicksilver. Of this metal the mines in Almaden produce about one-half the world's supply. The working of these mines is practically a government monopoly, and the income was mortgaged for many years ahead when Spain was at war with her rebellious colonies.

Both Spain and Portugal are poorly equipped with means for transportation. The railways lack organization, and freight rates are excessive. Not a little of the transportation still depends on the ox-cart and the pack-train. The merchant marine has scarcely more than a name; the foreign commerce is carried almost wholly in British or French bottoms. The imports are mainly cotton, coal, lumber, and food-stuffs--these in spite of the fact that every one save lumber might be produced at home.

Wine and fruit products, iron ore, and quicksilver are leading exports.

Of these the United States purchases wine and raisins for home consumption and lace and filigree work for the trade with Mexico. Spain has a considerable trade in cotton goods with her colonies, the Canary Islands, and the African provinces of Rio de Oro and Adrar.

Portugal likewise supplies her foreign possessions--Goa (India), Macao (China), and the Cape Verde and Azores Islands--with home products. The chief Portuguese trade, however, is with Great Britain and Brazil.

_Madrid_ is the capital of Spain. _Barcelona_ is the chief commercial centre. _Valencia_, _Alicante_, _Cartagena_, and _Malaga_, are all ports of fruit and wine trade. _Oporto_ has been made famous for the port wine that bears its name. Probably not one per cent. of the port now used, however, comes from Oporto, and not many Malaga raisins come from Malaga.

=Switzerland.=--This state is situated in the heart of the highest Alps.

The southeastern half is above the alt.i.tude in which food-stuffs can be produced, and probably no other inhabited country has a greater proportion of its area above the limits of perpetual snow. A considerable area of the mountain-slopes affords grazing. The valley-lands of the lake-region produce a limited amount of food-stuffs, but not enough for the spa.r.s.e population.

Politically, Switzerland is a republic, having the position of a ”buffer” state between Germany, Italy, France, and Austria-Hungary.

Racially, the state is divided among Italians, French, and Germans; as a matter of fact, however, the old Helvetian spirit, which not even Caesar could destroy, is still a great factor in dominating the people; this, with their montane environment, gives the Swiss a very positive nationality.

The agricultural interests of the state are developed to their utmost; two-thirds of the bread-stuffs, however, are purchased from the United States, the plains of Bohemia, and Russia. Cherries, apples, grapes, and other fruit are cultivated in every possible place, and as these can be delivered to any part of western and central Europe within a day, the fruit industry is a profitable one.

Cattle are bred for dairy purposes, but those for beef must be very largely imported, Austria-Hungary and Italy selling the needed supply.

Goats are raised for their hides, and the latter are converted into Morocco leather. Of the dairy products, cheese is in many respects the most important; Gruyere cheese is exported to nearly every country. On account of the long distance from populous centres milk cannot be transported; much of it is, therefore, condensed, and in that form exported.

A peculiar feature of the dairy industry is the fact that it is constantly moving. The dairy herds begin to pasture in the lowlands as soon as the snow melts, and as fast as the snow line recedes up the mountains the cattle follow. The milk is converted into b.u.t.ter and cheese wherever the herds may be, and the second crop of gra.s.s below them is cut and cured for winter forage.

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