Part 34 (2/2)
=Other British States.=--The Straits Settlements are so called because they face the Straits of Malacca. They include several colonies, chief of which are Singapore, Penang, and Malacca. The Straits ports are free from export and import duties, a regulation designed to encourage the concentration of Malaysian products there--in other words, to encourage a transit trade.
The policy has proved a wise one, and the trade at the three ports--_Singapore_, _Penang_, and _Malacca_--aggregates about six hundred million dollars yearly. About two-thirds of this sum represents the business of Singapore. Tin const.i.tutes about half the exports, a large share going to the United States. Spices, rubber, gutta-percha, tapioca, and rattan const.i.tute the remaining trade. Rice, cotton cloth, and opium are the imports.
The Federated Malay States, situated in the Malay peninsula, and the northern part of Borneo are also British possessions. Their trade and products are similar to the rest of the Malaysian possessions.
=Dutch East India.=--The Dutch possessions include nearly all the islands of the Malay Archipelago and the western part of New Guinea. Of these, Java and Sumatra are the most important. They are divided into ”residencies,” and the administering officers exercise control over the various plantations. In addition, there are numerous private plantations. The colonial administration is admirable.
Cane-sugar, coffee, rice, indigo, pepper, tobacco, and tea are the chief products. The sugar industry has been somewhat crippled by the beet-sugar product of Europe. Java and Sumatra coffees are in demand all over Europe and the United States. Sumatra wrappers for cigars find also a ready market wherever cigars are manufactured. The cultivation of cinchona, or Peruvian bark, has proved successful, and this substance is becoming an important export. The islands of Banka and Billiton (with Riouw) yield a very large part of the world's supply of tin, much of which goes finally to the United States. The mother-country profits by the trade of these islands in two ways: the Dutch merchants are practically middlemen who create and manage the commerce; the Dutch Government receives an import tax of six per cent., and a small export tax on nearly all articles except sugar. _Batavia_ is the focal point of the commerce.
=Siam.=--This kingdom is chiefly important as a buffer state between French and British India, and little by little has been pared by these nations until practically nothing but the basin of the Menam River remains. The administration of the state is progressive, and much of the resources have been developed in the last few years.
Rice and teak are the leading products. The rice is cultivated by native laborers--much of it by enforced labor--and is sold to Hongkong, British India, and the more northerly states. It is collected by Chinese middlemen, and by them sold to British and German exporters. The teak-wood business is managed by British firms. The logs are cut by natives, hauled to the Menam River, and floated to Bangkok; there they are squared and sent to European markets. Pepper and preserved fish are also exported. The Menam River is the chief trade-route, and _Bangkok_, at its mouth, is the focal point of trade.
=French India.=--The French control the region south of China, called French Indo-China, together with various areas in the peninsula of Hindustan; of these Pondicheri and Karical are the most important.
Indo-China includes the basin of Mekong River, and rice is the staple product. The most productive rice-fields are the delta-lands of the Mekong, formerly known as Cochin-China.
From these lands more than half a million tons of rice are exported, the product being sold mainly at Hongkong and Singapore. Pepper is also an export of considerable value. France, China, and the Philippine Islands are the final destination of the rice export. The imports are mainly textiles, machinery, and coal-oil from the United States. The machinery pertains chiefly to the manufactures of cotton and silk textiles. On account of cheaply mined coal, there is a considerable growth of this industry. _Saigon_ is the business centre and port at which the Chinese middlemen meet the European merchants and forwarders.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What have been the chief effects of the British occupation of these countries, so far as the natives are concerned?
What is the position of Khaibar Pa.s.s with respect to the commerce of India?
How has the building of the Sind-Pis.h.i.+n Railway strengthened British occupation of India?
Singapore and Batavia are the two great focal points of trade in the East India Islands. At the former all trade is absolutely free; at the latter there is both an import and an export tax. What are the advantages of each policy?
From the Abstract of Statistics find the trade of the United States with these countries.
FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
From a cyclopaedia, preferably the Encyclopaedia Britannica, read the following topics:
Caste Lord Clive Rattan Pepper
CHAPTER x.x.xII
CHINA AND j.a.pAN
The relative position of China, Russia, and j.a.pan is not unlike that of continental Europe and Great Britain, and the struggle for supremacy in the j.a.pan and Yellow Seas is about the same as that which in times past took place in the North Sea. In the latter case France and Holland were the disturbing powers; in the former, it is Russia.
=The Chinese Empire.=--A comparison of the Chinese Empire with the United States shows that the two countries have about the same position and extent of lat.i.tude. There is also about the same proportion of highlands, arid lands, and fertile lowlands. The similarity of the two countries in geographic conditions is very marked.
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