Commercial Geography Part 7

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.

It is thought that the cultivation of the grain began in Mesopotamia, but it is also certain that it was grown by the Swiss lake-dwellers far back in prehistoric times. It is the "corn" Joseph's brothers sought to buy when they went to Egypt, and the records of its harvesting are scattered all over the pages of written history.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GRAIN CROP--MODERN METHODS OF CULTIVATION AND HARVESTING]

Of the one and one-half billion people that const.i.tute the world's population, more than one-third, or about eight times the population of the United States, are consumers of wheat-bread; and this number is yearly increasing by twelve million. Moreover, each individual of this aggregate consumes yearly very nearly one barrel of flour, or about four and one-half bushels of wheat. In other words, it requires somewhat more than two billion three hundred million bushels of wheat each year to supply the world's demand.[23] As a matter of fact the world's crop is yearly consumed so nearly to the danger-line that very often the "visible supply," or the amount known to be in the market, is reduced to a few million bushels.

Wheat will grow under very wide ranges of climate, but it thrives best between the parallels of 25 and 55. In a soil very rich in vegetable mould it is apt to "run to stalk." A rather poor clay-loam produces the best seed,[24] and a hard seed, rather than a heavy stalk, is required.

In the lat.i.tude of Kansas the seeds planted in the fall will retain their vitality through the winter; in the lat.i.tude of Dakota they are "winter-killed," as a rule. Because of this feature two broad cla.s.ses or divisions of the crop are recognized in commerce--the winter and the spring varieties. In general, the spring wheats are regarded as the better, and this is nearly always the case in localities too cold for winter wheat. There are exceptions to this rule, however. In the main, winter wheat ripens first, and is therefore first in the market.[25]

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHEAT]

In Europe the plain that faces the North and Baltic Seas, and that part which extends through southern Russia, yield the chief part of the crop, although the plains of the Po, the Danube, and Bohemia furnish heavy crops. Russia, France, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy are all wheat states.

In a normal year all Europe produces a little more than one-half (fifty-five per cent.) of the world's crop. Russia and France excepted, scarcely another state produces as much as is consumed. Great Britain consumes her entire crop in three months; Germany in about six months.

France sends a part of her crop to Great Britain and buys of Russia to fill the deficiency. Russia consumes but very little of her wheat-crop; it is nearly all sold to the states of western Europe. All Europe consumes about one billion seven hundred and ten million bushels, but produces about one billion two hundred and fifty million; the remainder is supplied by the United States, India, Argentina, Africa, and Australia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHEAT IN UNITED STATES]

In the United States the great bulk of the crop comes from the upper Mississippi valley and Pacific coast States. About one-third is consumed where it is grown; more than one-third is required for the populous centres of the east; a little less than one-third is exported, of which about ninety per cent. goes to Europe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHEAT PRODUCTION]

Much of this, especially the Pacific coast product, is sold unground, but each year an increasing amount is made into flour. The flour manufacture of the United States aggregates somewhat more than 160,000,000 barrels yearly--the output of 16,000 flour-mills; the Pillsbury mills of Minneapolis alone have a capacity of 60,000 barrels a week. In Europe the Hungarian mills and their output of Bohemian flour are the chief compet.i.tors of the United States.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHEAT]

The wheat-crop of the Pacific coast has usually been a factor by itself.

On account of the absence of summer rains, the kernel is both plump and hard. After the thres.h.i.+ng process it is sacked and stored in the fields in which it has grown.[26] Heretofore much of the sacked wheat has been s.h.i.+pped to European markets by the Cape Horn route, but in late years a yearly increasing amount is made into flour and sold in China, j.a.pan, and Siberia. In 1900 nearly two million barrels were thus sent.

East of the Rocky Mountains, after the grain is harvested much of it is sold to dealers whose storage elevators[27] are scattered all over the wheat-growing region, and at all great points of s.h.i.+pment, such as Duluth, Minneapolis, Buffalo, and the eastern seaports. Before the grain is transferred to the elevators it is inspected and graded, and the cars which contain it are sealed. This wheat const.i.tutes the "visible supply." All the business concerning it is transacted by means of "warehouse receipts," that have almost the currency of ready money.

Banks loan money on them almost to their market value.

Under normal conditions, the cost of growing and harvesting a bushel of wheat--including interest on the land and deterioration of the machinery, etc.--is between fifty and fifty-five cents. The market price, when not affected by "corners" and other gambling transactions, usually varies between sixty-two and eighty-five cents. The difference between these figures is divided between the farmer and the "middlemen,"

the share of the latter being in the form of commissions and elevator charges.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STORING PACIFIC COAST WHEAT]

In addition to bread-making wheat, certain varieties of grain known as macaroni wheat have a certain importance in the market. Several varieties are so hardy that they easily resist extremely cold winters; they will also grow in regions too dry for ordinary varieties. In this respect they are well adapted to the plains at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. The only detriment is the lack of a steady market.

Macaroni wheat has a very hard kernel and is rich in gluten. It is used mainly in the manufacture of macaroni paste, but in Europe, when mixed with three times its weight of ordinary soft wheat, it is much used in making flour. The small amount now grown in the United States is s.h.i.+pped mainly to France.

The yield of wheat varies partly with the rainfall, but the difference is due mainly to skill in cultivation. In western Europe it is from two to three times as great as in the United States; in Russia and India it is much less.[28]

The yearly consumption of wheat is increasing very rapidly both in the United States and in Europe; moreover, China is becoming a wheat-consuming country. In the United States the consumption is increasing so rapidly that unless either the acreage of the crop, or else the yield per acre, is materially increased, there will be no surplus for export after the year 1931.