CHAP. V.] UNIFORMITY OF WEIGHTS, MEASURES, AND COINS. 461 have partially or in a permissive manner, including the whole of our possessions in India and in the United States of America, and the United Kingdom, adopted the same system. In respect to the coinage also considerable advance has been made towards unification. Whilst France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland, have by the monetary convention of 1865 agreed upon one uniform system, Austria, Spain, and Portugal are making arrangements for adapting their coinage to that of the convention. It is no exaggeration to say that at this moment 400,000,000 persons have come to an agreement upon one system of weights and measures and 100,000,000 as to one system of coinage also. Viewed from the light of social and commercial requirements we may lament the slow progress of these economic reforms, yet when we compare periods sufficiently distant there is reason to be thankful that so much has been achieved, and that the barbarism of so many conflicting customs is gradually giving place to a scientific and uniform system. CHAPTER VI. COMPARATIVE PROGRESS OF COMMERCIAL NATIONS. Causes of relative Progress.-Progress in the Century.-France.- -Turkey.-Morocco.-Persia.-China.-Siam.-Japan.-United States. -Brazil and other South American States. - British Exports.-The future of international Trade. relative A COMPARISON of the relative progress of nations in commerce and industry will show that it is not any one element alone that will place a state in a position of decided superiority. Causes of The possession of valuable resources, whether mineral progress. or agricultural, a favourable geographical situation, easy means of communication, energy of character, and even the strength of race, have considerable influence in determining the commercial position of different states. England has iron and coal, France has considerable agricultural wealth, Italy is wonderfully well situated, Germany has all the strength of the Anglo-Saxon race. Nevertheless, whilst England exports produce and manufactures at the rate of 6l. 3s. 2d. per head, France exports at the rate of 2l. 188. 8d. and Italy at the rate of 1l. 48. 8d. per head. In truth, the possession of material advantages is not nearly so important as the ability of rendering them subservient to our purposes. Coal and iron were long known to exist in certain localities in England, but it was only when Watt's steam power facilitated mining operations that these minerals became really available. It was northern energy and activity that awakened into life the dormant races of Asia and Africa. Nations are often capable of great exploits. Holland wrested from the sea the soil on which her cities are built. Italian skill perforated Mont Cenis. French enterprise constructed the Suez Canal. Yet in a long and keen competition Britain excelled all nations in trade and navigation. CHAP. VI.] INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS. 463 We have seen what the state of trade was in different coun tries one hundred years ago. Since then, Australia and New Zealand have been discovered, extensive terri- Progress in tories in America have been peopled and cultivated, the century. many new states have been created, valuable powers of nature have been discovered and utilised, many new products have acquired a commercial value, science and art have made wonderful strides, and international exchange has been immensely promoted. What nation has benefited most by these changes? Alas that what a bountiful Providence has bestowed with no sparing hand should have been so often wasted and abused! How much more extensive would the traffic of the world be at this moment but for the obstructions wantonly thrown in the way by war, ignorance, and a most erroneous commercial policy. Nearly every nation has had a share in these sad shortcomings. Only whilst many of them have remained behind helpless and prostrate, Britain most successfully triumphed over all difficulties. France is not an apt scholar in the school of experience. At the commencement of our history we found her in 1763 humiliated and vanquished, closing a wretched war by France. the cession of some of her valued possessions. Sullen and discontented, she gave herself to industry and trade; but soon after an opportunity offered for retrieving her political fortune, and in 1776 we saw her taking side with the American colonies, and creating another general war. The peace of Versailles of 1783 placed her in a somewhat better condition, but scarcely half a dozen years elapsed when in 1789 she was in a ferment of revolution. From that moment to the conclusion of the Treaty of Vienna in 1815, a period exceeding a quarter of a century, France was fearfully distracted at home, and abroad in actual war with nearly every state. The restoration of the Bourbons brought to her no prosperity, and their reign was suddenly arrested by the revolution of 1830. Louis-Philippe was for a time prosperous, but again the revolution of 1848 stopped progress. Then came the short period of the republic, with its anomalies and its coups d'état, which opened the way for another empire in 1852, during which it seemed as if France was tired of the vain pursuit of glory, and that, taking the happy motto L'empire c'est la paix as her guide, she was disposed to give herself in earnest to recover what she had lost. But jealousy of the aggrandisement of neighbouring states corroded her very heart, and in 1870, despite all entreaties and against the judgment of the civilised world, she once more unsheathed the sword against Germany, to retire from the contest shattered, defeated, and impoverished. How could commerce and industry advance under conditions so unfavourable? In 1815 the exports of France were not more than in 1787. Up to 1830 the trade of France continued in a very depressed state, nor did it improve much whilst labouring under a most restrictive tariff. In 1855 Napoleon began to relax somewhat the French commercial policy, and from that moment the progress of France became rapid, so that in the ten years from 1858 to 1868 the exports of France increased from 75,000,000l. to 132,000,000l. or at the rate of 7 per cent. per annum. France is an extensive country placed in the very centre of Europe, bordering on the ocean and the Mediterranean, and surrounded by the most civilised and advancing nations of the world. She has a rich soil, a people skilful and fertile in resources, and she possesses many industries which are peculiarly her own, and in which she has scarcely any rival. She has about 14,000 miles of railway, and she has a considerable river and canal navigation. What she requires is peace and a sound commercial legislation. Let her have this blessing and she will speedily regain all she has lost. Let her be for ever turbulent or at war, or let her once more adopt a system of protection and restrictions, and her decadence is certain and irremediable.' Belgium. Belgium was not an independent state in 1763. It was only in 1831 that her separation from the Netherlands was effected, and in 1839 that her neutrality was guaranteed; but her progress ever since has been steady and extensive, and her institutions have granted sufficient encouragement to labour and industry. The British Consul at Antwerp reported that public opinion in Belgium was favourable to the principles It does not augur well for the future of France that on February 2, 1872, the National Assembly passed a resolution authorising the government to give notice of withdrawal in convenient time from the treaties with England and Belgium. CHAP. VI.] COMMERCE OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND. 465 of free trade; that in 1861 the Antwerp chamber of commerce put forth views of a most advanced character, and passed a vote in favour of the entire abolition of customs duties; that in 1864 the Conseil supérieur de l'Industrie et du Commerce, composed of delegates from all the chambers of commerce in the country, resolved, That the laws relating to customs and excise should always be in harmony with each other, but inasmuch as the absolute suppression of customs duties would exercise a more energetic action upon the development of public wealth than any measure of mere reform, however liberal, it is desirable that the government should constantly tend towards the attainment of that object;' and also that the Customs Reform Association was gaining favour in the country. Between 1858 and 1868 the exports of Belgian produce increased from 15,000,000l. to 26,000,000l., or at the rate of 7 per cent. per annum. France, Britain, Holland, and the Zollverein are the countries with which Belgium has the largest trade. Belgium has about 1700 miles of railway; her mineral resources are considerable and her textile industries of great value. Holland has always preserved her character for prudence and caution. Whilst other countries have been disturbed by strikes, she has been allowed to work out steadily her Holland. own problems of internal reforms and colonial management. At home her trade is prosperous, but in Java and Surinam it has long remained in a most unsatisfactory condition, arising principally from the monopoly of the Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij, or Dutch trading company. On this subject the Rotterdam chamber of commerce, in May 1868, petitioned that in its judgment it was high time for the state to cease to be the principal house directly engaged in trade, and for the trade itself to undertake the import of colonial wares.' Of all colonial systems, the Dutch, which monopolises for the state the commercial resources of the colony, is by far the most objectionable. And what has been the result? Java and Surinam have remained stationary whilst all the world has been progressing. From 1857 to 1867 the export of Dutch produce from Holland increased from 19,000,000l. to 28,000,000l. or at the rate of 42 per cent. per HH |