Germany, instead of using her newly liberated energies at home in an endeavor to elevate the miserable condition of her working classes, taxes their bread and meat, never too freely supplied, to increase the size of her armies and the number of her battle ships. The defense and expansion of her colonial empire is her leading thought. A strange paradox: The workingman and the peasant are overburdened with taxes on the necessaries of life, so as to procure markets for a limited quantity of factory products outside of the field secured in open competition.
While professing friendship and brotherly love, they all have their eyes on their neighbor's throat, fearful only lest the other might clutch first.
As we are in danger of being drawn into this vortex, it is well to examine the range of possibilities and see what the trade amounts to, to obtain which the scientific intellect of Europe and America has been strained to its limits to discover new means of destruction for attack and defense unknown to the other brothers in the common bond of civilization.
It is a matter of course that trade among European nations does not come within this circle, nor of European nations with the United States. It does not depend on battle ships. In the annexed tables I have classified the countries in three classes: (1) Independent states; (2) colonies of European countries, populated by people of European stock; and (3) colonies and dependencies of European countries, but of non-European stock.
I have reduced the values of imports and exports of the different countries, published in their own currencies, to American dollars. As the values are paper currencies, silver currencies, or conventional values, and of fluctuating rates, I have in such instances taken a yearly average, which will be found in the footnotes of the tables.
_I. Trade of Independent Countries other than of Europe and North America._
Key: (A) Number of inhabitants. (B) Importations. Thousands of dollars. (C) Exportations. Thousands of dollars. (D) Imports per capita. Dollars. (E) Exports per capita. Dollars.
---------------------------+---------+---------+---------+-------+------ NAMES OF COUNTRIES. | (A) | (B) | (C) | (D) | (E) ---------------------------+---------+---------+---------+-------+------ _Asia_ (1895). | | | | | | | | | | China[A] | 383,253 | 128,772 | 107,499 | .34 | .28 Japan[B] | 42,270 | 90,681 | 62,443 | 2.14 | 1.47 All other states | 27,000 | 30,000 | 82,000 | 1.10 | 1.18 | | | | | _America._ | | | | | | | | | | Argentina[C] | 4,000 | 103,058 | 108,671 | 26.50 | 27.17 Brazil[D] | 16,000 | 96,000 | 97,000 | 6.00 | 6.06 Chile[E] | 2,700 | 69,200 | 72,900 | 25.62 | 27.00 Peru[F] | 2,600 | 7,560 | 9,000 | 2.90 | 3.30 Mexico[G] | 12,600 | 42,000 | 22,000 | 3.32 | 1.76 Uruguay[H] | 800 | 25,000 | 30,000 | 31.25 | 37.50 Venezuela[I] | 2,300 | 17,000 | 22,000 | 7.40 | 9.56 All other states | 11,300 | 34,000 | 46,800 | 3.00 | 4.14 | | | | | _South Africa_ | | | | | | | | | | Independent states | 1,000 | 75,000 | 12,000 | 75.00 | 12.00 +---------+---------+---------+ | Total independent states | 505,800 | 718,271 | 622,313 | | +=========+=========+=========+ | Asiatic states | 452,500 | 249,453 | 201,942 | | American and South African | 53,300 | 468,818 | 420,371 | | ---------------------------+---------+---------+---------+-------+------