Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-02-07
SHIP.CANALS,
Their Effect upon the Carrying Trade and
Commerce of the World.

Commerce of the World.
! The progress made upon the Pana-
ma canal lends interest to the inquiry as
to what effect its completion may have
upon the business of the world, says
Youths Companion. This point will
have to be left largely to the future for
its determination, for it is to be pre-
sumed that, although the canal COM
pany is in sad financial condition,
the work will some time be completed.
? The experiment most nearly similar
to the Panama enterprise is the Suez
canal. The president of the geo.
graphical section of the British assO-
citation has within the past year made
a study of the consequences of open
ing the shorter route to India, and has
reached some interesting conclusions.
/ He finds, for instance, that an in
creasing proportion of the raw ma
terial and products of the east is being
carried direct to Mediterranean ports
for distribution to the markets of
southern Europe. When the goods
were brought around the Cape of
Good Hope they went to the hands of
English merchants for distribution.
This gave to great Britain the profits
of trade, as well as of transportation.
! At present Odessa, Trieste, Venice,
and Marseilles are growing centers of
trade for southern and central Europe,
as Antwerp and Hamburg are for the
north. The opening of the canal
fastened the change, to the loss of
English manufacturers and of national
wealth.
Again, the turning of the course of
transportation from the route around
the Cape of Good Hope had led to the
building of steamers for special SER
vice between the east and the west.
On the line by way of the canal the
waters are, on the whole, smoother
than by most long routes. To meet
the requirements OF this traffic an in
ferior class of vessels has been built,
which would prove useless in case the
canal should be closed to England by
hostilities or by accident.
If the canal had not been made,
steamers of a superior type would
have been built for the cape route, and
the India and China trade would have
been less exposed than now to inter-
ruptiOn IN time of war.
A change still more important is
that the opening of the canal has tend
ed to develop manufactures in India, so
that the people of that country have
entered the market as competitors
with English workmen. Thus, one
part of the empire has been benefited
partially at the expense of another
part.
| Moreover, the shortening of the
,O,,+o bot India boS
stimulated Indian agriculture. Wheat
has become a great staple of Indian
! commerce. The export of this pro-
! duct has risen since 1868 from one and
three-fourths to twenty one million
hundred weights in year.
The effect of opening the Panama
canal will naturally be felt as much
by our country as by England. 1t will
facilitate communication between Great
Britain and it's Australasian colonies.
This may lead to still sharper compe-
! tition than there is now between Eng
lish and American dealers to supply
the markets of Australasia.
1t is anticipated that such a result
would embarrass English interests
more than it would promote those of
| the colonies. The advantage the
! United States would derive from the
canal would be the having more di-
rect water communication between the
| two coasts. This would be partially
at the expense of the railroads which
cross the continent, although it would
affect but slightly, or not all, those
classes of freight which must be trans
ported promptly.
Neither our trade with Europe on the
east nor that with Asia on the west is
likely to be affected to any great ex-
tent. 1t will tend to lessen the cost of
transportation and insurance in COM
parison with the cost of production,
and this means comparatively cheaper
living for everybody. No such marked
changes, however, are to be looked for
as those which followed the opening
of the Suez canal.