Arizona republican., 1899-09-28
COMMERCIAL AFRICA
Some New Facts Regarding the Dark Continent.
A Yearly Trade Of About Thrt 2 Quarters of Billion of Which inc United States Enjoys Only Very Small Part.


 Commercial Africa. in 1899 is the title
 of a publication just prepared by the
 treasury bureau of statistics It shows present commercial conditions in
 Africa, and incidentally the political
 divisions as they new exist, and is ac- 1 boundary lines of the various colonies, ! prCteotoTates, spheres of influence and independent states of this great con- Tinent whose map has so rapidly changed during the pas. few years
 A table accompanying the monograph shows the imports and exports into
 and from each of the divisions. The ! imports amount in round numbers to S400, 100000 and the experts tc S35O,- 100000, while of the imports, SIS 00O,-
 GOO is furnished by the United States,
 and of the experts, s1O,000,OO0 is ssnt
 to tha. United States.
 Of course the large proportion Of
 the commercial business Of Africa Is
 transacted through the British colon
 ies, their share being S131 ,0OO,O0 Of the imports and S132, ,000,0O0 Of the ex-
 ports. Next in importance in the i'm pert trade is the South African re- public, or TransvaaI, which is astracls- ing so much attention at the present moment, it's imports amounting to s104, 100000 and it's exports to $54,O00,- 900, the chief exports being gold and other minerals. French Africa inn ports goods valued at over 7O,00O, 900 and experts nearly an equally quan- tity; Turkish Africa, principally Egypt, imports $54,OO0,OOO and experts $62,0O0,00O, while Portugue.e Africa, whose pIcqits on the eastern coast are adjacent to thu gold and diamond fields, is also the scene of commercial activity, the importations being S12,- 000,000, and the expectations nearly $7.OO0,OOO.
 Much additional information has been brought to the srfuaca regarding Africa through the opportunities which are now affcrdsd for access to the in terior. Physically the African conti- nent is in many respects uaiqua. Five thousand miles in extreme length and over 4,000 in breadth, it's area is great CT than that of any other continent ex- cept Asia, the latest estimates being square miles. Its coast formation is peculiar in the absence of deep indertations, bays or harbois. and the small number Of waterways which offer entrace to the interior. The fact that the greater part of the interior is an elevated table land ex- tending Cn all sides to within a short | distance of the coast renders access to 1 the interior by the few large streams | difficult. At the point where the riv- | CTS pass from the elevated plateau of | the interior to the lcwlands of the i coast the fass CT rapids which there exist prevent navigation, and as re- suit travel to the interior in Africa by water developed more slowly than in any cher continent Indeed it was net until the explorations of Living ston, Stanley, Spoke and others de- Veloped the true conditions and made water stretches were tc be found in the interior that it occurred to man 10 transport steam vessels around those 'alls and put them af1oat in the water ways of the interior When th5se con- litions were clearly established. how sver, modern ingenuity and energy soon found a means of transporting steamers in small pieced upcn the Jafcks of men through the forests, around the falls and rapids for scores md even hundreds of miles, and put ing them together. set af1oat the , steamsrs which penetrate thousands If miles into the interior and develop acts never before known and which ,Ould net have been developed by { and exploration in tropical climates md jungles for many generations.