Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-09-25
COMMERCIAL AFRICA.
The --latest Facts as to Business in the
Dark Continent
COMPILED BY THE TREASURY
BUREAU OF STATISTICS-THE
IMPORTS AMOUNT TO THE AS
FOUNDING FIGURE OF FOUR
HUNDRED MILLIONS, AND THE
EXPORTS TO NEARLY AS MUCH.
GREAT BUSINESS POSSIBLE
TIES.

Special to the Register
WASHINGTON, D. c., September %.
Commercial Africa in 1899 is the
title of publication just prepared by
the Treasury Bureau OF Statistics 1t
shows present commercial conditions
in Africa. and incidentally the poll
teal divisions as they now exist, and is
accompanied by map showing the
boundary lines OF the various colonies,
protectorates, spheres of influence and
independent states of this great con-
tipent whose map has so rapidly chang
ed during the past 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 $500, 000,-
900, and the exports to $350,000, 900,
while Of the imports, $18,000,O00 is fur
nished by the United States, and of the
exports, $10,000,000 is sent to the Unit
ed States.
OF course the large proportion of the
commercial business of Africa is trans
acted through the British colonies,
their share being $131 100000 of the i'm
ports, and 1872, 100000 of the exports.
Next in Importance in the import and
export trade is the South African Re-
public, or Transvaal, which is attract
ing so much attention at the present
moment, its imports amounting to $104,-
100000, and it's exports, S54 100000, the
chief exports being gold and other
minerals. French Africa imports goods
valued at over seventy million dollars,
and exports nearly an equal quantity;
Turkish Africa, principally Egypt, i'm
ports 81 million dollars and exports,
62 million dollars, while Portuguese At
RIGA, whose ports ON the eastern coast
are adjacent to the gold and diamond
fields, is also the scene of commercial
activity, the importations being II mil
lion dollars, and the expectations near
ly million dollars.
Much additional information has re-
Gently been brought to the surface re-
garding Africa through the opportuni-
ties which are now afforded for access
to the interior. Physically the African
continent is in many respects unique.
Five thousand miles in extreme length,
and over 1000 in breadth, its area is
greater than that of any other contin-
ent except Asia, the latest estimates
being 11,S74,G00 square miles. It's
coast formation is peculiar in the abb
sence of deep indentations, bays or har-
bors, and the small number of water
ways which offer entrance to the in
terror. The fact that the greater part
of the interior is an elevated table land
extending on all sides ito within a short
distance of the coast renders access to
the interior by the few large streams
difficult. At the point where the rivers
pass from the elevated plateau of the
interior of the lowlands of the coast the
falls or rapids which there exist pre-
vent navigation, and as a result travel
to the interior OF Africa by water de-
veloped more slowly than in any other
continent Indeed it was net until the
explorations of Livingston, Stanley,
Spoke and others developed the true
conditions and made known the fact
that vast navigable water stretches
were to be found in the interior that 1t
occurred to man to transport steam yes
sells around those falls and put them
afloat in the waterways of the inter-
Tor. When these conditions were clear
ly established, however, modern ingen-
uity and energy soon found a means of
transporting steamers in small pieces
upon the backs of men through the for
ests, around the falls and rapids for
scores and even hundreds of miles, and
putting them together, set afloat the
steamers which penetrate thousands of
miles into the interior and develop
facts never before known and which
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