What Foreign Countries Send Us
Most persons would regard as dullness concentrated the tables of “exports declared for the United States” from the various cities of the world, as compiled from the statistics of our consuls. They are but solid pages of figures. Yet in reality they tell many an interesting story of the currents of the world’s commerce. Important towns are associated quite as often in our minds with some distinguishing product as with historical events or political prominence. Brussels suggests carpets, yet in ten years past Belgium has not exported to this country a thousand dollars’ worth of carpets. We get from that country plate glass, cement, linens, and laces in large quantities. Jamaica gives us some ginger, but a great deal more in value of bananas and sugar. Cologne sends us some cologne water, but forty times as many dollars’ worth of mineral water. From Rome, the very name of which suggests art and literature, nearly one half of the imports is cheese; the rest is made up of the artistic things which we should expect. Athens, her older neighbor, exports to us but little, mostly iron ore. The other Greek cities sell us currants. Jerusalem leads in religious articles made of mother-of-pearl. Genoa, the birthplace of Columbus, finds a market for olive oil in the land he discovered. Raw silks lead in Milan. Horsehides are among the great exports of Moscow. Clay pipes and lace are the peculiar combination which Calais submits. Antiquities and gum figure high in Cairo’s list; firecrackers, in that of Canton and other Chinese ports. Little but gold comes from Dawson City, coffee from Rio de Janeiro, kauri-gum from Auckland, or rabbit skins from Hobart, in Tasmania. Human hair comes in small quantities from nearly all lands, European and Asiatic. The products of a country not only show its natural resources, but reveal much as to the skill and intelligence of its people. Many an export—like cotton, opium, sugar—has played a large part in the politics and history of the world.—Youth’s Companion.