"These laws were applied with extreme severity, but the paragraphs favorable to the Indians were very often eluded, causing, just as of yore, the most bitter complaints both on the part of the natives as well as their protectors. This stage lasted until 1540, the year of publication of the 'Nuevas Leyes' (new laws) enacted under the reign of Emperor Charles V. These acts caused great dissatisfaction among the Spanish colonists of the new American countries, and it is chiefly on this account that the rebellions broke out, which for many years continued in the possessions of South America, i. e., the ancient Empire of Peru and the equatorial region of Quito.

"The relations between the masters and the laborers continued to be like before in former years, with such more or less important mitigations as depended on the character of the owners of the eucomiendas (commandries), until, finally, the ideas advocated with such great ardor by the advocate of the Indians, Father Bartholemew P. Las Casas, prevailed, and the commandries were abolished. In order to favor the natives of America, black slaves were introduced into the newly discovered regions, and by so doing one did no more than transplant to America an institution which existed already in Europe and had received great development after the conquest of the Portuguese in Africa.

"It would be superfluous to indicate here the conditions of labor of the slaves, which differed very little from those which regulated the labor of the Indians, who were dependents of a encomienda ('a commandery'). The master or owner disposed of the ones or the others according to his pleasure, and notwithstanding the humane character of the laws enacted for the protection of the negroes and Indians, the fate of these laborers depended in reality only on the character of their masters and the conditions under which they worked.

"Still the Christian sentiments and humane ideas which guided the minds of the Spanish rulers, as well as the desire to induce the Castilian people to leave for and occupy the newly discovered countries, caused the promulgation of different acts which favored the emigration to America of agriculturists and artisans of all kinds, with a view of establishing in the new countries those industries which were then found in Europe, and particularly Castile. Several expeditions were organized for this purpose at the expense of the home Government, and ever since 1520 different edicts were published, which granted many advantages and privileges to those who were to go to the new country. Father Las Casas was ordered to make a tour of all the Castilian towns in order to induce by every means, and particularly through describing the new countries, the Castilian agriculturists to leave for and settle in the new regions.

"All these efforts, however, produced but mediocre results, for the greater part of the immigrants, if not all, scorned agricultural labor, preferring to join the ranks of the conquerors as soon as they had gained a foothold in the newly discovered country.

"In the course of time the Spanish population in America had shown some, if but slow, growth, with the result that in the new regions, more on the continent than in the islands, some Castilian workingmen might be found; but nearly all were owners of land, which they cultivated, and the larger part of people of Spanish stock constituted what we might call the aristocracy among the new colonists, who were either manufacturers or merchants, plying the same trades which existed in Castile.

"Such was the general condition of the Spanish inhabitants of America, and that of labor particularly, until the abolition of slavery in the West India Islands, the remnant of the ancient possessions of Spain in America.

LABOR DEVELOPMENTS IN THE SPANISH COLONIES FOLLOWING THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.

"The record of events in the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico after the abolition of slavery, particularly in the part known formerly under the name of Bovinguen, deserves particular mention. In this latter region the negroes were declared free without any transition, and by the law of June 3, 1870, a very short period was fixed in the case of Cuba, during which the former slaves were subject to the régime of 'patronage;' this period was then reduced, and by the law of November 4, 1879, negroes were permitted to pass rapidly in either island from the state of slavery to that of Spanish citizens, with all their rights and privileges.

"Such a fundamental change necessarily produced economic consequences; still the new régime did not bring about the same results as in the British or French West Indies, where the abolition of slavery caused the decadence and almost total ruin of the colonies. "After the abolition of slavery labor became altogether free in the Spanish West Indies, being subject only to the clauses and terms of the contracts which were freely entered into between owners and entrepreneurs on the one hand and the laborers on the other.

INDUSTRIES IN CUBA AND PORTO RICO.

"The industries found in Cuba and Porto Rico are three in number-those of sugar, tobacco, and stock raising.

"As regards the first, quite a considerable number of old 'ingenios' (sugar mills) may be found in which the cultivation of cane and the manufacture of sugar are combined, but there are already a dozen of 'ingenios centrales' which are engaged in the manufacture of sugar only.

"The owners of these sugar mills buy the cane of the cultivators, who are either the owners of the land which they work, or farmers, or laborers to whom the owners cede the cultivation of the lands with the obligation to furnish to them, at a price fixed in advance, the crops which they may obtain.

"The work required for the manufacture of sugar proper is done by black or white laborers, who receive wages more or less high, according to the condition of the market and the value of the product.

"At present, and even before the last Cuban insurrection, prices had gone down considerably at the time of the harvest (‘zafra'), but still laborers hired by the month earned normally between 20 and 30 pesos per month over and above the board furnished by the entreprenuer.

"The agriculturists engaged in the cultivation of cane obtained very different remuneration, in accordance with the price of the product and the abundance of the harvest; but this class can hardly be regarded as wage-earners.

"As regards the tobacco industry, we find relations of quite a complicated nature. What may be properly called the agricultural part of the industry is chiefly carried on in the famous plains (vegas) of the district of Pinar del Rio, in the region called Vuelta Abajo, and that of Vuelta Arriba, by white and black families. The first are the more numerous, and all their members, men, as well as women and children, devote themselves to agricultural labor. They begin by sowing, transplant then the plants ('matas'), and devote themselves to the destruction of different insects, which attack the leaf of this valuable plant. The next step is the picking or cutting of the leaves and their exposure for purposes of fermentation in barns called 'casas de tabaco.' The next step is the forming of bunches of tobacco ('andullos'). When all these operations are ended, the owners of the factories, who normally are also the landowners, buy the product at prices according to quality.

"These laborers, then, can not be regarded as wage-earners either, for they receive higher or lower remuneration, according to the quality and quantity of the product as it reaches the market.

"The manufacture of cigars (called there 'tabacos'), cigarettes, and cigarette tobacco ('picadura') is carried on in more or less large factories, each of which has its own mark or brand, such as Henry Clay, Gabanos, Garvajal, Partagos, Human, Golorio, and others, which enjoy quite a reputation, and for this reason represent also large capitals.

"The amounts paid in form of wages by these establishments is very large, and the workingmen, particularly those having in charge the manufacture of cigars, oftentimes earn high salaries, in proportion to the number of cigars turned out. It would be impossible to determine, even in an approximate manner, the earnings of these workingmen, but it is well known that some of them manage to earn from 4 to 5 pesos per day, although such cases are exceptional. All these workingmen are employed by purely oral contract made between them and the factory managers.

IN CUBA.

"The last of the three principal industries, and the one which constitutes probably nine-tenths of the wealth of the island of Cuba, is that which comprises the production of what is known locally as the 'minor products' (cultivos menores), as the cultivation of vegetables and fruits destined chiefly for the nourishment of the natives, and the cultivation of coffee, of little importance at present. This part will be treated later, when the question of labor in the islands of Porto Rico, Cuba, and principally in the central district called Camaguey is taken up, where this industry constitutes almost exclusively the wealth of the country. In importance, stock raising follows immediately after the industries of sugar and tobacco.

"Of the animals raised in the island of Cuba the most important are horned cattle, although a large number of horses are also found. Both of these classes are raised and fed in the 'potreros,' the name given to large stretches of land abounding in very rich pastures, where they are being guarded by peasants of the white race who are hired by the landowners and receive salaries varying in size according to the region in which the potreros are found. Although not engaged by special and written contract, these laborers generally remain very long in the service of the same employer.

"The 'estancieros,' or those who are permanently occupied in agriculture, are either the owners of the land which they cultivate or farmers for money or on shares (fermiers ou de colons); none of them is subject to a labor contract proper, nor do they receive wages. The 'estancieros,' as well as those who are engaged in stock raising, are known in the country under the name of 'guajiros.' "Such are the conditions of labor in the island of Cuba.

IN PORTO RICO.

"In Porto Rico the chief employment of the guajiros is agriculture on a small scale ("petite culture") principally the cultivation of coffee, which, together with the sugar industry, is the predominant occupation in the island. The coffee plant can be successfully grown only in the shade of trees with thick foliage, and the estancieros of Porto Rico sow and cultivate the plant in the shade of trees which form the forests of the island.

"The entire family takes part in the work of the small plantations; men, women, and children pick the coffee grain, by grain, which they then turn over to the general storekeepers (the keepers of 'tiendas mixtas'). These stores contain all sorts of merchandise, beginning with food stuffs and ending with clothing and articles of dress, and it is here that the coffee is being exchanged by the producer for all the things that he needs.

"In these stores the coffee is being piled up in sacks until it is bought by the wholesale merchants of the towns, and particularly the seacoast towns, whence it is shipped to the different markets of Europe and America.

"There are no central sugar factories (‘ingenios centrales') in Porto Rico as yet, the production of sugar not being of great importance, and the old ordinary sugar mills are still met with. The quantity exported abroad above the local supply is very small as compared with that exported from Cuba, which has reached lately a million tons a year.

"Stock raising has developed somewhat, but almost the total product is absorbed by the island consumption; for Porto Rico, it should be remembered, is thickly populated, owing to the division of property and labor.

"Tobacco, although of a quality inferior to that of the Vuelta Abajo region of Cuba, constitutes the principal part of the island's wealth. The mode of cultivation is the same as in the other island, and it is exported in considerable quantities, either in bunches ('torcidos') or in leaves, the lower sort of tobacco being known by the name of ‘tabaco boliche.’

"It may be said that in Porto Rico there is neither extreme poverty nor large fortunes. The budget usually shows a surplus, which for the last fiscal year exceeded the amount of 100,000 pesos, and it may be concluded that both from the social as well as financial view the situation of the island is really flourishing.

"Such, it would seem, is the ideal toward which all the colonies of the world ought to strive.

IN THE PHILIPPINES.

"The condition of labor in the Philippine Islands is quite peculiar. It is well known that in these islands the native races predominate to the extent of constituting almost the entire population, the number of Spaniards and their descendants reaching hardly 100,000. The number of racial groups is quite considerable, but they may be all grouped in three large classes. The first if formed by a relatively small number of beings called 'Negritos' or 'Buquiles,' a very low race, and akin to that of the Fueguinos, the inhabitants of the island of Fuegos and the races inhabiting the islands of Polynesia and Australia. There is good reason to believe that they were the aboriginal inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago.

"The race improperly called Malayan is more widely spread and more numerous; it shows a stronger constitution and capacity of a higher intellectual development; there are strong indications that it arrived in the country by immigration, for it must be classed among the Asiatic races of more or less yellowish color.

"The last who arrived in these islands by way of invasion and conquest are the people generally known as 'Moros,' who inhabit Gola and the interior of the Mindanao islands, more particularly the shores of the Rio Grande and the Laguna de Lanao, where their number amounts to about 500,000.

"The Negritos or Buquiles live almost all yet in a state of savagery, and may be classed as belonging to the lowest and most rudimentary stage of civilization. They feed on natural products, and have hardly any other pursuits than fishing and hunting, using their bows and arrows with wonderful skill.

.

"The natives belonging to the second group are almost all subject to authority, with the exception of a few tribes called 'Igorrotes,' who lead an independent existence in the midst of the woods.

"The Moros are in a state of continuous warfare with the Spanish and other native groups, whom they keep in a state of the rudest slavery, using them as laborers on the land, the Moros themselves being given exclusively to the art of war. They feed on the product of the labor of their slaves, and exchange what they can not use themselves for goods which are delivered to them by the Chinese, the only ones who succeeded in establishing themselves among the Moros for the purpose of engaging in commerce, for which they show such special ability.

"This chapter will treat of labor conditions among the most numerous race among those inhabiting the Philippine Islands, and which is completely subject to Spanish authority.

"It must be owned that notwithstanding the state of submission the race as a whole is not devoid of energy. Still, owing to the influence of the Spanish, and particularly to the religious orders, the people of this race have engaged considerably in agricultural pursuits. The chief articles produced are hemp (abaca), coffee, tobacco, and sugar, and large estates are found which are devoted entirely to the production of these articles.

"As regards the production of tobacco, it was free in some provinces, but in others the Government used coercive measures in order to prevent the Indians from engaging in this pursuit, and it was only by the royal decree of June 25, 1881, that the prohibitive enactments in this matter were abolished, and that the cultivation of this article became entirely free like that of the other articles.

"The work in the fields is performed on large estates ("haciendas") by laborers, who discuss and fix with their employers the mode of remuneration as well as the amount of their wages, the latter as a general rule being quite low; but the larger part of the Indians cultivate on their own account the land of which they are the owners. The unoccupied land is of large extent, and the government at different epochs enacted measures which were to enable the natives to acquire ownership of the land, in order to develop their activity and to enhance the productivity of the rich soil.

"All these enactments are found to be brought together in the royal decree dated February 13, 1894, and enacted with the advice of the Philippine council.

CONCLUSIONS.

"From what has been said just now it may be seen that the labor problem in this important colony presents the same features as in the other colonies. The number of laborers is relatively small as compared with the population, which, according to the last incomplete census, reaches the number of about 6,000,000 people owning the soil which they cultivate.

"In the cities domestic labor is carried on by natives working for wages.

"Although much yet remains to be done in the Philippine Islands, the established régime has already created large centers of population, and quite important towns and cities are found.

"The budget of the islands provides for a public expenditure of over 14,000,000 pesetas, obtained by means of divers taxes constituting but a very light charge on the natives, who pay only a capitation tax, called “cedula."

"Lately a crisis of the money circulation, caused by the fluctuating relations between the values of gold and silver, has arisen, which caused an abnormal situation in this archipelago. But this is only a passing evil, for which a remedy will be found, though not through the artificial and empirical means which are being proposed by certain people.

"Such are, in a very succinct way, the actual conditions of labor in the various Spanish colonial possessions."

NATURAL VERSUS ARTIFICIAL METHODS OF OBTAINING A LABOR SUPPLY.

It will be seen from the above statements that the four methods which have been tried of increasing the labor supply of colonies by artificial methods have in no case been successful. The forced-labor system, whether in the form of actual slavery or in that which was tested in Java, has been abandoned at the demand of public sentiment. The transportation of convicts to the colonies to furnish a general labor supply proved unsatisfactory for obvious reasons. The importation of indentured labor, while it still continues in certain of the West India Islands, is not giving entire satisfaction even in those islands, and the fact that the system has not been extended to other parts of the world is an evidence of its unsatisfactory results and of the force of public sentiment against it. The application of the proceeds of sale of lands to the encouragement of labor importation proved a temporary and unsatisfactory expedient.

These four artificial methods having proved unsuccessful, it remains to consider the two natural processes, namely, the development of communication and transportation, by which the labor of the natives may be made sufficiently profitable to create habits of industry, and the diversification of industries by which individual enterprise will be encouraged.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPORTATION ROUTES BY WHICH INDUSTRY IN THE COLONY MAY BECOME PROFITABLE AND THEREFORE ACCEPTABLE TO THE NATIVES. The history of all colonies, and especially those with a large native population, is that the development of industry, and especially profitable industry, was greatly stimulated by the construction of roads, railways, canals, and harbor works, and all facilities by which the product of the soil, the mine, and forest could be transported to the markets of the world. This is more and more recognized as the first essential in the prosperity and development of the colony, and experience has shown that the earnings which they thus bring within the reach of labor has everywhere had the tendency to promote industry. In India roads have grown from nothing, under native control, to more than 150,000 miles maintained by public authorities, and railways have also grown to more than 25,000 miles. Commerce has at the same time increased enormously-the exports growing from £18,000,000 in 1850 to £78,000,000 in 1900-an increase of $300,000,000 in the surplus produced and distributed in the markets of the world, to say nothing of the great increase in consumption in India meantime.

IN JAVA.

In Java one of the earliest works undertaken by the forced-labor system was the construction of a magnificent trunk line of roads throughout the entire length of the island, and to this has been added branches radiating from the central line, and alongside this a second line, so that one may be utilized for the transportation of heavy produce and the other for driving; and while the earlier prosperity of Java was looked upon by many as largely due to the culture system, the fact that the production of the chief staples, especially sugar, has greatly increased in that island since the abolition of the culture system and of forced labor shows that the transporta

tion routes, which are an inheritance of the forced-labor system, are an important factor in inducing and assuring voluntary industry, and were probably a larger factor in the success under forced cultivation than was generally attributed to them. The forced-labor system has disappeared from Java in everything except coffee, and even in that to a great extent; yet the number of tobacco plantations increased from 88 in 1895 to 110 in 1898, and their product from 9,807,178 kilograms in 1895 to 18,418,575 kilograms in 1900. The tea product has increased from 4,096,863 kilograms in 1894 to 4,757,168 kilograms in 1898. The indigo product has increased from 565,547 kilograms in 1894 to 1,094,225 kilograms in 1898; the sugar crop from 1,076,431,400 pounds in 1894 to 1,538,701,400 pounds in 1898. In coffee there was an increase from 131,832,500 pounds in 1894 to 156,503,866 pounds in 1897, but a material fall in 1898, due presumably to local causes. In cinchona the production increased from 3,233,599 kilograms in 1894 to 4,461,754 kilograms in 1898, and in mineral oil from 111,387,385 liters in 1896 to 311,396,492 liters in 1898. Thus in the single five-year period since the abolition of the forced-labor system all of the great industries of Java have shown a marked increase in production, the transition from a surplus to a deficit which has occurred during that time being due to the heavy expenses of the local war with the Achinese and to the reduced revenue caused by the fall in prices, and not by a reduction in production.

IN THE WEST INDIES.

In the British West Indies, in which there has been great complaint of reduction of earning power by reason of the increased production of sugar in other parts of the world and the general reduction in price of that staple, the total exports of products of all kinds in 1900 were £6,260,590 in value against £5,771,000 in 1885 and £5,315,211 in 1898. This is especially suggestive in view of the statements made before the West Indian Commission already quoted to the effect that there is a general disposition among the natives to obtain for themselves small holdings of land, and that the tendency is toward a distribution of the large estates among the native population and a greater production by that population of the articles required for daily life. In Jamaica, where this disposition has been referred to as especially marked, the exportation of 1900 was 38 per cent higher than the average during the decade ending with 1880 and has only been exceeded on three occasions since 1850. A recent report to the British colonial department from Jamaica shows that the number of depositors in the Government Savings Bank increased from 28,385 in 1895 to 32,860 in 1900, and that those whose deposits were £5 and under increased from 19,929 to 21,485.

IN THE MALAYAN PENINSULA.

In the Malayan Peninsula the development of industry coincident with the development of means of communication is strongly marked. It is only a quarter of a century since this group of disorganized and warring States, with practically no commerce, roads, railways, or other methods of communication, placed themselves under the general direction of the governor-general of the Straits Settlements, which occupy the terminal section of the Malayan Peninsula in which those States were located. Since that time in this small territory, whose area is about equal to that of West Virginia, over 1,300 miles of roads and about 1,000 miles of bridle paths have been established and maintained, 162 miles of railway constructed and others under construction. The population has increased from probably less than 100,000 to nearly 600,000; the revenue from $560,997 to over $14,000,000, while the single State of Perak shows an increase in population from 25,000 to over 200,000; an increase of imports from less than $1,000,000 in 1876 to over $11,000,000 in 1899, and of exports from $739,971 in 1876 to $25,707,051 in 1899. Selangor, with an area of only 3,500 square miles, which in 1873 had practically no trade at all, shows imports in 1899 of over $18,000,000 and exports $20,894,185. In the colony of Ceylon 300 miles of railway have been opened, all owned and worked by the local government, and there are 3,600 miles of roads and 152 miles of canals. The railways, which cost 57,000,000 rupees, show in 1897 receipts of 7,658,887 rupees and expenditures of 4,104,454 rupees. Accompanying this development has come an increase in the value of exports from 57,000,000 rupees in 1890 to 110,000,000 rupees in 1899.

INCREASE OF NATIVE INDUSTRY FOLLOWS DEVELOPMENT OF MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.

A study of the history of the colonies of the world shows that in every case where the government established has brought about the construction of roads, railways, and other means of communication great increase in production and exportation has followed, evidencing a marked increase in industry, and in most of these cases by native labor only. As has been shown elsewhere, the cost of this work of opening roads and railways is in most cases borne by the communities themselves. The British Government makes a fixed rule that the colonies must themselves raise, through taxation or loans based upon taxation, the funds for all development of this character. In the Netherlands East Indian colony all improvements of this character have been paid for out of local revenue of the colony, but in the French colonies some aid has been given by the home Government. As a rule it may be said, however, that in all expenses of opening communication, or other steps of this character by which industry is awakened and the condition of the colony improved, the necessary funds are raised by local taxation or by loans based upon future revenues, while in a comparatively few cases the railways have been constructed by private enterprise.

THE DIVERSIFICATION OF INDUSTRIES BY WHICH NATIVE ENTERPRISE IS ENCOURAGED.

The development of thrift and industry through diversification of labor and the division of the lands into small holdings has already been referred to in the discussions regarding conditions in the West Indies. The labor difficulty, of which so much complaint has been made in the West Indies, is chiefly realized by the holders of large estates, who complain of difficulty of obtaining native labor for work on the plantation. This is accounted for, according to their own statements and those made before the West Indian Commission, by the fact that large numbers of the natives have become the holders by lease or purchase of small tracts of land. Simultaneously with this increase in individual holdings the experiment stations and botanical gardens established in the islands by the British Government have encouraged new industries with great success, both as to net results in the matter of commerce and in the industry and thrift of the natives. The report on conditions in Jamaica by the acting governor of that island, dated October 31, 1900, shows the exportation of ten principal articles in 1899 and compares the same with 1889. Of cocoa it shows total exports more than four times in value those of 1889; of cocoanuts exports more than treble those of 1889; of bananas exports more than double those of 1889; of oranges exports more than double those of a decade earlier, although the prices in the last two years have been below the average; of Jamaica ginger the value of the exports is more than treble that of ten years ago; of pimenta the value has nearly trebled; of sugar the value of the exports has declined about 40 per cent, but this is attributed largely to decrease in price.

In Java, while the production is still largely upon large plantations, the number of these has greatly increased since the termination

of the forced-labor system, and the European population has also greatly increased, and with it has come a diversification of industries. "Since the new régime was ushered in by the agrarian act," says M. Le Clercq in his work on Java, already referred to, "European colonization has become possible, the government monopoly gives place slowly to private enterprise, and Java, which was formerly but a large estate, of which the cultivators were bound to the soil, is being transformed into a land open to colonization and all sorts of private undertaking. This transformation had one good result. The European population has almost doubled within the last twenty years. There are at present 60,000 Dutch in the Dutch Indies, of whom 50,000 live in Java alone, and of this number the female element constituted more than two-fifths. The intensity of this white invasion appears more and more remarkable if it is kept in mind that the English number no more than 100,000 in all India and the French not more than 5,000 in Indo-China. Owing to the greater stress of population caused by this influx the time of extravagance has gone. No more balls and splendid festivals are given, nor are fortunes made so easily as in olden days; but it will be wrong to think that Java is less prosperous than it was at the time when coffee and sugar would make men rich in ten years. M. Chailley-Bert justly remarks that while there are fewer fortunes rapidly made, and less millions to a few heads, there is more wealth among the masses, a greater division of property, less extravagance, and more well-being."

The figures already quoted showing the rapid growth in the production of indigo, tea, tobacco, cinchona, and mineral oil, as well as coffee and sugar, in the Dutch East Indies indicate in some degree the enlargement of the lines of production, and to this may be added coal, tin, cotton, maize, and many other articles. The Statesman's Yearbook for 1901, commenting upon this development, says: "The extent of the soil of Java and Madura regularly cultivated by the natives was, in 1898, 6,838,533 acres. Owing to the agrarian law of 1870, which has afforded opportunity to private energy for obtaining waste lands on hereditary lease for seventy-five years, private agriculture has greatly increased in recent years, both in Java and in the other islands. In 1898 there were ceded to 752 companies and Europeans 803,478 acres. In 1891 the Government ceased to cultivate sugar. The yield of sugar in 1893 was 1,082,923,700 pounds, and in 1898, 1,538,701,400 pounds; total length of railways open for traffic, 1,272 miles; number of post-offices, 200; letters carried for internal intercourse, 8,672,352, while 6,370,780 newspapers and samples for the interior passed through the various post-offices, and 1,512,289 letters were carried for foreign postal intercourse. There were 637,389 telegraph messages handled on the 6,833 miles of telegraph lines." Commenting upon the benefits to industry resulting from increased internal communications and encouragement of commerce and diversified productions, Sir W. W. Hunter, in his Indian Empire, 1892, says: "Under British rule a new era of production has arisen in India-an era of production on a great scale based upon the cooperation of capital and labor in the place of the small household manufactures of ancient times. Under native rule the country had reached what political economists call the stationary stage of civilization; the husbandman simply raised the food grains necessary to feed them from one harvest to another. If the food crops failed in any district the local population had no capital and no other crops wherewith to buy food from other districts; so, in the natural and inevitable course of things they perished. Now the peasants of India supplement their food supply with more profuse crops than the mere food stuffs on which they live. They also raise an annual surplus of grain for exportation, which is valuable for India's own wants in time of need. Accordingly there is a much larger aggregate of capital in the country; that is to say, a much greater national resource or staying power. The so-called 'stationary stage' in India has disappeared and the Indian peasant is keenly alive to each new demand which the markets of the world may make upon the industrial capabilities of his country, as the history of his trade in cotton, jute, wheat, and oil seeds proves. At the beginning of the last century, before England became the ruling power in India, the country did not produce £1,000,000 a year of staples for exportation. During the first three-quarters of a century of our rule the exports slowly rose to about £10,000,000 in 1834. During the half century since that date the old inland duties and other remaining restrictions have been abolished. Exports have multiplied by tenfold. In 1882 India sold to foreign nations beyond the seas 819,019,600 rupees of merchandise, and in 1891, 1,001,357,220. In 1882 the total sea-borne export and import trade of India in merchandise, exclusive of government stores and treasure, was 1,288,940,440 rupees, and in 1891, 1,691,706,220 rupees, or, including government stores and treasure, 1,960,000,000 rupees. India has more to sell to the world than she requires to buy from it. During the five years ending 1879 the staples which she exported exceeded by an annual average of 220,000,000 rupees the merchandise which she imported. During the next five years the gross surplus of exports over imports rose to 300,000,000 rupees per annum. During the seven years ending with March 1, 1891, this annual surplus has averaged annually 311,809,000 rupees. From one-third to one-half of this favorable balance of trade India received in hard cash; during the five years ending with 1879 she accumulated silver and gold, exclusive of reexports, at the rate of 70,000,000 rupees per annum; during the next five years, at the rate of over 100,000,000 rupees per annum; and during the seven years ending with 1891 at the rate of over 150,000,000 rupees per annum. With about another third she pays interest at low rates for the capital with which she has constructed the material framework of her industrial life-railways, irrigation works, cotton mills, coal mines, indigo factories, tea gardens, docks, steam navigation lines, and debt. For that capital she goes into the cheapest market of the world, London, and she remits the interest, not in cash, but in her own staples, which the borrowed capital has enabled her to bring cheaply to the seaboard. With the remaining third of her surplus exports she pays the home charges of the government to which she owes the peace and security that alone have rendered possible her industrial development. The home charges include not only the salaries of the supervising staff in England and the pensions of the military and civil servants who have given their life work to India, but the munitions of war, a section of the army, stores for public works, and matériel for constructing and working the railways; but after paying off all the home charges, for the interest of capital raised in England for Indian railways and for other reproductive works and for the matériel required for their construction and maintenance, India had, from 1884 to 1891, a yearly balance of 150,000,000 rupees from her export trade, for which she receives payment in silver and gold."

THE LESSONS OF THE CENTURY OF EXPERIMENT REGARDING LABOR IN THE COLONIES. These inquiries which have been made as to the plans tested by the various nations and colonies for the inculcation of habits of industry and thrift among the natives and supplying the necesary labor for the development of industries in the colonies, at least suggest that the primary and most valuable means is the construction of methods of communication by which the natural products of the colony may be transported to market. As has been already pointed out, the temperate zones, with their rapidly growing manufactures, the constantly developing and increasing demand of their people for the natural products of the Tropics both for manufactures and food, are every year relying upon the Tropics for those two great essentials of daily life, raw materials and food stuffs. With this condition, with the hundreds of millions of prosperous people in the temperate zones demanding every day more and more of the natural products of the Tropics, the answer to the question of how to develop native industry in the Tropics seems to be in part, at least, the development of methods by which these natural products, so easily and plentifully produced, may readily find their way to the seaboard and thence to the great markets which are annually demanding more and more of them.

No. 9-22