ranean commerce.

in methods of navigation which opened the oceans to extensive commerce towards the close of the fifteenth century, together with political changes in the Near East, resulted in the decay of MediterThe Italian towns ceased to prosper. Southern Germany was affected. Spain, Portugal, France, and England were favored by the change. The great export industry of the medieval and early modern period was the woolen industry. It is favored by an equable and humid climate, like that of northern England and the Flemish industrial district, now divided between France and Belgium. During this early period, too, the existence of an agricultural surplus was of prime importance. Cheap food is always an advantage, and at that time few districts could secure cheap food by importation. The principal industrial districts were thus the regions of great fertility which could produce a supply of food considerably beyond the requirements of the agricultural laborers. The very poor districts were also dependent upon some industrial work, but in such cases the industrial output was really a byproduct produced during the months that were not devoted to agricultural labor. Industrial development was thus primarily determined or limited by the agricultural resources of the region. France and the Low Countries were therefore the most prosperous districts of Europe during the medieval period. The more fertile sections of England developed notable industries in the course of that period, and in Germany industrial prosperity likewise went hand in hand with agricultural wealth. On the whole, however, Germany was less prosperous than her neighbors.

An equilibrium became established, during the Middle Ages, on this basis, disturbed from time to time by some of the capricious developments of commerce in Spain and Portugal, but never entirely overthrown. Not until the movement of the Industrial Revolution in England had made signal progress was this general balance of economic and political factors entirely destroyed. The modifications of industrial and commercial technique completely altered every important aspect of the earlier economic equilibrium. The woolen industries were profoundly affected by the rapid development of the cotton industry. The phrase "Cotton is King", so frequently applied to our Southern agrarian economy, was no less true of the entire textile trade. This change upset completely all the established conditions in the textile districts of Europe. Improvements in transportation introduced the possibility of importing food on a large scale from great distances, so that the location of industrial districts was no longer primarily determined by agra

rian conditions. Climate and power became the factors of primary significance. In a few instances this has involved no change. The industrial districts of Belgium and northern France are sufficiently favored by climate and provided with adequate fuel, so that the district still remains important. The rise of other districts has impaired the relative standing of this old textile region. The changes were of great significance to England, whose mineral resources and climate were well adapted to the new technique, so that a marked development of the textile industries was possible.

The transformation of the metal industries, however, has exerted a deeper influence upon the general balance of power and prosperity. Absence of statistics makes it impossible accurately to measure the relative importance of the different industrial groups before 1700, but it would seem safe to say that on the whole the metal group occupied a distinctly inferior position. Even in the mid-nineteenth century its position was relatively low, despite some growth under the stimulus of the earlier improvements in technique. The occupational enumerations for Great Britain and Prussia in 1851 and 1855 show clearly the comparative importance of the textile group. In Great Britain 35.7 per cent. of the persons engaged in industry were employed in the textile group; in Prussia, 34.4 per cent.

TABLE IV.

Occupational Groupings in England and Prussia, 1851 and 1855.9

It is quite probable that the rapid development of the cotton industry more than kept pace with the expansion of the metal industry, so that the proportions indicated in 1851 and 1855 are roughly

9 The figures for England are from the Census for 1851, II. c. The figures for Prussia are from Dieterici, Statistik des Preuszischen Staats (Berlin, 1861), p. 400. The figures have been arranged, as nearly as may be, in the forms of classification followed at the close of the century.

indicative of the general situation prior to the change. At all events, it would seem highly improbable that the textile group should have constituted much more than thirty-five per cent. of the total industrial population at any time, and the general references of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries would be consistent with that degree of preponderance over the other industries.1o The relatively high position of the leather and wood-working groups in Germany is striking. They employed 14 per cent. and 15 per cent. of the total number of persons, and this is in many respects characteristic of the relations among the different industries in the earlier period. Although the figures do not cover the whole territory of the present German Empire they include so many of the notable industrial districts that the general results must be fairly typical.

At the close of the century the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution are clearly apparent.

In the United Kingdom, in Germany, and in the United States the metal industries have acquired substantially co-ordinate importance with the textile and clothing group. In the United States the metal groups lead the textiles by a considerable margin, especially in respect to the value of the product. In the United Kingdom and in Germany the textiles still lead by a narrow margin. The

10 Occupational groupings in France and in British India, afford further evidence to support this conclusion.

11 Census of Production, Final Figures, 1912-1913, in Parl. Papers, 19121913, LXI. 21. [Cd. 6320.]

leather industry in Germany has sunk to a low place in the general scale, likewise the wood-working group. The position of the stone and building trades in Germany seems to be very unusual, but this is due in part to differences in classification.

The position of the chemical industries is perhaps worthy of special attention because of the great emphasis laid upon the achievements of German science in this field. Only 1.5 per cent. of the persons employed in industry were in this group. Of course the numerical importance of the group is not an accurate indication of the importance of chemical knowledge to industry, but the small quantitative importance of the group should serve to emphasize the 12 Statistik des Deutschen Reichs, Band 213.1 (1909), p. 28. 13 Census, 1910, vol. VIII., p. 53, table 7.

need of keeping carefully in mind the distinction between qualitative and quantitative problems.

The significance of the physical resources of the various European countries was profoundly altered by the Industrial Revolution. Agricultural resources ceased to be a determinant of industrial development; the textile industry thus became more exclusively dependent upon climate; deposits of coal acquired notable industrial significance; deposits of iron acquired more importance than ever before and a number of new features in the location and character of ore came to be of moment. Proximity to good coal was at first of fundamental significance; and the precise chemical composition of the ore was also vital at first. The rise of the metal industry to its new position of importance thus affected only a narrowly circumscribed group of ore beds at first, though increased facilities of transportation and the increased knowledge of metallurgy gradually widened the scope of commercially profitable exploitation.

These changes were, on the whole, definitely unfavorable to France, assuming the boundaries of 1871. Her textiles were somewhat less favorably situated and they had become less significant in the general industrial field. The development of metal industries. was not possible on any great scale because of the lack of ores and coal. Germany was favorably affected, but the circumstances were such that she could not derive immediate benefit from the transformation of the general industrial field. The moderate agricultural resources ceased to be an obstacle to great industrial achievement. The widely scattered deposits of iron were variously affected. Many workings ceased to have any commercial value because of the composition of the ore. Other deposits became more important, and after 1880 the vast reserves of the Lorraine fields were made practically available. In general, the change in the basis of industrial wealth from agrarian to mineral resources opened up a future of great promise. The new situation was peculiarly favorable to England, and the influences of the change were felt somewhat sooner, partly because the new technique was developed primarily in England, partly because the resources of England were peculiarly adapted to utilization by the modes of production that were first brought into use. For a brief period of twenty or thirty years England enjoyed certain special advantages which gave her a unique position in international commerce and industry. The balance of power in Europe was thus doubly disturbed; first by this extraordinary pre-eminence of England, then again by the readjustment of the economic equilibrium brought about by the inevitable development of the great resources of Germany.