The extraordinary difference between Siam and Switzerland is largely due to the character and civilization of the people. Distance has something to do with it, but not much, for in proportion to the population the list of imports into Australia, one of the most distant parts of the world, is as imposing as that into Switzerland, as may be seen below.
The Character of Foreign Business in Three Types of These tables show marked contrasts not only in the amounts but in the kinds of goods imported into Switzerland, Australia, and Siam. The Swiss imports include food, raw materials amd manufactures; those of Australia include almost nothing except manufactured goods although these are very varied; the Siamese imports are likewise manu factured goods, but of simple nature and few kinds. These are the nor mal imports of three distinct types of countries: (1) a small, old, densely populated country lying near the center of civilization and having few mineral resources; (2) a large, new, energetic and sparsely populated country far from other civilized regions; and (3) an old fairly well populated but undeveloped country where people have little energy. The differences between these various countries, like many other facts, show that the activity of the people is the chief determinant of the amount of business, but the natural resources, the position, and the stage of development determine the kind of business. The distinc tion between the amount and the kind of business is very important.
In exports, as in imports, Siam, Australia, and Switzerland afford an important contrast. Siam, with its one export of a very simple kind, illustrates the lowest stage. In spite of great natural resources the Siamese do not work hard enough and use sufficient judgment and skill to produce a surplus of anything except rice, their main article of food. The small size of their surplus, quite as much as the moderate nature of their desires, limits the size of their trade. In Australia, as in Siam, the exports are almost entirely different from the imports. That is the natural condition in a new country which has abundant resources. The easiest and quickest source of wealth is found in raising sheep, cattle and wheat, and in mining the metals. There
fore there is relatively little manufacturing. But notice how much more varied are the exports of Australia than of Siam, as befits the greater physical and mental activity of the people and their higher standards of living. In Switzerland, on the other hand, the imports and the exports are largely the same in name but not in form. For instance, silk and cotton goods are imported as thread and exported as fine cloth. The Swiss cannot create a surplus by extracting the natural resources of their country; hence they take raw materials or partly manufactured materials from other countries and add to them their own skill so that the final products usually owe more of their value to manufacturing than to the original materials. Swiss exports, however, arc in most cases less than the imports because the Swiss have large foreign investments on which interest is paid in the form of goods, and because large numbers of tourists must be taken care of.
Most parts of the world can be classified according to these three types: (1) Backward countries with poorly developed resources, few and simple products, almost no manufacturing and a small surplus used to satisfy a demand for a few simple manufactures. (2) Progressive new countries with well-developed resources, a variety of products, little manufacturing, and a large and varied but uninanuforctured sur plus which enables the people to satisfy their demand for a great variety of manufactured articles. (3) Progressive old countries with resources inadequate to the populatiop, but with a great variety of manufactured products which form a surplus whereby the inhabitants satisfy their demand for raw materials, food, and luxuries. The United States perhaps belongs in still a fourth class, like No. 2 except that manufac turing is highly developed.
The World's Foreign effect of civilization on com merce is illustrated in the following table which shows the total foreign commerce per inhabitant in two groups of countries which stood particularly high or particularly low in this respect in the period immediately before the Great War when conditions were more nearly normal than at any time since.