Panama's high position in trade per capita with the United States illustrates the fact that when an energetic and advanced country assumes a protectorate over a less able and more backward one, trade is stimulated by the presence of the people of the more progressive country. In Mexico, on the other hand, the bad government which began with the fall of Diaz together with the dryness of much of the country and the relatively low stage of development, reduce the commercial importance of the average Mexican to a relatively low level. Except in the southern part Mexico is not tropical enough to produce many products that we cannot supply for ourselves. Its chief products are minerals like those which we have in large quantities; and its differences from us in govern ment, language, and habits diminish the activity of trade and partly counteract the effect of nearness. Since 1913 Mexico's petroleum trade has greatly increased the exports to the United States, but even now a million people in Mexico are not nearly so important as a million in Canada, Cuba, or even Panama and Costa Rica. Mere nearness is not enough to cause a large trade when other conditions are unfavorable.
In Asia the fact that the Philippines in proportion to their popula tion so far excel all other countries in trade with the United States shows the great importance of governmental control. Before the Spanish War our trade with the Philippines was no greater than with other parts of the East Indies; by the time of the Great War it had become over twenty times as great as with a similar number of people in the Dutch West Indies, for example. Japan's position, second in the Asiatic list, is in part due to the location of that country on the eastern margin of Asia, where it is more accessible than any other part of the continent. Much more important, however, is the fact that the Japanese are mentally and physically the most active people of Asia. Nevertheless, the great distance of Japan from all parts of the United States and especially from the part where most of the people live, its divergence from us in language and habits, the relative poverty of its people, and the fact that its great products like cotton cloth are much like our own, causes a given number of people in that country to be less important in our commerce than the same number of people in any part of North America and the West Indies. Even more notable than the relatively inactive state of our trade with Japan in proportion to that country's population is the extremely small amount of business with China and India. Because those countries have such an enor mous population, a very small trade per inhabitant makes a large total. Hence in the ordinary tables of statistics our trade with them looks large, but if we consider it in proportion to the population, it shrinks to insignificance. Because the Chinese and the people of India are far
away and especially because the density of the population and the low standards of living do not permit them to accumulate much surplus, it takes 240 million Indians to equal a million Canadians, and 360 million Chinese to be as important to us as a million Cubans. Similar conditions prevail in respect to the trade of China and India with the rest of the world, for even when their trade with all parts of the world is considered, their foreign commerce per capita stands far lower than that of any country in North America, South America, Europe, or Australia.
The fact that in proportion to the population we do nearly three times as much business with New Zealand as with the Philippines and five times as much as with Japan indicates that mere distance is not very important, at least when it is distance across the ocean. Here we have some of the most remote people in the world so far as miles of travel are concerned. The voyage from San Francisco to Melbourne is 7000 miles, while the distance to Yokohama is only 5500, to Shanghai 5550, and to Manila 6300. From New York the distance via Panama to Melbourne is 10,000 miles and to Wellington, New Zealand, 8500, while via Suez the distance to Bombay is 8100, and to Calcutta, 9800. The surprisingly large trade of Australia and New Zealand shows the importance of energy, high standards of living, good government, and similarity of language and habits,—in other words the importance of the people rather than of their geographical position and resources.
Turning to South America, it is noteworthy that the countries where the trade of the United States is largest in proportion to the population are the three southern countries, Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina. The main things which seem to put these countries ahead of others are a greater proportion of European blood, the more stimulating climate of the southern part of the continent, the better health, and the higher standards of living, which result in more stable government and better habits. These conditions overcome the effect of great distances. Of course such resources as the nitrate beds of Chile and the wonderful grass of Argentina are highly important, but if the civilization and climate where they occur were like that of central Brazil, it might be far more difficult to use them. Language, and the form as distinguished from the character of the government, seem to play a relatively small part, for the countries of southern South America are not especially different from those of northern South America in these respects. do the differences between the products of the southern countries and our own have much effect, for in this respect the northern countries are much more adapted to stimulate trade.