Civilization.— There are to be found in Asia all varieties of civilization, the primitive tribes of northeastern Siberia., the confedera tions of nomadic shepherds and great nations in possession of a common stock of national cus toms, beliefs and literature, like China; the tribal stage; the compound family, forming the real basis of China's social organization; the rural community, both of the Indian and Mussulman type; the loose aggregations of Tchuktchis (northern Siberia), having no rulers and no religion beyond the worship of forces of nature, but professing with regard to one another principles of morality and mutual support often forgotten in higher stages of civilization; and despotic monarchies with a powerful clergy. So also in economic life. While the tribes of the northeast find their means of subsistence exclusively in fishing and hunting, carried on with the simplest imple ments, among which stone weapons have not yet quite disappeared, and the tribes of central Asia carry on primitive cattle-breeding and lead a half-nomadic life, others are agriculturists, and have brought irrigation (in Turkestan) to a degree of perfection hardly known in Europe.
Internal Communication.— Caravans of camels are the chief means of transport for goods and travelers in the interior; donkeys, yaks and even goats and sheep are employed in crossing the high passages of the Himalayas; human porters and mules are the usual means of transport in most parts of China, horses in Siberia, and in the barren tracts of the north the reindeer, and, still farther north, the dog, are made use of. Fortunately the great rivers of Asia provide water communication over im mense distances. The deep and broad streams of China, allowing heavy boats to penetrate far into the interior of the country, connect it with the sea; a brisk traffic is carried on along these arteries. In Siberia the bifurcated rivers supply a waterway, not only north and south along the course of the chief rivers running toward the Arctic Ocean, but also west and east; thus a great line of water communication crosses Siberia, and is, with but few interruptions, con tinued in the east by the Amur,. navigable for. more than 2,000 miles. In the wtnter the rivers and plains of Siberia become excellent roads for sledges, on which goods are still chiefly transported.
Railways.— In 1912 the lines in existence had a total length of about 63,320 miles, of which 32,667 miles belonged to British India and Ceylon, 10,586 to Asiatic Russia and 5,420 miles to China, about 1,300 miles of which was constructed by British capital. The lines are very remunerative, especially that from Peking to Tien-Tsin. Japan is well provided with rail roads, the length being 6,093 miles (including Korea) in 1912. In the same year the French possessions in. Cochin-China, Anam and Tonkin
had 2,178 miles, the Dutch Indies 1,551 miles, Siam 637 miles. There are as yet no railroads in Persia of any consequence; but in 1914 there were 2,836 miles in Asiatic Turkey, not includ ing the most recently opened sections of the Bagdad Railway, which is being constructed by German capital and is to extend the Anatolian line from Kornia to Adana, Mosul, Bagdad and Basra, with many branch lines. The great Trans-Siberian Railway connecting Moscow and Petrograd with Vladivostok and Port Arthur was completed in 1904.
Telegraph communications are in a much more advanced state than the roads. Petro grad is connected by telegraph with the mouth of the Amur and Vladivostok (on the frontier of Korea) ; while another branch, crossing Turkestan and Mongolia, runs on to Tashkend, Peking and Shanghai; Constanti nople is connected with Bombay, Madras. Singapore, Saigon, Hongkong, and Nagasaki in Japan; and Singapore stands in telegraphic communication with Java, and Port Darwin in Australia. Finally, Odessa is connected by wire with Tiflis in Caucasus, Teheran and Bombay.
Trade.— Notwithstanding the difficulties of communication a brisk trade is carried on between the different parts of Asia, but there is no possibility of arriving at even an approxi mate estimate of its aggregate value. The mari time exports to Europe, the United States, and overland to Russia, have an annual value of about $900,000,000, and the imports of about $750,000,000. The bulk of the enormous trade between Great Britain, India, China and Japan is carried on via the Suez Canal, opened 1869, and there is a steadily growing over-sea trade between China and Japan and the Pacific ports of the United States and Canada. Asia deals chiefly in raw materials, gold, silver, precious stones, petroleum, teak and a variety of timber wood, furs, raw cotton, silk, wool, tallow and so on; the products of her tea, coffee and spice plantations; and a yearly increasing amount of wheat and other grain. Steam industry is only now making its appearance in Asia, and, al though but a very few years old, threatens to become a rival to European manufacture. In dian cottons of European patterns and jute stuffs already compete with the looms of her European sister countries. Several of the petty trades carried on in India, China, Japan, Asia Minor and some parts of Persia have been brought to so high a perfection that the silks, printed cottons, carpets, jewelry and cutlery of particular districts far surpass in their artistic taste many like productions of Europe. The export of these articles is steadily increasing, and Japan supplies Europe with thousands of small articles — applications of Japanese art and taste to objects of European household furniture.