GEOGRAPHY, COMMERCIAL. This subject is a branch of economic geography from which, as indicated above, it cannot be completely differ entiated. The phases of economic geography that as yet are most commonly taught in the schools of the Old World and the New are usually pre sented under the name of commercial geography. All the text-books written in English, German, French, and Italian, dealing largely with the re lations between economics and geography and used in the commercial schools, are called com mercial geographies. All authors dealing with commercial geography assert, in the language of one of them, that it "treats of the many influ ences operating all over the world which promote or retard the production, transportation, or ex change of the commodities, natural or manu factured, which man consumes or utilizes," a definition which the most voluminous writer on this subject says is an expression of the scope of the topic that could hardly be improved. It has to do with the world-wide distribution of the economic factors that affect commerce, whether these factors relate to production, to transporta tion, or to supply and demand.
This is the province of commercial geography, accepted under that name in the five distinct grades of commercial schools in Germany, where commercial education is most highly developed: primary commercial schools (Kaufmannische Fortbildungsschulen) ; commercial schools (Han delsschulen) ; advanced commercial schools (Hohere Handelsschulen) ; classified commercial courses (Handelsfachklassen) ; and commercial universities (Leipzig and Cologne). The reports collected by the British Foreign Office on the provisions made for the technical training of boys and young men destined for a commercial career in all countries show that commercial geography, with text-books of that name, is a part of the commercial courses also in France, Great Britain, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the United States, and Japan. • The business colleges of the United
States have given some instruction in this sub ject for many years, but it is only since the recent introduction of commercial courses in the public schools that widespread attention has been di rected to commercial geography. The study has been introduced into a large number of the high schools and into the highest grade of the gram mar schools, the idea being that it is not wise to neglect commerce and industry in the public edu cational systems. The subject is also studied in the Commercial High School of Philadelphia, and is to be introduced into the Commercial High School (building, 1903) of New York City. The special need in the United States, as yet, is a sufficient number of teachers who are well trained in commercial geography. This lack will, in time, be supplied by such institutions as the universities of New York, California, Pennsyl vania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Chicago, which are giving to commercial geography its due im portance in their schools of commerce, that are designed to supply the technical training required by teachers in the lower schools.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Zehden, Commercial Geography Bibliography. Zehden, Commercial Geography (London, 1888) ; Murray, Commercial Geography (Edinburgh, 1887) ; Mill, Elementary Commer cial Geography (London, 1888) ; Chisholm, Hand book of Commercial Geography (London, 1890) ; Keltie, Applied Geography (London, 1890) ; Til den, Commercial Geography (New York, 1891) ; Lyde, Commercial Geography in the British Em pire (London, 1894) ; Gouvier, Commercial Geog raphy (New York, 1894) ; Dubois and Kergo mard, Précis de geographie deonomique (Paris, 1897).