EUROPE--THE DANUBE AND BALKAN STATES
The Danube and Balkan states derive their commercial importance partly
from the large area in which bread-stuffs may be produced, and also
because the valley of the Danube has become an overland trade-route of
growing importance between the Suez Canal and the North Sea.
=Austria-Hungary.=--This empire is composed of the two monarchies, Austria
and Hungary, each practically self-governed, but united under a single
general government. The greater part of the country is walled in by the
ranges of the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains.
The region known as the Tyrol is topographically continuous with
Switzerland, and the people have Swiss characteristics. Galicia,
northeast of the Carpathian Mountains, the fragment of Poland that fell
to Austria at the time of partition, is a part of the great Russian
plain. Bohemia, which derives its name from the Keltic peoples, whom
Cæsar called the Boii, comprises the upper part of the Elbe river-basin.
Its natural commercial outlet is Germany, but the race-hatred which the
Czechs have for the Germans, retards commercial progress. Hungary is a
country of plains occupying the lower basin of the Danube. The Huns are
of Asian origin. Austria proper occupies the upper valley of the Danube,
adjoining Germany; the country and the people are Germanic.
To the student of history it is a surprise that a country of such
diverse peoples, having but little in common save mutual race-hatred,
should hold together under the same general government. The explanation,
however, is found in the topography of the region. The basin of the
Danube is a great food-producing region, and the upper valley of the
Elbe River forms the easiest passage from the Black to the Baltic Sea.
The topography therefore gives the greater part of the country
commercial unity.
The climate and surface of the low plains of Hungary are much the same
as those of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Grain-growing and stock-raising are
the chief employments. High freight rates, a long haul, and the
competition of Russia and Roumania have retarded the development of
these industries, however. Bohemia is likewise a grain-growing country,
and the easy route into Germany through the Elbe Valley makes the
industry a profitable one. Bohemia is also in the sugar-beet area.
There is an abundance of coal in Austria, but most of it is unfit for
the manufacture of iron and steel. Steel manufacture, however, is
carried on, the industry being protected by the distance from the German
steel-making centres. The lead-mines about Bleiberg (or "Leadville") are
very productive; at Idria are the only quicksilver-mines in Europe that
compete with those of Almaden, Spain. The salt-mines near Krakow are in
a mass of rock-salt twelve hundred feet thick.
Most of the manufactured products are for home consumption. American
cotton and home-grown wool supply the greater part of the textiles. The
flour-mills are equipped with the very best of machinery, and much of
the product is for export to Germany and the countries to the south. The
manufactures that have made the state famous, however, are gloves and
glassware, both of which are widely exported. The sand, fluxes, and
coloring minerals of Bohemian glassware are all peculiar to the region,
and the wares, therefore, cannot be imitated elsewhere. The gloves are
made from the skins of Hungarian sheep and goats.
The railways are not well organized, and the mileage is insufficient for
the needs of the country. Ludwig Canal (in Germany) connects the Danube
with the Main, a navigable tributary of the Rhine; the Elbe is navigable
from a point above Prague to the Baltic; the Moravian Gate opens a
passage from Vienna northward; the Iron Gate, through which the Danube
flows, is the route to the Black Sea; Semmering Pass and its tunnel is
the gateway to the ports of the Adriatic. These great routes practically
converge at Vienna, which also is the great railway centre of the
empire.
The foreign trade consists mainly of the export of food-stuffs (of which
sugar and eggs are heavy items), fine cabinet ware, woollen textiles
(made from imported wool), barley and malt, and fine glassware. Much of
the German and Italian wine is sent to market in casks made of Austrian
stock; the coal goes mainly to Italy. The imports are raw cotton from
the United States and Egypt, wool, silk, and tobacco. Coal is both
exported and imported. The United States sells to Austria-Hungary
cotton, pork, and corn--buying porcelain ware, glassware, and gloves,
amounting to about one-fifth the value of the exports.
_Vienna_, the capital, is the financial centre and commercial
clearing-house of central Europe; it has also extensive manufactures.
_Budapest_ is the great focal point of Hungarian railways and commerce.
_Prague_ controls the coal, textile, and glass trade of Bohemia.
_Lemberg_ is the metropolis of Galicia. The states of Liechtenstein,
Bosnia, and Herzegovina are commercially under the control of Austria.
=The Lower Danube States.=--Roumania and Bulgaria, the plain of the lower
Danube, are enclosed by the Carpathian and Balkan ranges. They
constitute a great wheat-field whose chief commercial outlets are the
Iron Gate into Germanic Europe, and the Sulina mouth of the Danube into
the Black Sea. The growing of maize for home consumption and wheat for
export form the only noteworthy industries. Most of the grain is shipped
up the Danube and sold in Great Britain and Germany.
From the Iron Gate to the Black Sea the Danube is held as an
international highway, and the control of its navigation is directed by
a commission of the various European powers, having its head-quarters at
Galatz, Roumania.
[Illustration: TURKEY AND GREECE]
In the Balkan Mountains is the famous Vale of Roses which furnishes
about half the world's supply of attar-of-roses. The petals of the
damask rose are pressed between layers of cloth saturated with lard. The
latter absorbs the essential oil, from which it is easily removed. About
half a ton of roses are required to make a pound of the attar. Kazanlik,
noted also for rugs, is the great market for attar. _Galatz_ and
_Rustchuk_ are grain-markets and river-ports; from the latter a railway
extends to _Varna_, the chief port of the Black Sea. From _Sofia_, near
the Bulgarian frontier, a trunk line of railway extends through
Budapest to western Europe.
=Turkey-in-Europe.=--The European part of the Ottoman Empire has long been
politically known as the "Sick Man" of Europe, and so far as the
industries and commerce of the state are concerned, there is no excuse
for its separate existence as a state. Its political existence, however,
is regarded as a necessity, in order to prevent the Russians from
obtaining military and naval control of the Mediterranean and Black
Seas, and thereby becoming a menace to all western Europe. Less than
one-half the people are Turks; the greater part of the population
consists of Armenians, Jews, Magyars, and Latins.
Most of the country is rugged and unfit for grain-growing. The internal
government is bad, the taxes are so ruinous that the agricultural
resources are undeveloped, and every sort of farming is primitive. In
many instances the taxes levied on the growing crops become practical
confiscation when they are collected. Much of the cultivable land is
idle because there are no means of getting the crops to market.
Grapes and wine, silk, opium, mohair and wool, valonia (acorn cups used
in tanning leather), figs, hides, cigarettes, and carpets are the
leading exports, and these about half pay for the American cotton
textiles, woollen goods, coal-oil, sugar, and other food-stuffs
imported. Choice Mocha coffee is imported for home use, and poorer
grades are exported. Most of the foreign commerce is in the hands of
English and French merchants. Armenians, Jews, and Greeks are the native
middlemen and traders.
The native population is subject to the Sultan, whose rule is absolute;
most foreign merchants and residents are permitted by treaties to remain
subject to the regulations of the consuls.
_Constantinople_ is the capital. Its situation on the Bosphorus is such
that under any other European government it would command a tremendous
foreign commerce. It is naturally the focal point of the trade between
Europe and Asia. A trunk line of railway connects the city with Paris.
_Salonica_ is the port of western Turkey, and is likewise connected by
rail with western Europe. A great deal of the foreign commerce of the
state is now landed at this port.
[Illustration: HARBOR OF CONSTANTINOPLE]
The chief possessions of the Ottoman Empire are Asia Minor, Armenia,
Mesopotamia, Syria, and Arabia.
=Greece.=--Greece is a rugged peninsula, no part of which is more than
forty miles from the sea. The country is without resources in the way of
coal, timber, or available capital. Its former commercial position, in
ancient times, was due largely to the silver-mines near Ergasteria, and
subsequently to the gold-mines of eastern Macedonia; these, however, are
no longer productive.
There is but little land suitable for farming, and not far from one-half
the bread-stuffs must be imported. Much of the timber has been
destroyed, and this has resulted in a deterioration not only of the
water-power, but of the cultivable lands as well. The railway lines are
short and their business is local; there are practically no trunk line
connections with the great centres of commerce.
The harbors and the natural position of the country are its best
remaining resources. The Greeks are born sailors, and the country is in
the pathway of European and Asian commerce. Most of the grain-trade
between the Black and Mediterranean Seas is controlled by Greek
merchants, and the Greeks are everywhere in evidence in the carrying
trade of the Mediterranean. The construction of the Corinthian canal has
also given Greek commerce a material impetus.
The chief exports are Corinthian grapes--commonly known as
"currants"--fruit, and iron ore from Ergasteria. Great Britain, France,
and Belgium are the chief buyers of the fruit-crop. The exports scarcely
pay for the American cotton, Russian wheat, and the timber products that
are purchased abroad. There has been a material growth in the
manufacture of cotton, woollens, and silk in the past few years, much of
the work being done in households. _Athens_ is the capital and largest
city. _The Piræus_ and _Patras_ are the chief ports.
=Servia= and =Montenegro= are stock-growing countries. The former has
suffered greatly from misgovernment and the waste of its resources.
Wine-cask stock and cattle are sold to Austria, which has five-sixths of
its trade. _Belgrade_ is its metropolis. Tobacco and live-stock are
exported from Montenegro to Austria.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
On a good map of central Europe trace an all-water route from the mouth
of the Danube to the ports of the lower Rhine and the North Sea; what
connection have the cities of Ratisbon and Lemberg with this route?
How do the forests of these states affect the wine industry of Germany?
From the Statesman's Year-Book find the amount and movement of the
exports and imports of these countries.
From the Abstract of Statistics find the volume of trade of these
countries with the United States.
FOR COLLATERAL REFERENCE
Great Canals of the World--p. 4089.
A good map of central Europe.
[Illustration: RUSSIAN EMPIRE]