“06 
Modern Business Geography 
MEXICO AS A MARKET 
Although Mexico contains twice as many people as Canada, its 
value to us as a market in many years has been only one tenth as great. 
This is partly because people living under a mild climate like that of 
Mexico are not so ambitious and energetic as the Canadians. Another 
reason is that among the Mexican people about two fifths are Indians, 
two fifths mixed Indian and white, and only one fifth white. Again, 
the adjoining portions of the United States and Mexico are arid 
and thinly populated. Although the two countries are connected 
by both railroads and steamship lines, there is not a close enough 
relation to overcome the barriers of race and language. Misunder- 
standings due to these barriers have often led to serious disagreements 
that have hindered trade for long periods. Moreover, the Spaniards, 
the merchants of Mexico, seem to prefer to trade with Europeans 
rather than with Americans. With proper planning, however, we might 
sell to Mexico almost everything she wants. At present only half of 
her imports come from the United States. 
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS AS A MARKET 
When the Philippine Islands were acquired by the United States in 
1898, many people predicted that they would become a large market 
for our products. These persons did not realize that nearly a million 
of the twelve million Filipinos are primitive people who use almost 
nothing from outside their forest homes, and that the wants of most of 
the remainder are few and simple. 
During the thirty years and more of American occupation of the 
Philippines, the process of educating the inhabitants has gone on 
constantly, principally through an efficient system of public schools. 
Every step in advance has meant a higher standard of living, greater 
home production, and a greater market for foreign imported goods. 
[n 1928, the Philippine imports had risen to ten dollars a person. 
This is small compared with the Canadian figure of nearly one hundred 
dollars, but it is many times larger than it was before the United 
States was in control. 
Up to 1909, imports from the United States to the Philippines had 
to compete on equal terms with those from other countries, and con- 
sequently our trade made only slow headway. The manufacturing 
countries of western Europe had the advantage of being nearer to 
the islands than those of the northeastern United States. In 1909, 
however, free trade, with slight limitations, was established between