Modern business geography

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1830562916

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-217337

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Huntington, Ellsworth http://d-nb.info/gnd/117070092; Cushing, Sumner W.

Title:: Modern business geography

Place of publication:: New York [usw.]

Publisher:: World Book Company

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: VIII, 352 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part four. The field of consumption

Collection:: Economics Books

2r- ®} Modern Business Geography Where tin is obtained. Tin is imported to coat our pans, cans, and many other iron articles to keep them from rusting. Part of our supply comes from Bolivia, but the greater part comes from the Malay Peninsula. Precious stones. The great value of the precious stones purchased each year ($76,000,000 in some years) shows how rich our market is. No other market takes so many. Nearly all of the world’s diamonds are mined in South Africa and the majority are cut in Amsterdam. Our chief imports from Chile. Nitrate of soda is brought in ship- loads from the desert ports of northern Chile. Chile has long supplied the world with this important fertilizer, which furnishes nitrogen for fields, but now Norway and other countries are taking nitrogen out of the air by electricity. Before the Chilean nitrate deposits become exhausted, our country should supply its own market. Potash. Most of the potash, or potassium chloride, is taken from the famous deposits of Stassfurt in central Germany. We consume it chiefly in fertilizers, but also in making gunpowder, matches, fire- works, and many kinds of chemicals. It is likely that some of the dried-up western lakes or similar beds in the old rocks of Texas and the great kelp beds of the Pacific coast will sometime yield enough potash to make us independent of Germany. WHY WE IMPORT GOODS REQUIRING MUCH HAND LABOR Each year we import several hundred million dollars’ worth of handmade goods that would be unduly expensive if manufactured at home. They include chiefly raw silk, tea, toys, and hand embroider- ies. Practically all of these could be produced at home, but not with profit; for wages are higher in the United States than in any other great manufacturing country. Some of the imported goods, such as embroideries from Switzerland, Japan, China, and Madeira, and laces from Ireland and France, have been imitated on American machines, but not with great success. Why the United States does not supply its market for raw silk. Al- though the white mulberry tree on which the silkworm thrives grows well in large parts of the United States, silk is not produced, because it requires a great amount of very cheap labor for a few weeks in the spring, when the eggs are hatching and the silkworms have to be carefully fed and tended. In China, Japan, Italy, and even parts of France, women and children do this work for a few cents a day. If labor-saving machines could be devised to gather the mulberry leaves, feed the worms, and clean the trays, the United States might perhaps

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Modern business geography

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation