Manufacturing Outside the United States 265 
Here are some of the chief reasons for these striking conditions : 
(1) Western Europe, more than any other part, is inhabited by 
vigorous and inventive peoples, and enjoys a climate that en- 
courages active work. 
[ts position near the center of the land hemisphere gives it an 
advantage over an out-of-the-way region like New Zealand, 
for instance. 
The European manufacturing section faces the North Atlantic, 
and is traversed by navigable rivers leading to the Baltic, North, 
and Mediterranean seas. No part is more than three hundred 
miles from an arm of the sea. 
The many fine harbors allow raw materials to be readily im- 
ported and the finished products to be exported. 
(5) Western Europe contains excellent coal and iron mines. 
6) The relief, soil, and climate are almost ideal for many of the 
chief crops that supply raw materials for factories and food for 
workers. 
Within the section, or only a few hundred miles outside it, live 
about two hundred million highly civilized people who consti- 
tute a compact market which normally has great purchasing 
DOWer. 
GREAT BRITAIN — THE LEADER IN TEXTILES AND SHIPBUILDING 
Great Britain is second only to the United States in the production 
of manufactured goods. It makes more cotton and woolen goods than 
any other country. Half the value of the exports consists of cotton 
and woolen textiles. 
The British textile industry. Though Great Britain produces such 
fine cotton and woolen goods, it gets most of its raw cotton from the 
United States and imports a large part of its wool. How, then, do we 
explain its leadership in the textile industry? One reason is the ad- 
vantage of an early start. Others are the supplies of fuel and the 
climate. Lancaster County (Lancashire), which is the leading cotton 
manufacturing district, not only has the advantage of coal fields, but 
faces the Irish Sea, whence the prevailing west wind brings moist air 
that favors the spinning of cotton. Manchester, the chief cotton cen- 
ter, is so famous that everywhere in the commercial world the term 
* Manchester goods ” means ‘cotton goods.” Farther east the cities 
of Bradford and Leeds, near a sheep-raising district with coal deposits 
beneath, are the centers of the woolen industry. 
British iron and steel centers. Great Britain normally stands next 
to the United States and Germany in the production of iron and steel 
goods. Near Birmingham, midway between Liverpool and London.