ustralia. A similar
economic relation exists between the various countries, some of which
produce far more than their proportionate share of minerals and fuels.
Thus, in 1913, the United States, with but 7 per cent of the world's
population, produced 36 per cent and consumed 37 per cent of the world's
iron ore supply. The figures for the other important nations were:
("World Atlas of Commercial Geology," Dept. of the Interior, Washington,
1921, p. 27)

Per Cent Per Cent
Produced Consumed

Germany 20 27
Britain 9 14
France 12 7
Russia 5 5
Belgium 0 4
Spain 6 1

Only in France and Spain did production exceed consumption. Four of the
remaining countries used more iron ore than they produced, which meant
that they were forced to depend upon some other country for their
supply. Belgium, with her many industries, imported practically all of
the iron ore that she used.

Coal furnishes an even more striking illustration of the economic
dependence of one part of the world upon another. The production and
consumption of coal, for 1913, in millions of tons, were as follows:

Tons Tons
Produced Consumed
United States 517 495
Britain 292 217
Germany 191 167
France 40 60
Italy 1 10
Austria-Hungary 17 30

The United States, Britain and Germany produced, in this one year, 121
millions of tons of coal that were either stored or exported. France,
Italy and Austria, together with many of the smaller industrial
countries of Europe were forced to depend upon their neighbors for coal.
In the case of Italy, practically all of the coal used was imported.

Again, the United States and Spain are alone among the principal
countries producing a surplus of copper. Out of a consumption (1913) of
127,000 tons, Britain imported 126,572; France imported 91,437 of the
91,486 tons consumed, and Germany, out of 259,300 tons consumed,
imported 234,000 tons.

These figures of the production and consumption of iron, coal and copper
tell the story of an economic interdependence that makes isolated
industrial life virtually impossible. Manufacturing and transport depend