8,000), SUNDERLAND (142,000), and DARLINGTON, on the northeast
side of England, and the great steel manufactures (the largest in
the kingdom) and ship-building industries of BARROW-ON-FURNESS,
on the northwest side. With the coal-fields of South Wales (noted
for its smokeless coal) are identified the smelting industries of
SWANSEA (70,000). Ores of copper especially, but also of silver,
zinc, and lead, are brought from all over the world to Swansea to
be smelted. These South Wales coal-fields also account for the fact
that in respect to amount of tonnage CARDIFF (160,000) is one of
the chief ports for exports in the world, ranking in this respect
next after New York. The exports of coal from Cardiff are now
12,000,000 tons annually.

II. THE TRADE FEATURES OF FRANCE

FRANCE A RICHLY FAVOURED COUNTRY

France by nature is one of the most highly favoured countries in the
world. Its climate is genial. Its temperature is so varied that almost
every vegetable, grain or fruit needed for the sustenance of man may
be raised within its borders. Its soil, though not surprisingly
fertile, yet yields abundantly such products as are suited to it. Its
mineral resources, especially in coal, iron, lead, marble, and salt,
are very considerable. Its area is compact. Its facilities for foreign
commerce are unsurpassed. It lies between the two bodies of water--the
Atlantic and the Mediterranean--of greatest commercial importance in
the world. And its people, especially those in rural parts, are
exceptionally frugal and industrious. But France as a nation has not
made the progress in the world that its natural advantages call for.
It has been cursed with expensive and unstable governments and
sanguinary wars. Its upper classes, the natural leaders of its
peoples, are excessively fond of pleasure and military glory, and the
energies of the nation have been much misdirected. As a consequence,
despite its natural advantages, France is losing ground among the
nations of the world. Its national debt amounts to nearly
$7,000,000,000, the largest national debt known in history, being per
head of population seventeen and one half times as great as that of
Germany, six times as great as that of the United States, and much
more than one and one half times as great as that of Great Britain.
But, what is of more serious consequence, the vitality of its people
seems debilitated. For years the annual number of births in France has
been steadily decr