f the
commerce of the world, of the manufacturing industries of the
United States, and of the British and American shipping
industries.

This graphic method shows more clearly than statistics alone
would do what proportion of the world's trade belongs to each of
the principal nations, and the relative importance, from a
manufacturing standpoint, of the leading cities of the United
States.

The Philadelphia Museum was organized in 1884 by ordinance of
the city councils, and is governed by a board of trustees. The
board maintains the Commercial Museum and a Commercial Library,
and is accumulating material for a group of city museums devoted
to public education, ethnology, economics, economic botany, and
general science.

The Commercial Museum comprises collections illustrating the
production and commerce of all nations. A bureau of information
collates all available data regarding the subject of foreign
trade, and distributes, upon application, reports tending to the
extension of American trade abroad.

The Commercial Library is free to the public and contains books
bearing particularly on the subjects of international trade,
productions, transportation, banking, economics, and municipal
affairs. It also contains more important books, pamphlets,
periodicals, and foreign reports of recent date relating to
foreign trade and commerce than any other commercial library in
the world.

This valuable collection of trade literature includes
statistical reports of all foreign governments issuing such
documents, and foreign governments' gazettes, reports of board
of trade bodies, regulations of customs tariffs, yearbooks
descriptive of many foreign countries, colonies, and
settlements, the consular reports from all countries, special
work regarding trade, commerce, agriculture, mining, and general
conditions in foreign countries. It also has periodicals, city
directories, and trade directories from all countries.

The museums are maintained by an annual appropriation from the
city of Philadelphia, and the bureau of information by
contributions from business firms and individuals desiring
special service.

The Commercial Museum has accomplished much along the
educational lines. The growing feeling that an increased export
trade is necessary to the prosperit