on, the
whole continent of Africa is pure white. Crossing the Red Sea into
Arabia, Persia, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, you will find the same or
rather a more complete lack of color. This is merely the cartographer's
way of showing, by tint and lack of tint, that at that time Africa and
Western Asia were still in the hands of their native populations.

"Let us now turn to the same maps thirty years later, i.e., in 1914. We
find them utterly changed. They are no longer white, but a patch work of
variegated hues....

"From 1870 to 1900, Great Britain added to her possessions, to say
nothing of her spheres of influence, nearly 5,000,000 square miles with
an estimated population of 88,000,000. Within a few years after
England's permanent occupation of Egypt, which was the signal for the
renaissance of French colonialism, France increased hers by 3,500,000
square miles with a population of 37,000,000, not counting Morocco added
in 1911. Germany, whose colonialism came later, because home and nearby
markets longer absorbed the product of her machines, brought under her
dominion from 1884 to 1899 1,000,000 square miles with an estimated
population of 14,000,000."

This is a picture of the political effects that followed the economic
causes summed up in the term "financial imperialism."

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was the trader, dealing
in raw stuff; in the nineteenth century it was the manufacturer,
producing at low cost to cut under his neighbor's price. During the past
thirty years the investment banker has occupied the foreground with his
efforts to find safe, paying opportunities for the disposal of the
surplus committed to his care. British bankers, French bankers, German
bankers, Belgian bankers, Dutch bankers--all intent upon the same
mission--because behind all, and relentlessly driving, were the
accumulating surpluses, demanding an outlet. European bankers found that
outlet in Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas. The stupendous
strides in the development of the resources in these countries would
have been impossible but for that surplus of European capital.

The undeveloped countries to-day have the same characteristics,--virgin
resources, industrial and commercial possibilities, and in many cases
cheap labor. This is true, for example, in China, Mexico and India. It
is true to a less extent in South America and South Africa. The logical
destination of capital is the point where the inve