ds even to the Danube.
Both Switzerland and Austria-Hungary send much of their exports through
Holland. All trade at the various ports and through the canals is free,
it being the policy to encourage and not to obstruct commerce.

_Amsterdam_, the constitutional capital, is one of the great financial
and banking centres of Europe. The completion of the Nord Holland canal
makes the docks and basins accessible to the largest steamships.
Diamond-cutting is one of the unique industries of the city. Since the
discovery of the African mines its former trade in diamonds has been
largely absorbed by London.

More than half the carrying trade of the state centres at _Rotterdam_.
By the improvement of the river estuaries and canals this city has
become one of the best ports of Europe, and the tonnage of goods
handled at the docks is enormously increasing. _Vlissingen_ (Flushing)
and the _Hook_ are railway terminals that handle much of the local
freights consigned to London. _Delft_ is famous the world over for the
beautiful porcelain made at its potteries.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

How has the topography of each of these states affected its commerce?

How is their commerce affected by latitude and climate?

How has the cultivation of the sugar-beet affected the cane-sugar
industry in the British West Indies?

From the Statesman's Year-Book make a list of the leading exports and
imports of each country.

From the Abstract of Statistics find the trade of the United States with
each of these countries.

FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE

Adams's New Empire--pp. 153-159.

Gibbins's History of Commerce--Book III, Chapters I and VIII.

CHAPTER XXVII

EUROPE--THE MEDITERRANEAN STATES AND SWITZERLAND

The Mediterranean states are peopled mainly by races whose social and
economic development was moulded largely by the Roman occupation of the
Mediterranean basin for a period of more than one thousand years. The
occupations of the people have been shaped to a great extent by the
slope of the land and by the mountain-ranges that long isolated them
from the Germanic peoples north of the Alps.

=France.=--The position of France with respect to industrial development
is fortunate. The North Sea coast faces the ports of Great Britain; the
Atlantic ports are easily accessible to American centres of commerce;
the Mediterranean ports command a very large part of the trade of that
sea.

The easily travelled overl