Commercial Geography of the World Classic Reprint

Excerpt from Commercial Geography of the World

Of that work, first taken in hand twenty years ago, five editions, representing copies, have been demanded in Austria, Ger many, and Switzerland; while even in other countries, of which the national language is not German, such as Sweden, Norway, Holland, and the United States of America (in German schools), it has been adopted as a medium of instruction in its subject. I may perhaps be justified in taking these facts as proofs that my method is one that has approved itself to some of the most advanced nations of the globe.

But I derive a peculiar satisfaction from the translation of my book into English, for if England includes it in the list of its books of instruction, that fact will practically be a letter of introduction to all quarters of the globe. I need not here recount in detail the con tents of my work. Those who even glance through the volume will find that they have before them a piece of honest work, in which I have striven to convey geographical instruction in a form approved by practical experience. In the present age, when international commerce consists no longer in the peaceful exchange of the produc tions of the different zones, but is often a keen life-and-death rivalry between competing nations and continents, the educated merchant must learn to regard the world as an economic organism, in which each nation discharges the function that best accords with its economic development. I believe that my book owes much of its friendly reception to the attempt made in it to account for the economic posi tion of each state by its physical character and by the ethnographic peculiarities and the degree of civilization of its people.

I trust that my labours will commend themselves to the English speaking public, that has always endeavoured to accord to technical instruction its due place and privileges by the side of general culture.

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