razil,
gradually establishes order, secures foreign capital, intelligence and
labour, and develops its resources. As opposed to Europe, the United
States stands in its Monroe Doctrine for the principle that
Latin-American countries, if left independent, will in time develop,
and that a slow evolution may be more advantageous to the world than a
more rapid exploitation under foreign dominion.[5] Ultimately,
however, the capacity of the nation to utilise its resources does
constitute the test which decides whether it shall retain independence
or become subject to foreign domination. It is this test which is
being applied to-day to Mexico and certain other Latin-American
countries.[6]

As yet this imperialistic regime is in its beginning. Food and raw
materials are still mainly derived from {90} independent nations and
from temperate, settlement colonies, in which production is not
affected by political control. The major part of the food-stuffs
imported by Europe come from Russia, the United States, Canada,
Australia, the Argentine, the Balkans; cotton comes chiefly from the
United States; wool from Australia; hides from the Argentine; copper,
coal, wood, oil from countries of temperate climate. More sugar is
actually produced in temperate than in tropical countries, though the
export from tropical countries largely preponderates. Thus the
external commerce of the specifically tropical countries subject to
imperialistic rule is small compared to that of temperate countries
exporting raw materials. India with its developed agricultural system
exports only some $500,000,000 of food and raw materials[7] (in excess
of its imports of like commodities) or about $1.55 per capita, while
the per capita exportation of Roumania is over ten times as great, of
the Argentine about twenty times, and of Australia forty times.[8]

If the present commerce with tropical countries were not to increase,
the new tropical imperialism would have but a slender economic base,
and it might well be questioned whether it was worth Europe's while to
govern hundreds of millions of yellow, brown and black men in all parts
of the globe. But the English colonies in America, two hundred years
ago, also exported little, and a similar immensity of growth may be
expected from the commerce of tropical countries. "As civilisation
advances and population becomes more dense," writes Mr. Edward E.
Slosson,[9] "the inhabitants of temperate zones {91} be