Please see the Transcriber’s Notes at the end of this text.
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POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL
GEOLOGY
AND THE
WORLD’S MINERAL RESOURCES
McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc.
PUBLISHERS OF BOOKS FOR
Coal Age ▽ Electric Railway Journal
Electrical World ▽ Engineering News-Record
American Machinist ▽ Ingeniería Internacional
Engineering & Mining Journal ▽ Power
Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering
Electrical Merchandising
POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL
GEOLOGY
AND THE
WORLD’S MINERAL RESOURCES
A SERIES OF STUDIES BY SPECIALISTS
J. E. SPURR, Editor
First Edition
Second Impression
Royalties received from the sale of this book will be
assigned to an institution of learning to finance
further studies along the lines followed in the volume.
McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, Inc.
NEW YORK: 370 SEVENTH AVENUE
LONDON: 6 & 8 BOUVERIE ST., E. C. 4
1920
Copyright, 1920, by the
McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
THE MAPLE PRESS YORK PA.
[v]
PREFACE
The purpose of the accompanying series of studies is to shed lightupon the vast importance of commercial control of raw materials by differentpowers, or by the citizens of those powers, through invested capital.The question of domestic and foreign governmental policies of the UnitedStates is closely involved. It appeared to many of us who were engaged(as all the authors of these papers were) in studying the mineral problemsduring the war, that our Government had never grasped the vast politicalsignificance of commercial domination, and especially of the control ofmineral wealth; and that other more seasoned nations had done so, andthereby affected the interests of America and her policy very deeply,without her being aware of the circumstance.
With the rapid increase of the world’s population and the exploringand exploiting of the hitherto undeveloped natural resources, competitionfor this wealth has become and wi