Japan Rising

In the previous volumes we have described America as the land of European resettlement, Britain as the trading centre of the world and France as Europe's market-place. The extent of their world-wide commercial power is apparent just by looking at the accounts of these three countries with their large areas and populations. Japan is not far behind in terms of area, population and staple products, but in my view it is in our commercial weakness – born of the people's lack of vision or sense of unity and perseverance – that our strength clearly pales in comparison. Now that we have completed our tour of these three great countries, we will present a profile of two small countries, namely, Belgium and Holland. Their territory consists of unproductive wetlands; yet squeezed as they are among larger powers they manage to preserve their spirit of independence. If anything, their commercial power is superior, for they not only hold interests in Europe but exert an influence on world trade as well. This is due entirely to the diligence and co-operative character of the people. As we shall endeavour to describe, they possess features which we found more striking than anything in the three large powers. Although Belgium is one of the smallest independent countries on the continent, the density of its population is the highest in Europe, more even than that of Saxony in Germany.