This article deals with the geographical aspects of international trade and foreign investment at the turn of the 20th century. These issues of historical geography of the world economy are poorly explored in national science. It is shown that the widely held views of the critical importance of the colonies in foreign economic relations of the parent states are unsubstantiated and are not statistically sound. Neither in trade nor in capital investment did the colonies play the role that is often attributed to them. It is established that it is Europe rather than the colonial empires became the main structural element of the world economic system resulting from the industrial and transport-communication revolution. The world economic ties of those times are, in essence, the interrelations between European countries or with the participation of European countries. It is found that the colonial empires were economically open systems rather than closed systems, as is sometimes suggested. The characteristics of the internal structure of the world economic relations are identified. It is shown that raw materials and food products were dominant in the commodity composition of international trade, whereas the structure of foreign investment was dominated by capital investment in the infrastructure. As far as direct foreign investments are concerned, however (which constituted a relatively small part of capital exports), they were made mainly in the primary sector of the economy. Furthermore, the counter flows of capital, that is, mutual investments of industrially developed countries, were uncommon. It is pointed out that the statement that capital was exported solely to poor and backward countries is misleading. On the contrary, as is established, most foreign investments were made in developed countries, according to the standards of those times.

中文翻译：

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19 世纪之交的世界经济关系地理学

本文涉及 20 世纪初国际贸易和外国投资的地理方面。国家科学对世界经济历史地理学的这些问题研究甚少。事实表明，关于殖民地在母国对外经济关系中至关重要的广泛持有的观点是没有根据的，而且在统计上也不合理。无论是在贸易还是在资本投资方面，殖民地都没有发挥通常归因于它们的作用。已经确定，是欧洲而不是殖民帝国成为工业和交通运输革命导致的世界经济体系的主要结构要素。那个时代的世界经济联系本质上是 欧洲国家之间的相互关系或欧洲国家的参与。人们发现，殖民帝国是经济上开放的系统，而不是有时所暗示的封闭系统。确定了世界经济关系内部结构的特点。结果表明，原材料和食品产品在国际贸易的商品构成中占主导地位，而外国投资结构以基础设施的资本投资为主。然而，就外国直接投资而言（占资本出口的一小部分），它们主要是在经济的初级部门进行的。此外，资本的逆流，即工业发达国家的相互投资，并不常见。指出资本只输出到贫穷落后国家的说法具有误导性。相反，根据当时的标准，大多数外国投资都是在发达国家进行的。