-------+---------------------+----------------- Year. | World Production | Percentage from | 1910-21 (barrels). | Mexico only. -------+---------------------+----------------- 1910 | 328,000,000 | 1.10 1911 | 344,000,000 | 3.65 1912 | 352,500,000 | 4.70 1913 | 385,000,000 | 6.80 1914 | 400,000,000 | 5.30 1915 | 426,500,000 | 7.70 1916 | 459,500,000 | 8.70 1917 | 505,500,000 | 10.09 1918 | 515,000,000 | 12.40 1919 | 551,000,000 | 15.85 1920 | 684,000,000 | 23.35 1921 | 759,000,000 | 25.00 -------+---------------------+----------------- It is Mexico which saves the world to-day, for the United States--the greatest producers in the world--do not even supply enough for their own consumption, and are obliged to call in the help of Mexico to make good their deficit. In spite of all their efforts, they have only succeeded, during the last three years, in increasing production by 24 per cent., while Mexico has augmented hers by 130 per cent. The other countries follow at a considerable distance. Here is the record of each for 1921:-- Barrels. United States 469,639,000 Mexico 195,064,000 Russia 28,500,000 Dutch East Indies 18,000,000 Persia 14,600,000 Rumania 8,347,000 India 6,864,000 Poland (Galicia) 3,665,000 Peru 3,568,000 Japan and Formosa 2,600,000 Trinidad 2,354,000 Argentina 1,747,000 Egypt 1,181,000 Venezuela 1,078,000 France 392,000 Germany 200,000 Canada 190,000 Italy 35,000 Algeria 3,000 Great Britain 3,000 Other countries 1,000,000 The total production was 759,000,000 barrels of 42 gallons, against 684,000,000 barrels in 1920. It exceeds 100 million tons, easily beating the records of the preceding years. If we remember that half a century ago, it was only 66,000 tons, and that _between 1913 and 1920 it has almost doubled_, we shall see what a tremendous stimulus the great world War has been. But fears are increasingly felt. Will it be possible to satisfy the dizzy increase in the consumption of oil? And do not certain countries already fear to see the reserves contained in their soil exhausted? FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 5: Plutarch's _Lives_, Alexander the Great, chap. xliv.] [Footnote 6: Cp. chap. xvi, _The Struggle for the Oil-fields of Russia._] [Footnote 7: Having fallen to 920,000 tons in 1919, it had increased to 1,030,086 tons in 1920 (12 per cent. increase). This slight recovery is the first noted; for six years Rumanian production steadily decreased. The worst year was 1917.] CHAPTER III