AND ON THE CONTINENT.

63

CHAPTER III.

The Present Position of the English Cotton Industry Com-pared with its Position in the “Thirties” and with tiiePresent Position of the German Cotton Industry . (1)

In the half-century that has elapsed since the “ thirties ”England has become “the workshop of the world.” “Wherethere is no English commerce there is no commerce at all”—isthe report of the American Secretary of State (2). A numberof centralised English industries have succeeded in obtainingpossession of the neutral markets of the world ; English exportshave quadrupled and quintupled themselves since the “ forties.”Tho cotton industry progressed beyond all others, its exportsexceeding those of the iron trade by about three times (3). Weindicate at the outset the progress and the present position bystatistics: —

Spindles. Power-looms. Hand-looms.

1831 . 10,000,000 80,000 220,000

185G . 28,000,000 298,847 some thousands

1885 . 45,000,000 500,955 some hundreds (4.)

About a third of the total exports of England falls to the lot ofthe cotton industry, and a not much smaller proportion of theEnglish people live on the foodstuffs which are exchanged for

1. Where no sources are given in the following particulars they may betaken as originating from studies on the spot, and are, from their very nature,sufficiently authoritative.

2. ‘ 1 Commercial Relations of the United States, ” No. 12 (Oct., 1881), p. 71 .

3. 1887 : Exports of cotton yarns and goods, £70,959,700 ; of iron andsteel, raw and finished, £24,992,314; total exports of home productions,£221,414,180.

4. These figures approximately agree with those given by Samuel Andrew,in “ Fifty Years’ Cotton Trade.” They are taken for 1850 anil 1885 from officialstatistics ; for 1831 from Ellison : 1 2 3 4 ‘ Cotton Trade. ” The number of spindleswere averaged, because Ellison, by reason of commercial directories, declaresthe official figures far too small. He estimates the number of spindles in 1885to be already 48 millions. Compare Ellison, p. 327-8. These statistics areconfirmed by Elijah Helm, “ Economic Journal ” II. 737; according to himthere were in 1891 in Great Britain 44,750,000 spinning spindles ; in addition,according to the Statistical Abstract, nearly 4,000,000 doubling spindles,besides the spindles not in operation, which, according to Ellison, are a fewmillions.