78
stands to-day at 4d. higher than the average ’Change prices inManchester , this is not too high a, charge for the risks to heincurred, bundling, packing, etc. (25). But the wholesale mer-chants in Manchester , also-, do not sell by any means to the retailmerchant, but, apart from home wholesale houses, to foreignexport houses. The latter have very often English partners inIndia, China, and Africa, who further the distribution of English industrial productions with all their power (2C>).
The English cotton industry therefore at the present day alsocouples extreme combination with extreme division of labour,technical as well as commercial. Compared with it, the German industry stands on a step of development which reminds us ofEngland in the “thirties.” Certainly, Germany also shows acertain geographical division of labour. German spinning andweaving of plain calico have their seat in the South, especiallyin Alsace, Baden, and Suabia . They need protective duties againstEngland, and supply only inland wants. Alongside exist theNorth German finishing branches and fancy-weaving sheds,especially on the "Rhine and in Saxony. But in the North as wellas in the South the industry is dispersed over more extensivedistricts, and is lacking in commercial centres.
Also in the size of the single mills Germany stands behindEngland . According to the Commission for Cotton and LinenIndustry, in 1878, the average number of spindles had increasedfrom 15,000 in 1859 to 21,000 in 1877 (27). The averagenumber of looms given in 1877 for weaving-mills is 287 per mill.These particulars refer, however, solely to those mills which gavereturns to the Commission, therefore mostly the larger ones—economically coming into consideration—whilst those not drawninto account would materially reduce this average.
Unfortunately there are in Germany no statistics taken of thenumber of spindles and looms. We are therefor;-, for the present-time dependent upon private sources ; as far as the informationgiven by W. Rieger (Stuttgart , 1893) goes, concerning the