AND ON THE CONTINENT.
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constantly further perfecting of the cotton market at Liverpool.According to a detailed estimate in the German Enquete (7),middling Louisiana, in 1878, cost in the English mill 113‘55marks per 100 kilos.; in the Alsatian mill 123'84 marks. Thisdifference will be apparently further increased in favour of Englandby the completion of the Ship Canal to Manchester—a cheapeningof carriage which will be as advantageous to the import of food-stuffs as to the export of manufactured articles, and should causethe long-planned canalisation of the Upper Iiliino to be postponedno longer (8).
If German spinners in many cases at the present time buy in theproducing country, this certainly means an advantage in so farthat they free themselves from the extra expenses in Liverpool.But by no means does this method replace a home cotton-market.German spinners must buy on stock 4 to 5 months ahead. Theyhave therefore to determine their wants long before the time whenthey know the future demand, and therewith run the risk of a fallin the price of cotton. They can also draw upon .Germany atan exchange disadvantage. Tire English spinner buys, as we haveseen, from week to week, at the prices ruling in Liverpool, so far ashe does not seize favourable opportunities of covering (9).
And so with the weaver. The cheapening of the yarn manipu-lated by him has made itself felt far. more than the cheapening ofcotton, since the fall of prices is more pronounced in proportion asthe element Nature is overcome by Capital and Labour.
The progressive cheapening of the raw material has also to beregarded as a general result of centralised industrial development,in any case so far as it depends upon improved methods of pro-duction and improved trading organisation. Indeed this develop-ment can be blocked by the nature of the raw material, as a productof nature limited in supply. But then technical progress produces