AND ON THE CONTINENT.

159

According to which the cost of production per yard (excludingyarn) was equal to 0'438d.

In this statement, as in the instance given above for spinning,according to custom in England, depreciation but not interest hasbeen added to the costs of production. But in weaving the pro-duction may, under favourable conditions, be still cheaper. Forinstance, the yearly rent for room and power per loom frequentlyamounts to not more than from 32s. to 36s. (14), whilst they areput down higher in the above instance.

Unfortunately the particulars of the cost of production in theG-erman Enquete(15) are unsuitable for comparison, on accountof their great diversity and the uncertainty whether one has todeal with depreciated mills or not, or even whether the employer’swages are reckoned in the costs of production or not. In anycase they give, in harmony with Jannasch (pp. Ill and112), a slighter advantage on lower numbers, and a moreconsiderable advantage on finer counts in favour of England. Notonly the higher working expenses, but also the higher costs ofestablishing, form a disadvantage for Germany . If, with the costof the spindle at £1, Jd. profit per - lb. of yarn means alone 5 percent, profit, with the double costs of establishment it means only2|- per cent.

Generally in the branch, of cotton industry an internationaldivision of labour makes itself felt in the following manner. Inspinning it may be taken that lower counts are spun in Germany not much dearer than in England, so that for these a protectivetariff is not necessary for all time. Already, with the lower dutiesbefore 1879, in which year Germany introduced a, system ofagrarian as well as industrial protective tariffs, the Germanspinners of lower counts had driven English yarns more and morefrom the home market.

In 1877 the import of yarns amounted to only 17 per cent, ofthose used, as against 47 per cent, in 1858. Since 1 the protectiveduty at that time was slight, the Germans could (16) even thennot have produced coarse counts much more unfavourably than

14. Commission on Depression of Trade, Second Report, part I., 5,7G6.

15. Report, pp. 3G, 37. “ Protokolle,” pp. 19, 26, 31, 98, 176.

16. For low ordinary yarns No.’s 4 to 12 the duty was 15 8 per cent, of thecost of production ; for all finer yarns, according to the system of weight,duties correspondingly less.