THE ECONOMIC DISTURBANCES SINCE 1873. 435 



round voyage. The contingencies attendant upon such lengthened 

 voyages and service, as the possible interruption of commerce by 

 war, or failure of crops in remote countries, which could not easily be 

 anticipated, required that vast stores of Indian and Chinese products 

 should be always kept on hand at the one spot in Europe where the 

 consumers of such commodities could speedily supply themselves with 

 any article they required ; and that spot, by reason of geographical 

 position and commercial advantage, was England. Out of this con- 

 dition of affairs came naturally a vast system of warehousing in and dis- 

 tribution from England, and of British banking and exchange. Then 

 came the opening of the canal. What were the results ? The old 

 transportation had b^en performed by ships, mainly sailing-vessels, 

 fitted to go round the Cape, and, as such ships were not adapted to the 

 Suez Canal, an amount of tonnage, estimated by some authorities as 

 high as two million tons, and representing an immense amount of 

 wealth, was virtually destroyed.* The voyage, in place of occupy- 

 ing from six to eight months, has been so greatly reduced that steam- 

 ers adapted to the canal now make the voyage from London to Calcutta, 

 or vice versa, in less than thirty days. The notable destruction or great 

 impairment in the value of ships consequent upon the construction of 

 the canal did not, furthermore, terminate with its immediate opening 

 and use; for improvements in marine engines, diminishing the consump- 

 tion of coal, and so enabling vessels not only to be sailed at less cost, 

 but also to carry more cargo, were, in consequence of demand for 

 quick and cheap service so rapidly effected, that the numerous and 

 expensive steamer constructions of 1870-'73, being unable to compete 

 with the constructions of the next two years, were nearly all displaced 

 in 1875-'76, and sold for half, or less than half, of their original cost. 

 And within another decade these same improved steamers of 1875-'? 6 

 have, in turn, been discarded and sold at small prices as unfit for the 

 service of lines having an established trade, and replaced with vessels 

 fitted with the triple-expansion engines, and saving from eighteen to 

 twenty-five per cent in the consumption of fuel. To which may be 

 added that an iron cargo-steamer of 2,000 tons, which even as late as 

 1883 cost 24,000 ($120,000) in Great Britain to build, can now (1887) 

 be built with all the modern improvements for about 14,000 ($70,- 

 000). In all commercial history, probably no more striking illustration 

 can be found of the economic principle that nothing more clearly 

 marks the rate of material progress than the rapidity with which what 

 la old and has been considered wealth is destroyed by the results 

 of new inventions and discoveries. 



Again, with telegraphic communication between India and China 



* " The canal may therefore be said to have given a death-blow to sailing-vessels, 

 except for a few special purposes." From a paper by Charles Magniac, indorsed by the 

 "London Economist" as a merchant of eminence and experience, entitled to speak with 

 authority, read before the Indian Section of the London Society of Arts, February, 1876. 



