THE ECONOMIC DISTURBANCES SINCE 1873. 437 



graph, hurried on board the ship, and the agent draws for the price 

 agreed upon, through some bank, with the shipping documents. In four 

 weeks, in the case of England, and a lesser time for countries inter- 

 mediate, the shipment arrives ; the manufacturer pays the bill, either 

 with his own money or his banker's; and, before another week is out, the 

 cotton and the jute are going through the factory ; the linseed has been 

 converted into oil, and the hides are in the tannery being transformed 

 into leather. What has happened in the case of East India produce 

 seems also likely to happen in the case of the great product of Aus- 

 tralia namely, wool which for many years has been shipped mainly 

 to London for sale and distribution. For with the increased facilities 

 and reduction in the cost of travel and transportation by the Suez 

 Canal route, the tendency in recent years has been to transfer the 

 market for this wool to the country of its growth ; as European Con- 

 tinental, and to some extent American, manufacturers are finding out 

 that by this new arrangement they can have their raw material de- 

 livered to them within two or three months of the time of purchase, 

 instead of three or four from the date of shipment to London, and at 

 the same time avoid, to a considerable extent, the " profits " and the 

 " corners " of middle-men and speculators. Under these circumstances 

 the day is probably not far distant when the whole wool-crop of Aus- 

 tralia, like the cotton-crop of the United States, will be sold before 

 shipment ; and another long-established " course " of trade, which has 

 brought buyers from all the world to London will be broken up, to the 

 temporary injury and loss of some, but to the greater advantage of 

 the many. And in anticipation of this change, the largest warehouses 

 in the world, some covering an area of five acres, have recently been 

 erected in Melbourne, Sydney, and other Australian cities. 



Importations of East Indian produce are also no longer confined in 

 England and other countries to a special class of merchants ; and so 

 generally has this former large and special department of trade been 

 broken up and dispersed, that extensive retail grocers in the larger 

 cities of Europe and the United States are now reported as draw- 

 ing their supplies direct from native dealers in both China and 

 India. 



Another curious and recent result of the Suez Canal construction, 

 operating in a quarter and upon an industry that could not well have 

 been anticipated, has been its effect on an important department of 

 Italian agriculture namely, the culture of rice. This cereal has for 

 many years been a staple crop of Italy, and a leading article of Italian 

 export the total export for the year 1881 having amounted to 83,598 

 tons, or 167,196,000 pounds. Since the year 1878, however, rice 

 grown in Burmah and other parts of the far East has been imported into 

 Italy and other countries of Southern Europe in such enormous and 

 continually increasing quantities, and at such rates, as to excite great 

 apprehensions among the growers of Italian rice, and largely diminish 



