594 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



"with a good prospect of all surplus being wiped out by October, 

 1888." The price of fair refining sugar (in bond, which represents the 

 world's prices) has accordingly advanced from 2'3T^ cents per pound 

 in July, 1887, to 3-22 in January, 1888. 



The production of very few articles has increased in recent years 

 in a ratio so disproportionate to any increase of the world's popu- 

 lation as that of iron, and prices of some standard varieties have 

 touched a lower range than were ever before known. Gloomy appre- 

 hensions have accordingly been entertained respecting continued over- 

 production, and its disastrous influence in the future on the involved 

 capital and labor. To comprehend, however, the possibilities for this 

 industry in the future, it is only necessary to have in mind that in 1882 

 (and the proportions have not probably since varied) the population 

 of the United States and of Europe (398,333,750), comprising less than 

 one fourth of the total population of the world (1,424,086,000), con- 

 sumed nineteen twentieths of the whole annual production of iron and 

 steel ; and that if the population of the world outside of Europe and 

 the United States should increase its annual per capita consumption 

 of iron (which is not now probably in excess of two pounds) to only 

 one half of the average annual per capita consumption of the people 

 of a country as low down in civilization as Russia, the annual demand 

 upon the existing producing capacity of iron would be at once in- 

 creased to the extent of over six million tons. And, when it is 

 further remembered that civilization is rapidly advancing in many 

 countries, like India, where the present annual consumption of iron 

 per head is very small (2'4 pounds), and that civilization can not 

 progress to any great extent without the extensive use of iron, the 

 possibilities for the enormous extension of the iron industry in the 

 future, and the enlarged sphere of employment of capital and labor in 

 connection therewith, make themselves evident.* 



As constituting a further contribution to the study of the so-called 



* According to a tabic presented to the British Iron Trade Association by Mr. Jeana 

 in 1882, and subsequently incorporated in a report submitted by Sir Lowthian Bell to the 

 British Commission "On the Depression of Trade" in 1885 (and from which the above 

 data have been derived), the total consumption of iron in the above year was 20,567,746 

 tons. Of this aggregate, the United States and the several countries of Europe, with a 

 population at that time of 398,333,750, consumed 19,057,963 tons ; the following five 

 countries, namely, the United States, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, France, Ger- 

 many, and Belgium, with a population of 174,506,935, consuming 16,259,514 tons. The 

 aggregate consumption of iron by the population of all the other countries of the world 

 at that time (assumed to be 1,026,538,820) was estimated at 1,509,783 tons, or, deducting 

 the consumption of the population of the British possessions other than in India (as Aus- 

 traha, etc.), at only 888,298 tons, or 1-96 pound per hcaa per annum. The annual per 

 capita consumption of different countries in 1882 was reported as follows : The United 

 Kingdom, 287 pounds ; the United States, 270 pounds ; Belgium, 238 pounds ; France, 

 149 pounds; Germany, 123 pounds; Sweden and Norway, 77 pounds; Austrian terri- 

 tories, 37 pounds; Russia, 246 pounds; South America and the islands, 13'6 pounds; 

 Egypt, 7*5 pounds ; India, 24 pounds. 



