ON THE IRON MANUFACTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN. i Ria 
supply and demand, and the price shall again have become more moderate, 
an impetus will be given to the production of shipping, not alone for the 
uses of our own merchants, but for carrying on the trade and navigation of 
other countries. The cost of our shipping will then be so materially reduced, 
both their first cost and the expense of their maintenance, that the objection 
so often and unfortunately so successfully offered by our shipowners to any 
relaxations in our commercial code affecting their business, that the greater 
cheapness with which shipping can be produced in foreign countries prevents 
their successfully competing with ships of those countries, can no longer be 
urged with any plausibility; but on the contrary, that ships of English con- 
struction will then be the cheapest in the world. It has been said that fluc- 
tuations in the price of iron do not cause any considerable difference in the 
cost of iron vessels, so large a proportion of their whole cost consisting in 
labour. A reduction of 20s. per ton in the price of the material will, how- 
_ ever, cause an ceconomy of 10s. per measurement ton in the cost of the ship, 
and it will hardly be said that the very possible rise or fall of 3/. or 4d: per 
ton in the price of iron plates is an immaterial circumstance to the ship- 
builder. But the cheapness here spoken of will no doubt be principally 
found in the greater durability and the insignificant cost of repairs of metal 
ships. 
A statement was inserted a few months ago in a Scotch newspaper, giving 
the particulars of the iron ships then under construction in the Clyde; they 
amounted to twenty-four in number, and were of the aggregate burthen of 
14,032 tons (see Appendix No.8). These were all steam-vessels, to which 
class of shipping iron has hitherto been principally applied, although there is 
no reason for supposing that it is not equally applicable to every description 
of naval architecture. The reason for this circumstance may probably be 
found in the fact, that the construction and employment of steam-vessels has, 
for the most part, been undertaken by persons not previously interested in 
shipping, and who consequently had no prejudice or habit to overcome in 
their choice of material. i 
This statement, imperfect as it necessarily is, would be more glaringly so 
if it did not present some particulars of our external iron trade. 
So recently as the beginning of the present century more than two-fifths 
of all the iron used in this kingdom was imported from the north of Europe. 
Foreign metal was then used for very many of the purposes to which iron 
was at that time generally applied in England, and it was so used indiscrimi- 
nately with British iron. In 1806 the use of foreign iron had been lessened 
by nearly one-third, while the home production was so increased as to form 
seven-eighths of the quantity used. In a few years after our make was be- 
yond our own wants, and foreign iron ceased to be imported for any pur- 
poses to which the produce of our own forges could be applied. Thence- 
forward our demands have been confined to metal of the qualities from which 
alone steel can be made. Our exports of British iron have, on the contrary, 
increased progressively, and have now become an object of great national 
importance. The statement given in the Appendix, No. 9 shows the yearly 
progress of the trade since 1827 up to the year 1845 inclusive. . It will be 
seen on consulting this statement, that the quantity had increased from 92,313 
tons in 1827 to 351,978 tons in 1845, and that’ the declared value of the 
shipments advanced in that interval from £1,215,561 to £3,501,895. A 
column has been added to the table, exhibiting the average value per ton of 
all forms of iron exported in each year, from which it will be seen how great 
an influence price has, in its advance and its diminution, upon the lessening 
or increase of our exports. In 1840, when the average value appears to have 
