LOSS TO GREAT BRITAIN. 581 



LOSS TO GREAT BRITAIN. 

 Page 272 of The Case. 



That the business of dealing in fur-seal skins in the city of Lundon 

 has become an established and important industry. 



Deponent is informed that practically all the seal H- S. Bevington, ^.552. 

 skins in the world are sold in London, and the 



number runs up in the year to between 100.000 and 200,000, averaging 

 considerably over 150,000 a year. These skins are sold for the most 

 part either by the firm of O. M. Lampson & Co., through their brokers, 

 Goad, Eigg & Co., or by the firm of Culverwell, Brooks & Co. At the 

 auction sales, which are advertised twice or three times in the year by 

 these firms, skins are bought by dealers from all over the world, who 

 are present either in person or by proxy. The next stage in the in- 

 dustry is the dressing and dyeing of the furs, and practically the whole 

 of these fur-seal skins sold in London are dressed and dyed in th it city. 

 The principal firms being engaged in that business are C. W. Martin & 

 Sons and George Rice. Deponent's own firm dress a small number of 

 skins and have dressed in one year as many as 23,000, and formerly 

 dyed large numbers of skins, but do not now dye skins, as the secrets 

 of the present fashionable color are now in the hands of other firms. 

 After having been dressed and dyed, the skins of the fur-seal are then 

 passed into the hands of fur merchants, by whom in turn they are 

 passed to furriers and drapers and retail dealers generally. Deponent 

 estimates the total number of persons engaged in one way or another, 

 directly or indirectly, in the fur-seal industry in the city of London at 

 at least two or three thousand, many of whom are skilled laborers, all 

 receiving high wages. 



That a large amount of capital is also invested in the business in the 

 city of Loudon, and the precise value of the industry can be estimated 

 by reckoning the amount expended in the various processes which 

 deponent has enumerated upon each skin. For instance, after the 

 skins arrive at the London market they are sold at the sales at prices 

 which in the year 1890 averaged say 80 shillings apiece. The commis- 

 sions on the selling of the goods including warehousing, insurance, and 

 so forth, deponent believes amounted to per cent of the price obtained. 

 That the amount paid for dressing, dyeing, and machining each skin 

 averages say 10 shillings. These processes take together about four 

 or five months. The next expenditure upon the skin is, say, an average 

 of five shillings at least for each skin for cutting up, and that there- 

 after there will be an average of at least from 3 shillings to 4 shillings 

 per skin expended in quilting, lining, and making up the jackets or 

 other garments, showing a total expenditure upon each skin for labor 

 alone, in the city of London, of 25 shillings in addition to the percent- 

 age paid for brokerage, before the process of manufacture began, and 

 the most of this money is actually paid out in wages. 



Deponent says, that in the above estimates he has given the bottom 

 figures and that the amount actually expended upon the skins in the 

 city of London undoubtedly averages a larger sum. This would make on 

 an average of 200,000 skins a year, which is not excessive, a total ex- 

 penditure annually in the city of London of £250,000, minus the 

 amounts paid for cutting and making up in respect to the skins sent 

 to the United S:ates. 



