4j 4 THE COTTON INDUSTRY AND TRADE 



It is notable that, while spinning spindles would seem to have advanced in the world 

 by more than 6 per cent between 1908 and 1911, those in the United Kingdom only ad- 

 vanced by a trifle over 3 per cent. This result was however to be expected. In the 

 course of the industrialising of the world, textile industries less developed than the 

 famous Lancashire industry have been rapidly improving and increasingly satisfying 

 home demands in the countries where they are placed, while spinning mills have been 

 appearing in other countries where until recent times spinning was unknown. There is 

 no reason to apprehend that the hand of the Lancashire operative is losing its cunning, 

 or that slackness of management is preventing costs in English mills from being as low 

 as they might; and it is beyond question that Lancashire still continues to enjoy differen- 

 tial advantages for the prosecution of the cotton industry. A cheap substitute for her 

 climate is yet to seek; and nowhere else is an approach to be found to the systematic 

 arrangement of her industry around marketing centres, in consequence of which a high 

 degree of business specialism is rendered possible and the locking up in raw material 

 of a great deal of capital is avoided. How great Lancashire's gain is with respect to 

 the latter point, is indicated by the mill stocks of cotton. The average mill stocks in 

 bales per 1,000 spindles held on the 3ist of August in the five years 1907-11 amounted 

 to: Great Britain 6.6, Germany 35, France 24, Russia 65, India 93, Japan 192, United 

 States 26. Russian bales are mostly of about 300 Ibs.; American of 500 Ibs. 



It is remarkable that the cotton industry in the land from which most cotton comes 

 must hold mill stocks four times as great as those held in the British industry which is 

 divided from its supplies by the mighty Atlantic. One leading reason is that the 

 American industry does not approach the Lancashire industry in completeness as an 

 organic whole, and that the former is not peculiarly well placed with respect to means 

 of transportation. The chief port of Lancashire, Liverpool, and, one might add, the 

 secondary port of Manchester, 1 lie so close to the spinning districts, and are so well 

 connected with them by rail, that supplies of cotton can be obtained on the shortest 

 notice as they cannot elsewhere; and Lancashire's cotton market is so highly organised, 

 with its expert dealers and brokers and its system of ' futures,' that spinners can easily 

 make arrangements for cotton to flow into their mills as they require it. Reservoirs of 

 cotton, so to speak, need not be maintained in Lancashire mills. We may see in Lanca- 

 shire, as nowhere else in the world as yet, cotton supplies travelling to the various mills 

 according to almost immediate requirements, much as the blood in the body flows to the 

 parts where it is needed, when it is needed, and in the proportion in which it is needed. 



It must be remembered, moreover, when the number of spinning spindles in the 

 United Kingdom is compared with the numbers elsewhere, that a year's working of an 

 English spindle represents on an average a greater value than a year's working of any 

 foreign spindle, because English spinning, as a whole, is becoming finer and the value 

 of the fine work is greater than of the coarse work. Thus in the five years 1907-11 

 the average consumption of cotton per spindle in different countries was: 



England has been steadily driven into undertaking more fine spinning (for which she 

 enjoys special advantages) by foreign competition. It goes without saying that early 

 attempts at spinning arc made on the coarser and easier work. 



It is impossible to put forward figures showing recent increases in looms, but they 

 certainly still continue to increase enormously. In Lancashire and contiguous districts 

 cotton looms were augmented by nearly 40 per cent between 1884 and 1911, despite the 

 extension of manufacturing in other countries; and it will be realised that countries 

 which embark on the production of cotton textiles invariably begin with manufacturing 



1 The total imports of cotton into the United Kingdom amounted to (1907) 2387 million 

 Ibs., (1909) 2189 million Ibs.; and (1911) 2207 million Ibs. The amount shipped direct to 

 Manchester via the Ship Canal was (1907) 300 million Ibs., (1909) 340 million Ibs., and (1911) 

 350 million Ibs. Nearly half the cotton consigned direct to Manchester came from Egypt. 



