436 THE COTTON INDUSTRY AND TRADE 



tween the prices of the product and the cost of material droop and show no sign of im- 

 mediate recovery, the operatives, as a rule, readily falling in with the arrangement. The 

 same policy is practised in countries other than England, but an attempt made in the 

 late depression to secure concerted action throughout the world failed. The method of 

 short time, when judiciously applied, is generally favourable to the interests of operatives 

 as well as employers, as it causes under-employment to be spread over the industry, 

 instead of unemployment being concentrated on a section of the working-class. 



Since the issue in 1909 of the report relating to the cotton industry of the British census 

 of production (taken in 1907), it has become possible to arrive at something more than 

 intelligent guesses with regard to Great Britain's annual consumption of its own products. 

 Taking the estimates put forward by the director of the census of productions, based on these 

 returns, instead of the returns themselves, so as to avoid such sources of error as duplication, 

 and placing side by side with them export returns for the same year, we have: Yarn spun, 

 1826 million Ibs. (98,000,000, including about 1,700,000 for dyeing); Yarn exported, 241 

 million Ibs. (15,250,000). So the proportion exported is about 13 per cent in quantity and 

 16 per cent in value. But the value of yarn exported includes the profits of the exporter. 

 Consequently its value when it left the spinner would have been about 14,600,000 if these 

 profits amounted on an average to 5 percent. This is 14.5 per cent of the value of the total 

 output; as compared with an export in quantity just over 13 per cent. The discrepancy seems 

 only natural in view of the known fact that the yarns exported contain a large proportion of 

 the fine counts, in which Lancashire far excels its competitors. 



Coming to piece goods, we find an output of 7091 million yards (value 95,000,000, 

 including 12,000,000 for bleaching, dyeing and finishing), and an export of 6298 million 

 yards ( 8 1 ,000,000). The exports were nearly 89 per cent in quantity and about 85 per cent 

 in value. But the export values include merchants' expenses and profits, and if we allow 

 about 5 per cent for these we get a percentage of export in value of about 81. The probable 

 explanation of the discrepancy between the quantity and value percentages of export is that 

 the average value of the goods retained for home consumption is much higher than that of 

 the exports. A large proportion of the exports are unbleached and unprinted, and the average 

 quality of exported prints is pretty certain to be below that of prints for home use. Admit- 

 tedly, there are sources of error connected with the census of production and with the col- 

 lection of export figures; but they are not likely to have vitiated the results seriously. 



Cotton Supplies. The question of cotton supplies continues to agitate the English 

 spinning world. It is still felt that dependence on the American supply is too great, and 

 it is feared that the output of long staple cotton in America is much nearer its limit than 

 the output of other kinds. Peculiar apprehension has been excited as regards the condi- 

 tions of cotton-growing in Egypt. It is maintained that the yield of the plants is falling 

 in quantity and quality. The yield of kantars ( i kantar = 98 Ibs. ) per feddan ( i 

 feddan= i i/ioth acres) was on an average 5.29 in the period 1896-1901, 4.55 in 1901-06 

 and 4.24 in 1906-11, according to statistics published by the Egyptian survey depart- 

 ment. It is contended that the cause of the fall includes some or all of the following: 

 (i) careless seed selection; (2) over-cropping, as a result of the reduction of customary 

 rotation from three years to two, and also of the squeezing of the plants together; (3) 

 insect pests; and (4) the water-logging of the soil. Some authorities are particularly 

 insistent as to the gravity of the fourth case. Information ,was laid before a cotton 

 commission in 1909-10 which reported in due course, made twenty-six recommendations 

 and nominated a committee with a view to the carrying out of its recommendations. 

 The committee had not met up to the time of the visit of Mr. Arno Schmidt (the secre- 

 tary of the International Cotton Federation) to Egypt in 1911; but he states that he 

 was informed by Lord Kitchener of an intention to institute a permanent cotton commit- 

 tee to take up the whole matter. Since then a committee to investigate the ravages of 

 the cotton worm has been appointed. The question of the Egyptian supply is a serious 

 one for England at the present time, for it has been estimated that of some twenty-one 

 million spindles which are dealing exclusively with Egyptian cotton fifteen millions are 

 in England there are supposed to be no more than one million and a half in Germany, 

 about one million and a half in France, and in no other country as many as a million. 

 But the matter will become an increasingly important one to countries other than Eng- 

 land as they push their way further into fine spinning. 



The British Cotton Growing Association, which is specially concerned with the 

 question of increasing cotton supplies, has now almost raised the capital of 500,000 



