COTTON TRADE 990 



any account. The manufacture of cotton in India by means of machinery has also of 

 late years reached important dimensions. With this exception, there is no part of the 

 world where cotton is converted into clothing by mechanical means, on any scale worth 

 notice, except in Europe and in the United States. Under the head of COTTON FACTORY 

 we have indicated the relative importance of the various manufacturing countries as 

 shown in the estimated number of spinning spindles possessed by each. Now, the 

 supply of raw material consumed in the manufacture is drawn from many fields ; and 

 the order in which these stand maybe readily inferred from the following table, which 

 shows the average annual quantities contributed by each source of supply for the use 

 of the factories of Europe and the United States, during the three years 1871-73. The 

 statistics referring to the production of Central Asia, which is entirely consumed in 

 Eussia, refer to the year 1867, none of a later date being accessible. 



Quantities and Sources of Supply of the Cotton consumed in Europe and the United States. 



Average of the 

 three years 1871-73. 



United States 1,632,500,000 Ibs. 



East India 503,600,000 



Egypt, Asia Minor and Greece 231,200,000 



Brazil 119,400,000 



West Indies and Peru 47,700,000 



Central Asia 43,200,000 



Total 2,577,600,000 



This enormous aggregate which, reckoning 300 working days in the year, is equal 

 to 8,592,000 Ibs., or upwards of 3,835 tons per day, was distributed to the manufac- 

 turing countries in the following proportions : 



Total 2,577,600,000 



It thus appears that of all the raw cotton consumed in the manufacturing countries 

 of Europe and America very nearly one half is used in the United Kingdom. 



With regard to the distribution of the manufactured product, it is to be observed 

 that most of the countries named in the preceding table retain for home consumption 

 nearly all that they produce, and are also, in varying degrees, dependent for their 

 supply of clothing upon the manufactures of other countries. The only ones which, 

 besides supplying the wants of their own home market, have any considerable surplus 

 for exportation, are Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Holland and Germany. Prior 

 to 1862 the United States also exported a large proportion of their cotton manufac- 

 tures. But, owing mainly to the high degree of protection with which the legislature 

 surrounded American manufactures during and since the civil war, the exports of 

 cotton goods from the United States have greatly declined. The well-known effects 

 of a protective system in increasing the cost of production have not prevented a very 

 rapid growth of the home consumption of native manufactures in the United States, 

 thanks to their growing wealth, to their increasing population, and to the large ex- 

 clusion of foreign productions by heavy import duties. But this increase in the cost 

 of production has effectually weakened the power of American manufacturers to com- 

 pete successfully with their foreign rivals in neutral markets abroad. The exports of 

 cotton goods from France, Switzerland, and Germany go principally to South America 

 and Africa, those of Holland to the Dutch East Indies and China. But by far the 

 largest proportion of the population of the non-manufacturing countries derive their 

 supplies of machine-made cotton goods from the United Kingdom. Of the proportions 

 in which the exports of British manufactures are distributed to the several consuming 

 countries, a very clear idea may be formed from a perusal of the statistics given at 

 the close of this article. 



Of the tables given in the following pages not the least interesting is that which 

 furnishes an account of the quantities of yarns and piece goods, and the aggregate 

 value of these and other cotton products exported to the various countries of the world 

 in 1872. From statistics for 1871, compiled by Messrs Ellison and Co., of Liverpool, 



