THE DECENTRALISATION OF INDUSTRIES. 33 



to 861,000,000 instead of 667,000,000," we were told 

 by no less an authority than the Commission on Trade 

 Depression. 



It might, however, be said that 1873 was an ex- 

 ceptional year, owing to the inflated demand which took 

 place after the Franco-German war. But the same 

 downward movement continues. In fact, if we take the 

 figures given in the last Statesman's Year-book, we see 

 that while the United Kingdom exported, in 1883, 

 4,957,000,000 yards of piece goods (cotton, woollen and 

 linen) and 316,000,000 Ib. of yarn in order to reach an 

 export value of 104,500,000, the same country had 

 to export, in 1895, no less than 5,478,000,000 yards of 

 the same stuffs and 330,000,000 Ib. of yarn in order to 

 realise 99,700,000 only. As to the year 1894, which 

 was a minimum year, the proportion was even still 

 worse. And it would appear still worse again if we took 

 the cottons alone, or made a comparison with the year 

 1860, when 2,776,000,000 yards of cotton cloth and 

 197,000,000 Ib. of cotton yarn were valued at 

 52,000,000, while thirty-five years later almost twice 

 as many million yards (5,033,000,000) and 252,000,000 

 Ib. of yarn were required to make up 68,300,000.* 

 And we must not forget that one-half (in value) of 

 British and Irish exports is made up by textiles. 



We thus see that while the total value of the exports 

 from the United Kingdom remains, broadly speaking, 

 unaltered for the last twenty years, the high prices 

 which could be got for these exports twenty years ago, 

 and with them the high profits, are irretrievably gone. 

 And no amount of arithmetical calculations will persuade 

 the British manufacturers that such is not the case. 

 They know perfectly well that the home markets grow 

 continually overstocked; that the best foreign markets 

 are escaping; and that in the neutral markets Britain 



* Statesman's Year-book, 1896, p. 78. ^ y ' 



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