GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. (AGRICULTCEE.) 



441 



The following are the principal foreign and 

 colonial produce exports for 1883: 



The largest exports to the United States were 

 the following articles : iron and manufactures 

 thereof of the value of $31,665,325, 

 an increase of $13,676,905 ; cotton 

 goods, value $17,050,500 ; woolens, 

 $15,905,060 ; linens, $12,903,380 ; 

 jute, $5,540,920 ; alkali, $5,369,520 ; 

 china and earthenware, $4,770,970. 

 There was an increase in the exports 

 to the United States of earthenware 

 and woolen manufactures, jute, and 

 wool, and a decrease in cottons, lin- 

 ens, alkali, machinery, hardware, 

 rags, furs, etc. 



The imports of gold in 1883 

 amounted to $37,743,500, of silver 

 to $46,076,027 ; the exports of gold 

 to $34,510,127, of silver to $45,- 

 341,147. 



The unrevised returns for 1884 

 make the total value of merchandise 

 imports $1,896,840,000, the value of 

 exports of British and Irish produce 

 $1,900,278,000. In the imports of 

 food there was a falling off of about 

 $112,000,000, the decrease in wheat 

 and flour being $67,000,000, and in 

 maize $15,000,000. In butter, cheese, 

 hams, and pork, there was an in- 

 crease. In raw materials there was 

 a falling off of $22,400,000, and $40,- 

 000,000 in other articles. The prin- 

 cipal feature in the export returns is 

 the continuous decreae in the ship- 

 ments of cotton goods and of iron 

 and steel manufactures. The decrease 

 in the cotton exports was 6 per cent, 

 in the total value, but only 2 per 

 cent, in quantities. The falling off 

 in the iron exports was also partly due to the 

 decline in prices. A royal commission on the 

 depression of trade was appointed after the 

 assumption of the Government by the Con- 

 servatives, of which Lord Iddesleigh, formerly 

 Sir Stafford Northcote, was made chairman. 

 Several prominent Liberals declined to serve 

 on the commission on account of the preponder- 

 ance of protectionists in its membership. Mr. 

 Giffen, reporting as Secretary of the Board of 

 Trade upon changes in the volume of trade as 

 affected by changes in the prices of imports 

 and exports, stated that between 1873 and 

 1879 the falling off in foreign trade was not 

 in quantities, but in prices; that in 1880 there 

 was a slight recovery in prices and a great in- 

 crease in trade ; but that in 1883 prices were 

 not higher on the average than in 1879. The 

 exports of home produce, which sank in the 



aggregate value from 172,000,000 to 146.- 

 000,000 between 1873 and 1883, would have 

 amounted to 212,000,000 in the latter year if 

 prices remained at the level of 1873, and im- 

 ports would have increased from 308,000,000 

 to 403,000,000, instead of 336,000,000, the 

 total declared values in 1883. Instead of a 

 decrease of 6 per cent, there was an increase 

 in the quantities of exports of 13 per cent., and 

 in exports an increase of 30 per cent, instead 



VISCOUNT CEANBEOOK, 

 Lord President of the Council. 



of the nominal increase of 10 per cent, in the 

 ten years. Prices are about as low as they 

 were before the gold discoveries. 



Agriculture. The harvest of 1884 was the 

 finest for ten years, yet prices were 25 per 

 cent, lower than a year before, wheat selling 

 at less than $1 a bushel, representing a loss on 

 the actual cost of cultivation. The quantity 

 of wheat produced in Great Britain was 80,- 

 561,957 bushels, of barley 74,286,284 bushels, 

 of oats 112,810,464 bushels. The acreage un- 

 der wheat in 1884 was 2,676,477, being 63,315 

 acres more than in 1883, but 327,483 less than 

 in 1882 ; the acreage under barley was 2,159,- 

 485, under oats 2,892,576, both showing a de- 

 crease, while the 562,344 acres under potatoes 

 and 69,258 under hops showed an increase over 

 1883. The returns for 1885 give the acreage 

 of wheat as 2,478,318, being 7'4 per cent, less 



