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natives who can work the estates cheaply have a great advan- 

 tage over Europeans, and with daily increasing knowledge and 

 experience they will doubtless take an increasing share in enter- 

 prises of this kind. The natives are also beginning to take a 

 larger share in mercantile transactions connected with articles 

 of export and import trade, the opening of the Suez Canal and 

 the increase in the direct trade of India with the principal 

 countries of Continental Europe having taken away from what 

 of the character of monopoly which long established European 

 houses of agency may have once possessed. Mr. Slagg in his 

 article on Cotton Industry contributed to the jubilee volume, 

 entitled The Reign of Queen Victoria^ gives the following account 

 of the changes that have taken place in this respect as regards 

 the cotton trade. He states : "In many cases the cotton 

 spinner and manufacturer of India deals directly with the cotton 

 producer on the one hand, and the merchant shipper on the 

 other, and in nearly all cases the old charges for brokerage 

 and agency have experienced a considerable reduction. Fifty 

 years ago the commission charged for selling goods in India, 

 including guarantee of sales and discount on remittances, 

 amounted to from 8^ to 5 per cent., to which was added about 

 2i per cent, for sundry charges, landing, storing and godown 

 rent. These are now reduced to a total of about 4 per cent., 

 though the downward tendency of the latter charges was checked 

 by the Indian mutiny. The charges for packing and shipment 

 have also been diminished by 1 J or 2 per cent., while the opening 

 of the Suez Canal and the consequent development and competi- 

 tion in steam transit have produced a marvellous economy of 

 cost and time on the old system of shipment. Mr. Goschen has 

 observed that the carriage of a ton of goods from Manchester 

 to Bombay, including the railway to Liverpool, the Suez Canal 

 dues and the freight, is now little more than the price of a 

 second class ticket from London to Manchester. The shortening 

 of the voyage by the substitution of steamers for sailing vessels 

 and the adoption of the Suez Canal route instead of the old route 

 round the Cape of Good Hope has reduced the time taken in 

 the delivery of goods, which is equivalent to a diminution of 

 about 2| per cent., if the additional rent and insurance under 

 the old system, added to the loss of interest, be taken into 

 consideration. The increase of telegraphic communication, and 

 to some extent the use of the telephone, have tended to destroy 

 the old custom of keeping large stocks of goods stored in the 

 warehouses of Manchester or in the ' godowns ' in India, and 

 sales are often made in Calcutta or Bombay of goods whi'^h have 

 yet to be manufactured or even bleached or dyed in Lancashire. 



