30 THE DECENTRALISATION 



children were compelled to look for employment 

 in manufactures. Wars and revolution had 

 checked the growth of industry ; but it began 

 to grow again during the second half of our 

 century ; it developed, it improved ; and now, 

 notwithstanding the loss of Alsace, France is no 

 longer the tributary to England for manufactured 

 produce which she was sixty years ago. To-day 

 her exports of manufactured goods are valued at 

 nearly one-half of those of Great Britain, and 

 two-thirds of them are textiles ; while her 

 imports of the same consist chiefly of the finer 

 sorts of cotton and woollen yarn partly re- 

 exported as stuffs and a small quantity of 

 woollen goods. For her own consumption 

 France shows a decided tendency towards be- 

 coming entirely a self-supporting country, and 

 for the sale of her manufactured goods she is 

 tending to rely, not on her colonies, but especially 

 on her own wealthy home market.* 



Germany follows the same lines. During the 

 last fifty years, and especially since the last war, 

 her industry has undergone a thorough re- 

 organisation. Her population having rapidly 

 increased from forty to sixty millions, this 

 increment went entirely to increase the urban 

 population without taking hands from agri- 

 culture and in the cities it went to increase 

 * See Appendix B. 



