46 THE DECENTRALISATION 



Kingdom during the years 1906-1910.* The 

 flax industry has grown at a still speedier rate, 

 and as regards silks Germany is second only to 

 France. 



The progress realised in the German chemical 

 trade is well known, and it is only too badly felt 

 in Scotland and Northumberland ; while the 

 reports on the German iron and steel industries 

 which one finds in the publications of the Iron 

 and Steel Institute and in the inquiry which 

 was made by the British Iron Trade Association 

 show how formidably the production of pig-iron 

 and of finished iron has grown in Germany since 

 1871. (See Appendix D.) No wonder that the 

 imports of iron and steel into Germany were 

 reduced by one-half during the twenty years, 

 1874-1894, while the exports grew nearly four 

 times. As to the machinery works, if the Ger- 

 mans have committed the error of too slavishly 

 copying English patterns, instead of taking a 

 new departure, and of creating new patterns, as 

 the Americans did, we must still recognise that 

 their copies are good and that they very 

 successfully compete in cheapness with the 



* The imports of German woollen stuffs into this country 

 have steadily grown from 607,444 in 1890 to 907,569 in 1894, 

 and 1,822,514 In 1910. The British exports to Germany (of 

 woollen stuffs and yarns) have also grown, but not in the same 

 proportion. They were valued at 2,769,392 in 1890, 3,017,163 

 in 1894, and 4,638,000 in 1906-1910 (a five years' average). 



