COMMEKCE, INTERNATIONAL. 



Ill 



is undoubtedly the sharper competition with 

 British manufactures. The fall in the prices 

 of many staples within 10 years is noteworthy, 

 cotton sinking in price from 4 12s. 2d. per 

 cwt. to 3 Os. 5d., the quantities imported 

 having greatly increased. America resumed its 

 position as chief source of supply in 1876, In- 

 dia furnishing 965,000 cwt. less than in 1875. 

 The imports of wool have largely increased, 

 the whole increase heing supplied by Australia. 

 The manufactures in which importations have 

 increased are principally cotton fabrics, wool- 

 ens, and iron and steel products. The total im- 

 portations amounted to 374,004,000, against 

 373,941,000 in 1875, showing an increase of 

 63,000. Of articles of consumption, there was 

 a large increase in the importation of neces- 

 saries: live animals and bacon, 800,000 in- 

 crease; butter, 1,200,000 increase; Indian 

 corn, increase 4,600,000; hams, eggs, pota- 

 toes, pork, spirits, wine, and tobacco, 3,700,- 

 OOOincrease. Wheat, on the other hand, showed 

 a decrease of 4,300,000, and the imports of 

 barley and oats also were less. Articles of 

 consumption of secondary importance showed 

 the influence of the hard times, the falling off 

 being about 5,000,000 in cheese, coffee, rice, 

 sugar, tea, spices, etc. In materials for the 

 staple manufactures, there was an improve- 

 ment toward the end of the year in the impor- 

 tations of cotton, wool, jute, hides, flax, and 

 silk. The cotton was nearly the same in quan- 

 tity; but 6,000,000 less in value than in 1875. 

 There was a decreased importation of hemp, 

 flax, lead, nitre, pyrites, tin, and quicksilver, 

 and an increase in wool, timber, jute, silk, and 

 many minor articles. In timber the increase 

 was 4,000,000. The increase of 2,300,000 

 in the value of raw silk imported was largely 

 owing to a rise in price. In silk manufactures 

 there was a decline ; but in woolen and cotton 

 textiles the increasing importations are omi- 

 nous. The fact that American cotton goods, 

 preferable in texture and price to the domestic 

 fabrics, are on sale in the shops and on the 

 markets of London and Manchester, has been 

 frequently commented upon with misgivings 

 by the English press within the past year or 

 two. The increased balance against England in 

 the trade of 1876 is owing almost entirely to 

 an enormous shrinkage in the export trade. 

 This was for the greater part attributable to 

 the contraction of trade all over the world, and 

 to the overstocking of foreign markets with 

 British goods in previous years ; but the more 

 active competition of foreign manufactures, 

 before which British industry is abating its su- 

 premacy year by year, is an important and sig- 

 nificant item in the account. For several years 

 past the English mind has been filled with 

 gloomy forebodings for the future of their 

 country's trade. It is not that they have yet 

 suffered any serious decline, for the staple char- 

 acter of their products and their immense re- 

 serves of capital have enabled them to sustain 

 the recent contraction of consumption bet- 



ter than the younger competing industries of 

 other countries. But the fact that the Conti- 

 nental nations, where wages are lower and 

 mechanical production has lately been exten- 

 sively introduced, and the United States, where 

 mechanical methods are generally shorter, and 

 where, as an offset for higher wages, the work- 

 men are more laborious, are now paying es- 

 pecial attention to the industries which have 

 been the main-stay of English prosperity and 

 have been monopolized by her industrialists, 

 gives England cause to fear that she is passing 

 the turning-point in her fortunes. As regards 

 America, British producers have long ceased 

 to assert themselves in that market in many 

 branches of industry ; while they are becom- 

 ing more and more dependent on America for 

 many necessities. In 1865, according to the 

 British customs returns, English exports to the 

 United States amounted to 122 million dollars 

 and the imports from there to 84f millions.. 

 In 1876, England exported not more than 98 

 millions to the United States, and imported 

 from there 367 millions. Not only are Europe 

 and America fast becoming independent of 

 England in the textile industries, although her 

 cotton goods are still a necessity in all coun- 

 tries, and her spinners furnish the yarn for many 

 of the Continental fabrics, but in the iron in- 

 dustries, in which the British kingdom has 

 always been facile princeps, great improve- 

 ments have been made not only in America 

 but on the continent of Europe, and now even 

 the English themselves prefer French locomo- 

 tives, common bars and girder-iron from Bel- 

 gium, German scissors, and American edge- 

 tools. Many examples might be given of for- 

 eign manufactures which have supplanted the 

 English ware in their own island, or threaten 

 to supplant them, such as leather, hardware, 

 watches, locks, machinery from America, Ger- 

 man paper, Belgian and French jewelry, etc. 

 In some cases this is owing to actual deteriora- 

 tion in the British products, as, for instance, the 

 unimportant but significant article, the common 

 house-clock, which, on the authority of Sir E, 

 Beckett in the "Encyclopedia Britannica," has 

 so deteriorated, in spite of the improvements 

 in machinery, that it is fast being driven out of 

 the market by the American plain and French 

 and German ornamental clocks. The steady 

 decline of English exports since 1878, with the 

 concurrent and remarkable increase in the im- 

 ports and in the balance against the country, is 

 shown in the tabulated survey of the total com- 

 merce for the last seven years, given below .- 



