234 



numbers 11, 55, 22, and 12; in the last five years, the per- 

 centage of each has been 19, 51, 13, and 17. If France be 

 left out of the comparison, the rank of each, twenty years ago, 

 was as 13, 70, and 17 ; now, it is as 21, 59, and 20. Although 

 Great Britain requires for her manufactories more than half of 

 all the cotton worked up in Europe and America, the amount 

 actually used by her people, including all that is exported to 

 India, British America, Australia, and all the colonial depen- 

 dencies of Great Britain, is less than the amount. used in the 

 United States. This has been shown to be true for the last 

 four years ; and the present year, although it exhibits an ap- 

 parent decline in our home consumption, forms no exception 

 to this result. The enlarged imports of cotton goods imported 

 into our seaports, compensate, in part, for the falling off of the 

 wants of our factories. If we compare the progress in the 

 demand and supply, it will.be seen that, during the last five 

 years, the consumption has increased much faster than the 

 production the one having advanced 19 per cent., and the 

 other only 9. This might be inferred from the decline in the 

 stocks ; but it will be more satisfactory to consider the average 

 production and consumption of the last ten years. The aver- 

 age amount taken by the manufacturers, from 1840 to 1845, 

 was 2,414,000 bales, and, from 1845 to 1850, 2,869,000 bales, 

 showing an increase of 465,000 bales ; while the supply ad- 

 vanced from 2,561,000 bales to 2,791,000, with an increase of 

 only 230,000 bales. When it is remembered that the last 

 period embraces the year 1848, when, from the revolutions in 

 Europe, the consumption declined over 600,000 bales, and the 

 years 1845 and 1849, when the American crop so far exceeded 

 its usual average, this result will be more striking and impor- 

 tant. The table of stocks (Table IV.) confirms and establishes 

 this same result. At the end of 1844, the cotton on hand in 

 Europe was 1,101,000 bales; at the end of 1849, it was only 

 646,000 bales. 



