On the Crises of i8s7, 1847, and 1857 5 



addition to these, there were mining companies, insurance com- 

 panies, investment companies, newspaper companies, canal com- 

 panies, gas companies, etc.^ The heaviest investment, however, 

 as shown by the figures above, was in railways and joint-stock 

 banks. 



Finally we can sum up the period just preceding and a few 

 years succeeding the crisis as forming an important part of an 

 era of great industrial change. England was changing from an 

 agricultural to a commercial nation. At the beginning of the 

 century, the iron mines were turning out annually about 200,000 

 or 300,000 tons of pig iron. In 1835, the output was a million; 

 in 1844 it had jumped to a million and a half. "The quantity of 

 coal shipped had risen from four millions and a quarter in 1819 

 to over nine million tons in 1844." Changes in the processes of 

 manufacture of cotton and woolen goods had drawn labor from 

 other pursuits. "In 1831, out of a population of 16,500,000, 

 1,243,000 adults were employed in agriculture. In 1841, out of 

 a population of 18,750,000, 1,200,000 only were so employ ed."- 

 The first half of the century v/as a period of industrial transfor- 

 mation for England, and the period under consideration was per- 

 haps the most critical point. 



That this was a critical point is shown by the intense conflict 

 which arose over the corn laws, finally resulting in their abolition 

 in the decade 1840-50. England, in spite of her artificial bar- 

 riers against foreign grain, was losing her unique position as a 

 self-sufficing nation, as shown by the increased wheat importa- 

 tions. From 1 8 19 to 1836 wheat imports were relatively small, 

 the largest annual importation being that of the year 1830 of 

 1,700,000 quarters. But from 1839 to 1842 imports averaged 

 2J/2 million quarters; in 1843 ^.nd 1844 nearly a million; in 1845 

 they fell to 315,000 but rose again in 1846 to 3,000,000, and in 

 1847 to over 4,500,000 quarters.^ 



^Levi, Hutory of British Commerce, 220. 

 'Sydney Buxton, Finance and Politics, I, 72, 73. 

 ^Porter, Progress of the Nation, 137-38. 



