184 REPORT—1858. 
they commenced in 1798, and constructed engines and flax machinery for the mills 
in the neighbourhood. Machine tools for engineers and others are also extensively 
manufactured here. ‘Che number of hands employed in the trade is 4578. Average 
amount of weekly wages, £3961. Total amount paid in 1857, £205,972. Total con- 
sumption of pig iron in foundries, 13,924 tons. Total value of products, £545,217. 
Capital invested in plant and buildings, £346,475. 
4. Stationary and locomotive engines, wheels and axles, railway bridges, &c., have 
been largely manufactured here of late. The number of hands employed in this trade 
is 4023. Average amount of weekly wages, £4151. Total amount paid in 1857, 
£215,852. Total consumption of pig iron in foundries, 12,862 tons. ‘Total value of 
products, £672,600. Capital invested in plant, buildings, &c., £283,500. In addi- 
tion to these, we have about 3000 miners engaged in raising iron-stone and coal for 
iron manufacturing at an average of £1 per head per week. 
The totals of all the four branches are—hands employed, 10,909. Weekly wages, 
£10,771. Paid in 1857, £560,092. Value of products, £1,933,174. Capital invested 
in plant, &c. £990,975. ‘The total consumption of pig iron in the!forges and foun- 
dries of the district is about 75,000 tons annually, or nearly one-third of the annual 
production of Great Britain only fifty years ago. ‘The greater portion of the goods 
manufactured is exported to foreign countries, Leeds iron is sent to all quarters and 
countries of the globe; with Leeds nails the emigrant fastens together his first rude 
habitation ; Leeds machinery is spinning and Leeds tools are working in every seat 
of industry on the Continent; and Leeds locomotives are drawing their burdens, in- 
different whether it be on the fertile plains of India, or on the sides of the snowy 
Andes. The central position of Leeds, abundance of labour, cheapness of fuel, facility 
of access to the sources of the raw material, and easy transit to the ports on the east 
or west coast, are the principal causes of the flourishing state of the iron trade in this 
town. A branch of commerce which has extended so rapidly, and fixed so large a 
capital in the town, must contain within itself sound and permanent elements, and 
the fact that nearly one million sterling is actually invested so as to be practically 
immoveable is a guarantee that it will be followed with continued energy. 
On Free Trade in Belgium. By M.Corranaver Mzren, of Brussels, 
Chairman of the International Free Trade Association. 
In Belgium, the Government was looking forward anxiously to the reform of the 
tariff, and a new law had been proposed to reduce the duties on cotton 12 or 15 per 
cent. This measure, however, would meet with much opposition ; the seven mem- 
bers for Ghent would vote against any change in the present duties on manufactured 
cottons. ‘The Belgian tariff had in several instances been modified in a liberal point 
of view. The French Government, according to M. C. Mzren, seems anxious to give 
a liberal turn to the tariff; but, notwithstanding their strength, the present rulers of 
France were obliged to withdraw their liberal intentions, in presence of the powerful 
industrial coalition of the northern departments and the deplorable ignorance of the 
principles of political economy throughout the whole population. ‘The writer then 
stated that the Belgian Free Trade movement was progressing satisfactorily ; that all 
the attention of its advocates was directed to the enlightening of the public mind on 
the question ; that great results had been obtained already ; and that, owing to the 
freedom they enjoyed, they confidently hoped for full success. 
Sketch of the History of Flax Spinning in England, especially as developed 
in the Town of Leeds. By J. G. MarsHatt, F.G.S. 
There is, perhaps, no branch of our principal manufactures, except that of cotton, 
in which the introduction of machinery and the factory system has produced more re- 
markable changes than in that of flax spinning; and, as the town of Leeds is the place 
where this new branch of industry first took root in England, and was successfully 
carried out upon a considerable scale, and the place which has hitherto taken the lead 
in the successive improvements introduced into the trade, it may be interesting to the 
Section to have a short sketch of the origin and progress of flax spinning brought 
before them whilst they are here. 
