STATISTICS OF THE UNITED EIXGDOM. 457 



States have made even greater progress, and Great Britain has thus relatively lost 

 ground. The English cotton-mills contain as many spindles and power-looms as 

 those of all the rest of the world combined ; but owing to the powerful competition 

 which English manufactures have been compelled to meet, it has repeatedly 

 become necessary to work short time, or to stop work altogether. Continental 

 manufacturers produce certain kinds of goods of a superior quality, and they have 

 succeeded in depriving England of some of her most profitable markets, whilst the 

 cotton industry of the United States, fostered by high protective duties, has taken 

 a considerable development. Americans are not only no longer compelled to go 

 to England for their cotton stuffs, but they have the audacity to send manufactures 

 of their own into Lancashire. Even India has begun to compete with England in 

 suppl3dng her native population with cotton clothing.* 



Whilst the cotton industry has its principal centres in Lancashire and the 

 adjoining parts of Yorkshire and Cheshire, and in Lanarkshire, the manufacture of 

 woollens is far more scattered. The West Hiding of Yorkshire enjoys, however, a 

 pre-eminence in the production of woollen cloth, worsted, and shodd3\ The famous 

 West-of-England cloths are manufactured in Wiltshire, whilst Newtown, in 

 Montgomeryshire, is the head-quarter of the AYelsh flannel trade. Hawick and 

 Galashiels, on the Tweed, produce principally woollen hosiery. In many parts of 

 the country, and especially in Scotland, wool spinning and knitting are largely 

 carried on as a domestic industry. The carpet manufacture forms an important 

 branch of the woollen trade. It is principally carried on at Wilton, near 

 vSalisbury ; Kidderminster ; Glasgow and Kilmarnock, in Scotland ; and to some 

 extent at Dewsbury and Leeds, in Yorkshire. In quantity the production of 

 the English woollen-mills far surpasses that of those of France, but not always in 

 quality. 



The flax and linen trade, though carried on to some extent in Scotland and 

 Yorkshire, is essentially one belonging to the north of Ireland, and Belfast 

 surpasses all other towns of the world in the quantity and quality of its linen. 

 Much of the flax consumed in the Irish linen-mills is produced in the country, 

 and the farmers of Ulster would come off badly if they had not their flax crop 

 to fall back upon. Dundee and Arbroath are the principal seats of the hemp 

 and jute manufacture, but nearly all the raw material required has to be imported 

 from Russia, India, New Zealand, and other countries. 



The silk trade depends for all its raw material upon foreign countries, and 

 for a considerable time past it has been in a depressed condition. It is princi- 

 pally carried on at Macclesfield and Congleton, in Cheshire, Derby, Nottingham, 

 Manchester, London, and a few other places. Silk-weaving is an old industry 

 in the districts of Spitalfields and Bethnal Green, in London, where it was first 

 introduced by French Huguenots. 



* Eaw cotton imported, exported, and retained for home consumption : — 



Imported (lbs.). E.^orted (lbs.). Retained (lbs.). 



1868 . . . 1,328,761,616 322,713,328 1,006,048,288 



1871 . . . 1,778,139,716 362,075,616 1,416,064,160 



18/.5 . . . 1.492,351,168 262,853,808 1,229,497,360 



1879 . . . 1,469,358,464 188,201,888 1,281,156,576 



