SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



On wool the cost of forwarding ex ship Manchester to Bradford and the 

 principal Yorkshire towns is 15J. a ton as against a charge of 21s. yd. per ton 

 ex ship Liverpool to the same places. For other produce the following 

 table*" shows the saving in forwarding ex ship Manchester as against 

 Liverpool : — 



In the Appendix will be found tables showing the imports to Manchester 

 for eleven years, 1895 to 1905 (III), and the rank of the place as a port (IV). 

 The whole object of the Ship Canal scheme has from the first been to obtain 

 large, direct, and cheap imports of raw cotton,*^" while Liverpool maintains its 

 colossal ascendancy as a port of entry for foodstuffs. *^^ 



As to cotton, Manchester imports compare a little more favourably, 

 though even here Liverpool has a vast predominance, as is seen by the table 

 issued under the Cotton Statistics Act,*'' 1868, for the twelve weeks ending 

 22 March, 1906 : — 



Liverpool imports a total of 

 Manchester „ „ 



Liverpool exports „ 

 Manchester „ „ 



1,072,438 cotton bales 

 211,046 „ „ 

 44,365 » » 

 18,154 „ » 



The making of the Ship Canal has caused the whole question of the 

 commercial utility of canal systems to be reviewed, and the Canals Commission 

 has been appointed to investigate the subject. 



The other burning question of the hour for Lancashire, the necessity 

 for a cheap and abundant supply of the staple raw material of the county, 

 has also come before the public very urgently during the last few years, when 

 the attempts of American speculators to ' corner ' the world's supply of cotton 

 have threatened the Lancashire trade with paralysis. In their panic fear of a 

 cotton famine some of the spinners and manufacturers were for a time 

 coerced or coaxed into a faint half-hearted support of a great scheme for 

 cotton growing in one of our colonies. But the scheme is apparently one 

 which does not appeal except under stress of famine prices ; and a glut of 

 cheap American cotton threatens the British Cotton Growing Association 

 with disaster. A start has, however, been made. Not only has a deputation 

 been received by the Premier, who in a sympathetic speech acknowledged 

 the national importance of the Lancashire cotton trade,**' but — as was recently 



*" Manch. Guardian Supplement, 31 Dec. 1903, p. 27. "° Ibid. 1905. 



**' Manch. Guardian, April igo6, in an article on imported foodstuff, in connexion with the Ship Canal 

 and compulsory examination, shows, for example, that at Liverpool in 1905, 2,033,000 sheep and lambs were 

 landed, but at Manchester only 5,000 lambs; at the former port 630,000 quarters of beef, at the latter, none. 



*" Quoted from tables issued in The Manch. Evening Nezvs. 



^'^ See above, note 351. In the course of his speech on this occasion, Mr. Winston Churchill urged the 

 great responsibility that rested upon the captains of Lancashire industry to avail themselves of this new opening. 

 He went on to say that in looking at Manchester he was ' almost appalled by the consideration of what might 

 happen if Lancashire failed to get cotton. It would mean ruin to Lancashire, and that meant ruin to England.^ 

 Manch. Guardian Rep. 24 Aug. 1907. 



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