366 



THE COTTON TRADE. 



but even as comparer!, with the loom in this improved state, the mechanism 

 wherewith a girl is enabled to produce from three to four hundred yards 

 of four-fifths cloth per week is as great an economical triumph as is the 

 invention of the spinning frames that produce the yarn. 



Applying the great saving in the details of the cost of production to 

 the quantities annually worked up, we have the key to the wonderful 

 expansion of this branch of industry, and we are enabled to understand 

 the means whereby the manufacturer is enabled to place within reach of 

 the multitude those fabrics that contribute so much to the civilisation with 

 which we are surrounded. 



We have alluded to the probable increase in the supply of raw material 

 from regions which hitherto have not contributed at all, or only in a small 

 degree, supplies of cotton to the manufacturer. It is well that these regions 

 are so widely spread, and that they have a capacity to yield bountifully, 

 for manufacturing power has increased, and, indeed, is still increasing at a 

 rate which has no parallel in the records of industrial enterprise. The 

 quantity of cotton annually consumed by each spindle in the United 

 Kingdom is 31f lbs. ; and it is estimated by those best acquainted with 

 the case, that in 1860 the rate of increase in the number of spindles 

 was not less than 45,000 per week, representing an increase in the con- 

 sumption of cotton, of upwards of 74,000,000 lbs. per annum. As the 

 average consumption of cotton per hand employed has been 2,351 lbs., this 

 increase indicates an annual increase of 31,600 in the factory population 

 of Britain. It is noteworthy that, notwithstanding this extraordinary 

 increase in production, the supply of the manufactured article does not 

 keep pace with the expansion of the markets, the scarcely perceptible 

 reduction in price being entirely due to the steady improvement in the 

 machinery used. 



The following table will give some idea of the periodical increase of 

 this branch of business and of the enormous values involved : — 



Quantity and Value of Cotton Goods 

 Exported from Great Britain. 



fts. of 

 Cotton Wool 

 Consumed No. of fbs. 'No. of Yards 



of Cotton 



Yarn 

 Exported. 



of Wove 



Fabric 



Exported. 



Value of 

 Hosiery, 

 Lace, &c. 

 Exported. 



Tot. Value of 

 Cottn. Goods 

 Exptd. from 

 TJ. Kingdom. 



Estimated 



Total Value 



of Cotton 



Goods Ma 



nufactured 



in Great 



Britain. 







c 









o 



<D,Q 



a-ta 







R-g? 





>>* 



£ > ft 



8 o 



<1 



<<~ 



< 





O 



o 



<L 



d. 



d. 



Ml 



43| 



21* 



9 



29§ 



11* 



8* 



1S| 



6J 



n 



15J 



6 





14f 



6 



sK 



12J 



71 



H 



12 



7i 



1815 

 1820 

 1827 

 1830 

 1840 

 1850 

 I860 



9,241,548 



23,032,325 



44,878,774 



250,695,000 64,645,342 



I 

 457,723,000 11S,470,223 



613,204,800 131,370,368 



1,140,510,16S 197,364,947 



252,S84,029 

 350.956,501 

 365,492,S04 

 444,578,498 

 390,631,997 

 1,358,182,941 

 2,775,450,905 



1,144,552 

 1,175,153 

 1,265,090 

 1,343,262 

 1,795,590 



& 

 19,822,193 



16,035,643 



17,63S,165 



19,428,664 



24,668,618 



28,257,401 



52,013,482 



47,000,000 

 49,616,655 

 45,826,992 

 92,013,482 



