Fibres. 



[November, 1909. 



time disturbed by fianancial affairs, and 

 things are not much better to-day, 

 failures having occurred in Shanghai 

 which have adversely affected the mar- 

 ket, and the decline and fluctuations in 

 silver have been disturbing factors. 

 Turkey, which is an important market 

 for Lancashire, has been uncertain in 

 her purchases ; and in the Levant gener- 

 ally, owing to the unrest in Servia, trade 

 has been poor. Egypt fcr some time 

 has been affected by over-shipments 

 and monetary troubles of some years' 

 standing. Altogether, therefore, our 

 various outlets have recently done badly 

 for us, though the crops in most coun- 

 tries have not been unfavourable. It 

 has been a question of a dislocation of 

 credit and over-supply. Lancashire 

 manufacturers are finding business very 

 difficult to obtain at anything like pay- 

 ing prices, and it is feared that serious 

 losses will be reported at the end of 

 this month for the past quarter. There 

 has been some discussion as to general 

 short time in weaving, but concerted 

 action is almost impossible, owing to 

 the varied conditions of individual 

 employers, though individual cases of 

 short time are increasing in Blackburn, 

 Preston, and Burnley. The home trade 

 in cotton goods has been a little better 

 during the past month. More contracts 

 have been placed with makers, reports 

 from the south rather than the north 

 of Great Britain being of a more en- 

 couraging character. 



Exports of Yarn. 



Spinners of yarn of American descrip- 

 tions made big profits in 1905, and in 1907 

 the gain was the largest ever experi- 

 enced in the history of the trade. The 

 large shipments of yarn helped the mar- 

 ket very much during those years. 



Exports of yarn during the last six 

 years were as follows :— 



lbs. 



1903 ... ••■ 150,000,000 



1904 .. ••■ 164,000,000 



1905 ... '205,000,000 



1906 207,000,000 



1907 . ••• 241,000,000 



1908 215,000,000 



This year it seems as if exports of 



yarn will be of very small weight. 

 Shipments to the Continent have been 

 reduced considerably, and at the present 

 moment spinners who usually send yarn 

 to the Continent have very light con- 

 tracts. The reduced imports of Germany 

 have been very marked during the past 

 several months, and this state of affairs 

 has been felt severely by the spinning 

 department. To-day the production is 

 for the most part at full stretch, but 

 the consumption is of a dragging char- 



acter, and is not nearly equal to what 

 is being put upon the market; the 

 result is that the margin between the 

 raw material and the finished yarn is 

 so narrow that on every pound of yarn 

 spun there is, without exaggeration, a 

 loss of %d. per lb. How long this will 

 continue remains to be seen, but the 

 Master Spinners' Federation will shortly 

 hold a meeting and consider whether 

 they should not arrange to work only 

 four days a week. The losses declared 

 this year so far are equal to 18 per cent, 

 per annum on the share capital, and 

 on share and loan capital combined, 

 after allowing interest on loan, the loss 

 works out at 10 per cent, per annum. 



Supplies of Raw Material, 



The raw cotton supply this season in 

 American qualities is likely to be a 

 large one, For the season ended last 

 August the American crop was 11,582,000 

 bales ; in the previous year the yield was 

 13,551,000 bales ; and in 1905 there was an 

 output of 13,557,000 bales. The estimate 

 for the current season hovers about 

 13,600,000 bales, while some authorities pin 

 their faith to a crop of nearly 14,000,000 

 bales. If the figures next August should 

 prove to be even 13,500,000 bales, there 

 will be plenty to go round for the re- 

 quirements of the world. American 

 cotton prices on spot in Liverpool vary 

 a good deal from year to year. The 

 lowest ever known was in 1898, when the 

 average rate was 3i 5 5 cZ. ; in 1904 it was 

 6 - 60d. ; and in 1907, 6*55rf. ; last year the 

 rate was 5 "72(2, ; though the crop was 

 less by 2,000,000 bales than in 1907. 

 To-day there is an enormous stock of 

 American cotton in Liverpool — namely, 

 about 1,350,000 bales, against 1,150,000 

 bales a year ago. The supply of 

 Egyptian cotton, it is feared, will be 

 less this season than last year, and this 

 is regarded as a blow to the fine-spin- 

 ning trade in Lancashire, as the ten- 

 dency is for us to produce much finer 

 counts of yarn. It is certainly fortun- 

 ate that in this year of depressed trade 

 we shall have an ample supply of coton 

 at low values. If we had had only a short 

 crop in view, it is highly probable that 

 trade would be in a much worse con- 

 dition than it is to-day. 



Textile Machinery. 



Our exports of textile machinery con- 

 tinue to be very large, In 1906 the value 

 was £6,710,000, in the following year it 

 was £8,039,000, and in 1908, £8,832,000. 

 India is our largest customer, then come 

 Germany and Japan. Our shipments 

 in January of this year amounted to 

 £732,000, as compared with £773,000 in 



