THE FURNITURE WOODS OF COMMERCE. 
353 
lay in a stock of furniture wood for seasoning, because the un- 
exampled prosperity of our colonies insures for a long series of 
years a market for the furniture of Europe. Nothing but the 
taste and make of the mother country will suit her colonists, 
and skilled labour is too high in the colonies for much attention 
to be given yet to furniture and cabinet-making. The value 
of the furniture, cabinet, and upholstery wares annually ex- 
ported from the United Kingdom averages from £250,000 to 
£350,000. 
There was a time, we are told by a leading Liverpool timber 
firm, when a portion of the capital of that county (Lancashire) 
employed its population in the manufacture, and its merchants 
in the exportation of furniture. The foundations of the fortunes 
of the more prosperous cabinet-makers and shipowners were so 
laid. Circumstances, however, interrupted this state of things, 
through the imposition of war duties of £12. 10s. per ton on 
Spanish mahogany, and £45 per ton on rosewood ; and Lan- 
cashire ceased to employ its people in the manufacture beyond 
the home trade, and its merchants ceased to load the Tween 
decks of their ships with furniture to the colonies. 
