444 PROGRESS OF THE SMALL ARMS MANUFACTURE. 
the variations in prices. It is the one known as the African musket. 
These guns are sent to the west coast of Africa, where they are inter- 
changed for palm oil. No ship's cargo trading with that coast, is com- 
plete without a supply of them. Probably 100,000 to 150,000 of these 
guns, made in Birmingham, are annually exported. The cheapest made 
in the trade of this gun has ranged from 13s. 6d. the highest price in 
the twenty years, down to 6s. 6d. In the revolutionary year of 1848, 
it reached its highest point, from which it fell to 7s. in 1852. It 
rose from that time till in 1854, during the Crimean war, it reached 
10s. 6d. The next highest point was in 1861, when it stood at lis., since 
that period there has been a steady fall till it stands at this present 
moment at 6s. 6d., the lowest point touched. 
From the returns I have in my possession, I have drawn out as ac- 
curately as I possibly can, the number of arms manufactured in Birming- 
ham and elsewhere, for the Americans during the last four years. The 
first shot was fired at Fort Sumter on the 12th April, 1861. On the 
9th May following, five purchasers of arms, some commissioned by 
different Northern States, others, private speculators, arrived in Birming- 
ham. Each had so well kept secret the object of his mission, that when 
they found themselves all engaged in Birmingham on the same errand, 
they suspected each other of purchasing for the enemy, and their anxiety 
was increased accordingly to secure the few thousand arms that were 
then in store in Birmingham. The few on hand were at once shipped 
off, and large orders were given, which continued to occupy the trade at 
their full power, with one interval, till March, 1863. The interval I 
allude to was on the occurence of the "Trent" affair in November, 1861, 
which led to an embargo being laid on the export of arms on the 4th 
December, 1861. This embargo was removed early in 1862. On the 
removal of the embargo, one steamer took out from Southampton no less 
than about 40,000 rifles to New York. The trade worked at its full 
power, straining every nerve, till, I find by the return from the Birming- 
ham proof house, that in one month, the month of October 1863, 60,345 
rifle barrels were proved, being very few short of 2,000 per day from Bir- 
mingham alone, a number altogether unprecedented in the history of 
the trade. At that time the supplies produced in America at the Spring- 
field armoury and elsewhere, began to tell upon the demand. We still find, 
however, that the numbers were 40,000 to 50,000 per month till March, 
1863. They then fell to 14,000 per month, till in September, 1863, the 
Northern demand ceased altogether. Without notice the orders were 
suspended, and guns that had been sent over, were even returned to this 
country. The United States Government found at that time their 
factories were equal to supply the whole demand. 
From the proof house returns I obtain the following numbers, show- 
ing the extent of the supply of arms from this country to America : — 
