Table of the principal Joint Stock Companies in England and Wales—continued. N. B.-When the amount of a share only is mentioned, it is to be presumed that it is entirely paid up.—Sup.) (See sup., article STOCKS. Am. Ed.] SHARKS' FINS form a regular article of trade to China; and are collected for this purpose in every country from the eastern shore of Africa to New Guinea. In the Canton Price Currents they are as regularly quoted as tea or opium; and the price of late years has been, according to quality, from 15 to 18 dollars per picul, equal to from 50s. to 60s. per cwt SHAWLS (Ger. Schalen; Fr. Chals, Chales; It. Shavali; Sp. Schavalos), articles of fine wool, silk, or wool and silk, manufactured after the fashion of a large handkerchief, used in female dress. The finest shawls are imported from India, where they are highly esteemed and cost from 50 to 300 guineas. But the British shawls manufactured at Norwich, Pais ley, and particularly Edinburgh, have recently been very much improved; and though still inferior, in point of quality, to the finest specimens brought from the East, they look well, and are much cheaper. The native shawl manufacture is of very considerable value and importance. Cashmere Shawls.-The shawl manufacture is believed to have originated in the valley of Cashmere, the ancient Caspira, situated in the north-west of India, between the 34th and 35th degrees of N. latitude, and the 73d and 76th degrees of E. longitude. Though not so flourishing as it once was, the manufacture is still prosecuted in this province to a very considerable extent. The shawls are the very best that are made, possessing unequalled fineness, delicacy, and warmth. They are formed of the inner hair of a variety of the cominon goat (capra hircus), reared on the cold, dry table land of Thibet, elevated from 14,000 to 16,000 feet above the level of the sea. The goat thrives sufficiently well in many other countries; but in the sultry plains of Hindostan it has hardly more hair than a greyhound; and though in higher latitudes the hair is more abundant, it is for the most part shaggy and coarse. It is only in the intensely cold and dry climate of Thibet that it yields the peculiarly soft woolly hair that constitutes the material of the Indian shawl. We do not, therefore, suppose that the efforts to naturalise the shawl-goat in France will turn out well. On the contrary, we believe the chances of success would be about equal were an attempt made to breed beavers in a hot country, without water, or camels in a moist country, free from heat and drought. The inner or fine wool is covered over and protected by a quantity of long shaggy hair, which is, of course, carefully separated from it before it is manufactured. The genuine shawl-wool has been imported into this country; and the finest Edinburgh and Paisley shawls have been produced from it. But it must be admitted that shawls have nowhere been made that can come, as respects quality, into successful competition with those of Cashmere. The manufacture has been established at Delhi and Lahore for some years; but notwithstanding it is carried on by native Cashmerians, and though the material employed be quite the same, the fabrics are said to want the fineness of those made in Cashmere, and to have a degenerated, coarse appearance. It is difficult to account for this superiority. It has been ascribed to some peculiar quality of the water in the valley of Cashmere; but it is most probably owing to a variety of circumstances, which, though each may appear of little importance, collectively give a character to the manufacture. The following details as to the manufacture of Cashmere shawls are extracted from a recent numher of an English paper published at Delhi: "The great mart for the wool of which shawls are made, is at Kilghet, which is said to be a dependency of Ladak, and situated 20 days' journey from the northern boundaries of Cashmere. There are 2 kinds of it: that which can be readily dyed is white; the other sort is of an ashy colour, which being with difficulty changed, or, at least, improved by art, is generally woven of its natural hue. About ibs. of either are obtained from a single goat once a year. After the down has been carefully separated from the hairs, it is repeatedly washed with rice-starch. This process is reckoned important; and it s to the quality of the water of their valley that the Cashmerians attribute the peculiar and niinita ble fineness of the fabrics produced there. At Kilghet the best raw wool is sold for about 1 rupee a pound. By the preparation and washing referred to, it loses, and the remainder being spun, 3 rupees' weight of the thread is considered worth 1 rupee. "Shawls are made of various forms, size, and borders, which are wrought separately, with the view of adapting them to the different markets. Those sent to Turkey used to be of the softest and most delicate texture. Carpets and counterpanes are fabricated of the hair or coarser part of the wool. From a variety of causes, among others the destruction of the Janissaries, who dressed much in shawls, the loss of royalty in Cabul, and the ruined finances of Lucknow, it is certain that the demand for this elegant commodity has greatly declined of late years. Under the Mogul emperors, Cashmere found work for 30,000 shawl looms. In the time of the Afghan kings, the number decreased to 18,000. There are now not more than 6,000 employed. I should attribute little of this diminution to the sale of English imitations among the Asiatic nations. When these counterfeits first appeared, the pretty patterns and brilliancy of the colours took the fancy of some, but their great inferiority in the softness and warmth which marks the genuine shawl, soon caused the new article to be neglected. A camel-load of them was lately put up at outcry in Delhi, when scarcely a native would bid for one! "The average value of shawls exported from Cashmere amounts annually to 1,800,000 rupees. Runjeet Singh takes in kind as part of the gross revenue of the province, which is about 25 lacks a year. His Highness is said to sell of what he thus receives, and to keep the remainder for his own court. Of the rest disposed of by him and left for sale in the valley, 7 lacks' worth go to Bombay and Western India; 3 to Hindostan, chiefly Oude; a lack each to Calcutta, Cabul, Herat, and Balk, whence some pass on to neighbouring countries. "A curious calculation of the successive exactions from Cashmere to Bombay inclusive, which magnify the price of shawls, is herewith subjoined. Actual cost for materials and labour in making a pair of reel shawls : Proportion of carriage Fd. rs. Total from Kilghet to Bombay, 171 18 and 85 12 1-2 = 252 30 1-2 Prime cost 337 14 0 12 337 14 Total from Amritsir to Bombay 85 12 1-2 "A pair of such shawls might sell for 500 rupees at Amritsir, and in Bombay for 900. The amount of the imports, and the sums levied by each government, will appear more in relief if stated as they affect a camel load in its progress. It consists of 14 12 cutcha maunds, and contains, on an average, 2,000 shawls of different kinds, valued, on reaching Bombay, at 28,500 Farrukabad rupees. "The government of Lahore exacts Fd. rs. 1,564 6: Patialah, 61 0: Bikeneer, 43 0; Joudpore, 121 4; Bhownuggur, 20 0;-total levied by native princes, 1,8090; Bombay, (10 per cent, ad valorem) 2,850 0." (Quoted in Mr. Montgomery Martin's Asiatic Colonies, vol. i. p. 231.) SHEEP (Ger. Schafe, Fr. Brebis, Bêtes à laine, Moutons; It. Pecore; Sp. Pecora, Ovejas; Rus. Owzü; Lat. Oves). Of the domestic animals belonging to Great Britain, sheep, with the exception of horses, and, perhaps, cattle, are by far the most important. They can be reared in situations and upon soils where other animals would not live. They afford a large supply of food, and one of the principal materials of clothing. Wool has long been a staple commodity of this country, and its manufacture employs an immense number of people. "The dressed skin," says Mr. Pennant, "forms different parts of our apparel; and is used for covers of books. The entrails, properly prepared and twisted, serve for strings for various musical instruments. The bones, calcined (like other bones in general), form materials for tests for the refiner. The milk is thicker than that of cows, and consequently yields a greater quantity of butter and cheese; and in some places is so rich, that it will not produce the cheese without a mixture of water to make it part from the whey. The dung is a remark. ably rich manure; insomuch that the folding of sheep is become too useful a branch of husbandry for the farmer to neglect. To conclude; whether we consider the advantages that result from this animal to individuals in particular, or to these kingdoms in general, we may, with Columella, consider this, in one sense, as the first of the domestic quadrupeds."*. (Pennant's British Zoology). The importation of sheep from a foreign country is prohibited under pain of forfeiture.—(6 Geo. 4. c. 107. § 52.)—(See Cattle, and WooL.) The following Table exhibits a compendious view of the more prominent characteristics of the principal breeds of sheep in Great Britain : For details as to the number of sheep, the quantity and quality of wool, &c., see WooL. Post majores quadrupedes ovilli pecoris secunda ratio est ; quæ prima sit si ad magnitudinem utilitatis referas. Nam id præcipue contra frigoris violentiam protegit, corporibusque nostris liberaliora præbet velamina; et etiam elegantiam mersas jucundis e numerosis dap▲us exornat.-(De Re Rustica, lib. vii. cap. 2.) SHERRY. See WINE. SHIPS. Nautical men apply the term ship to distinguish a vessel having 3 masts, each consisting of a lower mast, a topmast, and top-gallant-mast, with their appropriate rigging. In familiar language, it is usually employed to distinguish any large vessel, however rigged: but it is also frequently used as a general designation for all vessels navigated with sails; and it is in this sense that we now employ it. Merchant Ships. It is hardly possible to divide merchant ships into classes, at least with any degree of precision. Their size, shape, the mode of their rigging, &c. depend not merely on the particular trade for which they are destined, but on the varying tastes and fancies of their owners. The ships employed in the China trade, by the East India Company, are the largest merchantmen belonging to this country; the private traders to the East and West Indies rank next; then follow the whale ships, those engaged in the trade to the Baltic and Canada, the Mediterranean, and a host of others of every variety of burden and shape. The reader will find, in the articles NAVIGATION LAWS, and REGISTRY, an account of the peculiar privileges enjoyed by British ships, of the conditions and formalities necessary to be observed in order to acquire and preserve these privileges, of the mode of transferring property in ships, &c. And in the articles CHARTERPARTY, FREIGHT, MASTERS, OWNERS, SEAMEN, &c., the law with respect to ships and ship-owners, in their capacity of carriers or public servants, and the reciprocal duties and obligations of the masters and crews, is pretty fully expounded. In this place, therefore, we shall content ourselves with laying before the reader some official statements exhibiting the progress and present magnitude of the mercantile navy of Great Britain. Increase of Shipping in England.-It would be to no purpose, even if our limits permitted, to enter into any details with respect to the shipping of England previously to the Revolution. Those who wish to examine the subject, will find most of the scattered notices of contemporary writers collected by Anderson in his "Chronological History of Commerce." The mercantile navy of England first became considerable in the reign of Elizabeth; and gradually increased under her successors, James I. and Charles I. At the Restoration, the British shipping cleared outwards amounted to 95,266 tons; but such was the increase of navigation during the reigns of Charles II. and James II., that at the Revolution, the British ships cleared outwards amounted to 190,533 tons. The war terminated by the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, checked this progress. But commerce and navigation have steadily advanced, with the exception of 2 short periods during the war of 1739, and the American war, from the beginning of last century down to the present day. The first really authentic account of the magnitude of the commercial navy of England was obtained in 1701-2, from returns to circular letters of the commissioners of customs, issued in January of that year. From these it appears that there belonged, at the period in question, to all the ports of England and Wales, 3,281 vessels, measuring (or rather estimated to measure) 261,222 tons, and carrying 27,196 men and 5,660 guns. Of these there belonged to 1736 1775 None of the other ports had 100 vessels; and there is some mistake in the returns as to the tonnage assigned to Newcastle and Ipswich. Of the Hull vessels, 80 were at the time laid up, which accounts for the small number of men in that port.-(Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, anno 1701.) I. Table of Ships cleared Outwards from 1663 to 1811. Years. English. Foreign. Total. Years. British. Foreign. Total. Years. British. Foreign. Total. Tons. 218,077 1,600,243 1737 476,941 26,627 503,568 1776 1738 1739 1740 384,191 87,260 471,451 1777 1778 1779 1741 1749 1750 609,798 51,386 1751 661,184 1755 British. 1756 496,254 76,456 107,484 1,182,346 1811 882,579 68,034 872,108 74,323 946,431 1802 1,626,966 461,723 2,088,689 827,067 102,638 929,705 1803 1,453,066 574,542 2,027,603 732,558 93,778 826,336 1804 1,463,286 587,849 642,981 149,040 791,021 1805 1,495,209 605,821 1780 731,286 154,111 885,397 1806 1,486,302 568,170 2,054,472 1781 608,219 170,775 778,994 1807 1,424,103 631,910 2,056,013 17-2 615,150 225,456 840,606 1808 1,372,810 282,145 1,654,955 1783 865,967 170,938 1,037,905 1809 1,531,152 699,750 2,230,902 1784 932,219 118,268 1,050,487 1810 1,138,527 2,762,801 572,710 1785 1,074,862 1757 |