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imported in 1860, we paid upwards of one-half more for it! So enormous has been the increase in the price of cotton caused by the dearth on the one hand, and on the other by the general prosperity of the nations, which seems to admit of their buying cotton clothing freely, even at unusually high prices. In truth, it must be allowed that some circumstances connected with the late cotton crisis have sufficed greatly to moderate its bad effects. In 1860 and beginning of '61, the Southern States, seeing a blockade approaching, hurried up every bale of cotton which they had on hand; this enormous amount was as speedily worked up by our manufacturers; and the consequence was, that a great glut ensued in the markets of the world. In ordinary circumstances this glut would have produced a severe crisis in our cotton trade, and extensive failures would certainly have occurred. But, as events turned out, the over-production of 1860 proved a fortunate thing for our manufactures; for a considerable portion of the goods manufactured at low prices in that year, afterwards sold at very high prices in 1862-3. The cotton trade is still in a transition state, and fresh changes will assuredly take place as soon as peace is re-established in the United States; but these changes will be on the side of plenty; and however injurious they may perhaps be to India and the other cotton fields recently opened, they cannot fail to be highly advantageous to this country. This at least ought to be the result. But it behooves our manufacturers to bear in mind that a comparatively small amount of production when prices are at their present exorbitant height will produce a glut as certainly as a much larger production will do in ordi

nary times. An amount of production which may be healthy when prices are low, becomes altogether excessive if carried on when prices are high. In 1860-61, the glut was caused by cotton goods being too plentiful; but, let it be remembered, a similar glut may be produced simply from the goods being too dear. In 1860-61, the quantity of goods manufactured was greater than people required,—now, we fear, the price of the goods is greater than our customers at large can afford to pay. The proper remedy for this, we think, ought to be sought not in a diminution of production, but in a determined stand on the part of the manufacturers against the present exorbitant prices charged for raw cotton, which are quite unjustified by the real requirements and prospects of the trade.

Let us now see the kind of produce which each country sends us, and the commodities which each takes from us. China sends raw silk and tea; India sends cotton, indigo, and rice. We get our spices from the Philippine Islands, and almost all our coffee from Ceylon. We get a portion of our cotton from Egypt; hides chiefly from the Pampas of Buenos Ayres; wool chiefly from Australia and the Cape; wood from the northern countries of America and Europe; flax and tallow from Russia; corn chiefly from the United States and Russia; and the precious metals from Australia, California, Mexico and the Andes of Peru. Of our exports we send beer to India and Australia; coal to many places to supply coaling-stations for steam-vessels, but chiefly to France. We send cotton-yarn for manufac ture to India, Holland, and Germany; and cotton piece-goods to India and China, Turkey, Egypt, the United States, and Brazil. Our

We say "seems," because the Eastern markets are still heavy; and although the old cheap stocks of 1860-61 have been cleared off, we think it doubtful how far the new and dear stocks will be taken into general consumption.

The exports of cotton goods from this country during the last seven years have been, in round numbers, as follows:

1857.

1859.

1860.

1861.

1862.

1858. 1863. £39,000,000 £43,000,000 £48,000,000 £51,960,000 £46,000,000 £36,184,000 £17,000,000

hardwares and cutlery go chiefly to Australia, India, and the United States; and our woollen and worsted goods to the United States, India and China, Germany, British North America and Australia. The ma

terial of war - cannon, rifles, and gunpowder-we send to any country which, unhappily for itself, may stand in need of them.

As the amount of our imports shows, we are good customers to the world at large. Having seen the kind of goods which each country takes from or sends to us, let us indicate the countries with which the greatest amount of our trade is carried on. Of the 249 millions' worth of goods which we imported last year, 84 came from our own possessions (i. e., our colonies and India); from France, 24; United States, 19; Egypt, 16; Germany, 131; China, 13; Russia, 12. Thus our own possessions send us fully one-third of our imports; France, the United States, Egypt, Germany, and China, send rather more than another third; and of the remaining 77 millions, Russia and Holland send us fully 27 per cent. Arabia and Persia figure lowest in the list. In 1862, Persia sent us £5 worth of goods, Arabia nothing; in 1863 Arabia sent us £2 worth of goods, and Persia nothing. Japan sends a million.

The same countries which sell to us the greatest amount of goods are also (though not quite in the same order) those which buy from us the most. Of the 146 million of our exports last year, our own possessions purchased 51 millions' worth; the United States, 15; Germany, 131; France, 8; Turkey, (exclusive of Egypt), nearly 7; and Holland, 63. Arabia and Persia again figure lowest in the list; in some years taking nothing at all, in others a thousand pounds or so-less than the amount of goods sent to our consuls and embassy. These two countries, doubtless, take very little from us; but the infinitesimal appearance which they make in the Board of Trade returns is greatly owing to their

want of good and accessible seaports, in consequence of which the goods which they take from us are conveyed to them overland, and figure in the imports of other countries. Our own possessions, it will be seen, are as good customers to us in the buying as in the selling. They take from us fully, one third of our exports; the United States, Germany, France, Turkey, and Holland take another third; and the remaining third is taken in various proportions by the other countries of the world. These facts bring out in a very clear light the importance to us of our colonies and possessions. The whole cost of our colonies to the British exchequer is barely three and a quarter millions sterling, of which sum about a million is absorbed by our military stations of Malta and Gibraltar; while India costs us nothing at all, and, moreover, furnishes a profitable sphere of action for our adventurous youth, who in due time bring home with them their gains. India at present buys annually 20 millions' worth of goods from us, and Australia 12.

We are the great carriers of the world. Thirty thousand ships sailing under the flag, or bearing the cargoes of England, says Mr. Cobden, are ever on the seas, going and coming from all parts of the globe. The once solitary and unnavigated surface of ocean is now whitened with the sails and tossed by the paddles of countless vessels. Not promiscuously do these whitewinged ships dot the expanse of ocean, but following and crossing and meeting one another on regular highways, which men have found, not made, on the deep. We make roads with vast labour on land, we find them made for us at sea, in the great currents which wind through the deep, and the steady, blowing winds which traverse in similar fashion the realms of air. From the Thames, the Mersey, the Tyne, the Humber, and the Clyde, argosies and commercial armadas are ever leaving, and jostle in our es.

*

tuaries with similar squadrons making to port. The shores of these estuaries, lined with miles of docks and building-yards, ring with the clang of hammers; and vast ribs of wood and iron, curving upwards from still vaster keels, show where leviathan vessels are being got ready for their adventurous career. As we watch the launch of these vessels, still more as we see them setting off with full-spread sails or smoking funnels, for all parts of the world to China or the Cape, to the St. Lawrence or La Plata, to the North Sea or the Mexican Gulf, or to double the wintry promontory of Cape Horn on their way to the guano islands of Peru or the golden shores of California, - we think of icebergs and sunken reefs, of typhoons and tornadoes, as well as of fair winds and sunny seas. All the year round, a ceaseless stream of oceab-traffic is flowing to and from our shores. Last year 90,310 vessels with cargoes entered or left our ports, carrying on the foreign trade of the country.t Of this shipping, British and colonial vessels exceeded the foreign in number by one-fourth, and in tonnage (our ships being a half larger) by nearly two to one.

we have 1500 sailing vessels, averaging 160 tons each, and employing 10.000 men; besides 90 steamers, averaging 330 tons burden, and employing 1700 men. In the purely foreign trade we have upwards of 7000 sailing vessels, averaging 430 tons each, and employing 100,000 men; also u wards of 500 steamships, of the average burden of 645 tons, and employing 20,000 men. Thus, in our home and foreig trade, taken together, we have fully 20,000 ships, with a tonnage of 4 millions, and employing 175,000 men. Both classes of our ships, both steam and sailing, are regularly increasing in numbers, but much the greater ratio of increase is in the number of steamers. In both kinds of vessels, too, there is a steady increase in size. Comparing the present amount of our shipping with what it was in 1850, we find that we have eleven per cent more ships, forty-four per cent more tonnage, and fifteen per cent more men. Moreover, a great economy has of late been effected in the working of the vessels. Since 1850, there has been a reduction of one-fifth in the number of men required for a certain amount of tonnage; so that our 175,000 seamen now work an amount of shipping which would have required 220,000 men in 1850.

In regard to the amount of British shipping, we find accurate information in the official register. The last feature of our trade which In the home trade, employed remains to be noticed is the traffic on our coasts in conveying goods in the precious metals. It is a cuand passengers from port to port, rious, and at first sight a puzzling we have 11,000 sailing vessels, one. It is so, at least, to those who averaging 75 tons burden each, fancy that the receipt or export of and employing 40,000 men; be- the precious metals is an indication sides 450 steam-vessels, averaging of a country's gains or losses. 240 tons burden each, and employ- and silver in large quantities are ing 7000 men. Engaged partly in constantly pouring into this country, home and partly in foreign trade, and flying off again. The native

Gold

*The amount of the export trade from the twelve chief ports of the United Kingdom in 1862 was as follows:-Liverpool, £50,297,135; London, £31,523,812; Hull, £11,916,375; Glasgow and Greenock, £6,096,228; Southampton, £3,379,503; Newcastle, £1,968,118; Leith, £1,298,099; Bristol, £298,260; Cork, £132,130; Dublin, £48,777; Belfast, £4188.

This statement shows clearly the vast amount of shipping employed in our trade; but it is not a guide to the number of separate ships employed-seeing that many of them make double or treble voyages, and are entered anew each time. The home trade" includes our own coasts, together with the ports between Brest and the mouth of the Elbe.

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The goods which we

countries of the precious metals, of the other. Australia, Mexico, and California get from the former are taken by

(through the United States), send us a large portion of their annual produce; and we send it off again, chiefly to Turkey, Egypt, and India. There is also a constant flux and reflux of the precious metals between England and the other countries of Europe, especially between this country and France. During e last five years we got 18 millions of gold and silver from France, and we sent thither nearly 40 millions. But of the balance of 22 millions thus apparently acquired by France, a considerable portion simply took its way through that country via Marseilles, to the East. No less than 140 millions sterling of the precious metals were imported into England during the last five years, and 138 millions were exported; so that of the enormous quantity which we received, only two and a half millions remained with us. How was this? What became of the 138 millions which no sooner reached our shores than it went off again? We made the best possible use of it. We sent it abroad chiefly to purchase materials for our industry; and the goods manufactured from these materials we in turn sent abroad, selling them to other countries. Thus we send away our gold in order that we may make a profit on the materials which the gold purchases. It is a fair exchange. The foreign country gets the value of its goods in gold, and we get the value of our gold in goods. But these goods, by being manufactured and re-exported, not only give employment to our people, but enable us to make a profit which we could not do by keeping the gold.

There are some countries which export more goods and less bullion than they import; and there is another class of countries which regularly export less goods and more bullion than they import. India is an example of the one class-the gold and silver-producing countries, Australia, California, and Mexico,

the latter; the bullion which we get from the latter is taken by the former. Each exports what it can best spare; and, dealing with both, we pay the one by sending to it the produce of the other. A drain of gold upon any country may be occasioned simply by a change in the channels of trade. For example, as long as we drew our cotton supplies from the United States, gold was hardly needed in the trade, because the United States took from us other goods of equal value; whereas now, when we get our cotton from India, Egypt, and other countries which take less goods from us than we buy from them, we have to pay away a very large amount of bullion every year. Yet there is not a loss in the one case any more than in the other. The influx or efflux of bullion is no sign of a country's gain or loss. Australia is constantly sending away her gold, and is growing rich by the process. Her whole prosperity depends on her parting with the gold: it would be the worst evil that could befal her if she were compelled to keep it. The Economist,' as we have said, reckons the annual savings of the United Kingdom at the astounding sum of £130,000,000. What is there in the flow of bullion to show for this? In one year (if the Economist' be correct) the capital of the country increases by a sum which is nearly equal to the whole amount of the precious metals which came to our shores during the last five years yet of that amount all that remained with us was only two millions and a half! If the import and accumulation of the precious metals were a test of national progress in wealth, then India should be making greater gains every year than England and all Europe put together. The ebb and flow of the precious metals, therefore, is no indication whatever of the amount of a nation's gains or losses. It is an event which indicates nothing but itself,-namely, that payments in bullion are being

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made: and nothing can be predi- China, and hardly yet is it a cated therefrom as to the relative legal tender in India. Therefore condition of the sender or receiver. these Australian and Mexican merAn influx of bullion may be chants give the China or Indian equally a sign of gain and a sign of exporters bills upon some wellindebtedness. Suppose the Govern- known firm in London, and send ment of any country-say Russia- bullion to London to meet these raises a foreign loan of ten or twenty bills when due. The exporters on millions; then to that extent, or their part at once get these bills nearly so, the precious metals are discounted at their banks in Caldrawn from other countries and cutta or Shanghai, where the propoured into Russia. Is that any duce is placed to their account; and sign that Russia is increasing in the bills themselves are sent by wealth, or that the balance of trade post to London to the parties on is in her favour? No, certainly: it whom they are drawn, and who is a sign of neither of these things. thereupon have to make payment. The indebtedness of Russia is only Now, as these bills on London are increased thereby. Or again, of always in excess of our bills on the immense savings which we make India and China, the balance has annually, suppose our capitalists to be sent out in the precious resolve to devote ten or twenty metals: and thus the bullion which millions sterling to the construction comes to us from the gold and silver of railways or suchlike enterprises, producing countries for the most in foreign countries, which will part simply rests here as at an enyield a good profit. Thereupon the trepôt, and is quickly sent off to precious metals leave our shores in the East. Only, the gold must first great quantity; but are we losers be exchanged for silver in Europe, thereby? Would the money be as it is silver only that is current sent abroad if it were not to get money in India and China. It is larger profits than the senders can only in making such payments that get at home?-and does not the the precious metals are of any use annual interest, or dividends, on .to trade. Their use is to effect the sums thus invested abroad come purchases or payments which canback to us regularly, to increase the not be accomplished by the ordinary profits or income of our people? means of bills of exchange. Finally, the coming and going of such cases only are the precious the precious metals may be a sign metals needed. Indeed, the use of neither of gain nor of loss, but the precious metals is even more simply of the amount of trade restricted than this. When there which a country is carrying on. is a want of bills of exchange, goods The precious metals pass through may be sent abroad instead alike this country as through a sieve; of bills and of gold. These goods and the immense quantities that are then sold in the foreign market, thus come and go are simply one of and with the proceeds the English the consequences of our extensive merchant pays his foreign creditor, trade. To a large extent our mer- without a single sovereign having chants act as intermediaries be- left this country. Instead of sendtween countries which have little ing specie from this country, he commercial relation with one an- buys it abroad with goods,-paying other. For example, Australian his creditor out of the stock of specie and Mexican merchants order goods held in the creditor's own country. from China or India, between which Gold is sent abroad only when it countries and their own there is suits the interest of the sender to little or no direct trade, and conse- do so. Hence, to place restrictions quently no bills of exchange in on the export of gold, is simply which payment can be made; to compel our traders to send goods moreover, gold is not money in at a bad bargain when they could

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