To sum up the value of the three great divisions of the imports, it appears that in 1871, while the food and drinks imported were estimated at upwards of one hundred and thirty-one millions, and the raw materials at one hundred and seventy-five millions, making together more than three hundred and six millions, the manufactured goods brought from abroad were valued at less than twenty-five and a quarter millions. The food and raw materials, therefore, were of more than twelve times the value of the manufactures imported. In 1858 the manufactured goods imported were worth but six and a quarter millions, while the food and raw materials were of the value of more than one hundred and fifty-eight millions, the latter being accordingly more than twentyfive times the value of the former. These facts are collected together in the following table :

:

Such then was the increase and such the nature of the imports into the United Kingdom, in the early part of the second half of the nineteenth century.

We have now to compare the progress which the exports of the United Kingdom have made under the several heads between the years 1851 and 1871. A striking contrast is found between the nature of the goods imported and those exported. We have seen that, in the period we had under consideration, what the United Kingdom drew from foreign countries consisted in an overwhelming proportion of food and drinks, and of the raw materials of the manufactures. Of the same two great classes of commodities, it will presently be seen that the quantities which have left the United Kingdom have constantly been comparatively limited. On the other hand, we saw that the manufactured goods

very small proportion of her total imports. In the exports, however, it was precisely this class of commodities which constituted all but a small proportion of the whole. In fact, in the imports the relative importance of manufactures and of raw materials, including food and drinks, is precisely the reverse of what it is in the exports. In the exports the manufactures are all-important, the raw materials and food comparatively trifling; in the imports the raw materials and food are all-important, the manufactures being of slight moment in comparison.

The value of the food and drinks exported from the United Kingdom in the year 1851 was but little more than two millions sterling, and but little more than ten millions and a quarter sterling twenty years later, in the exceptional year 1871. It has already been mentioned that at the latter date, owing to the distress in France consequent upon the war between that country and Germany, the quantity of corn exported from the United Kingdom was unprecedentedly large. Its value, which was esti mated to have been nearly three and a half millions sterling, was nearly eight times the average annual value of the grain and flour leaving the ports of the United Kingdom--that average having for many years been less than half a million sterling. In the year 1851 the value of the exports of corn and flour was less than eighty-one thousand pounds sterling. Apart from the abnormal circumstances of the year 1871, the particular items in the class under consideration in which the largest export trade was done, were those which have long held the first place among exports of food or drinks. In other words, they were beer and ale. The average annual value of these beverages exported has for a long series of years been upwards of a million and three-quarters sterling. It was less than six hundred thousand pounds sterling in 1851, but within two years of that date it rose to nearly thirteen hundred thousand pounds sterling. It was more than two millions in 1859, and the annual average ever since has been within a quarter of a million of that sum. The quantity of sugar exported, which in 1871 was also greatly in excess of the average in consequence of the Franco-German War, was estimated in that year to be of the value of upwards of twelve hundred thousand pounds, as against less than three hundred and seventy thousand in 1851, a sum which does not materially differ from the average for many years past. Next to beer and ale, the steadiest and most considerable of the articles of the same class exported from the United Kingdom consists of fish, principally herrings. The annual value of the exports of this kind of food has not more than once or twice during the twenty years been less than half a million sterling. In 1851 it was less than three hundred and fifty thousand sterling, but it has steadily increased ever since, and in 1871, as in several other years previously, it was more than a million sterling.

Among the remaining exports of this class of articles the most important are spirits, pickles, vinegar, and sauces, butter and cheese. We give the whole of the articles in this division, with the values in 1851 and twenty years later, in the following table :—

A.D. 1871.]

Amongst the articles classified as raw materials, coal -to which the material prosperity of Britain is more indebted than to any other single item in the entire catalogue of commercial products-has long held the first place. The value of the coal exported in 1851 was, however, estimated at little more than a million and a quarter sterling (£1,302,473). In 1871 the value was six millions and a quarter, or four and a half times as great as twenty years before. And since 1871, owing to what has been called the "coal famine," the value of the coal exported has been nearly double what it was even at that recent date. From six and a quarter millions sterling in 1871, the value of the coals, cinders, and fuel exported rose in 1872 to very nearly ten and a half millions sterling. The quantity, however, had only increased from 12,747,989 tons in the former year to 13,198,494 tons in the latter.

The export of pig iron and of old iron for remanufacture has also greatly increased in recent years. It was less than half a million in 1851, but nearly four millions sterling in 1871, though in the latter year there was considerably more than the average sent abroad, principally on account of the events already referred to. Between 1851 and 1871 the annual exports of seed oil rose in value from less than half a million sterling to nearly a million and a half. Of unwrought leather there was exported, during the first-mentioned year, little more than one hundred and fifty thousand pounds' worth; in the latter year the value of the exports of this commodity was considerably more than a million. The exports of wool and of salt had each increased greatly in value in the interim, and there is a still greater increase in the value of the unwrought tin, and of the horses and cement, exported. The whole of this class of exports are gathered in one view in the annexed table :

VALUE OF THE RAW MATERIALS AND SEMI-MANU

FACTURED ARTICLES EXPORTED FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM IN 1871 AND 1851.

581

If the classification we have adopted be accepted, it appears that the value of the entire exports of raw materials was less than sixteen and a half millions sterling in 1871, and not even three and a half millions in 1351. Though this branch of the exports had, therefore, more than quadrupled in the interval, their total value, as compared with the class we are about to enter into, was comparatively small, being, in fact, less than one-twelfth in 1851, as well as in 1871.

The total value of the food, drinks, and raw materials exported in the latter year was about twenty-six and three-quarter millions sterling. The total value of the manufactures exported in that year was upwards of one hundred and ninety-six millions. It will be convenient to consider the manufactured commodities exported under three heads: First, those belonging to the textile fabrics and clothing; secondly, hardware and other manufactures composed of the metals; and, thirdly, chemical and other miscellaneous products.

By far the most important of all articles, not only among the textile fabrics, but in the entire list of British exports, is that of cotton goods. In 1871 the value of the exports of cotton manufactures and yarn amounted together to upwards of seventy-two and three-quarter millions sterling; in 1851 the value stood at over thirty millions sterling; so that the increase in this single class of manufactures in the twenty years in question was one hundred and forty per cent.-in other words, it was little short of two and half times as great at the later as at the earlier date. Cotton yarn was exported to the value of more than six and a half millions sterling in 1851, and to the value of upwards of fifteen millions in 1871; while of cotton-cloth or piece goods the quantity exported in 1871 was valued at fifty-seven and three-quarter millions, as against twenty-three and a half millions in 1851. The cotton industry of Great Britain is the most important single manufacture in the world. The benefit it confers upon the country may be gathered from the fact that, while of the fifty-five millions' worth of raw cotton imported in the year 1871, one-fifth was exported again in its raw state, and only forty-four millions' worth retained for home consumption, the cotton-mills of Britain were enabled, out of the amount thus retained, not only to supply the enormous home demand for cotton goods, but to export upwards of seventy-two millions' worth of piece goods and yarns to the rest of the world in addition. The year's profits to the nation from this one manufacture alone are therefore represented, firstly, by a gain of twenty-eight millions sterling in the value of the manufactures exported over that of the imports of raw material; and, secondly, by the supply of nearly the whole of the home demand in addition.

Next in importance to the cotton manufacture is that of woollen and worsted fabrics-a manufacture of far longer standing, and indeed, until within the last century, still the principal of all the manufactures of Britain, but outstripped now by its younger rival, the cotton manufacture. In 1871 as much as thirty-three and a quarter millions' worth of woollen cloth and woollen yarn was exported from Britain, as against less than nine millions'

had risen to more than eleven millions sterling. There is little doubt that this large increase is in the main due to the more general introduction in later years of a laboursaving invention of the greatest ingenuity. We refer to the sewing-machine, of which we shall have to speak more in detail hereafter. The next most important among British textile fabrics is that of linen and jute. The total value of the exports of articles manufactured from flax and jute in 1851 was a little more than five millions sterling. By 1871 the exports were estimated

manufactures and yarn exported rose in value, from one million three hundred thousand sterling, to three millions three hundred thousand, in the twenty years' interval. The total value of the exports of the textile fabrics and articles of dress or clothing rose, from rather less than fifty millions sterling in 1851, to nearly one hundred and thirty-three millions in 1871; showing an addition of no less than one hundred and sixty-five per cent. in twenty years. In the following table the above results are collected in one view: