Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/249

 MANUFACTURES.] IRELAND 233 number of factories was only 2, employing 400 persons, and in 1879 it was represented by 1 factory, which employed 152 persons. Miscellaneous Manufactures. There is 1 hosiery factory employing 119 persons, and 2 hair factories employing 38 persons. There is a considerable paper manufacture, which since the repeal of the paper duties in 1860 has been in creasing. For most other articles in common use, such as glass, hardware, soap, candles, and many clothing materials, Ireland is nearly altogether dependent on England. Distillation. For several centuries Ireland has rivalled Scotland in the manufacture of whisky, the spirit of each country having its own special excellences. Caindeu states that in Ireland usquebagh was much used to stop the fluxes and catarrhs caused by the excessive moisture of the climate, and that the Irish spirit was much &quot; less heating and more drying &quot; than that of England. An excise duty was first imposed on the manufacture in 1661, the rate charged being 4d. per gallon. This was raised in 1715 to 7d., and in 1717 to 8d. In 1719, when a new method of reckoning by the size and number of stills was introduced, the revenue realized was 5785, 9s. 4d. In 1791 the amount produced by a rate of Is. 2d. was. 201,648. Various alterations were subsequently made in the methods of reckoning, and a system of survey was also combined with the old method, but the few capitalists who judged it advantageous to engage in the trade succeeded in baffling all the efforts of the Government to stop the issue of spirits which had not paid duty. The amount of spirits produced by distillation avowedly illicit vastly exceeded that produced by the licensed distilleries. According to Wakefield, stills were erected even in the kitchens of baronets and in the stables of clergymen. More commonly they were placed in retired districts on loose stones, so as to be easily removable on the approach of the revenue officers. In 1685 the number of stills seized was 2974, of heads 2656, and of worms 2378. The duty was gradually raised till it stood at 4s., and, after being reduced in 1811 to 2s. 6d., it was raised in 1814 to 5s. 6d. This addition to the duties added very little to the revenue, while of course it greatly increased the temptations to illicit manufacture. According to M. Moreau, it was the opinion of competent judges that in 1822 the amount produced by the licensed and unlicensed stills was not less than 10,000,000 gallons, while the amount brought to charge in the same year was only 2,950,647. For the six years ending 1818 the number of stills seized was 7233, of heads 5291, and of worms 5109, and for the six years ending 1826 the numbers were 13,01.7, 9475, and 8014 respectively, the number of pro secutions being nearly 18,000. Since that period illicit distillation has been largely practised up till the present time, the number of cases in 1880 being 685. Table XXVI. gives the amount of Irish spirits brought to charge in various years from 1821. Breweries. There are breweries in most of the large towns of Ireland, and Dublin is celebrated for its porter. In 1880 the number of common breweries was 53, and of licensed victuallers 16,686, the malt consumed by the former being 3,965,887 and by the latter 1864 bushels. Fisheries. An account of the fisheries of Ireland will be found under the headings FISHERIES, vol. ix. p. 262 sq., and SALMON FISHERIES. The salmon fisheries employ between 11,000 and 12,000 persons. The deep sea and coast fisheries now employ only about 6000 boats and 20,000 persons, whereas the numbers in 1860 were 13,483 and 55,630 respectively. A reproductive loan fund for fishery purposes was constituted by the 12th section of tho Act 37 & 38 Viet. c. 86, and the loans advanced up to 31st December 1880 amounted to 31,079, of which 20^675 has been repaid. The average annual produce of tho oyster fisheries is about 50,000. Commerce and Shipping. So far as natural advantages for commerce and shipping are concerned, Ireland is scarcely rivalled by any other country. Her coast is not only surrounded by safe anchorages, but the land is so deeply indented by bays and inlets, and so intersected by a network of internal navigation, that no part is more than 24 miles from water communication with the sea. In regard also to situation, it is difficult if not impossible to fix on a country whose circumstances are more favourable. Lying contiguous to the coast of Great Britain, and at some points almost touching it, she is nearer than that country to the West Indies, the continent of America, the west coasts of France, the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and the ports of the Mediterranean. There is abundant evidence to show that Ireland was prepared to make use of these advantages, and that only impolitic trade restric tions have prevented her from developing a commerce which would undoubtedly have vied with that of Great Britain, but from which Great Britain would have gained more than she was in dread of losing. These restrictions, however, imposed when the great manufacturing industries of modern times were in their early in fancy, not only snatched from her the possibility of commercial greatness, but, operat ing along with other legislation, doomed her to agricultural stagnation and centuries of poverty and distress ; so that in fact contiguity to Great Britain has proved to be to her a bane rather than a blessing, and America instead of affording her the means of enrichment, has only supplied her with an asylum for her poverty-stricken sons. From allusions in Strabo, Ptolemy, the northern sagas, Richard of Cirencester, and other old writings, it would appear that Ireland early in the present era had consider able commercial intercourse with various parts of Europe. At the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion, the merchants of Dublin having fled from the city, it was given by Henry II. ta merchants from Bristol, to whom free trade with other portions of the kingdom was granted, as well as other commercial advantages. During the reigns of the Edwards,, Irish ships were frequently employed in supplying the English armies with provisions, and in the Staple Act of Edward III. Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Drogheda are mentioned as among the towns where staple goods could be purchased by foreign merchants. The trade of these and other towns had increased in the 15th century with con siderable rapidity, and Sir John Davies, writing in 1612, speaks in commendation of the encouragement then given by the Government to the commerce of the maritime towns and cities. The first restriction on the trade of Ireland was an Act passed in 1637 imposing duties on the chief commodities to foreign nations not in league with England. Though included in the Navigation Act of 1660, she was, however, left out in that of 1663, and in the same year was prohibited from exporting her cattle to England in any month previous to July. Gerard TABLE XXVI. Irish Spirits charged with Excise Duty, 1821-80. 1821. 1830. 1840. 1850. I860. 1875. 1880. Gallons, imperial measure 3,311,462 9,004,539 10,815,709 6,973,333 6,538,448 6,094,638 6,927,871 Net amount of revenue

912,288

1,409,128

1,261,833

929,778

2,615,379

3,047,019 3,326,732 XIII. -- 30