Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/538

Rh 506 COTTON be sufficient to recall to our readers the small part of the cost of the commodity which now belongs to the labour of the hand, and the daily diminution which is taking place even of that part, by the introduction of new mechanical substitutes. Thus, for example, in 1767 each spindle required a person to work it ; but now one man, with the aid of two piecers to take up and join his broken ends, can work two thousand spindles. In speaking on this subject in 1874 Mr Hugh Mason, then president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, endeavoured to reassure some of his timid colleagues by such facts as these, viz., that in 1850 the export from this country of cotton cloth had attained for the first time the amount of 1,000,000,000 yards; that in 1860 the exports for the first time had reached 2,000,000,000 yards ; and that in the year 1870 the export of manufactured cotton goods from this country had amounted for the first time to 3,000,000,000 yards. Although foreign competitors are able in common with ourselves to buy the best machinery that can be made, and have free and cheap imports of the raw material, in addi tion to any special advantages as to cheaper labour and longer hours or otherwise which they may possess, and although great advances have taken place in the wages of the operatives employed in our factories, while there has been great diminution in the hours of labour during these two decades, and these are now still further reduced, we have still almost undisputed possession of the home trade, and our foreign trade has at the same time increased from 1,000,000,000 yards to 3,000,000,000 yards of our manufactured cotton cloth. The quantity of cotton piece goods exported from the United Kingdom in 1876 exceeds that ever exported before in any one year, and amounts to 3,668,582,100 yards, an average of more than 10,000,000 yards a day. The following table presents a summary of the cotton industry of Great Britain for the year 1876 : TABLE VIII. Details of Cotton Industry. Number of factories 2,655 Number of spindles (including doubling) 41,881,789 Number of power looms 463,118 Number of persons employed 479,515 Estimated capital invested 90,000,000 Quaiviity of cotton consumed (in bales of 400 Ibs. each) 3,185,942 Cost of cotton consumed 32,855,000 Quantity of yam produced 1,131,056,000 lb Quantity of cloth manufactured 898,906,000 lb Quantity of yarn and goods made for home consumption 163,906,000 lb Quantity of yarn and piece goods exported 967, 150,000 lb Annual value of home consumption of yarns and cloth 17,777,000 Annual value of exports of yarn and cloth 72,079,000 Total annual value of cotton manufactures 89, 856, 000 The rapid growth and enormous extent of the cotton industry, the numerous vicissitudes through which it has passed, the elasticity which it has shown in periods of deep depression, and tho vitality and latent power which, not withstanding all past development and progress, it still possesses, may well excite astonishment and admiration. It is a proud memorial of the genius, and energy, and enterprise of the men who have conducted it from its small beginnings to its present gigantic proportions. Whilst at home the consumption of cotton goods has been steadily increasing, the export trade with all its fluctuations re mains more than double that in any other article of com merce. The free-trade policy of Britain promotes an in terchange of commodities with all other countries. We are as ready to purchase what they can offer as we arc to sell them our goods, and even in the same branch of manufacture there are often shades of difference in the fabrics produced, upon which taste, or fashion, or caprice has fixed an arbitrary value, which may make the ex change of goods by rivals mutually beneficial. This- example and influence are beginning to lead other coun tries to perceive and understand that isolation and rigid protection can confer but little real benefit even upon themselves, and must eventually injure those who thus stand aloof from the commercial comity of nations. Cotton Industry on the Continent. The progress and present state of the cotton industry on the continent of Europe have been carefully ascertained by Messrs Ellison & Co., from their own special correspondents in all the manufacturing centres. The statistics furnished by them, in their review of the cotton trade for the season 1875-76, are as follows : Russia and Poland. Spindles in Russia, 2,300,000 ; in Poland, 200,000 ; total, 2,500,000. Average consumption of cotton 60 lb per spindle per annum. Sweaen and Norway. Spindles in Sweden, 245,000 ; in Norway, 60,000; total, 305,000. Average consumption of cotton 65 lb per spindle per annum. Germany. The estimates vary, but the following is the nearest approximation attainable: Spindles. Alsace 1,650,000 Bavaria 875,000 Prussia 700,000 Saxony 500,000 Baden 350,000 Wiirtemberg 315,000 Hanover, Oldenburg, &c 260,000 Total 4,650,000 Some estimates exceed this, and make the total 5,000,000 or 5,200,000. Average consumption of cotton for all Germany about 55 lb per spindle per annum. Austria. Spindles in Austria, 1,555,000, including 740,000 in Bohemia, and 500,000 in the Vienna district. Average rate of con sumption of cotton 67 lb per spiudle per annum. Switzerland. According to a recent Government estimate, made in view of negotiations for a new treaty of commerce, the number of spindles is 1,854,091. Average consumption of cotton, used chiefly for the production of fine goods, about 25 lb per spindle per annum. Holland. The estimated number of spindles is 230,000. Average consumption of cotton about 60 lb per spindle per annum. Belgium. Estimated spindles, 800,000. Average consumption of cotton about 50 lb per spindle per annum. France. The total number of spindles is about 5,000,000, and the average consumption of cotton 42 lb per spindle per annum. Spain. Estimated number of spindles, 1,750,000. Average consumption of cotton about 46 lb per spindle per annum. Italy. The total number of spindles is about 800,000. The consumption of cotton averages 56 lb per spindle per annum. The total number of spindles at work in the various manufactur ing countries of Europe is 19,440,000, to which must be added 9,500,000 in the United States, and 39,000,000 in Great Britain, making a total of 67,940,000, requiring not less than 7,000,000 bales of cotton of 400 lb each, or at least 2,800,000,00011), to keep them in operation. Cotton Manufacture in the United States. The Government of the United States at an early period evinced great anxiety to promote the establishment of the cotton manufacture in the northern part of the Union. In tracing the rise of the American cotton manufacture, we shall refer chiefly to the public documents, in which its growth is studiously detailed, and the difficulties it has had to struggle with are anxiously dwelt upon. Before the year 1791, America possessed no manufacture except for domestic production and family use. But it appears from a report of the secretary to the American treasury, drawn up in 1810, that a cotton-mill was erected in the State of Rhode Island in that year; that another mill was erected in the same State in 1795, and two more in the S ate of Massachusetts in 1803 and 1804; that during the three succeeding years ten more were erected in Rhode Island, and one in Connecticut, making together fifteen mills, working about 8000 spindles, and producing