Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/803

Rh when it was 14,048,000 tons. "After 1879 an extraordinary change became apparent in the volume of the make, for during the ensuing five years the average make was 18,000,000 tons, and in 1883 it rose to 21,063,000, or nearly 50 per cent more than it was in 1879." The witness further estimated that while the product of iron increased in the United Kingdom at the rate of 131 per cent from 1870 to 1884, the increase in the production of the rest of the world during the same period had been 237 per cent.

The tables of the American Iron and Steel Association, prepared by Mr. James M. Swank, indicate an increase in the pig-iron product of the world, from 1870 to 1886 inclusive, of about 100 per cent. All authorities are therefore substantially agreed that the increase in the production of this commodity in recent years has been not only far in excess of the increase of the world's population in general, but also of the increase of the population of the principal iron-producing countries. Thus, for example, in the United States, the production increased from 4,044,526 gross tons in 1885 to 5,683,329 in 1886, an increase of 1,638,803 tons, or 40 per cent.

Under such circumstances, the price of pig-iron throughout the world has rapidly declined, and in the case of some varieties touched in 1885-'86 the lowest points in the history of the trade. American pig, which sold in February, 1880, for $45 per ton, declined almost continuously until September, 1885, when the low point of $16 was reached; while in Great Britain, Cleveland pig, which sold for £4 17s. 1d. in 1872, and £2 5s. in 1880, declined to £1 10s. 9d. in 1886. The decline in Bessemer steel rails in the English market was from £12 1s. 1d. in 1874 to less than £4 in 1887. In the United States, Bessemer steel rails, which commanded $58 per ton at the mills in 1880, fell to $28.25 at the close of the year 1884, reacting to $39 in March, 1887.

Reviewing, specifically, the causes which have contributed to the above-noted extraordinary decline in the prices of iron, the following points are worthy of notice:

First. The testimony of Sir Lowthian Bell shows that foreign countries have within recent years, and contrary to former experience, increased their production of iron in a far greater ratio than Great Britain, which was formerly the chief factor in the world's supply; and, in consequence, have become formidable competitors with Great Britain, not only in their own territories, but also in neutral markets. New fields of iron-ore have been discovered in Germany, France, and Belgium, very analogous in point of character to those which by discovery and development, about the year 1850, in the north of England, led to the subsequent great and rapid increase of British iron production.

Second. The power of producing iron with a given amount of labor and capital has, in recent years, greatly increased. For example, the