Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/646

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CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

Trade and Commerce.

The value of the total imports and exports of the Cape Colony, including British Kaffraria, in the fire years from 1865 to 1869, was as follows : —

Years

Imports

Exports

&

&

1865

2,111,332

2,322,995

1866

1,940.281

2,590,348

1867

2,405,409

2,814,385

1868

1,956,154

2,806,698

1869

1,819,723

2,681,075

The commercial intercourse of the colony is almost entirely with the United Kingdom, and few exports are sent to, and imports received from any other country. The value of the trade with Great Britain and Ireland, during the five years 1865 to 1869, is ex- hibited in the subjoined table : —

Exports from the

Imports of British

Years

Cape Colony to Great

Home Produce into the

Britain

Cape Colony

£



1865

2,249,784

1,701,060

1866

2,536,270

1,399,024

1867

2,584,574

1,893,011

1868

2,451,859

1,591,171

1869

2,352,344

1,572,067

Among the articles of export from the Cape to Great Britain, wool is the most important, the value shipped annually constituting nearly nine-tenths of the total exports. In 1864 the quantity of wool exported to Great Britain amounted to 18,377,644 lbs, valued at 1,316,976/.; in 1865 to 26,637,388 lbs. valued at 1,737,158/.; in 1866 to 27,681,816 lbs. valued at 2,063,048/.; in 1867 to 34,225,569 lbs. valued at 2,105,416/.; in 1868 to 33,398,027 lbs. valued at 2,028,846/. ; and in 1869 to 1,892,333/. The principal exports, next to wool, are copper ore, ostrich feathers, hides, ivory, and wine. There were, at the end of 1865, in the colony 692,514 head of cattle, and 6,453,783 sheep.

The sheep-farms of the colony are often of very great extent, comprising from 3,000 to 15,000 acres, and upwards : those in tillage are comparatively small. The graziers are, for the most part, pro- prietors of the farms which they occupy, paying a quit rent to