Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/109

* ENGLAND. 87 ENGLAND. moisture, important in spinning, have all fa- vored the centralization of the industry in limit- ed regions in the north of England. Cotton manufacturing, which has long been the chief branch of the textile industry, is centred in the Manchester district, the city of Manchester it- self being the commercial centre of the industry. The surrounding towns, however, including Old- ham (which possesses one-third of all the cotton spindles in England), Bolton, Blackburn, Pres- ton, Rochdale, Burnley, and Stockport, do mo i of the spinning, and two of them, Preston and Burnley, mosi of the weaving. The woolen industry is centred in the portion of orkshire adjacent to the Manchester district, i.e. the West Riding of Yorkshire. Leeds and Bradford are the two most important woolen- manufacturing towns, the one being noted for its broadcloth, the other for alpaca, mohair, and woolen damasks. Huddersfield, Halifax, and Wakefield are also worthy of note for their pro- duction of woolens. A number of woolen fac- tories are also located in Gloucestershire. Eng- land does not compare with Ireland in the pro- duction of linens, though the industry is of some importance in the towns of Leeds and Barnsley. Silk manufacture is of decreasing importance, but is still carried on in Coventry, Macclesfield, and other towns south of the cotton and woolen manu- facturing regions. The localization of metal manufactures and the manufacture of machinery, etc., which rank next in magnitude to the textile industry, is determined largely by the resources of coal and iron, and hence these are the most developed in the northern part of England. Birmingham, the southermost of the large centres of this in- dustry, is noted for the production of all kinds of metal-work, and particularly gun-barrels. Sheffield is another town in which manufacturing of iron and steel are the chief industries, steel cutlery being its specialty. Leeds and Manchester produce enormous quantities of machinery, while Newcastle and Sunderland lead English towns in ship-building. England is a large producer of beer, Burton-on-Trent leading in its manufacture. The manufactures of pottery and earthenwares arc important industries in North Staffordshire, along the headwaters of the Trent, where china- clays abound. A number of places, including the Tyne district and the south of Lancashire, have large manufactures of chemicals. Transportation. England is exceptionally well provided with transportation facilities. The extensive coast-line and navigable waterways af- ford excellent natural advantages, and these have been supplemented by a remarkable artifi- cial system. Through the canalization of streams, and the construction of a network of canals, almost every part of the country is ac eommodated with this method of transportation. The importance of the canals has. however, great- ly declined, as most of them are too shallow and narrow for the present demands of traffic. The highways are kept in an almost perfect condition. The bulk of the transportation, however, is done by railways, of which there were in 1900 15,187 miles (including Wales). The railways now also have control of a considerable part of the canal system. London is the focal point of the principal lines, which include the Greal West- ern, the London and Northwestern, the Midland. the Great Northern, the Great Eastern, and the Southwestern, all under private ownership and management. Commerce. In carious ways England has hen greatly favored as a commercial centre and as a carrier of the world's commerce. London i^ the greatest trade cent re and has the lai pping tonnage of any city in the world, while Cardiff (Wales) and Liverpool arc exceeded in shipping tonnage outside of England only by Wu ', Hamburg, .Antwerp. Rotterdam, and Chic: The shipping of Cardiff is mainly confined to its heavy export of coal; the trade of I pool is largely with America and West Africa, COD isting of heavy imports of grain, cattle, and other food product,, cotton, and exports of manufactured goods and machinery. The trade of London is more widely distributed, but is par- ticularly large with European and Oriental coun tries, its imports being considerably in excess of itsexports. See ('tnium-rcc, under <;ui. at Britain. Population. England, with (ioti inhabitants to the square mile, is the most densely popu- lated country in the world. The population increased from 11,281,88.'! in 1821, to 27,483,490 in 1891 and to 30,805,466 in 1901, in the lat ter year constituting 7AM per cent, of the popula tion of the United Kingdom, as against 5-1 per cent, in 1821. The per cent, of increase in the decade ending with 1901 was 12.1, as against 21.7 for the United States in the decade ending with 1900. For the last two dec- ades there has been a decided decrease in the birth-rate, but as partially offsetting this there has also been a decrease in the death-rate, and furthermore, the country is actually gaining from the movement of population, as more people are now coming into England than are going out. The greater portion of the immigrants are from other portions of Great Britain ; there are be- sides Russian Jews. Poles, Belgians, and Ger- mans. The destination of a majority of the emi- grants is the United States. In the decade ending in 1900 the total emigration to places outside of Europe amounted to 1,096.498. England is char- acterized by its large city population, a larger per cent, being urban than is found in any other country. In 1901, 77 per cent, of the population of England and Wales lived under the jurisdic- tion of urban authorities. The following cata- logue of cities of 100.000 and over is illustrative of this tendency: London Liverpool U .1 in ln'Stf i- Birmingham Leeds Sheffield Bristol '.... Bradford West it iiu K Lngston-upon-HulL. Not! Ingham Salfonl Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Leicester fori ami MiTli. Bolton Sunderland i Hdham Croydon.. Blackburn Brighton Population 1901 1891 4.536.063 4.228,317 684,947 629,518 505,368 522,182 47s.ii:) 428,953 367,505 380,711 321,213 289,280 279,809 265,728 267,308 201,903 210,618 2IIH.472 239,753 213,877 220.956 198,139 214,803 1S6.300 211.574 174.624 189.160 159.278 116.187 146,565 131,686 137.238 131,163 133,885 102,696 127,627 123,178 115,873