The pekes have since from 6s. 9d. to 48. 5d. according to the state of the trade ; and amidst all these reductions, the quality of the yarn is much improved.
Yalta./ Otos hfinnifTunuror and Cation. Yaps Exported from. Deigaiir.
Manufactures. Yarn.
1814, 17,394,000 2,907,000 1815, ' 19,127,000 1,781,0001816, 13,079,000 2,707,000 It is of importance to remark the quantity sent to Germiny, notwithstanding the rival manufacturer in that country. To France, our avowed exports are inconsiderable, there being a duty on the import of British cottons; but large quantities are taken off by French smugglers. The demand from the United States is at present, and is likely to continue, the greatest of all; that from Brazil is deserving of at tention, as well from its steadiness as from its mag nitude, when we consider that the population in that country, accustomed to wear European manufack tures, does not exceed a million of souls. Gibraltar and Malta serve as entrepdts for the supply of the south of Spain, and other parts of the Mediter ranean.
The following short table is useful, in pointing our the countries which carry on more or less of the cot. ton manufacture, without making the yarn (at least the whole of the yarn) themselves.
The insignificant* of the export to France, implies not that the manufacture of cotton in that country is of trifling amount, but that the French import the cotton wool direct from the countries of its growth, and manufacture their own yarn.
Loaded as we are with taxes so much heavier than those of our neighbours, it becomes a question of rest interest, and anxiety, whether we are likely to maintain our superiority in this, the greatest branch of our exports? With the view of facilitating this in quiry, we shall hazard a conjectural estimate of the component parts of the cost of our cotton manner:. tam The total number of persons employed, directly and indirectly, in the cotton manufacture of Eng land, is computed at from 400,000 to 500,000. Ma chinery performs here a vast deal; and manual labour, when requisite, can be done in so many instances by women and children, that the average wages of all persons so employed, is not reckoned more than L.15 per head per annum. The points in which fo
reigners have the advantage are fortunately limited to the wages and the duty; the last of which it is not impracticable, in a time of exigency, to take off. In other respects, viz. in the purchase of the raw material, the command of fuel, moderate interest of capital, machinery, and subdivision of employment, we stand either on equal or better ground. The wages form certainly a heavy drawback on our side of the question, but, on the whole, the chances in a continued competition seem to be in our favour, as our readers will see by a reference to our article on COTTON MANUFACTURE. To the remarks there made, we have now to add, that at Paris and its vicinity, which is in part the seat of the French manufacture, the support of a workman and his family (and con sequently the wages) is fully as expensive as in Lancashire, while at Rouen the difference against us is not considerable. To Switzerland, a similar argument applies, while Saxony and Austria, the other seats of continental competition, though cheap er than England, are remote from the sea, and con sequently subject to a heavy carriage on the raw ma tenal.
The seats of the cotton manufacture of England are, first, Manchester, which takes decidedly the lead of all other places ; afterwards Preston, Bol ton, Blackburn, and Wigan, all situated in Lan cashire. After these come several other places, part ly in Lancashire, in Cumberland, and the West Riding of York. The introduction of cotton works into the last, the great seat of the woollen manufac ture, is owing to the practicability of the same work men turning, in case of need, from wool to cotton, and vice versa. The master-manufacturers in the cotton trade are not, as in the woollen, a host of in dividuals with small means, and great only from their multitude; they consist of a limited number of mer cantile establishments, each possessed of consider.