The chief vent for our silks is to our North Arne. rican colonies, the West Indies, and Portugal ; also to Ireland; but to the United States comparatively little, for we have never been able to rival the French in this manufacture.
Leather, however little it may figure as an article of export, is necessarily one of extensive home con sumption in every civilized country, particularly in such a climate as ours ; and it is matter of regret, that we should have so very few data, official or otherwise, on which to form an estimate of the ex port or import of hides in former ages. Such an estimate would possess interest, as indicating the ex tent of our pasturage and the number of our cattle in comparison with our population. Whatever may have been the case at a remote date, the custom house returns, for many years back, show, by the an nual imports, that the demand for leather has ex ceeded the home supply of hides. For a long time this importation took place from the Continent of Europe, and from the least civilized quarters; from countries, such as Lithuania and Poland, where the quantity of hides furnished by the cattle materially exceeds that of the leather required by the inhabi tants. But since the opening of South America, particularly in 1807, it has been found advantageous to import hides from that continent, where the herds of wild cattle are so numerous as to meet the eye of the traveller in'almost every point of the horizon.
Account of the Number of Ram Hides imported from various Countries into Great Britain during the years 1814 and 1815.
The quantity of hides tanned in England and Wales is computed at nearly 9,000,000, weighing about 350,000 cwt. The largest tanneries are in Bermondsey in Southwark; but there are also very extensive establishments of the kind in the country, —in Cheshire, Lancashire, Westmoreland, Cumber land ; also in Lincolnshire. The late war, by its long continuance, and the magnitude of our army and navy, produced great orders from government for our leather manufacture. Shoes were and still are made wholesale, in several towns of Staffordshire, Cheshire, and Northamptonshire. In this, as in other departments of manufacture, we suffer mate.. rially by our high wagft, shoemaking on the Conti nent being considerably cheaper; but here also the spirit of invention has been active; and we have late ly been informed, that, in the neighbourhood of Lon don, machinery has been applied to what has hither to been thought indispensably to require manual la bour.
Of the annual value of our leather manufactured into shoes, boots, harness, saddlery, &c. there are no means of forming a correct estimate; but we have merely to consider the population of England, and the unavoidable extent of their wants, to be satis fied, that from ten to twelve millions sterling are ra ther below than above the mark. But while our home consumption is so considerable, our export is comparatively small, and does not exceed half a mil lion sterling. To Ireland, the leather we ship is merely tanned ; to other countries our exports are in a manufactured shape.
The increased duty imposed on leather towards the close of the late war, has been the subject of much discussion. This duty was brought forward in Parliament in the spring of 1813. It was evident ly liable to the most serious objections, from increas ing to the lower orders the expence of an indis pensable article, and raising to farmers and others the price of harness and saddlery. Accordingly, the tanners, the and the various ses affected by it, created an opposition which had well nigh defeated the bill. It was, however, carried, and has been continued without diminution since the peace. Its produce is nearly L.280,000 above the old tax, as is shown by a return from the Excise office, dated 5th March 1818 ; from which it appears that the five last years of the old duty, viz. from 1807 to 1811, both inclusive, amounted to L.1,460,436 Five years of the new duty, leaving out the year 1812, and reckoning from 1813 to 1817, both inclusive, . 2,842,480 Connected with our general manufacture of lea ther is the Glove Trade, a branch of no inconsider able extent, being carried on in several of our mid land and western counties, viz. at Woodstock, Wor cester, Ludlow, Hereford, Yeovil in Somersetshire, &c, The exports being chiefly to the United States, this branch of industry suffered severely from the war in 1813 and 1814. Nor has it by any means recovered its prosperity since the peace.