We come next to a branch of industry of a very different description—the Brewery. The amount of capital and labour, invested in brewing establish ments in England, is very large, and particularly striking to those who have lived on the Continent, and have contrasted our situation with that of the wine countries of the south of Europe. It is only in Flanders and Germany that breweries are numer ous; and in the latter, from the limited capital, and the scattered state Of their population, there are hardly any of those large establishments which exist in our metropolis. in London, this important branch of business is chiefly in the hands of eleven great houses, who, conjunctly with the smaller establish ments, brew on an average 1,700,000 barrels of por ter. (Excise Return, 151k May 1818.) In peace the average is comparatively higher in beer from the cheapness of barley, and in spirits from the exclusion of sugar from the distillery, Computing the whole barley made into malt in England in peace, at an average of . . • 3,300,000 qrs.
And supposing the distilleries in England to require . . 800,000 Spirituous liquors form one of the great branches of manufacture in which England is dependant on her neighbours; as she impOrts an annual supply of corn spirit from Scotland and Ireland, rum from the West Indies, and brandy from France. During the distress of the West India planters, particularly in 1807, 1808, and 1811, Committees of Parliament were appointed to inquire into the expediency of substituting sugar for barley in the distillery, and a great deal of useful information was the result of their researches. The consumption of British spirits in England was computed at gal.
. .
Of which distilled in England nearly 4,200,000 Brought from Scotland,826,000 Ditto from Ireland, . . 470,000 , (Distillery Committee of 1808, Evidence, p. 54.) Notwithstanding the great increase of distillation in Scotland, there seems to have been no diminution in that of England ; the return of the excise duties from 1807 to 1815 being from L.1,500,000 to L.2,000,000, while the latest accounts, we mean those of the year ending April 1818 and April 1819, are far from in. dicating a diminution.
Of rum the consumption in England varies with the price of British spirits and several other causes, but averages from 21 to 8 millions of gallons. (West India Committee, July 1807, p. 71.) Import of foreign Brandy (stated in gallons) during three years of war.
1805, 2,663,000 405,000 1806, 1,418,000 263,000 1807, 2,167,000 156,000 To the remaining manufactures our limits allow of little space, though several of them would be account ed of great importance in any other country than Eng land. The extent to which such articles, as soap and paper, are made among us, is amply shown by the Ex.. cute Returns; but the list of our exports is of more consequence to the political economist; not from the vulgar notion, that it is by export only that national profit is realized, but as indicative of those commo dities for which we possess, in our soil, our climate, or our colonial possessions, advantages that give us a superiority over our neighbours. Thus, in the case
of glass, the abundance and cheapness of our coal outweigh our higher wages, and enable us to make an annual export of between L.600,000 and L.700,000. In the manufacture of hats, likewise, our command of wool for the coarser kind, and of furs from our North American colonies for beaver hats, enable us to ship to an extent of L.300,000, L.400,000, or L.500,000 a-year. In earthenware we have the ad vantage of clay, of fuel, and of ready communica tion by canals. These, joined to the taste and in genuity of individuals engaged in the manufacture, carried it, in the course of the eighteenth century, to an extent that has rendered it a national object; a track of seven or eight miles in Staffordshire, called the Pottery District, being almost entirely appro• priated to it. The population of this track is about 40,000. The great outlet is Liverpool, and the ship ments take place partly to the United States, partly to the Continent of Europe. Our exports, com prising Porcelain, average from L.500,000 to L.600,000.
The stocking manufacture is carried on chiefly in the counties of Nottingham, Derby, and Leicester. It formerly employed vast numbers of women in knitting ; but in this, as in other branches, machinery has greatly superseded manual labour. Lace is made in large quantities in the midland counties; and here also machinery has of late years been ex tensively applied. All its aid, as well as that of pro tecting duties, is necessary to maintain a competition with the neighbouring shores of the Continent, where lace-making is the chief employment of the females, and where a young manufacturer thinks herself suf ficiently recompensed with sixpence a-day, while the pay of an experienced one seldom goes beyond a shilling.
After this account of particular manufactures, it remains to add a few general statements relative to this great department of our national industry. To point out those of our counties that take the lead as the seats of manufacture, we subjoin the following return The whole number of families in England and Wales employed in trade, manufactures, and professions, was, by the return of 1811, 959,622. Their total income, L.82,210,600. To discriminate the persons engaged in trade from those engaged in manufacture, would not be easy; the above numbers being taken from the returns under the Population Act, which make no distinction between the two. The money return is for the year 1810, and indicates a rate of annual income, which, although below the vulgar estimate of mercantile profit, and considerably below the amount anticipated by Mr Pitt on first proposing the income-tax in 1798, is, we fear, above the actual rate of such profits at the present day.