An idea of the relative extent of capital and labour employed in each manufacture, will be best convey ed by the following table: Excise Duties paid in Great Britain in the twelve months ending 5th April 1819, in British Produce and Manufactures.
British spirits,. L.8,210,959 Malt,. 3,006,143 . .
Beer, . . . 2,718,018 .
• . 107,510 Licenses,. . 688,320 . 1,518,498 Tobacco snuff, . . 1,470,692 Soap, 845,627 . .
Leather (hides and skins), . 615,831 Glans,. . . 497,611 Paper,. 486,971 Printed .
Bricks and tiles, . 819,571 Candles,. . 299,888 Starch,. . 51,241 Lesser articles of British manufacture, as vinegar, cider, &c. . . 88,959 Total of the excise duties from Bri tish produce and manufacture, L16,858,736 The remainder of the excise arises from public auctions, . . 267,070 Or from foreign articles, as tea, 8,097,746 Wine, 1,137,311 Foreign spirits (chiefly brandy), 2,159,922 Coffee and cocoa, 110,030 Total, L23,125,815 The above affords the best means of judging of our home consumption of manufactures : of our ex port, a collective view is given in the following table : We are next to compare these large sums with the inferior amounts of former years. The customhouse returns form here also our guide, and though our produce exported is included in the amounts, by far the greater part consists of manufactures.
E • • of produce and manufacture • • Great Britain, on an average of six years, ending with 1792, L.22,131,000 Average of six years, end ing with . . . 1798, 25,658,000 Ditto, ending with . 1864, 36,817,000 Ditto, ditto, . . 1810, 43,575,000 These sums are formed by adding 50 per cent. to the official estimate. In peace, a partial reduction takes place in the price of most merchandise, and we adopt a scale of valuation somewhat lower, by taking the value as declared by the exporting mei.. chants.
1814, . . L.47,851,458 1815,58,217,445 1816,42,955,256 1817,43,626,253 . .
1818,48,903,760 This is, of course, exclusive of the foreign and cola vial merchandise exported each Tear.
Such are the principal facts m regard to the ma nufactures of England—the department of our pro• ductive industry which, of all others, has most spicuously displayed the inventive powers of the us.
tion, and most largely contributed to the unparalleled burdens of the late wars. In this age of rapid en hancement, manufactures present a striking excep tion to the general rule; for, while land, houses, fuel, corn, cattle, in short almost every thing else, has risen in price, manufactures have fallen, and fallen greatly. That this should have taken lace in spite of the rue ce both of wages and materials, is to be ascribed altogether to mechanical inventions : the ex tent of which has been such as to render it not im probable that, in some fabrics, such as cotton, one person can now make, in a day, as such as, half a century ago, could have been made by a hundred. A writer, whose views, both on the practice and principles of trade, are entitled to attention,• has lately exhorted us to make a considerable change in our mercantile code ;—to forbear all attempts at a monopoly of manufacturing industry, and direct our capital and labour altogether to those branches, such as hardware, woollens, and cotton, in which we possess local and permanent advantages. The principle of this reasoning is incontrovertible, but its practical application should be a work of= care and caution; for were we at present to our ports to the import of goods manufactured abroad, our countrymen would emigrate by thou. maids to the Continent, for the mere purpose of la bouring in untaxed countries for the supply of the British market.
VIII.--Commerce and Shipping.
Much of what relates to the Commerce of Eng. land has been already treated under the preceding section; and the colonial part of our trade shall be noticed in the next: At present, we are to exhibit a brief sketch of our commercial intercourse with Ire land and the Continents of Europe and America.
With Ireland, the intercourse of England is very great; that country sending us linen, cotton, salted provisions, and butter, to the amount of six or seven millions annually, and taking largely, in return, our manufactures, particularly cotton, woollen, and hard. ware.