COTTON FAMINE, The history of manufacturing industry does not present a more strikin; episode than that which was connected with the effects of the civil war iu America on the cotton manufactures of Great Britain in 1861 and following years.
The years 1859 and 1860, unparalleled for the magnitude of the cotton manufacture, had much to do with the collapse that followed. So rapidly has this branch of indus try increased in Lancashire, that the immigrants into that county from other districts have varied from 10,00J to 20,000 a year for a long series of years, irrespective of the natural increase of population by the excess of births over deaths. The imports of raw cotton, the exports of manufactured cotton, the number of mills, the number of hands, all were at their maximum in 1860. The imports were 1390 million lbs., of which 1054 millions were worked up in Great Britain. There were 1020 mills in' Lancashire, 275 in the adjacent portions of Cheshire and Derbyshire, and enough elsewhere to make up a total of 2,650. Thet'e were 440,000 hands employed in these mills; by age, 90 per cent adults and young persons, and 10 per cent children; by sex, 44 per cent males, and 56 females. The machinery was worked by steam-engines having an aggregate of 300,000 horse-power. There were more than 30,000,000 spindles, making from 4,000 to 6,000 revolutions per minute; and 830,000 power-looms. The fixed capital in mills and machinery was valued at £34,000,000; while the money paid for wages in that year was £11,500,000. The cotton goods of various kinds manufactured for home consump tion used up 180 million lbs. of cotton, and were valued at £24,000,000; while the exported goods—consisting of 2,776 million yards of calico, muslins, etc., and 197 million lbs, of yarn—were valued at the enormous sum of 230,000,000; besides £2,000, 000 more for cotton hosiery and small wares. The total value for home consump tion and export, 270,000,000, exceeded the total imperial revenue for that year. Con sidering that, of 1300 million lbs. imported, no less a weight than 1120 millions came from the United States, there is at once evidence afforded of the tremendous effect that would he produced by any stoppage in the American cotton-trade. Irrespective of this, however, there would have been a stagnation in our manufacturing districts in 1861, even if raw cotton had been plentiful and cheap. The manufacturers had glutted all the markets by the wholly unprecedented extent of their operations in 1860. The English warehouses, as well as those elsewhere, were full; and time was needed to carry off the immense stock. There were cotton goods on hand in Great Britain at the end of the year valued at £20,000,000; while in India our merchants continued to pour in goods even when the consignments of 180) exceeded £17,000,000.
Fort Sumpter was bombarded in April, 1861. This was virtually the beginning of
the American civil war, and the beginning also of the rise in the price of cotton. A blockade was early established by the federal government of Washington; and it was only by "running" this blockade that cotton-laden ships could clear from the southern or confederate ports. The price of middling Orleans (the kind of cotton mostly used, and that which governs the price of all other kinds) rose from '7fd. to 9d., 10d., and 121., as the year advanced. There was thus a twofold motive for lessening the opera tions of the Lancashire mills—the markets were so fully supplied with manufactured. goods, that no immediate augmentation was necessary; while the increase in the price of the raw material rendered manufacturing less profitable than before. The LiN erpool dealers made colossal fortunes by the enormous rise in price of every bale of cotton which could reach the country from any quarter; while the manufacturers were also prosperous, because they could sell their 'accumulated stocks of calicoes and yarns at much higher prices than had been obtainable in 1860. It was the operatives who suf fered. One by one, the mills Were putupon half-time, because the mill-owners had not much inducement to spin and weave, under the extraordinary double influence above adverted to. It was not until autumn, however, that these effects were heavily felt, when there was the enormous quantity of 1000 million lbs. of cotton, raw and manufac tured, on hand in Great Britain. When half-time began at the mills in Oct., there were, in Lancashire and the two neighboring counties, 593 weaving-mills, 635 spinning and weaving mills, and 152 other cotton-mills of miscellaneous kinds, employing 339,453 factory-hands; and all these four classes of establishments became equally embarrassed. India or Surat cotton could still be had in considerable quantity, at 101. per lb. instead of its former price of 6d.; but it was greatly out of favor, on account of its dirty condition and the shortness and hardness of its staple. In Nov., there were 49 mills stopped, 8,063 hands, while 119 were working half•time—placiir some thing; like 20,000 persons on half their usual wages. In Dec., middling Orleans rose to 12d. So singular was the state of things, and so unlike what would be called a •' famine," under other circumstances, that the actual quantity of raw cotton in Great Britain at the end of the year (280 million lbs.) was greater than ever before known in the history of the trade; but as the market-priee of yarns and piece-goods at that time scarcely equaled that of raw cotton, plus wages, the manufacturer could scarcely operate without a loss; and, therefore, lie either closed his mill. or placed his hands on half-time. It was not so much a famine of cotton as a famine of employment.