ACCOUNT of the Quantity and Real Value of British Woollen Manufactures exported from the United Kingdom in the Year 1837, specifying the Countries to which they were exported, and the Quantity and Value of those exported to each.-(Parl. Paper, No. 340. Sess. 1838.) 79 15 101 Isles--Guernsey, 2,893 ney and Man 3,563 83,754 Total -387,785 23,605 22,930 43,477 1,041,636 1,685,457|2,431,683753,964 1,051,972 74,947 0 92,617 17,010 91,984 73,330 3,065 0 3,072 23,624 24,633 86 89 0 2,387 43.06 4,635, Imports of Foreign Wool. We have already seen (antè, p. 496.), that the entire produce of British and Irish wool may be estimated at about 500,000 or 520,000 packs of 240 lbs. each. But, exclusive of this, we use large supplies of foreign wool, English wool not being suitable, at least without an intermixture of foreign, for various departments of the manufacture. Formerly the principal part of our imports came from Spain; but the late King of Saxony, when elector, introduced the breed of Merino sheep into his dominions, and exerted himself to promote their growth. His praiseworthy efforts were crowned with the most signal success. The Merino sheep seem to succeed better in Saxony, and other German states, than in Spain; and since the peace of 1815, the imports from the latter have been inconsiderable compared with those from the former. The Australian colonies, also, have recently been rising into very great importance as wool-growing countries. We subjoin ACCOUNT of the Quantity of Sheep and Lambs' Wool imported into the United Kingdom in the year 1837; specifying the Countries from which it came, the Quantity brought from each, the Quantity that paid a Duty of one Penny per Pound, and the Quantity that paid a Duty of one Halfpenny per Pound; of the Quantity of Foreign Wool re-exported during the same Period, and the Countries to which it was sent, and of the Quantity remaining warehoused under Bond on 5th January, 1838. (Parl. Paper, No. 340. Sess. 1838.) 1837. Quantities of Sheep and Lambs' Wool imported into the United Kingdom from Quantity of Foreign Sheep and Lambs' Wool retained for Home Consumption. Quantities of Foreign Sheep and Lambs' Wool re-exported. Lbs. 52,012 128,938 1,174,769 1,018,080 1,428 70,139 9,167 United States of America To Lbs. 372,143 British N. American Colonies Quantity of foreign sheep and lambs' wool remaining housed under bond on 5th January, 1838 9,078,267 lbs. During the same year there were exported 2,647,874 lbs. British wool, and 2,513,718 lbs. woollen in worsted yarn. Value of the Manufacture.-Number of Persons employed. The most discordant estimates have been given as to both these points. For the most part, however, they have been grossly exaggerated. In a tract published in 1739, entitled Considerations on the Running In (Smugging) of Wool, the number of persons engaged in the manufacture is stated at 1,500,000, and their wages at 11,737,500l. a-year. Dr. Campbell, in his Political Survey of Great Britain, published in 1774, observes, "Many computations have been made upon this important subject, and, amongst others, one, about 30 years since, which, at that time, was thought to be pretty near the truth. According to the best information that can be obtained, there may be from 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 sheep in England some think more. The value of their wool may, one year with another, amount to 3,000,000%; the expense of manufacturing this may probably be 9,000.000l.; and the total value 12,000,000l. We may export annually to the value of 3,000,000l., though one year we exported more than 4,000,000! reference to the number of persons who are maintained by this manufacture, they are probably upwards of 1,000,000. Sanguine men will judge these computations too low, and few will believe them too high." -(Vol. ii. p. 158.) But the moderation displayed in this estimate was very soon lost sight of. In 1800 the woollen manufacturers objected i strenuously to some of the provisions in the treaty of union between Great Britain and Ireland, and were allowed to urge their objections at the bar of the House of Lords, and to produce evidence in their support. Mr. Law (afterwards Lord Ellenborough), the counsel employed by the manufacturers on this occasion, stated, in his address to their lordships, on information communicated to him by his clients, that 600,000 packs of wool were annually produced in England and Wales, worth, at 117. a pack, 6,600,000l.; that the value of the manufactured goods was 3 times as great, or 19,800,000Z.; that not less than 1,500,000 persons were immediately engaged in the operative branches of the manufacture; and that the trade collaterally employed about the same number of hands. -(Account of the Proceedings of the Merchants, Manufacturers, &c. p. 34.) It is astonishing that reasonable men, conversant with the manufacture, should have put forth such ludicrously absurd statements. We have already seen that the quantity of wool produced in England and Wales in 1800 did not really amount to 400,000 packs; and the notion that three out of the nine millions of people then in the country were directly and indirectly employed in the manufacture is too ridiculous to deserve notice, though it was generally acquiesced in at the time. (See Middleton's Survey of Middlesex, 2d ed. p. 644.; Adolphus's Political State of the British Empire, vol. iii. p. 236.) Mr. Stevenson, who is one of the very few writers on British statistics to whose statements much deference is due, has given the fol lowing estimate of the value of the woollen manufactured goods annually produced in England and Wales, and of the interest, &c. of the capital, the wages, and the number of persons employed in the manufacture: -£18,000,000 Number of people employed, 480,000, or, perhaps, 500,000. But even this estimate requires to be materially modified. Since 1815, when it was made, the manufacture has materially increased. This is evinced, as well by the increase in the growth and in the importation of wool, as by the increase of population and of the exports of of cloth and stuffs. The annual production of wool in Great Britain may, at present, be estimated at about 490,000 packs, or 117,600,000 lbs. ; to which adding 30,000,000 lbs. as the average amount of imports, the whole will be 147,600,000 lbs. The value of the wool must, of course, vary from year to year with the variations of its price; but we shall seldom be far wrong if we estimate it, at a medium, at about 7,500,000%. a-year. Now, the best practical authorities agree in opinion with Mr. Stevenson, that the value of the finished article may be taken at about 3 times the value of the raw material; making, on this hypothesis, the entire value of the manufacture 22,500,000l., which we are disposed to think is pretty near the mark. There can be no doubt, however, that Mr. Stevenson's distribution of the items that make up the value of the manufactured goods is essentially erroneous. According to our information, they may be stated as follows: At present the average wages of the people employed in the different departments of the business may be taken at about 267. a year, making the total number employed 334,600. And, however small this may look, as compared with former estimates, we believe it is fully up to the mark, if not rather beyond it. Notwithstanding the carding engine, the spinning frame, the gig or raising machine, the shearing machine, brushing machine, &c., have been mostly introduced since 1790, it is the opinion of some well-informed manufacturers, that as many hands are at present required to produce the same quantity of cloth as at the last mentioned epoch. This result, so different from what might be expected, is accounted for by the fact, that a great deal more work is now expended upon the cloth; the appearance of which has been vastly improved. In 1793 cloth of a medium quality, worth at the time about 13s. a yard, was made of the best English wool. In 1815 middling cloth was made of Spanish wool, and cost 16s. or 17s. a yard; while in 1832 similar cloth was made of German, and cost about 12s. a yard: but, owing to the improvement of the manufacture, cloth produced in 1832, though not actually finer than that produced in 1793, had a great deal better appearance; so much so, that we have been assured by undoubted judges, that cloth worth only 10s. a yard in the former year looked quite as well as cloth worth 13s. in the latter. The deterioration in the quality of English wool, occasioned by the farmers having laboured to increase the carcass, though at the expense of the fleece, is the reason that it is now seldom used, unless mixed with foreign wool in the manufacture of the finer cloths.-(Private Information.) - Distribution of the Manufacture.- Factory and domestic Systems, &c. The principal seats of that branch of the manufacture which is especially denominated woollen are the West Riding of Yorkshire, and the counties of Gloucester, Wilts, and Somerset. Worsteds used to be principally manufactured in Norfolk; but they are now produced at Bradford, Halifax, and Leeds, but especially the first, to a much greater extent than in Norfolk. Stockings are mostly made in Leicestershire. The manufacturing district of the West Riding of Yorkshire being, with the exception of that of Lancashire, by far the most important of any in the kingdom, extends from north to south about 40, its mean width being about 20, miles, including an area of nearly 800 square miles; but this space comprises the hardware manufacturing district contiguous to Sheffield, as well as the clothing district. The latter commences below Craven, and extends over a tract of which Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, and Wakefield, are the principal centres. Cloth is the chief article manufactured in this district, the greater part being made in the neighbourhood of Leeds, Wakefield, Huddersfield, and Saddleworth. Leeds, in particular, is the grand mart for coloured and white broad cloths. The former, which are usually called mixed cloths, are made wholly of dyed wool. The mixed cloth manufacturers reside partly in the villages belonging to the parish of Leeds, but chiefly at Morley, Gildersome, Adwalton, Driglington, Pudsey, Farsley, Calverley, Eccleshill, Idle, Baildon, Yeadon, Guiseley, Rawden, and Horsforth, in or bordering upon the vale of the Aire, principally to the west of Leeds; and at Batley, Dewsbury, Osset, Horbury, and Kirkburton, west of Wakefield, in or near the valley of the Calder. Very few mixed cloth manufacturers are to be found to the east and north of Leeds, and there are but few in the town itself. White cloth is principally manufactured at Alverthorpe, Osset, Kirkheaton, Dewsbury, Batley, Birstal, Hopton, Mirfield, Eccleshill, Cleckheaton, Bowling, and Shipley, a tract of country forming an oblique belt across the hills that separate the vale of the Calder from the vale of the Aire, beginning about a mile west of Wakefield, leaving Huddersfield and Bradford a little to the left, terminating at Shipley on the Aire, and not coming within less than 6 miles of Leeds on the right. The districts of the mixed and white cloth are in general distinct and separate, but in some places, particularly at their southeast and south-west extremities, they run into each other. Flannels and baizes are the principal woollen articles manufactured in and near Halifax; but cloth, especially of the kind used by the army, is also largely made. The blanket and flushing line lies between Leeds and Huddersfield. Worsted spinning is carried on upon a very large scale, and to the exclusion of almost every thing else, at Bradford; stuffs being made in its vicinity, and in Halifax and Leeds. Narrow cloths are made in and near Huddersfield. Saddleworth furnishes broad cloths of nearly equal fineness to those of the west of England, with kerseymeres, &c. White cloths are made at Wakefield; but it is principally distinguished by its wool-market, and the superior skill of its cloth-dyers. In the neighbourhood of Batley and Dewsbury are establishments called shoddy mills, employed in the manufacture of yarn |