studied. The following valuable details, showing the
reductions in the cost of labour, were given by the
'Times' correspondent, from whom I have already
quoted-In 1875 the average annual earning of
females engaged in the cotton trade of Massachusetts
was $199 currency (or about 371.) gained by the
labour of 238 days. The earning of males was $443
(or about 821.) gained by the labour of 252 days.
Two years later-in 1877-wages had fallen 9 per
cent., and the working time had increased by 5 days.
The working time in 1877 was therefore 243 days for
females and 257 for males, and the wages earned were
about 331. and 75l. respectively, yielding an average,
for the numbers actually employed, of 50l. 10s. for
249 days. The Massachusetts working day in all
industries (we have no separate return for cotton)
averages 10-21 hours for males and 10-49 for females.
The English working day is 9 hours. In Blackburn,
where the operatives are reputedly of a superior
class, the average weekly earning for male and female
together, and counting two half-timers as one, is 19s.,
which would yield 427. 14s. for 249 working days
of the American length. These data form a very
imperfect basis of comparison, but they favour the
conclusion that factory labour when calculated by a
fixed period, as an hour, and not by a period of
varying duration, as a day or week, will be found to
cost about 20 per cent. more in America than in
England.'

With reference to the advance in the productive Productive capability of the American operative the same authority of the

capability

operative.

American gives the following details:-'In 1853 the average English production per weaver of 8 lb. shirting was 825 yards per week of 60 hours. In 1878 the working hours had fallen to 57, and the production had risen to 975 yards. An increased production of 23 per cent. is thus due to improvement in the processes of manufacture.

strikes.

In 1865 there were 24,151 persons employed in Massachusetts in the production of cotton goods, and they produced 175,000,000 yards. In 1875 the operatives numbered 60,176, and their product was 874,000,000 yards. The operatives had increased 150 per cent., and their products had increased 500 per

cent.

The increase of production due to improved methods was thus in England 23 per cent., and in Massachusetts 100 per cent. I do not, of course, suppose that the American manufacturer is in advance of his English rival to the extent of this difference, for presume that he started upon the career of improvement from a lower platform. But a progress so greatly more rapid than ours will be admitted to cast much. light on the change which has occurred in our relative positions.'

I

Sequel In England the work-people have succumbed to the of the Lancashire pressure of hard times. The last two ill-advised strikes in Oldham have been followed by a reduction of 15 per cent. in wages, while in North-East Lancashire the reduction has amounted to 10 per cent.

Export

trade of

An impetus has been given to the export trade of the United States through the reduced cost of production.

States.

The shipments, which had been 12,000,000 yards in the United 1872, were 106,000,000 in 1877, and they still increase. The Economist' has given the values of cotton manufactures exported from the States in the year of the panic, and for the last two seasons:

The following table is taken from the 'Statist :'

Exports from New York of Domestic Cotton Piece Goods.

From an aggregate value of 250,000l. in 1873, these exports advanced to 1,400,000l. in 1878. But the rate of increase in the export trade from New York was last year small, and with the profitless manufactures of Lancashire now to contend against, it will hardly continue.'

textile

My own experience of the quality of the textiles Inferior quality of exported from the United States is unfavourable. American When the 'Sunbeam' was at Valparaiso, a bale of dun- fabrics. garee was purchased, and the seamen were fitted out with new suits of working clothes. On the first occasion after we put to sea, when the hands were ordered aloft, the inferior quality of our American purchase was detected. The men descended to the deck in rags. English dungaree would have lasted for weeks, even months.

Insignifi

cance of

compared

with

British exports.

Taking a general view of the American export trade, it will be admitted that, while the percentage of increase is very considerable, yet the aggregate export is small, when compared with the trade of the United Kingdom. We exported in 1877 of cotton piece goods 3,837,821,000 yards, and in 1878 3,618,126,000 yards.

The comparative insignificance of the export trade American from the United States is proved by the figures quoted by Professor Fawcett in his lecture on the present commercial depression. He gives the value of the manufacture of cotton exported from England at 67,640,000l. as against 1,540,000l. exported from the United States. The Statist' has published a table giving the export of piece goods and yarns to France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, and Austria. The quantities are given in millions of yards and pounds, for 1861 and for the last ten seasons, ending with September 30 in each year.

These figures give our exportations to those countries only where we have to contend with heavy

protectionist tariffs; yet even to these comparatively

limited markets for our goods the aggregate quantity of our exportation is forty-three and a half times as large as the entire exportation from the United States.

stimula

Indications are not wanting that the export trade Artificial of the United States has been to some extent inflated tion. by the same fictitious system of credits and advances, which has been suffered to grow up with such mischievous consequences in many branches of the export trade of the United Kingdom, especially in our trade with the East.

In a paper lately published in the Contemporary Review,' Mr. Henderson describes the system, pursued by the manufacturers of the United States, of disposing of goods, for which no market could be found at home, in Canada, at prices considerably below the current quotations in Boston and New York. This reckless sacrifice of manufactured goods at any price is called 'slaughtering,' and necessarily culminates in the bankruptcy of the vendors.

of compe

The Economist' sums up an exhaustive comparison Conditions of the condition and prospects of the cotton manufac- tition. tures in the United States and Great Britain as follows: 'It seems not unlikely that American competition will be especially felt in our two leading industries-cotton and iron. In the first, the American manufacturer starts with a slight advantage in the cost of the raw material, the freight from the Southern plantations to the mills in New England being somewhat less than to Liverpool. This, however, is balanced by the superior fitness of our climate for spinning, owing to its humidity. The cost of working the machinery is