compared with that of England.

British

nance.

'While these figures show a steady increase they are utterly unsatisfactory when compared with the magnitude of the lucrative commerce England has with Australia, and which is now largely transacted by means of correspondence carried across our territory as the shortest route to reach her distant Pacific colonies. During the five years ending with 1876 her commerce with Australia has averaged 98 dol. 36 c. per capita per annum of the population of those colonies, while our commerce with them for the same period has amounted to an average of but 2 dol. 84 c. per capita per annum. England's exports thither have been 42 dol. 26 c. per capita, while ours have been but 1 dol. 61 c. per capita, and her imports 56 dol. 10 c. per capita, while ours have been but 1 dol. 23 c. per capita.'

The aggregate trade of England in machinery is predomi- incomparably greater than that of France or the United States. The value of the total exportation of machinery from the United Kingdom in 1877 was 6,700,000l. The exportation of machinery from the United States in the same period was under 700,000l. Our exportation reached a total of 9,000,000l. in 1875. The American exportation had fallen from a maximum of 1,020,000l. The total exportation of metal wares from France in 1877 was under 2,000,000l. The exportation from the United Kingdom was over 26,700,000l. The inference to be drawn from these comparisons is clear. We may have lost ground in certain special competitions; but we are still doing an immensely larger trade than any other country.

of the

manufac

turer.

In their last report on the engineering trade, Messrs. Matheson & Grant, of 32 Walbrook, remark: There is no doubt that individual trades will be Position closely pressed by foreign competition, and if with a British fair field the English makers allow themselves to be beaten, it is for the general good of the country at large that it should be so, and that prices unnecessarily high should not be paid. But though American tools, German hardware, or Belgian joist-iron of doubtful quality may be sold at low prices in England and in the colonies, such isolated instances afford no real criterion for estimating the staple manufactures of the country, and though England will not again enjoy a monopoly of the engineering trades, the resources and ability available are far too great to justify any anxiety that the extension of trade will cease. Nowhere is capital so abundant and powerful, coal and iron so plentiful or so well placed, and facilities for shipment so great as in England; and if the cost of labour be measured by the value of products, and not by the mere rates of wages, the English workman still distances all competitors. The low prices of goods sold by German and American manufacturers, which are from time to time quoted as proofs of British degeneracy, do not alone afford much clue, for English manufacturers are in the present time stronger to withstand the stress of enforced idleness than their rivals; and both in Germany and in the United States the immediate needs of joint-stock manufacturing companies render the prices and terms at which contracts have been made utterly fallacious as a measure of trade.'

German

contracts

executed

The following observations are are taken from Iron' It is no secret that one of the greatest, if not

from Eng- the greatest iron house in Germany, fills its orders

land.

Our success in neutral markets.

Ехсерtional

nature of

competi

tion.

by supplies from England. It is well known that the maker of an engine, or a sword, or a watch, is not always the person whose name is on the plate, and that a great German house imports from this country many of the goods it contracts to deliver.'

If we examine the general condition of the iron manufacture in foreign countries, we find that every country is becoming more capable of satisfying the demands of its own market. ing difficulty in contending duties behind which our rivals have taken shelter; but we are rarely beaten in the neutral markets.

We experience an increasagainst the heavy import

Messrs. Fallows sum up their views of the situation in the iron trade in the following terms: The depression in England has been aggravated to some extent by foreign competition, other countries having been stimulated to find outlets for their surplus production, but much of this competition is understood to be of an exceptional character, and not likely to be permanently maintained. The following figures show the total import of foreign iron into the United Kingdom during the years:

The figures of iron in bars include a large quantity

of Swedish iron (probably not less than 60,000 tons) imported for the use of Sheffield steel manufacturers and for re-export, which cannot be said to compete with English makers. There is, however, a large increase under the head of "Iron and Steel, Wrought and Manufactured," which seems to indicate that the more labour is expended on any article the less able we appear to meet the competition of foreigners.'

metal

and me

An elaborate paper was prepared for the recent British meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute in Paris by Pro- lurgical fessor Akerman, of the School of Mines at Stockholm. chanical The paper gave a general review of the exhibits of progress. iron and steel at Paris. The author directs attention to all the most important inventions of the present day in connection with the industry of which he treats. The names of the English manufacturers, including foreigners who have made England the land of their adoption, hold a place of honour in that record of metallurgical discoveries and improvements. The author alludes in befitting terms of commendation to Mr. Bessemer's process, by which steel rails have supplanted rails of puddled iron; to the Siemens-Martin process, which has led to still further substitutions of a lighter, stronger, and more durable metal for ordinary iron; to the success achieved by Messrs. Hopkins and Gilkes in freeing the Cleveland iron from phosphorus by adding rich iron ore or other materials rich in oxidised iron during the puddling; to the efforts of Mr. Lowthian Bell in the same direction; and to the process adopted by Sir Joseph Whitworth for preventing the formation. of blow holes in steel by hydraulic pressure. We may

Mr. Lowthian

Bell's report on foreign manufac

turing pro

cesses.

venture to set the labours of those men side by side with the armour-plates of M. Marrel, which exhibited such fine quality at Spezzia, and the admirable productions of Creusot and Herr Krupp, in the firm conviction that the United Kingdom has done her part in the progressive development of metallurgy. If we pass from iron making to machinery, the names of Armstrong, Whitworth, and Rendel, of Penn and Platt, and a long roll of illustrious mechanics should suffice to remove all misgivings as to our capability of sustaining foreign competition.

During the former exhibition, held in Paris in 1867, Mr. Lowthian Bell undertook a journey for the express object of ascertaining what grounds existed for the alarming assertions, so frequently urged at that time, as to the rapid gain which foreign manufacturers were making on our old-established industry. The result was published in a pamphlet entitled Our Foreign Competitors in the Iron Trade,' from which the following passages have been extracted. Mr. Lowthian Bell, in company with Mr. Lancaster, having visited the largest collieries in France, Belgium, and Westphalia, reported that these investigations failed entirely to convince either my companion or myself, that there was to be found the smallest reason for the sweeping conclusions arrived at by those who assigned to us a lower place than that accorded to our foreign competitors.

'It might have been fairly put to us, "How is it that you, with as fine coal fields and as rich beds of ore as are to be found in the world, permit yourselves to be