General prospects of the iron trade.
It remains to consider how far the apprehensions, entertained in many quarters for the future of the British iron manufacture, are justified by actual experience. When we look back upon the past, the growth of British commerce cannot fail to reassure those, who are most inclined to look doubtfully on the future of our industry. Some statistics of the increase in the exports of iron and steel were given in a recent number of ‘Iron,’ from which I quote the following figures. Our exports of iron in 1840 amounted to 268,000 tons, of the value of £2,526,000. The quantity in 1850 was 783,000 tons; in 1860, 1,442,000 tons; and in 1870, 2,716,000 tons. The value in the latter year amounted to £21,080,000. In 1872 the quantity was 3,383,000 tons, the value of £36,000,000. We are sometimes assured that Belgium threatens our ironmasters with serious competition; but in Belgium the ore must be carried 100 miles or more to be smelted. The coal-pits are worked in many cases with considerable difficulty, and a Belgian workman does little more than half what an Englishman can accomplish in the same space of time. Sometimes we are told we shall lose our position in the Russian market. The Russian Government are doing their utmost to encourage the manufacture of iron at home; though there is little demand for pig iron in that country. Few Russians have had any experience in puddling. Skilled mill and forge men are scarce. Few of those obtainable have had any experience in the use of mineral fuel, and great difficulty is experienced in consequence of the objection of the Russians to piece-work. Lastly we are threatened with competition from the United States. The production of pig iron in the States may now be estimated at 2,500,000 tons, an increase of 1,000,000 tons on the production five years ago, and yet the ironmasters of the United States, who are protected by a duty of nearly £3 a ton on railroad iron, have hitherto been unable to supply the entire demand at home. There cannot be a doubt as to the ultimate consequences of the comparative exhaustion of our supplies of raw material at home; but we may hope that the tariffs, which now throw obstacles in the way of legitimate trade, will in time be removed, and that, as Mr. Mattieu Williams has suggested, we may be enabled to avail ourselves of the natural resources of America for obtaining our supplies of raw material, just as we already derive large supplies of hematite iron ore from Bilbao.