MACHINERY AND STEAM ENGINES.
It is becoming monotonous to follow Mr. Williams in detail through his ingenious misrepresentations. I will therefore hastily pass over the many pages which he devotes to “black-listing” sundry iron and steel manufactures. His black list, which includes “steam engines,” “other machinery,” and “tools and implements” of industry, is arrived at by giving only the figures for 1890 onwards and ignoring the preceding years. The unfairness of this procedure need not be again pointed out. The figures for a decade, or for a longer period, show that trade moves up and down, and that a depression in one year or group of years is succeeded by an elevation a few years later. Throughout his book, in instances too numerous to be especially mentioned, Mr. Williams has persistently ignored this obvious fact. Again and again he has picked out years favourable to his argument, while even a cursory glance at a series of years must have shown him that the truth was the exact opposite to his representation of the facts. Here are the figures for the last fourteen years, showing the relative progress of Great Britain and Germany in the export of all kinds of machinery, including the domestic sewing machine and the locomotive engine.
Exports of Machinery of All Kinds.
(Including Steam Engines and Sewing Machines.)
In Millions Sterling.
| 1882 | 1883 | 1884 | 1885 | 1886 | 1887 | 1888 | 1889 | 1890 | 1891 | 1892 | 1893 | 1894 | 1895 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From United Kingdom | 11·9 | 13·5 | 13·2 | 11·2 | 10·2 | 11·1 | 12·9 | 15·3 | 16·4 | 15·7 | 13·9 | 13·8 | 14·2 | 15·0 |
| From Germany | 3·1 | 3·3 | 2·8 | 2·5 | 2·4 | 2·6 | 2·8 | 3·1 | 3·3 | 3·3 | 3·1 | 3·2 | 3·9 | — |