THE DAYS OF BIG FORTUNES.

It is undoubtedly true that big fortunes are no longer made in the cotton trade, or at any rate not so rapidly as in the days when cotton spinners waxed fat on the labour of tiny children who had to be flogged to keep them awake. It is also true that many joint-stock spinning companies have paid no dividends, and that many have collapsed altogether. But those who know anything of Lancashire know that a very large number of these companies were not started in response to any real increase in the demand for cotton goods, nor on account of any genuine anticipation of such an increase. They were started, as a good many companies are started in a county south of Lancashire, in order to put money into the promoters’ pockets. Having served that purpose they were allowed quietly to collapse. Lancashire does not miss them. That the cotton trade, as a whole, is in a healthy condition in spite of these manœuvres of the company-promoter will be seen from the figures relating to cotton in the following table, and from the diagram that illustrates them:—

Textiles.

Yarns. Ten Years’ Exports. In Millions of Lbs.

1886188718881889189018911892189318941895
Cotton254251256252258245233207236252
Jute31242734343326293535
Linen16161514151515161617
Silk·6·6·6·8·81·0·7·8·8·7
Woollen46404345414145505361

Piece Goods, etc. Ten Years’ Exports. In Millions of Yards.

1886188718881889189018911892189318941895
Cotton4,8504,9045,0385,0015,1254,9124,8734,6525,3125,033
Jute216244232265274284266265233255
Linen164164177181184159171158156204
Silk778101066667
Woollen[2]273281264268253223213194168242

[2] Includes “Woollen Tissues,” “Worsted Coatings and Stuffs,” “Damasks, Tapestry, and Mohair Plushes,” “Flannels,” and “Carpets and Druggets.”

The figures for cotton piece goods may be illustrated as follows:—

LINEN, SILK, AND WOOLLENS.

So much for cotton! With regard to linen, it is unnecessary to follow in detail what Mr. Williams says, for he himself admits that the decline which has taken place since the ’sixties is largely due to a change in fashion, jute and cotton goods taking the place of linen. In the last decade, however, as will be seen from the above table, the linen industry has held its own. With regard to silk, the figures show that there is no cause for serious alarm. In woollens, on the other hand, there is apparently better ground for Mr. Williams’s mourning. The table on the preceding page points to a distinct downward tendency in our export of woollen manufactures, a tendency which has been only partly checked by the inflation of 1895. If this were the whole truth about our woollen trade, it might be conceded that here at any rate Mr. Williams had made out his case. But it is not the whole truth. Almost pari passu with this decline in our export of woollens, which began some twenty years back, there has been a steady increase in the consumption of our woollen manufactures by our own people, and this increased home demand has more than made good the decline in the foreign demand.