380. The textiles; changes in relative importance.—In this brief survey only two more classes of wares may be noted, the textiles, and colonial products. Trade in wares of both these classes has undergone a great development and important transformation in the course of the century, though it presents no such revolutionary changes as in the case of wares described above.

The textiles have continued to be among the most important wares of commerce. A population, advancing rapidly not only in numbers but in average purchasing power, has demanded constantly increasing supplies of clothing material. There has been, however, a noteworthy change in the kind of fabric demanded. Measuring by the weight of the raw material consumed, the English textiles about 1800 were composed as follows: over two fifths woolen, over two fifths linen, considerably less than one fifth cotton. Note now the change as shown by conditions about 1880: wool made up one fifth of the total, linen little more than one tenth, while cotton had risen to two thirds. For some purposes cotton fabrics are better than those of any other material, for other purposes they present a cheap and satisfactory substitute; and consequently they have been able to displace other textiles to a large extent.

381. Commerce in raw materials for the textile manufacture.—The rise in importance of cotton is partly, not entirely, responsible for a great change in the character of the textile trade. With the exception of silk, which has always, because of its high price, been of restricted use, the raw materials for the textiles had formerly been produced in the country of manufacture. England and the Netherlands, it is true, had begun before 1800 to import wool from Spain, but wool was then an object of internal rather than foreign trade, in general, and flax was raised for home consumption in practically all the European countries. The introduction of the cotton manufacture in Europe introduced a change, for in the case of this textile the raw material as well as the finished product was necessarily a ware of foreign trade. The past century has witnessed a vast increase in the commerce in raw cotton, and, moreover, the establishment of an important trade in raw wool. In 1850 Europe still supplied four fifths of the wool consumed, and has continued since that date to produce about the same quantity as then. The proportion which it contributes to the total supply has, however, declined to less than one third. There has been an immense increase in the production of wool in South America and Australia, and a less notable advance in the amounts furnished by Africa and Asia. At the present time, therefore, raw wool flows to Europe from all the other continents, and returns to them in the form of finished goods.

382. Colonial products.—The last class of wares to engage our attention will be that of the so-called colonial products, of which tea, coffee, and sugar are familiar examples. The wares received their name because, before 1800, Europe depended entirely on distant parts of the world for their supply. The reader will remember what an important part they played in the commerce of countries like England and France, in the modern period.

At least one ware of considerable commercial importance has been added to the list of colonial products in the course of the century. Rubber (using that word to cover also gutta-percha, an article with somewhat different qualities), counted for little in commerce before 1830. Soon after that time, however, it was regarded as “promising,” and the discovery of the vulcanizing process by Goodyear enabled manufacturers to gain the full benefit of its valuable qualities, elasticity, impermeability, etc. It is now an indispensable article in many applications, and though the production has risen to a hundred million pounds a year the demand for it has increased still more rapidly, and the price has risen.

The old wares have not only retained but also increased their importance as elements in human consumption. The people of Germany consumed, on an individual average, about 2 pounds of coffee in 1840, 6 pounds in 1900; 4 pounds of sugar in 1840, 30 pounds in 1900. Figures from other countries present, with some variations, the same growth in demand. The people of the United States now demand over 10 pounds of coffee per capita, and over 70 pounds of sugar.

383. Rise of beet sugar, and effect on commerce.—One of the colonial wares, sugar, demands special attention. The methods of production have undergone a complete change in the course of the century, and the former currents of trade in sugar have, in some cases, actually been reversed. Before 1800 people relied entirely for their sugar supply on the cane plantations of the colonies. It was known already, however, that beets contained a large percentage of sugar, and during the Napoleonic wars, when the Continent was closed in large part to colonial imports, an attempt was made to secure sugar from this native source of supply. The attempt was sufficiently successful to stimulate further efforts. With the aid of liberal protection from the governments a beet sugar industry was established on the Continent in the first half of the century. That industry supplied in 1860 one quarter of the total amount of the sugar of the world, in 1882 one half, in 1900 nearly two thirds.

The change in the method of manufacturing sugar has had far-reaching effects on commerce. Countries with cane plantations have seen the price of sugar fall under the increased output of European factories, equipped and operated with scientific accuracy; they have lost a large part of their former market; some of them have been almost ruined. England, which once made great profit by importing cane sugar and distributing it among the other European countries, now, on the contrary, goes to the Continent for the larger part of its sugar supply; and continental states like Germany and France export sugar instead of importing it.

384. The European sugar bounty system.—The reader should, however, note carefully that these changes were due in large part to a system of protection which had grown to formidable proportions. European governments have found in sugar a convenient object of taxation, but have desired at the same time to further the growth of the home sugar industry, and to secure for it a market in foreign countries. They have sought to combine the two objects by taxing the home consumer, and by remitting the tax and giving special premiums to the exporter. A pound of sugar cost far more in a country of Europe where it was manufactured, than in the country to which it was exported; every pound sold at home had to bear a tax, and every pound sent abroad received a premium which enabled it to be sold more cheaply. The orange marmalade industry, for which the town of Dundee is famous, could flourish in spite of the expense of transporting the fruit from Spain to Scotland, because sugar was artificially cheap in the English market. Such a condition of affairs was admitted to be unwholesome; in some aspects it became absurd. The burden of the bounty system became intolerable and the governments of the Continent agreed upon measures of reform, which went into effect in 1903.

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS