The students should note several characteristic features of this balance sheet. (1) Only the items at the head of the columns are measured accurately: the others are “invisible” items, represented only by pieces of paper passing through the mail, but these are, pound for pound, of equal importance. (2) The inflow and outflow of bullion are large items, but nearly balance; England has acted as a clearing house for the payments of the world’s debts, and the distribution of the world’s gold. (3) In this period England re-invested in other countries most of the great sum due in interest and dividends. The English investor may be pictured as receiving a dividend check from the United States or South America, and as mailing it back instead of cashing it, asking that it be added to the capital sum of his investment.
449. Growth of the merchant marine.—England was the leader among nations in the carrying trade in 1850, and retained her position still unchallenged at the close of the century. At the outbreak of the war in 1914 nearly half of the world’s steam tonnage was under the British flag; the tonnage of Germany, which came second on the list of countries, was not one-fourth of the British. The number of ships in the English merchant marine has actually decreased in this period of progress, but the carrying capacity has grown immensely by the increase in size of the ships and by the substitution of steam for sailing vessels. It will be remembered that the protection afforded by the navigation acts was removed before the beginning of this period. The government has made generous payments for the carriage of mails, but still has refused to pay regular subsidies or bounties for the encouragement of shipping. English shipping, nevertheless, has held its own. Of the steam shipping built in the twenty years preceding the war, two-thirds were built in the United Kingdom, and over one-half was built to sail under the British flag. While soon after 1850 the English merchant marine carried not much more than half of the foreign commerce of the country, the proportion grew in later years to two-thirds and nearly three-quarters. This proportion declined somewhat in more recent years, under the competition of Continental steamers, but it is estimated that in 1913 British shipping carried over one-half of the total sea-borne trade of the world, including nine-tenths of the trade inside the Empire, nearly two-thirds of the trade between the Empire and foreign countries, and nearly one-third (30%) of the trade between foreign countries.
450. Relative rank of English ports.—The great commerce of the United Kingdom was very unequally distributed among its parts, nine-tenths of it going to England and Wales and most of the remainder to the lowlands of Scotland. London still kept its place as the chief port not only in the United Kingdom but in the world, mainly by reason of its import trade; it was exceeded in the amount of exports by the second port, Liverpool, which distanced all rivals in the important trade with the United States. An immense gap separated these two leading ports from the others, Hull, Manchester, Glasgow, Southampton, etc. Ports whose names were famous in the Middle Ages and even in later times have dropped into obscurity, with fortunate exceptions like Harwich and Grimsby, which have recovered their positions in recent times. Their places were taken by ports from which cotton and coal products are shipped: Manchester, once an inland village but now united with the sea by a ship canal and standing (1913) fourth on the list, the Tyne ports, Cardiff, etc.
The importance of ports was measured in the preceding paragraph by the value of the cargoes imported and exported through them. While this appears to be the best standard by which to determine commercial ranking it is proper also to consider not the value of cargoes, but the volume of shipping entering and clearing from a given port. Measured by the tonnage of vessels London was but little superior to Liverpool before the World War, was inferior to New York and to Hamburg, and about even with Rotterdam and Antwerp.
451. Relative share of different countries in England’s commerce.—Taking up now the direction of England’s trade abroad and the changes in its course during the last half of the century, we find ourselves approaching questions which have roused acute political controversy. Reserving for future consideration changes which have shown themselves in the most recent period we may note conditions as they were about 1900. England still found the trade with her European neighbors the most important part of her commerce, making up about two-fifths of the whole; this trade had increased by over one-half during the last forty years of the century. Next in importance to it was the trade with the British dependencies, a little less than one-quarter of the whole, which had increased somewhat more slowly. In the third place we may put, not a continent or group of countries, but one country, the United States, between which and England the trade was greater than between any other two countries on earth. England bought from the United States in 1901 more than twice as much as she bought from the next largest seller (France); and she sold the United States in that year more than she sold to all the countries embraced in her great Empire. This part of English trade, moreover, had grown more rapidly than any other, increasing by once and a half in the period. Grouping together all countries beside those enumerated, we find that the trade with them had remained nearly stationary, and amounted only to about one-eighth of the total.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
1. Treat the statistics, sect. 440, by graphic representation, in the manner that has already been suggested.
2. Compare the reasons given for the increase of British commerce with reasons that may suggest themselves to you for the growth of the commerce of the United States. [See sect. 320 for a reference to Gladstone’s views.]
3. The following list gives, in million pounds, the value of the chief exports of home produce in 1900: cotton manufactures 62.0, do. yarn 7.7, woolen manufactures 15.6, do. yarn 6.1, linens and yarn 7.1, jute and yarn 2.4, apparel and haberdashery 6.8, ships 8.6, iron and steel 32.0, hardware and cutlery 2.1, copper 2.9, machinery 19.6, coal, etc., 38.6, chemicals 9.2. Total exports of home produce 291.4, exports of foreign and colonial produce 63.0, grand total 354.5. Treat the figures as suggested under sect. 419. [The figures are from the preliminary report for 1900, Statesman’s Year-Book, 1901, pp. 85, 87; details of iron and steel exports will be found p. 88.]
4. Development of the iron industry. [Jeans, The iron trade of Great Britain, London, 1906, or in Ashley, Brit. Industries, 2-37; Bell in Ward Reign, 2: 196-237; Lady Bell, At the works, London, 1907.]