15. Reduce the figures of trade with different continents to percentages of the total, at different periods.
Make up your mind as to the number of conclusions to be drawn from the tables which you are capable of remembering—whether one, two, or more; resolve to remember those and to refer back to the tables for the others.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
As Gross, Sources, does not cover the modern period, the student in search of more extended bibliographical information than that given here must rely on less satisfactory guides. Cunningham, **Growth, will be the best for an advanced student; see the foot-notes and the bibliographical index. Traill’s **Social England contains less scholarly but perhaps more useful bibliographies on commerce and kindred topics. Some of the school manuals give classified references; Andrews’ *History can be especially recommended.
Of the general works on English history in the period under consideration the following pay some consideration to commercial development, and those which are starred present information that is valuable and easily available: *Busch, Froude, Gardiner, Macaulay, Stanhope, *Lecky. If a single work is desired for collateral reading the best is Traill’s **Social England, to which I have in large part confined my references for topical reading.
Cunningham, **Growth, is indispensable for this period; I assume that this book is in the hands of the teacher and that he will avail himself of the abundant material it offers for reading and written reports. Besides smaller books on English economic history, already mentioned, the following can be made useful: Hewins, **English trade; Seeley, *Expansion; Toynbee, Industrial revolution. Bourne, *English merchants, is useful; his English Seamen is unfortunately out of print. There is a considerable literature, however, on the war and merchant navy, especially in the sixteenth century (see references in Social England); and Lindsay and Cornewall-Jones cover the entire period.
CHAPTER XXII
ENGLAND: EXPORTS
238. Survey of topics to be considered in studying the development of English commerce.—Such is the bare outline of the development of English commerce in the period preceding 1800. Two chapters will now be devoted to the discussion of facts which will fill in the outline and will explain the development. That the reader may follow more intelligently a survey will be given in this place of the topics to be considered, and their bearing on the general question.
We must know (1) the character of English exports. The exports of a country show in what lines it is strong enough to compete with foreign producers, and are the means by which it buys commodities produced abroad. We shall then consider (2) the advantages which enabled England to produce these wares so efficiently that other countries were glad to buy of her, and (3) the countries in which these wares found a market. On the other side we want to know (4) the imports, the wares which England wanted but could not herself produce to advantage, and (5) the countries from which the imports came. Another factor of importance will be (6) the development of English shipping. Finally we have to consider (7) the government policy by which statesmen sought to further and regulate the development, as manifested in foreign policy and wars, in the customs tariff, and in the colonial system.
239. (1) Analysis of exports.—The total export to foreign countries of merchandise of English origin (i.e., not including goods from other countries transshipped in England) amounted about 1800 to a little over £29,000,000. The most important items were as follows, in millions of pounds: manufactures of wool, 7.7, or over one fourth of the whole; manufactures of cotton, 4.1; manufactures of iron and steel, 2.0; haberdashery, 1.5; linens, 1. These five items include over one half of the total, and no other item amounted to as much as one million. It is noteworthy that all the raw materials together scarcely exceeded one million. When we come to study the internal development of England we must look, evidently, for a great expansion in certain manufacturing industries to explain the position which their products now took in trade.