| United | ||||||||
| Years. | France. | Germany. | States. | Italy. | Russia. | Turkey. | Austria. | Total. |
| 1877 | 2,039 | 5,184 | 2,067 | 1,518 | 11,763 | ....... | ....... | 22,561 |
| 1878 | 5,741 | 3,381 | 2,641 | 2,645 | 5,651 | ....... | 600 | 20,529 |
| 1879 | 3,340 | 6,425 | 5,185 | 802 | 9,354 | ....... | 641 | 25,747 |
| 1880 | 5,793 | 5,280 | 1,879 | 797 | 10,145 | 519 | 376 | 24,788 |
| 1881 | 4,418 | 3,640 | 1,273 | 2,694 | 3,406 | 1,160 | 996 | 17,587 |
| 1882 | 7,454 | 5,656 | 1,716 | 2,569 | 4,245 | 115 | 1,197 | 22,952 |
| 1888 | 5,592 | 7,882 | 6,174 | 2,607 | 6,280 | 2,368 | 2,158 | 32,961 |
| 1884 (1st.quar.) | 1,367 | 2,261 | 2,942 | 908 | 2,186 | 429 | 677 | 10,670 |
| 35,741 | 39,679 | 23,867 | 14,440 | 52,930 | 4,591 | 6,544 | 177,795 |
But the chart resources of the British Admiralty, great as they are, do not suffice to meet the requirements of the smaller class ships of the mercantile marine of Great Britain. There are three commercial firms in London who publish special charts, based, however, on admiralty documents, to satisfy this demand. On inquiry I found that these firms publish 640 charts, which, from their large size, require about 930 copper plates. I am not able to furnish the number of charts sold by these firms, but it is large.
Supplementary to the Admiralty Charts, there are 51 volumes of Sailing Directions. Several of these volumes exceed 500 pages, and have passed through several editions. Private commercial firms also, in addition to their charts, publish directions for many parts of the globe. These include regions with which the Admiralty have not yet, notwithstanding great diligence, been able to deal.
The annual sales of nautical almanacs for the past seven years have been:
| 1877 | .............................. | 18,439 |
| 1878 | .............................. | 16,408 |
| 1879 | .............................. | 16,290 |
| 1880 | .............................. | 14,561 |
| 1881 | .............................. | 15,870 |
| 1882 | .............................. | 15,071 |
| 1883 | .............................. | 15,535 |
I think, sir, that these are salient points, which will assist the Conference in coming to a clearer view of the great interest which navigation and commerce have in the charts of a particular country.
The question was then put on the adoption of the resolution offered by the Delegate of the United States, Mr. Rutherfurd, as follows:
"That the Conference proposes to the Governments here represented the adoption of the meridian passing through the transit instrument at the Observatory of Greenwich as the initial meridian for longitude."