| Commerce generally— | Years 1860 | | 1880 |
| Free trade England | 100 | to | 180 |
| { | France | ” | ” | 205 |
| Germany | ” | ” | 197 |
| Protectionist | { | Holland | ” | ” | 216 |
| { | Belgium | ” | ” | 242 |
| America | ” | ” | 201 |
| Exports— | 1860 | | 1882 |
| England | 100 | to | 177 |
| France | ” | ” | 158 |
| Germany | ” | ” | 200 |
| Belgium | ” | ” | 274 |
| Holland | ” | ” | 295 |
| America | ” | ” | 197 |
| Railway Construction— | 1860 | | 1882 |
| England | 100 | to | 176 |
| France | ” | ” | 290 |
| Germany | ” | ” | 322 |
| Belgium | ” | ” | 318 |
| America | ” | ” | 343 |
| Railway goods traffic— | 1860 | | 1882 |
| England | 100 | to | 312 |
| France | ” | ” | 409 |
| Germany | ” | ” | 654 |
| Holland and Belgium | ” | ” | 525 |
| Production of Coal— | 1860 | | 1880 |
| England | 100 | to | 173 |
| France | ” | ” | 237 |
| Germany | ” | ” | 421 |
| Belgium | ” | ” | 170 |
| America | ” | ” | 467 |
| Production of Iron— | 1850 | | 1882 |
| England | 100 | to | 377 |
| France | ” | ” | 498 |
| Germany | ” | ” | 789 |
| Belgium | ” | ” | 377 |
| America | ” | ” | 719 |
| Production of Copper— | 1850 | | 1880 |
| England | 100 | to | 29 |
| France | ” | ” | 212 |
| Germany | ” | ” | 615 |
| America | ” | ” | 750 |
| Consumption of Raw Cotton— | Years 1860 | | 1880 |
| England | 100 | to | 123 |
| France | ” | ” | 158 |
| Germany | ” | ” | 177 |
| America | ” | ” | 234 |
| General Manufactures— | 1860 | | 1880 |
| England | 100 | to | 139 |
| America | ” | ” | 280 |
| Woollen Manufacture— | 1860 1880 | 1881 |
| England | 100 to — | 122 |
| America | 100 to 331 | — |
| Number of holders of National Securities— | 1850 | | 1880 |
| England “consols” | 100 | to | 83 |
| France “Rentes” | 100 | ” | 547 |
| Legacy probate value— | 1860 | | 1880 |
| England | 100 | to | 162 |
| France | 100 | ” | 193 |
| Amount of Deposits in Savings Banks— | 1850 | | 1882 |
| England | 100 | to | 267 |
| France | ” | ” | 1912 |
| Germany | ” | ” | 1950 |
| Belgium and Holland | ” | ” | 405[34] |
For many years England did not feel the evils of free trade. She had a good start in the race, with the commerce and markets of the world in her hands. She had been foremost in improvement of machinery, having secured her manufactures by a system of protection, and she was therefore the first to reap the profits of such improvements. It would naturally take years for other nations to overtake her, when she had so good a start; but the capital she recklessly employed in purchasing commodities which might have been produced at home, was expended in arming foreign nations for successful rivalry with us.
It was not until fifteen or twenty years ago, that this suicidal process was sufficiently advanced to tell upon our trade; but it is now pressing on us with alarming strides, and had not our industries been saved, by partial suspension of free trade, in the American and Franco-Prussian wars, we should now feel it still more severely. As it is, we have not seen the worst. Every day foreign industries are increasing in magnitude and efficiency, and consequently must increase in cheapness of production. At present they have done little more than take up a share from the markets, which were formerly our own. Soon they will invade our own country in force. In the present cotton strike in Lancashire, the employers have given us a reason for the terrible depression of trade, that cloth manufactures from Belgium can now be supplied to the print-works in Lancashire at lower rates than the Lancashire manufactured cloth can be purchased.[35]
You may say the depression of trade is not confined to England, but exists in America. I admit it, but it is very different from that which exists in England. With America it is the reaction of a too rapid increase of new manufacture stimulated by successful enterprise; in the case of England it is the steady decline of old-established industries under crushing competition, of which we have not yet felt the worst.
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