A second great industry of Great Britain is its woollen manufacture. This industry is specialised in England, principally in West Yorkshire, a district which is as well supplied with coal as is South Lancashire. Leeds (410,000) and Bradford (232,000) are the two principal seats of the industry, but Huddersfield and Halifax are also important "cloth towns," and many other communities are identified with the manufacture of woollens. The noted "West of England" cloths are made principally in Gloucestershire, where their manufacture in the town of Stroud is a survival of an ancient industry once general throughout the whole county. In Scotland there are two centres of the woollen industry. The first and most important is in southeast Scotland, where, in the valley of the Tweed (in Galashiels, Hawick, Jedburgh, etc.), the celebrated "Scotch tweeds" are manufactured. The second is in the valley of the Teith (Stirling, Bannockburn, etc.). At one time the sheep that were pastured on the wolds of Yorkshire were the chief supply of the raw material for this industry in the whole of Britain, but that time is now long past. The total annual import of wool into the United Kingdom is about 750,000 pounds, of which about one half is retained for home manufacture. Two thirds of this import comes from Australia. The number of wool and worsted factories in the kingdom aggregates over 2750. The value of the woollen goods produced annually is about $250,000,000, which is about one fourth of the total product of the world.
THE LINEN MANUFACTURES OF GREAT BRITAIN
The third great textile manufacture of the United Kingdom is that of linens. This is the one manufacture in which Ireland surpasses her sister kingdoms, England and Scotland. The cultivation of flax and the spinning of linen yarn have been domestic industries throughout all Ireland from time immemorial. But at the present time the linen-manufacturing industry of Ireland is almost wholly concentrated in Belfast. In Scotland, which now almost rivals Ireland in the extent and perfection of her linen manufactures, the industry is principally located in Fifeshire and Forfarshire, especially in the towns of Dundee and Dunfermline, the latter town being greatly famed for its napery and table linens. Linen, like cotton, requires a peculiar atmospheric condition of temperature and moisture for its manufacture, and only in few localities has the linen industry been successfully established. The total value of the annual linen manufacture of the United Kingdom is $100,000,000.
OTHER TEXTILE MANUFACTURES OF GREAT BRITAIN
The annual value of the total manufacture of textile fabrics in the British Isles is about $1,000,000,000—not far short, indeed, of one fourth of the total manufacture of textile fabrics in all the world. Great Britain has over $1,000,000,000 invested in her textile industry, and one half of her total exports consists of textile manufactures. Cotton, woollen, and linen cloths are the chief staples of this industry, but there are many other branches of it and many other localities in which it is specialised besides the ones already mentioned. Leicester (204,000), which, like so many other manufacturing cities of England, lies at the centre of a coal-field, is the chief seat of the wollen hosiery manufacture. Dumfries is the chief seat of the woollen hosiery manufacture in Scotland. Kidderminster, in Worcestershire, is the chief seat of the "Brussels" carpet industry; Wilton, in Wiltshire, of the Wilton carpet industry. Kilmarnock, in Ayrshire, is the chief seat of the carpet manufacture in Scotland. Nottingham (233,000) is the metropolis of the cotton hosiery and lace manufacture of England. Norwich (110,000), in eastern England, has a noted manufacture of muslins and fine dress-goods. The Norwich textile manufacture is an instance of the continuance of an industry in a community historically associated with it, although its seat is far removed from a coal-field. The silk manufacture of Great Britain is almost entirely confined to the county of Derby and adjacent districts in England. Macclesfield, in Cheshire, is the chief centre. Coventry is noted for its silk ribbons and gauzes. But the manufacture of silk in Britain is not prospering like that of her other textile fabrics. In fact, in forty years it has depreciated three fourths. British silk manufacturers are not as adept in weighting their products with dyes as their French competitors are, and in consequence English silks, though intrinsically better than French silks, look inferior and therefore cannot be sold at profitable prices. But, on the other hand, the jute manufacture of Great Britain is increasing by leaps and bounds. Established only sixty years ago, the value of its annual output is now twice that of the whole manufacture of silk, and in twenty-five years has tripled. The chief seat of this industry is Dundee (160,000), in Scotland.
THE HARDWARE MANUFACTURES OF GREAT BRITAIN
The textile manufactures of Great Britain are in the aggregate first in importance, but the hardware manufactures come a close second. The total amount of Great Britain's hardware products is about $750,000,000, or one fourth of the total product of the world, and of this about one third is exported. Even more than her textile fabrics, the hardware manufactures of Great Britain are associated with her coal-fields. The most distinctive "hardware centre" is that one which is identified with the great coal-field in the middle of England known as the "Black Country." Birmingham (506,000), the chief place in this centre, is unrivalled in the world for the multifariousness and extent of its metal manufactures. It is literally true that everything from a "needle to an anchor" is made within its limits. But though its industries comprise principally those of iron and steel, its manufactures in gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, and aluminium are also very important. Birmingham, too, is unrivalled in the world in the application of art to metal work. Its manufacture of jewellery, and gold and silver ornaments, is enormous. Its manufacture of small wares is also enormous. For example, it turns out 15,000,000 pens weekly. Its manufacture of buttons runs into the hundreds of thousands of millions. Wolverhampton (88,000), also in the Black Country, is noted for its manufacture of heavy hardware and machinery. So also in Oldham, in the Lancashire district. So also in Leeds, in the West Yorkshire district. Sheffield (352,000), also in Yorkshire, is historically identified with its celebrated cutlery manufacture, an industry that first began there because of the quality and abundance of the grindstones found near by. With the coal-beds of Durham and Cumberland are identified the great ship-building and locomotive-building industries of Newcastle (218,000), Sunderland (142,000), and Darlington, on the northeast side of England, and the great steel manufactures (the largest in the kingdom) and ship-building industries of Barrow-on-Furness, on the northwest side. With the coal-fields of South Wales (noted for its smokeless coal) are identified the smelting industries of Swansea (70,000). Ores of copper especially, but also of silver, zinc, and lead, are brought from all over the world to Swansea to be smelted. These South Wales coal-fields also account for the fact that in respect to amount of tonnage Cardiff (160,000) is one of the chief ports for exports in the world, ranking in this respect next after New York. The exports of coal from Cardiff are now 12,000,000 tons annually.
II. THE TRADE FEATURES OF FRANCE
FRANCE A RICHLY FAVOURED COUNTRY
France by nature is one of the most highly favoured countries in the world. Its climate is genial. Its temperature is so varied that almost every vegetable, grain or fruit needed for the sustenance of man may be raised within its borders. Its soil, though not surprisingly fertile, yet yields abundantly such products as are suited to it. Its mineral resources, especially in coal, iron, lead, marble, and salt, are very considerable. Its area is compact. Its facilities for foreign commerce are unsurpassed. It lies between the two bodies of water—the Atlantic and the Mediterranean—of greatest commercial importance in the world. And its people, especially those in rural parts, are exceptionally frugal and industrious. But France as a nation has not made the progress in the world that its natural advantages call for. It has been cursed with expensive and unstable governments and sanguinary wars. Its upper classes, the natural leaders of its peoples, are excessively fond of pleasure and military glory, and the energies of the nation have been much misdirected. As a consequence, despite its natural advantages, France is losing ground among the nations of the world. Its national debt amounts to nearly $7,000,000,000, the largest national debt known in history, being per head of population seventeen and one half times as great as that of Germany, six times as great as that of the United States, and much more than one and one half times as great as that of Great Britain. But, what is of more serious consequence, the vitality of its people seems debilitated. For years the annual number of births in France has been steadily decreasing, while the annual number of deaths has been more or less increasing. Over a great part of the country the number of deaths annually exceeds the number of births. In numerous years this is so for the whole country. The birth rate is the lowest in Europe. The death rate, while not the highest, is yet higher than in many other countries. As a consequence of all this the population of France is almost stationary. During the last seventy years it has increased only 18 per cent., while that of Great Britain has increased 63 per cent., Germany 75 per cent., Russia 92 per cent., and Europe as a whole 62 per cent. And even this increase, small as it is, is largely due to immigration from other countries. Nor is the emigration of Frenchmen to their colonies or to other countries to be set down as a sufficient explanation. The French are averse to emigration. At the present time the number of Frenchmen residing abroad is only a little more than half a million, while of foreigners residing in France the number is not far short of a million and a quarter.