FOUNDATION OF ENGLAND'S INDUS TRIAL GREATNESS.

Evening Star, Issue 7307, 3 September 1887, Page 5 (Supplement)

FOUNDATION OF ENGLAND'S INDUS TRIAL GREATNESS.

TO TUB XDITOB. S]R,--London in the twelfth century was a . place of considerable importance, and became at that period the capital of the Kingdom. A contemporary annalist gives'a glowing description of its commerce and wealth. He tells us that its mart was stored with the gold and spices of Arabia, the precious stones of Egypt, the purple cloths of India, the oil of Bagdad, the furs of the North, the arms of Scythia, and the wines of France; and its citizens displayed the s'gns o‘. commercial opulence in their costly dress. The vague description of the wealth of London is no doubt exaggerated; yet, allowing for some deduction from accounts given, we may conclude that the great metropolis at that time stirted in the career of commercial prosperity which has long rendered it the first . city in the world. Fitzstepben enumerates the imports of London ; others allude to its exports (these were iron, tin, and lead, cargoes of meat - and fish, and, above all, “the precious wool,”, as it is ju tly styled). The nature of the exports being raw materials (our export of L 7,000,003 annually is exact y what England’s was at this time, raw material) . shows that England at that time was not a great manufacturing country, though the large importation of woad for dyeing at the latter pari) of the twelfth century indicates that certain woollen goods of a coarse kind were made for Ihome consumption. The settlement of the Flemish weavers in this country in the reign of Edward 111. imparted a great stimulus to the industry and skill of our forefathers, and may be reckoned as forming the era of the commencement of our finer'manufactures. From,, the revival of commerce, the Statute-book of England abounds in proofs of the importance which the senators attached to the mercantile interests of the country, of the zeal with which they endeavored to advance them. Many of" the laws relate to commercial intercourse w.th other nations, in which everything was done to favor theihorac merchant at the expense of the foreign ope, Edward I. enacted that foreigners . should sell their goods within forty days after their arrival at an English port. They were not permitted to permanently reside in the country, except by special license, until the year 1313, and; the license then given was accompanied by a number of restrictions. The merchant from other countries was to sell only by wholesale, and to be answerable for the debts and offences of the rest of 'his resident countrymen. Aftqrwards certain measures were appointed for ; foreign cloths, and such as did not correspond with the King’s aulnager were forfeited to the . Grown. In the fifteenth century certain foreign goods were altogether excluded. In connection with all this, repeated prohibitions occur of the exportation of money and bullion. I consider that this was most wise. At this time England was in the position we are nowin of having only a limited amount of money; but we are foolish enough to allow foreigners to “ bear the. gold out of this land, and suck the thrift out of our hand, as the wasp sucketh honey out of the , bee.” 'the earliest accounts we have of the legal exports and imports of British trade belong to: ihe ytarl3s4. The former consisted of- wool, woolfcls, hides, pieces of cloth, and worsted, amounting to L 212,338 ss, on which Customs were paid to the amount of L 81,846 12s 2d. The imports were fine cloth, wax, tuns of wine, linen, mercery, and grocery, of the value of L 38,383 16s lOd. When we look at the articles, aid find that of raw materials for manufactures, whieh constitute so great a part of modern there was not one single article imported and that on the other hand the exports consisted almost entirely of the most valuable raw materials, and of the cloths in an unfinished state, which also may be classified among raw materials (especially what we are now doing in New Zealand), anyone must acknowledge that it affords only a proof of the low state of manufactures and of commercial knowledge among a people who were obliged to allow foreigners to have the profit of manufacturing their own wool, and finishing their own cloths, and afterwards to purchase both from them in the form of finished goods. It was this state of things that gave rise to the proverb that “the stranger buys of the Englishman the fox’s skin for a groat, and sella him the tail fpr a shil trig.’' _ • From the commerce of England at this time we look for a moment at its agriculture. ; It was in! a low condition at the time of the Conquest, but a gradual improvement is noticed afterwards. It rose with manufactures and , commerce; but as commercial enterprise, . genoe, and wealth in England were not so great • • as in Italy or the Netherlands, agriculture in those States was far in advance of agriculture ! ’ in England. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the woollen industry had expanded to very lor- , midable dimensions,-and woollen goods were exported to the value of L 3,000,000 annually; at the commencement cf the nineteenth century this export trade had risen to the value of L 7,000,000. The cotton industry, under steam power, made great progress from 1767; and in 1846, when the import duties were repealed, the exports had reached an annual value of L 25,000,009. The silk industry was not only protected by very heavy import duties, but in addition a bonus of L 14,000 was given to one manufacturer. Linen, with other textile. tissues, was supported in its early stage by prohibition ; later on with heavy import and export duties and bounties. The leather industry was protected, but the heavy excise duty defeated the object in view. The protective duties bn . paper in England have ranged fiomlOto 200 percent. Up to 1740 two thirds of the iron i ’ was imported; the progress since that time may be attributed to import duties and smelting with., coal. The herring fishery has received protection by bounties which have reached nearly 300 per cent. Under Protection the navigation laws of England stimulated the shipping industry from 1651 to I*so. Up to 1846 heavy import duties were levied on glass, carriages, ■ porcelain ware, musical instruments, furniture, firearms, wearing apparel, etc.- in all, over .900 articles.

Enough has been written to show that free- ; trade England was for long years a > protected country. I have long since thought that England made an enormous mistake in . bringing in a f eetrade policy; she should have admitted all ford free—that is what the people were clamoring for—a« d still kept up her pro-, tective tariff on manufactured goods, that they were capable of producing. lam fortified in my opinion by the fact that, in the annul accumulation of wesl'h for the last decade, England was LlO 000,000 behind France and L 100,000,000 behind America. In England’s advance of commerce, wh *'s only sevenfoil, she is nearer to the low«.t>. In the world than the highest. In 1830 France and Germany did commerce amounting to L 81.000.000, while Great Britain’s was L 88,000,000. In 1878 France aud Germany stood at L690,000 f 000, and Great Britain at L 601,000,000; thus Britain had fallen L 89,000,000 behind France and Germany in 1878. If I turn to Canada I am further fortified in my opinion by the fact that under Protection they paid an increased wage of L 3,000,000 last year for producing for the home markets, while imports of manufactured goods have been reduced L 20,000,000 in five years. —I am, etc., J. H. Richabdsoh, North-east Valley, August 29.