The Coal Question

Chapter XI
OF THE CHANGE AND PROGRESS OF OUR INDUSTRY.

OUR rapid but one-sided progress may be shown not only in its effects upon the numbers of the population, but also in the kind and extent of our industry.

In the second half of last century our population, previously stationary, began to grow at a growing rate. When we consider that at this period the engine was coming into use, that Arkwright's cotton machinery was invented, that the smelting of iron with coal was immensely increasing the abundance of the valuable metal, we cannot hesitate to connect these events as cause and effect. It was a period of commercial revolution. It was then we began that development of our inventions and our coal resources which is still going on. It was from 1770 to 1780, as Briavoinne thinks, that the commercial revolution took a determined character.*62

The history of British industry and trade may be divided into two periods, the first reaching backward from about the middle of last century to the earliest times, and the latter reaching forward to the present and the future. These two periods are contrary in character. In the earlier period Britain was a rude, half-cultivated country, abounding in corn, and wool, and meat, and timber, and exporting the rough but valuable materials of manufacture. Our people, though with no small share of poetic and philosophic genius, were unskilful and unhandy; better in the arts of war than those of peace; on the whole learners, rather than teachers.

But as the second period grew upon us many things changed. Instead of learners we became teachers; instead of exporters of raw materials we became importers; instead of importers of manufactured articles we became exporters. What we had exported we began by degrees to import; and what we had imported we began to export.

It is interesting to observe the reversal which then occurred in several of our ancient trades. Wool had been for a long time esteemed the staple produce of the country. We raised the raw material in plenty, but were so unskilful in its manufacture, that all the Acts of Parliament that could be devised, all the arts and watchfulness of the revenue officer, could not prevent it being "run" for the manufacturers of France and Holland. No efforts of the legislature could enable us to compete with foreigners, and mistaken restrictions only contributed to keep the whole country stationary. But when once our manufacturing ingenuity took its natural rise, no more was heard of the "running of wool," and we have since become by far the first and largest woollen manufacturers, consuming not only our own raw wool, but as much as we can buy in Australia, Germany, Spain, and America.

Again, we had during the early part of the last century imported quantities of fine cotton goods from India, and great was the indignation of Gee and other commercial writers at this "finger labour" being allowed to interfere with our home industry. No exclusion of such Indian cottons could have promoted the invention of cotton-spinning machinery, which is rather due to the general advance of our skill in mechanical construction. But it is curious to reflect upon the different state of things now, and the enormous quantities of cotton we not only draw from India, but return in a manufactured state.

Corn had been next to wool the most esteemed produce of the kingdom. When our population was not one-third of its present amount we were able to raise enough for our own use, with a margin over in plentiful years. This margin the Dutch and French merchants readily purchased from us and stored up, often selling it back to us again in periods of dearth. But as corn is not a material of manufacture, its export was regarded very favourably as bringing treasure into the country, and the whole kingdom looked upon the system of bounties and protective duties, established in 1670, as a piece of skilful political economy. But no sooner had our population about 1761 or 1771 begun to increase than our imports of wheat exceeded our exports, and the inward movement of corn was accelerated by the reduction of the protective duties to a nominal amount. Our dependence on foreign corn, however, increased so rapidly, and was so odious to the general feelings of the country, that a restrictive Act was readily passed in 1791. This was the first of the series of Corn Laws which twenty years ago led to so severe a struggle. The effect of restriction is seen in the stationary amount of imports between 1791 and 1830, the increased demands of the population being met by the enclosure of land, and the improvement of tillage. But the necessary result of pushing a very limited country like England to its greatest capabilities is a comparative rise of the price of food, compared with other articles, and compared with the food of other countries. Thus naturally arose the great Corn Law Question. These facts are apparent in the following table of the average exports and imports of wheat and wheat-meal, during periods of ten years, in the last and present centuries.

	Average Annual Exports of Wheat. Quarters.	Average Annual Imports of Wheat Quarters.
1701-10...	107,116	217
1711-20...	112,020	4
1721-30...	115,779	11,513
1731-40...	290,512	1,307
1741-50...	378,452	110
1751-60...	272,883	16,229
1761-70...	203,365	96,728
1771-80...	101,739	130,423
1781-90...	110,197	174,728
1791-1800...	82,178	568,896
1801-10...	37,738	596,087
1811-20...	40,087	540,111
1821-30...	79,510	560,314
1831-40...	157,852	1,077,370
1841-50...	71,989*63	2,892,094
1851-60...	-	5,031,266
1861...	-	8,670,797

The exports, it is seen, attained their highest amount about the middle of last century, but were never large. Our imports are now increasing beyond all bounds, and even prices below 40s. per quarter do not stop the influx. With the above we may contrast the average annual quantities of wheat sold in the several market towns of England and Wales, in the undermentioned periods:—

	Quarters of Wheat
1815-20...	1,119,959
1821-30...	2,271,858
1831-40...	3,675,134
1841-50...	4,012,652
1842-51...	5,114,176
1852-61...	4,849,130

The returns for the last two periods are given separately because they refer to a larger number of market towns than the previous returns. As the quantities sold do not include by any means the whole of what is grown or used, we cannot draw any accurate conclusions as to the amount of our subsistence; but it clearly appears that our production of wheat has passed its highest point and is declining.

Such an extraordinary change in the source of subsistence of the country cannot but be accompanied by many secondary changes. Human requirements are various, and arranged in a scale of subordination. A plentiful supply of corn, creating population, creates also a demand for animal food, for dairy produce, for vegetables and fruit, the home production of which is naturally protected by the cost of carriage. Few or no farmers or landowners, then, who would promptly submit to the necessary changes of culture, could suffer any loss from the influx of foreign corn. This view was urged, in 1845, previous to the repeal of the Corn Laws, in Mr. T. C. Banfield's very excellent Lectures on the Organization of Labour: "The farmer and the landlord," he said,*64 "are the parties most interested in the rejection of our present Corn Laws, which make wheat a profitable crop at the expense of every other. They ought to be clamorous for their repeal; for no one can deny that cheapness of corn will increase the demand for every other article of agricultural produce." Similar views had been previously stated in a pamphlet by my father on the subject of the Corn Laws.*65 And no anticipations could have been more thoroughly fulfilled.

In spite of the vast importations, and the very low price to which corn has fallen both in 1850-1 and 1862-5, we have few complaints of the farmers' or the landlords' ruin. Agriculturists are either prosperous, or patient to an extent not to be looked for in human nature. But the fact is, that the substitution of new crops and kinds of culture has been going on very extensively, rendering the price of corn no longer the measure of the farmer's profit. An excellent example of the changes which are more or less going on throughout the rural parts of Great Britain, is furnished by certain statistics of the parish of Bellingham, in Northumberland, communicated by the Rev. W. H. Charlton to the British Association, at Newcastle, in 1863. Comparing the condition of the parish in 1838 and in 1863, it is shown that the acres of land under the plough had been nearly halved, being reduced

The area of wheat, indeed, had been reduced to one-fifth,

while that of oats was less decreased,

The number of grazing-cattle had, on the other hand, been multiplied thirteenfold,

and the sheep had increased very greatly,

The milch cows, however, had decreased

and the quantity of cheese produced,

The horses employed in farm-work had decreased nearly to one-half,

but the increase in horses otherwise employed nearly made up the difference, being

Of course such changes must be expected to continue with the growth of our population and consumption, until only the richest of our valley lands bear wheat, while the rest of the kingdom is given up to grazing, or to sheep-walks, dairy-farms, and market-gardens. Under our present system of free-trade, the farmer will find his best advantage, not in clinging to old traditions and customs, but in trying to apprehend the tendencies of the time, and select those new kinds of culture which will give the best money return.

One extraordinary result of the current changes in our old industry was disclosed by the census of 1861. It is a positive decrease of our agricultural population.*66

PERSONS EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURE.
1851.	1861.
2,011,447.	1,924,110.

The decrease is chiefly in the number of indoor farm-servants, which was 287,272 in 1851, and only 204,962 in 1861. On the other hand, agricultural implement proprietors increased fully fourfold in numbers, from 55 in 1851 to 236 in 1861; while agricultural engine and machine workers were for the first time stated in the census of 1861 as 1,205 in number. The decrease of agricultural population is partly due to the less labour required in grazing than in tillage. But the employment of horse, water, or steam power in many field operations, as well as in thrashing, chopping, churning, &c. has greatly contributed to the same result. The economy of labour in agriculture affords in this country little or no compensation to the labourer in the extension of employment, because the area of land is limited and already fully occupied. Labour saved is rendered superfluous. It is this that keeps agricultural wages so low; and as steam-power is more and more used upon a farm, the number of labourers will continue to decrease. The only relief for the consequent poverty of the labourer, beyond a poor-house allowance, is migration into a manufacturing town or a prosperous colony. In either case the emigrant contributes directly or indirectly to develop our new system of industry, and to render more complete the overbalancing of our ancient agricultural system. Such facts, having been disclosed by the census, are patent to all; but we cannot too often have brought to our notice the profound changes they indicate in our social and industrial condition.

When we turn from agriculture to our mechanical and newer arts, the contrast is indeed strong, both as regards the numbers employed and the amounts of their products. But the subject is a trite one; every newspaper, book, and parliamentary return is full of it: factories and works, crowded docks and laden waggons are the material proofs of our progress.

I shall, therefore, give my attention to the rate of our progress, and show that our trade and manufactures are being developed without apparent bounds in a geometric, not an arithmetic series-by multiplication, not by mere addition-and by multiplication always in a high and often a continuously rising ratio.

Next after coal, the production of which we shall consider in the next chapter, iron is the material basis of our power. It is the bone and sinews of our labouring system. Political writers have correctly treated the invention of the coal blast-furnace as that which has most contributed to our material wealth. Without it the engine, the spinning-jenny, the power-loom, the gas and water-pipe, the iron vessel, the bridge, the railway-in fact, each one of our most important works-would be impracticable from the want and cost of material. The production of iron, the material of all our machinery, is the best measure of our wealth and power; and the following statement shows that, from the time when the charcoal bloomary and forge gave place to the coke blast-furnace, the production of iron in England has advanced at a rate alike extraordinary in rapidity and constancy:—

PRODUCTION OF PIG IRON.
	Pig iron produced. Tons.	Average increase in ten years. Tons.	Average annual rate of increase per cent.	Rate as for ten years.
1740	17,350
1788	68,300	10,620	3	33
1796	125,079	70,980	8	113
1806	258,206	133,130	7	107
1825	581,000	169,890	4	54
1839	1,248,781	477,000	6	73
1847	1,999,608	938,530	6	80
1854	3,069,838*67	1,528,900	6	85
1864	4,767,951*67	1,698,113	5	55

It is evident that an arithmetical law of increase is totally inapplicable to the above numbers, since the yearly addition increases continuously from little more than 1,000 tons to 170,000 tons, the recent yearly addition. The ratio of increase, on the contrary, has only varied from 3 to 8 per cent. per annum. In the last period, indeed, 1854-64, we observe a fall in the rate, probably temporary, and due to the partial loss of the American trade, in consequence of the enactment of the Morrill tariff.

The same temporary check to the iron trade is more apparent in the following account:—

EXPORT OF PIG IRON.
Year.	Tons of pig iron exported.	Increase.	Rate per cent of increase as for ten years.
1801	1,583
1812	4,066	2,483	136
1821	4,484	418	12
1831	12,444	7,960	177
1841	85,866	73,422	590
1851	201,264	115,398	134
1861	387,546	186,282	93

Our export iron trade commenced but little previous to the beginning of this century, so that a generation hardly yet passed away saw its rise. Within a period of sixty years the trade, as regards crude iron only, has been multiplied 245-fold. It is in vain to prophesy how much it may yet in future years be further multiplied. Prodigious resources are now being applied to the extension of the iron manufacture, and the present activity of the trade leads us to suppose that any recent dulness will be amply compensated. A single company, that of the Ebbw Vale Iron Works, managed by Mr. Abraham Darby, a descendant of the founder of our iron manufacture, holds 16,306 acres of land, employs more than 15,000 labourers, representing a population of 50,000 persons, produces 130,000 tons of pig iron annually, with a capability of producing 180,000 tons, or ten times as much as the whole produce of the country 120 years ago. But we must almost tremble when we hear that this single company raises 850,000 tons of coal annually, and with a comparatively small outlay are prepared to increase the yield to a million and a half of tons! Expanding as it does, the iron manufacture must soon burn out the vitals of the country, and it is possible that there are those now living who will see the end of the export of crude iron; so rapid is the development of the trade that its rise and decline may perhaps be compassed by two lifetimes.

The consumption of timber, as Mr. Porter remarked,*68 exhibits forcibly the comparative progress of industry. The following table exhibits the quantities of timber, "eight inches square and upwards," of colonial and foreign growth, consumed in the United Kingdom in the years 1801 to 1841, and the total cubic contents of all timber imported in the years 1843, 1851, and 1861:—

Year.	Quantity of Timber. Loads.	Rate of increase per cent. in ten years.
1801...	161,869
1811...	279,048	72
1821...	416,765	49
1821...	546,078	31
1831...	745,158	36

Year.	Total Imports. Loads.	Rate of Increase per cent. as for ten years.
1843...	1,317,645
1851...	2,111,777	80
1861...	3,061,138	45

The extraordinary increase between 1843 and 1851 is due to the partial repeal of the timber duties in 1847 and 1848. The more recent rate of forty-five per cent. is but little below the average rate (fifty per cent.) obtaining since the beginning of the century.

The amount of cotton consumed is a measure of one of the largest branches of our manufacturing system. Excluding from view the recent extraordinary disturbance in that trade, the following numbers exhibit its rate of progress:—

IMPORTS OF COTTON.
Year.	Quantity of Cotton imported.	Increase in ten years.	Rate of increase per cent. as for ten years.
	Pounds.	Pounds.
1785	17,992,882
1790	31,447,605	26,909,446	206
1801	54,203,433	20,687,116	64
1811	90,309,668	36,106,235	67
1821	137,401,549	47,091,881	52
1831	273,249,653	135,848,104	99
1841	437,093,631	163,843,978	60
1851	757,379,749	320,276,118	73
1860	1,390,938,752	633,559,003	96

No single branch of production can give an adequate measure of the general growth, because our manufactures not only expand in the case of each article, but also branch out into new kinds of work ever becoming more diverse and elaborate. Let us consider the attempts that have been made to estimate the general aggregate of our exchanges.

For a century and a half the amounts of our imports and exports were expressed according to a tariff of invariable prices fixed in 1694. The official values thus obtained have no claim whatever to be considered the real values of the commodities imported or exported, and only furnish a convenient criterion of the increase and decrease of the aggregate quantity of goods. The official account of the value of imports from the beginning of last century, is as follows:*69 [See diagram fronting the title page.—Econlib Ed.]:—

TOTAL VALUE OF IMPORTS.
Year.	Average official value of imports.	Increase.	Rate of increase per cent in ten years.
	£	£
1701-10	4,267,464
1711-20	5,318,450	1,050,986	25
1721-30	6,621,725	1,303,275	25
1731-40	6,992,010	370,285	6
1741-50	6,784,409	-207,601*70	-39
1751-60	7,826,441	1,042,032	15
1761-70	10,025,235	2,198,794	28
1771-80	10,684,426	659,191	7
1781-90	13,543,418	2,858,992	27
1791-1800	20,660,760	7,117,342	53
1801-10	28,809,778*71	8,149,018	39
1811-20	30,864,670	2,054,892	7
1821-30	39,661,123	8,796,453	29
1831-40	53,487,465	13,826,342	35
1841-50	79,192,806	25,705,341	48
1851-55	116,931,262	37,738,458	63*72

Low rates of progress varied by retrogression prevailed throughout the greater part of last century. Before its termination occurred a great burst of trade, only brought temporarily to a stand by the great Continental wars. Starting from the Peace we observe a continuous acceleration in the rate of multiplication of our aggregate imports, the most recent rate being the highest known.

The accounts of the official values extend only to the year 1855, the system of official values being then abandoned in favour of real values. These values are computed in the Statistical Department of the Board of Trade from the actual prices of the commodities as given in mercantile price lists, or furnished by the principal mercantile firms. But the increase of our imports from 1854 to 1863, as measured by their real ascertained values, is even more surprising.

Year.	Real value of imports. £	Increase. £	Rate per cent. of increase as for ten years.
1854...	152,389,853
1863...	248,980,942	96,591,089	73

We have accounts of the declared real value of exports from about the commencement of this century.

TOTAL VALUE OF EXPORTS.
Year.	Average annual declared values of exports.	Increase in ten years.	Rate of increase per cent. in ten years.
	£	£
1801-10	40,737,970
1811-20	41,484,461	746,491	2
1821-30	36,600,536	-4,883,925*73	-1212
1831-40	45,144,407	8,543,871	23
1841-50	57,381,293	12,236,886	27
1851-60	106,513,673	49,132,380	86

Since 1860 the amount of our exports has been greatly influenced by the revolution in the Cotton trade, but there has been a great recent expansion as seen below:—

Year.	Total Exports. Millions Sterling.
1860...	£135,800,000
1861...	125,100,000
1862...	123,900,000
1863...	146,600,000
1864...	160,400,000
1865...	165,800,000

The stationary or retrograde condition of our exports as expressed by the real value, in the earlier part of this century, has been attributed to the restrictive influence of the Corn Laws. But the official values and other statements of quantities of commodities examined in previous pages negative this notion. It was due rather to the great fall of prices which was proceeding from about the year 1810 until about 1851. Allowing for the change of prices it may be said, I believe, that the progress of our trade was slow during the great wars, rapid and constant from the Peace to the accomplishment of Free Trade, and greatly accelerated since that event.

The rise of our commerce is strikingly seen in the continuous growth of the port of Liverpool, which soon will be the greatest of all emporiums of trade. The dock accounts extend over a century, giving the number and since 1800 the tonnage of vessels charged with dock-dues.

PORT OF LIVERPOOL.
Year.	Number of ships.	Tonnage of ships.	Rate of increase per cent. in ten years.
1761	1,319
1771	2,087	...	58 of ships.
1781	2,512	...	20 of ships.
1791	4,045	...	61 of ships.
1801	5,060	459,719	25 of ships.
1811	5,616	611,190	33 of tonnage.
1821	7,810	839,848	37 of tonnage.
1831	12,537	1,592,436	89 of tonnage.
1841	16,108	2,425,461	52 of tonnage.
1851	21,071	3,737,666	54 of tonnage.
1861	21,095	4,977,272	33 of tonnage.

The above numbers are not so regular as those we might get by taking decennial averages, and yet the rate of multiplication of Liverpool as a port has only varied in a century from twenty to eighty-nine per cent.

Accounts of the shipping of the whole kingdom are available from the beginning of the century. From them we get the following extraordinary results:—

TONNAGE OF BRITISH PORTS.
Year.	Average annual tonnage of ships entering and clearing.	Increase.	Rate per cent. of increase in ten years.
	Tons.	Tons.
1801-10	3,467,157
1811-20	4,203,613	736,446	21
1821-30	5,059,522	855,919	20
1831-40	7,175,081	2,115,559	42
1841-50	11,704,796	4,529,715	63
1851-60	20,233,049	8,528,253	73

Multiplication at a growing rate! So far is our shipping industry from increasing in an arithmetical series only, that even a geometrical series does not adequately express its rapid expansion. The very rate of multiplication progresses.

But it is the expansion of our ocean steam marine which most fitly represents our mechanical resources, our commercial requirements, and our maritime supremacy. The following are the amounts of tonnage of steam vessels belonging to the United Kingdom, beginning with the decennial period following the introduction of steamboats in 1814:—

BRITISH STEAM VESSELS.
Year.	Tonnage.	Increase of tonnage.	Rate of increase per cent. in ten years.
1821	10,534
1831	37,445	26,911	256
1841	95,687	58,242	156
1851	186,687	91,000	95
1861	506,308	319,621	171

If we pass over the early period when steam-vessels were quite a novelty, we find that their increase, always extraordinary, has been more rapid even proportionally speaking in the last ten years than in twenty previous years. And the extreme success and prosperity of the iron ship-building trade at the present time is the sure indication of the future extension of steam navigation.

When we consider that the system of ocean steam communication is almost wholly in our hands and supported upon our coal, our pride at its possession must be mingled with anxiety at the enormous drain it directly and indirectly creates upon our coal-mines.