Part 2 (1/2)

--------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--- |1881|'82|'83|'84|'85|'86|'87|'88|'89|'90|'91|'92|'93|'94|'95 --------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--- Quant.i.ties-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | million Cwts. | 68|67|69|66|67|62|62|63|60|63|62|59|58|60|62 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Values-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | million 's | 21|21|21|21|20|18|17|16|16|21|23|21|19|16|16 --------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---

These figures show that our alkali trade has been on the whole remarkably steady, except for the slight ups and downs in successive years to which all trades are liable.

To show these ups and downs more graphically, I have drawn the following diagram, covering the last ten years' exports:-

DIAGRAM OF THE QUANt.i.tIES OF BRITISH ALKALI EXPORTED.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

If the reader will examine this diagram and the more complete figures given above he will be able to see how completely misleading are Mr.

Williams's sensational statements about the British alkali trade. I do not for a moment deny that the German alkali trade has made remarkable progress; I only a.s.sert that there is no evidence that ”our trade has gone to the devil.”

CHEMICAL MANURES.

We turn next to chemical manures. On this subject Mr. Williams remarks:-

”Every farmer will testify to the exceeding value of these stuffs. 'Tis a modern means of fertilising the soil, and there can be no doubt that it has a very great future. Obviously then it is in the highest degree important that England should keep a firm hold of the trade. What, alas! is equally obvious is that England's grip on it is relaxing, but that Germany is tightening hers.”

It may be true-probably is true-that the industry of Germany is expanding in this as in almost every other branch of the chemical trades. It is also true that the value of chemical manures sent by Germany to this country-still only a quarter of what we send to Germany-is increasing. What is not true is the statement that England's grip on the trade is ”obviously relaxing.” The figures are given below.

They do not look much like a relaxed grip.

EXPORTS OF CHEMICAL MANURES FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM.

In Millions Sterling.

----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- 1881|1882|1883|1884|1885|1886|1887|1888|1889|1890|1891|1892|1893|1894|1895 ----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- 18| 20| 22| 21| 17| 16| 16| 18| 21| 21| 21| 21| 23| 23| 19 ----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----

The figures for the past ten years are ill.u.s.trated in the following diagram:-

[Ill.u.s.tration]

SOME SUPPOSITIONS ABOUT SALT.

Salt is the next subject to which Mr. Williams turns. What he has to say about it is more picturesque than accurate:-

”The story is worth study. The Salt Union was formed in England in 1889, and the manufacture of salt thereby converted into a big monopoly.... The directors reckoned without their Germany.

They can make salt there, too. It is not so good as the Ches.h.i.+re product, but it is salt, and it is much cheaper than that sold by the Salt Union. When that syndicate's price went up the German manufacturers pushed into the world market, and that to a purpose which is strikingly ill.u.s.trated in the case of our great Dependency. India needs much foreign salt, and the Indian ryot needs it cheap: for the salt he uses has to bear the burden of a tax. The natural result followed: German salt to a large extent ousted English from the Indian market.”

Most impressive! if only it were true. So far as the world market is concerned, the figures below give no indications of the havoc alleged to have been wrought by the machinations of the Salt Union.

EXPORTS OF BRITISH SALT.

--------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- |1886|1887|1888|1889|1890|1891|1892|1893|1894|1895 --------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- Quant.i.ties-thousand | | | | | | | | | | tons | 805| 819| 899| 667| 726| 671| 654| 636| 769| 741 | | | | | | | | | | Values-thousand 's | 588| 525| 486| 539| 653| 596| 539| 505| 604| 546 --------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----

So far as India is concerned, Mr. Williams is doubly wrong. In the first place, German salt has not ”to a large extent ousted English.” During the past five years-it was only in 1889 that the wicked Salt Union came into being-Indian imports of salt have been as follows:-