The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-07-01 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL TRAFFIC AND THE STRIKE

The strike is considered at an end, the railway authori-
ties being now in satisfactory progress with their new
hands, and having refused in all, or nearly all, cases to
receive back the old hands who proferred " humble pie "
to the company. The defeat of the " strike " must be
attributed to that want of organisation which the indus-
trious classes in most trades better accomplish than the
clerks and porters did on the railway, the one-tenth of
each class who remained on the establishment having
formed the nucleus round which the new hands were able
to rally for instruction. The great and important nature
of the goods traffic of the town, and that of the London
and North-western railway, may be judged by the follow-
ing interesting particulars :—The aggregate goods traffic
of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company in
1826, was estimated at 1,200 tons a-day, equal to 375,000
tons a-year. Now, in 26 years, the traffic in goods east-
ward alone is above one million tons; and although above
25,000 tons weekly have been abstracted from the North-
western Railway by seven competing routes, established
in the last ten years, the North-western Railway goods
traffic averages weekly above 12,000 tons at Liverpool.
It has more than doubled in the last ten years, and with
the natural position of Liverpool, with its yearly increase
of ten per cent. in its population, situate between four
millions of manufacturing population in Lancashire and
Yorkshire, and twenty-two millions of persons i❑ the
United States, its progress and increase are certain.
In 1800 the tonnage of Liverpool was 450,060 tons ; the
average increase has been 100 per cent. every 15 years
In 1851 it was 31 millions tonnage, one way only—inwards
generally—and has no reference to the cargoes laden both
ways, in and out. The Liverpool traffic in coal was lfc
million tons, in salt 1 million tons, in miscellaneous 1!t
million tons, and coastwise 2i millions tons. Of these
articles this railway carried scarcely any coal or salt—
only 505,000 tons of miscellaneous ; or above one-third of
the entire traffic of the port and town, exclusive of
minerals and coast traffic ; and much more might be
accomplished if the company had quay room and rails at
the docks to the northward. The " merchandize:" traffic
in and out of Liverpool by this railway may be divided
into three branches—the south traffic (between Liverpool,
London, 8,-,c.) amounted to about 160,000 tons; the east

traffic (between Liverpool, Manchester, &c.) to 310,000
tons; the north (between Liverpool, Dundee, &c.)
to 100,000 tons, in 1852. The znerchandize traffic in and
out of Liverpool by this railway in 1843 was 260,109 tons ;

in 1‘52, it was 565,500 tons, the bulk of which lies within
a dozen articles, thus—cotton, 100,000 tons ; provisions
and produce, 95,000 tons ; bale and case, 83,000 ; timber

and deals, 56,000; grain and flour, 36,000; hardware,
30,000 ; iron, 20,000 ; produce not packed, 20,000 ; sugar
and molasses, 15,000 ; Irish but ter, 15,000; ale and porter,
8,000; wines and spirits, 4,000; earthenware, 4,000; and
tea, 21,00—a1l tons; fruit, m:at, &c., I ton; sundries,
76,000 tons. Total, 565,000 tons, for the year 1852. This
traffic is conducted pretty equally between Waterloo and
Wapping stations. The Myer Mersey navigation to
Warrington also transmits 40,000 tons of grain, mineral,
and vegetable products.mi