The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-15 00:00:00

THE SUPPLY OF RAW MATERIALS
FROM NEW SOURCES.

(FrOM the Economist.)
FLAX.

We have often dwelt upon the great importance
of a good supply of the raw materials of our chief
manufacturing industries, as lying, in point of fact,
at the foundation of our mercantile superiority, and
we have even ventured to express an opinion that
the opening up of new colonial possessions is more
important in this point of view than as forming
new markets for our manufactures. The whole
tendency for many years past of our producing ca-
pabilities has been to cheapen the processes, and at
the same time to increase the applicability of our
productions to the wants and tastes of mankind,
and constantly, therefore, to bring within the range
of our trade larger portions of the human race. To
this end the mechanical and scientific genius of the
counLry has been upon the rack for many years past.
and in no small degree has it succeeded in its objects.
Every cheapening process or invention has had the
effect of enlarging the consumption of the articles
upoa which it has been exercised. But, then, it must
be obvious that this result cannot be attained, which
is the only one in'which the public are interested,
unless the supply of the raw material can' be
correspondingly increased. No matter what im-
provements may be made in order to cheapen the
processes of the cotton or of the iron manufacture,
if no more cotton or iron ore could be obtained.
The only effect in that case would be, not to
cheapen the article produced to the consumer, but
to increase the prices of the limited quantity of the
material from which it was made. No doubt the
general effect of such increased prices would be to
give rise to new efforts to produce more, and, un-
less the means of production were absolutely and
strictly limited, an increased supply would follow.
But what we wish to impress upon our readers
chiefly is the fact, that it is only in proportion as
that increased supply keeps pace with the cheapen-
ing inventions and improvements of the times, that
their advantages will be felt by the public.
But, again, an increased supply of raw material
derived from new countries and different climates,
besides the beneficial consequences which it exerts
directly in the manner referred to upon our manu-
facturing industry, has another and almost equally
important effect. Every pair of hands which is
employed in a distant country to produoo and pre-
pare raw materials for our manufactories, is crea-
ting a new customer for the goods produced, not
unfrequently from the very article he is producing.
It is thus that at once a new want is created,
and the means of gratifying it. The rude domestic
manufactures of foreign countries give way before
the cheaper and better supplies from England, and
it becomes more profitable to sell the raw material
than to manufacture it. The freight of the raw
material to England, and the freight of the manu-
factured article from England, are far more than
compensated by the mechanical advantages avid ma-
nufacturing skill possessed by England. It is thus,
in fact, that an exchange of mutual advantages con-
stitutes the real basis of all permanent and free
interchange ; and it is because the natural course of
this process is interfered with by protective restric-
tions and governmental regulations, that they be-
come so injurious. .

It is these considerations that explain the con-
stant cravings of our manufacturing population for
a larger supply of raw material, and that renders
it so necessary that every means should be taken
that lie within our reach to accomplish that object.
And from what we have said, it will be obvious
that it will be in those branches of manufacture,
with regard to which improvements have been most
rapid, that this craving will be most urgent. The
branch of manufacture in which cheapening pro-
cesses and general improvements have proceeded
with greater rapidity than in any other is the cot-
ton trade, and it has doubtless been for this reason
that, notwithstanding the great increaae in the
supply of cotton, we seem never to have had enough.
And it is no doubt also the considerations to which
we have adverted that have secured to the public
the advantages of the improvements which have been
made, exactly in proportion as they have been
accompanied by, a correspondingly increased suy-
ply of the raw material. No doubt mechanical
skill has done much in all branches of our trade,
both to improve and cheapen the production; but
in all branches the public have not equally reaped
the advantage.
We have been led to these observations chiefly in
reference to the stationary condition of the supply
of one of the most important raw materials of our
manufactures for many years past, we allude to flax,
as the basis of our linen trade. Notwithstanding the
great improvements which have taken place in flax
machinery the supply of the raw material seems 4'
have been nearly stationary for the last quarter of a
century—a fact which strikingly contrasts with
the supply of the other raw materials of, our leading
manufactures. The following shows the quantity
of each of the leading articles of raw material im-
ported in 1833 (twenty-five years ago), and in each
of the last fifteen years, in order to show the pro-
gress each has recently been making :

RAW MATERIALS IMPORTED.