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
country 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
upon 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 produce 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 and 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
interthange ; 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 sup-
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 to
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.

Cotton. WooL Silk. Hempand Jute. Flax.
lbs. - lbs. lbs. cwts. cwts.
1833 303,656,837 38,046,037 3,434,560 527,459 1,129,633
1844 616,111,000 65,700,000 4,100,000 913,000 1,583,000
1645 721,979,400 76,800,000 4,300,000 931,000 1,418,000
1846 467,856,000 65,200,000 4,400,000 882,000 1,147,000
1847 474,707,f OS 62,500,000 4,100,000 811,000 1,052,000
1848 713,020,000 70,800,000 4,400,000 845,000 1,463,000
1849 755,489,000 76,700,000 4,900,000 1,0.1,000 1,806,000
1850 663,576,000 74,800,000 4,900,000 1,048,000 1,822,000
1851 757,379,i 00 83,300,000 4,600,000 1,293,000 1,194,000
1852 929.782,000 93,700,000 5,800,000 1,068,000 1,408,000
1853 895,278,000 119,300,000 6,400,000 1,237,000 1,883,000
1854 887,333,000 108,100,000 7,500,000 1,210,000 1,303,000
1855 891,751,000 99,300,000 6,600,000 1,267,000 1,293,000
1856 1,023,888,000 116,200,000 7,300,000 1,502,000 1,687,000
1857 969,318,000 129,700,000 12,000,000 1,400,000 1,866,000
1858 1,034,342,000 126,700,000 6,200,000 1,624,000 1,283,000

This table shows a very striking contrast in the
increase of the supply of flax as compared with our
other raw materials during the last quarter of a
century, and if the comparison had been carried
further back, the contrast would have been found
to be still greater. Ia broad terms, the supply of
cotton, wool, silk, and hemp may be said to be
three times greater now than it was in 1833, and
in each the steady and rapid increase during the
last fifteen years raises a fair presumption that we
are fairly in the way of providing year by year in-
creased means of sustaining those great branches
of industry. But how striking is the contrast in
respect to the supply of flax ! - No doubt, as is the
case with wool, enly a part of the supply of flax is
imported, part being grown at home. But there is
'no doubt that while the home growth of wool has
greatly increased, that of flax has dimi
during that period, in Spite of the distributedefforts the
by means of a grant by Government
reproductive loan fund.
the
epltareue ofth tiisaxthaatthmoraore.e
valuable crops have taken
And it is perhaps one of the causes of the stationary
supply of flax that we have relied mainly upon the li
old European sources where the land has every
year become more and more appropriated to the
growth of grain and other products for the food of
the increasing population. And this theory is
borne out if we only refer to the sources from whence
the main increase has taken place in the other arti-
cles of raw material. In the case of cotton, new
states in America have been cultivated, and a great
extension has taken place in India. In the case of
wool the increased supplies have chiefly come from
the new fields of Australia, India, and the Cape of
Good Hope. In the case of silk the increased
supplies have come from the new sources of China
and India; and in the case of hemp the increased
supply is almost solely from India. Contrasted with
these striking facts, the supply of flax is confined
almost to the,same sources that it was a quarter of
a century ago. The supply of flax in 1833 and in
1858 was as follows :

1833.
cwts.
924,240
79,'949
89,628
35,815

1858.
cwts.
1,027,632
110,231
96,985
49,057

Russia and Prussia
Holland
Belgium
Other countries .

Total 1,129,632

1,283,905

There is, perhaps, nothing else connected with
English trade which shows so stationary and stag-
nant a character. Let us just see what change has
taken place in the other articles, in the quantities
imported from our growing Indian empire alone.

IMPORTED FROM INDIA.
1833. 1858.
Cotton lbs. 32,755,000 .... 132,720,000
Wool 3,721 .... 17,333,000
Silk
Hemp and jute .. cwts 34,000 .... 839,000
Flax
....

Here we have a striking example of the manner
in which the great increase has taken place in the
import of those articles from the newly-opened fields
of India alone. Were we to carry the comparison to
China, Australia, and to South Africa, the contrast
in -the several articles would be still greater. But
why has India done nothing for flax and our linen
manufacture ? Is it because it possesses no capa-
bilities for its production ? Not at all, The linen
manufacturers may have been slow to appreciate the
fact, but if we are to judge by a deputation—the
deputation which not long ago waited upon Lord
Sanley—they are at least in part alive to it now.
The subject of the production of flax in India
engaged much of the attenti9 of the Committee of
the House of C emulous which sat upon Indian
coloniSation during the last two sessions of Parlia-
usay ; Great complaints
of
the iNnvathnetir repoofar they:apply ---"
of
flax are made by the
linen manufactwexs of this country. Many mills
are on this account closed or working short time.
is statedan the evidence that, with a good sup-