The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-01 00:00:00

STATISTICS OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURES
FOR THE PAST YEAR.

The excellent " Commercial Glance" for the year
ended 31st December, 1847, just published by Mr. R.
Burn of Manchester, possesses more than its usual
interest, as exhibiting the result, so far as regards our
cotton exports, of one of the most eventful years through
which the commercial and manufacturing industry of the
country has ever passed. We shall give here a few of its
most important items. _ _

The public will have been fully prepared for a large
falling off in the gross exports of the cotton manufacture,
by their knowledge of the fact that we have had, in the
first place, a very materially reduced import of the raw
material, and, as the necessary consequence, been com-
pelled to restrict our manufacturing operations. We had,
as the stock in the ports, on the Ist of January, 1847,
548,658 bales • and a stock in the hands of spinners and
dealers, of 61,483 bales : in all, 610,141 bales. We im-
ported during the year into Liverpool, 1,088,240 bales ;
into London, 81,080 bales; into Glasgow, 42,139 bales;
and into Bristol and Hull, 19,576 bales : in all imported,
1,231,035. Our total supply up to the Ist January, 1848,
was, therefore, 1,841,176 bales, of which we exported
207,775 bales, leaving 1,633,401 bales for consumption.
We have consumed in the year only 1,142,008 bales,
which, allowing the year, on account of stoppages and
holidays, to consist of 51 weeks of actual working, gives
a weekly consumption of 22,392 bales per week, against
a fraction over 31,796 bales in 1846. The stock in the
ports and in spinners' and dealers' hands, on the Ist of
January, 1848, was 491,393, or less than on the let of
January preceding by 118,748 hales. Of this, 39,454
bales are in the hands of spinners and dealers.
As shewing what our position would have been with an
active demand, and the necessity under which we should
have, in any case, been placed of working short time. for
want of raw material, we shall find that, had we con-
sumed in the past year at the rate of 31,796 bales per
week, we should have consumed 1,621,644 bales during
the year; and thus, deducting this quantity from our
total supply of 1,633,401 bales, we should have had only
11,757 bales, or half a week's consumption, at present in
the country.
On turning to the tables of exports of manufactured
goods, we find in two important articles—cotton yarn
and plain calicoes—a signal decrease in the past year :
! 1846. 1847. Decrease.
Cotton yarn, lbs... 157,130,025 116,512,874 41,617,151
Plain calicoes, yds. 618,839,181 488,044,682 130,794,499
or above a third in the export of the first article, and
nearly a fourth in the second, as compared with the
export of 1846. The principal countries which have
taken from us a short supply of yarn, are—Belgium ;
the Manse Towns, &c., decreased nearly 9,000,000 lbs. ;
Holland, decreased nearly 8,500.000 lbs. ; India, de-
creased nearly 5,000,000 lbs. ; Naples and Sicily, de-
creased 3,400,000 lbs. ; Russia, decreased 2,800,000 lbs. ;
Sardinia, Tuscany, &c., decreased 3,250,000 lbs. ; Trieste,
Austrian ports, &c., 1,950,000 lbs. ; Turkey and Levant,
1,500,000 lbs. We must conclude, from these figures,
either that manufacturing operations in the countries
specified have either decreased materially during the past
year, or that they have become more able to produce
their own cotton yarn ; for we do not find that they have
come to us for goods instead of yarn. On the contrary,
we shall have to shew that our exports of cloths to most
of those countries have declined in amount during the
past year.
The large decrease in plain calicoes is thus divided :
Brazils, Buenos Ayres, &c., have diminished their im-
_ports 8,000,000 yds. ; British West Indies, 6,300,000 yds.;
British North America, 4,150,000 yds. The exports,
however, to these possessions have been more than those
of 1845, and the year 1846 appears to have been one of
extraordinary import. Chili and Peru have decreased
4,800,000 yds. ; Foreign West Indies, nearly 3,000,000
yds. ; Gibraltar, 5,000,000 yds. ; the Hanse Towns, &c.,
3,000,000 yds. ; Holland, 7,100,000 yds. ; Malta and
lonian Isles, 5,100,000 yds. To Mexico our direct trade
has been extinguished, having sunk from 1,648,580 yds.
in 1846 to 292,143 yds. last year. Naples and Sicily have
decreased nearly 5,000,000 yds. ; Portugal and Madeira,
4,300,000 yds. ; Sardinia and Tuscany, 12,300,000 yds.,
having fallen from 20,500,000 yds. in 1846 to 8,200,000
yds. in 1847; Trieste, Austrian ports, &c., 10,650,000
yds., having been 15,900,000 yds. in 1846, and 5,200,000
in 1847 ; and Turkey and Levant, 4,700,000. It is proper
to remark, however, that to some of these countries our
exports in 1846 were unusually large.
The most singular features with respect to this great
staple article consist in the large falling off in our exports
to India and China, and the great increase to the United
States of America. We give the results for the two years
to these countries :

1846. 1847.
yds. 179,684,172 114,228,334