The Portland daily press., 1873-07-28
American VS.. English Hardware.

The London Times says, "Not u little in
terest and apprehension have been excited in
the hardware district of which Birmingham
is the centre, by advices lately to hand from
New York respecting the wonderful develop
ment of the iron and hardware industries of
the United States. The accuracy of these adj
vices is, indeed, TO some extent confirmed by
the serious diminution of orders for certain
classes of hardware, the manufacturers of
which have hitherto found in the American
market their principal customers. Nor does
it appear that our rivals in the States are con-
tent with satisfying the requirements of their
own market, for their productions are already
supplanting English goods in Canada, and TO
some extent in Australia an New Zealand.
A well-informed correspondent. writing from
New York under date June 9Th, thus re-
fers to the subject in the Birmingham Post ::
'sOn one point the hardware merchants are
are all agreed, that the day for the sale of
English hardware in the United States has
almost departed. In some few special arti-
cles, such as pliers, ETC., the Germans will
probably always be able to undersell all COM
petitors; some English manufactures of long
established repute, such as Rodgers's cutlery,
will also continue to be in demand, but for
the rest foreign-made hardware will soon be
unknown in this market, unless some unex-
pected turn of affairs changes for awhile the
try, now competent to supply its own needs,
but every year it is gradually increasing its
exports of hardware to Canada, to the South
American States, and to the British Austria
liam colonies. Indeed, it is common boast
that in a very short time the superiority of
Yankee skill and ingenuity will force mar
ket in England itself for many articles of
American hardware; that Yankee cutlery
will appear on English dinner tables and
Yankee saws, augers and chisels be preferred
by the carpenters of Birmingham and Shef-
field" These statements are to some ex-
tent corroborated by the advices now being
received by the merchants in Birmingham
and Wolverhampton. There can be no doubt
that the American manufacturers have turn
ed to profitable account the opportunity
afforded by the recent course of events in
the English labor market.
For some years the American manufacturers
have had to contend with the disadvantage of
dear labor; but this very circumstance has
in the long run proved a benefit to them, see
ing that it has enforced the application of la
Dor saving machinery on much larger scale
than has been attempted in this country.
The superiority of American fine iron castings
has long been acknowledged, and in the earl
ier wears of hardware manufacture in the
States, the dearness of labor was largely COM
pensaued by the substitution of cast for
wrought iron, in almost all classes of produce.
This advantage was, however, obtained at
the expense Of the quality of the goods for
strength and endurance, and the necessity of
increased mechanical appliances for the saw
ing of hand labor b, came apparent some years
since to the leading manufacturers of the
States The wonderful system of labor-saving
machinery is now the result. Railway fasten-
ings, door locks, spring bars, currycombs, tin
wares and some descriptions of edge tools, are
among the classes of produce in which Amer
lean competition is beginning to be seriously
felt in Birmingham and the Sort1 Stafford
shire district. Last years produce of iron
rails in the States was nearly 100000 tons,
of which Pennsylvania alone yielded nearly
one half. Other descriptions Of finished iron
are also being produced in large and rapidly
increasing quantities, ,and at the present rate of
progress the shipment of iron from England
across the Atlantic will soon become thing
of the past.