The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1877-09-20
ENGLAND.



Alarmed at the Failing OF In her Ex.
port Tradc-A Faithfully Familiar
| Fact Hc,icw by the Times
The annul statement Of the trade of the
United Kingdom with foreign countries
and British possessions has just been is
sued for 1876. The Times remarks
The country is painfully familiar with
the fact that our export trade il falling
of, and the abstract tables given in the
beginning Of the volume enable US to
trace where this falling off is most pro.
nOunced. Thus we see that our exports to
Germany were last year nearly twelve
million five hundred thousand pounds
sterling lower in value than in 1872;
that France is Il very steady customer,
and also Italy. Trade has also been
wonderfully kept up with Turkey as n
whole, though Turkey in Europe shows
Il great falling oil Petty borrowing
states all show very badly as a rule, such
as Peru, the Argentine confederation,
Colombia, and such like, whose trade got
Il few years. unhealthy stimulus from
ilI.spent English gold, As whole,
however, the export table is not so dis
cOuraging as we might have expected,
nearly every leading customer, except
the United States and Germany, show.
ing, all things considered, a remarkable
steadiness in purchasing power. Their.
are special hiudrances, Of course, to our
trade with the American union, but
these allowed for, it is 4 standing TACT all
the same that our exports thither have
fallen from about iorty.siX million pounds
sterling, including the Pacific trade, in
| 1872, to little more than twenty mil
/ lion pounds sterling last year. The eX-
port trade to our own foreign possessions
keeps fairly good, and though last years
totals were below those OF the three pre-.
vious years, they are still more than
four million pounds sterling above 1872,
the Australian and South African trade
being the stcadiest of all. Our exports
TO Canada, however, show very severe
dcpressions last year compared with
1878, AS to particular articI,s the ta,
bIes are equally valuable and instruc-
tive. The quantities tables particularly
tend, even on the export side Of the aC-
count, to lessen in some measure the
alalm with which we are ready to view
| the serious fall in values. They show us.
tor one thing, that little oyer,produc-
tion has 4 disastrous Influence on price+.
| 1t is true that il we take such an
exceptional article ~ iron, the quantities
exported suggest no consolation, nor the
falling oil in demand has been more than
one million tons in 1876 compared with
1872, taking iron and steel together.
Few other articles, however, rive such a
bad testimony, although prices are
nearly universally depressed, The eX.
port OF unwroughJ copper has, for
instance increased steadily in quantity
for the last three years, and the export
Of yellow metal WAS decidedly greater in
. 1876 than in lS12or 1879, though smaller
than in thciUtermediate years; yet prices
for these nave gone down very severely.
Again our exports of cotton picCc-goods
have remained almost at level for the
whole five years, and were last year at
their highest point, Yet these prices
have also given way, in part, no doubt,
through overstocked India and China
markets, or because OF a competition in
prices with other sources OF supply. The
record ofmOst kinds OF woollen goods isnot
quite so satisfactory, although we should
not call the figures dsheartening, judged
| by quantities only"