=451. Relative share of different countries in England’s commerce.=—Taking up now the direction of England’s trade abroad and the changes in its course during the last half of the century, we find ourselves approaching questions which have roused acute political controversy. Reserving for future consideration changes which have shown themselves in the most recent period we may note conditions as they were about 1900. England still found the trade with her European neighbors the most important part of her commerce, making up about two-fifths of the whole; this trade had increased by over one-half during the last forty years of the century. Next in importance to it was the trade with the British dependencies, a little less than one-quarter of the whole, which had increased somewhat more slowly. In the third place we may put, not a continent or group of countries, but one country, the United States, between which and England the trade was greater than between any other two countries on earth. England bought from the United States in 1901 more than twice as much as she bought from the next largest seller (France); and she sold the United States in that year more than she sold to all the countries embraced in her great Empire. This part of English trade, moreover, had grown more rapidly than any other, increasing by once and a half in the period. Grouping together all countries beside those enumerated, we find that the trade with them had remained nearly stationary, and amounted only to about one-eighth of the total. QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 1. Treat the statistics, sect. 440, by graphic representation, in the manner that has already been suggested. 2. Compare the reasons given for the increase of British commerce with reasons that may suggest themselves to you for the growth of the commerce of the United States. [See sect. 320 for a reference to Gladstone’s views.] 3. The following list gives, in million pounds, the value of the chief exports of home produce in 1900: cotton manufactures 62.0, do. yarn 7.7, woolen manufactures 15.6, do. yarn 6.1, linens and yarn 7.1, jute and yarn 2.4, apparel and haberdashery 6.8, ships 8.6, iron and steel 32.0, hardware and cutlery 2.1, copper 2.9, machinery 19.6, coal, etc., 38.6, chemicals 9.2. Total exports of home produce 291.4, exports of foreign and colonial produce 63.0, grand total 354.5. Treat the figures as suggested under sect. 419. [The figures are from the preliminary report for 1900, Statesman’s Year-Book, 1901, pp. 85, 87; details of iron and steel exports will be found p. 88.] 4. Development of the iron industry. [Jeans, The iron trade of Great Britain, London, 1906, or in Ashley, Brit. Industries, 2-37; Bell in Ward Reign, 2: 196-237; Lady Bell, At the works, London, 1907.] 5. Development of the textile industry. [Soc. England, 6: 589-599.]