“The story is worth study. The Salt Union was formed in England in 1889, and the manufacture of salt thereby converted into a big monopoly.... The directors reckoned without their Germany. They can make salt there, too. It is not so good as the Cheshire product, but it is salt, and it is much cheaper than that sold by the Salt Union. When that syndicate’s price went up the German manufacturers pushed into the world market, and that to a purpose which is strikingly illustrated in the case of our great Dependency. India needs much foreign salt, and the Indian ryot needs it cheap: for the salt he uses has to bear the burden of a tax. The natural result followed: German salt to a large extent ousted English from the Indian market.” Most impressive! if only it were true. So far as the world market is concerned, the figures below give no indications of the havoc alleged to have been wrought by the machinations of the Salt Union. EXPORTS OF BRITISH SALT. --------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- |1886|1887|1888|1889|1890|1891|1892|1893|1894|1895 --------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- Quantities—thousand | | | | | | | | | | tons | 805| 819| 899| 667| 726| 671| 654| 636| 769| 741 | | | | | | | | | | Values—thousand £’s | 588| 525| 486| 539| 653| 596| 539| 505| 604| 546 --------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- So far as India is concerned, Mr. Williams is doubly wrong. In the first place, German salt has not “to a large extent ousted English.” During the past five years—it was only in 1889 that the wicked Salt Union came into being—Indian imports of salt have been as follows:— INDIAN IMPORTS OF SALT. Thousands of Tons. ------------------------------------------------------ Years ending March 31st. From U.K. From Germany. ------------------------------------------------------ 1891 273 61 1892 222 103 1893 241 47 1894 269 48 1895 315 82 ------------------------------------------------------ This does not look as if English salt were being ousted by German. In the second place, it is not true that German salt is much cheaper than Cheshire, at any rate so far as the Indian market is concerned. It will be found by reference to the Indian Blue Books that the price of German salt imported into India in 1894-5 works out to 17·6 rupees per ton, and the price of English salt only to 17·0 rupees per ton. In other words, German salt was of the two slightly the dearer. So much for the salt bogey which Mr. Williams had conjured up. CHEMICAL DYE STUFFS.