In Millions Sterling. --------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- |1882|1883|1884|1885|1886|1887|1888|1889|1890|1891|1892|1893|1894|1895 --------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- From | | | | | | | | | | | | | | United | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Kingdom |11·9|13·5|13·2|11·2|10·2|11·1|12·9|15·3|16·4|15·7|13·9|13·8|14·2|15·0 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | From | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Germany | 3·1| 3·3| 2·8| 2·5| 2·4| 2·6| 2·8| 3·1| 3·3| 3·3| 3·1| 3·2| 3·9| -- --------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- TEXTILES. To our textile industries Mr. Williams has devoted a chapter which is one of the gloomiest in his book. Let it be at once admitted that we are no longer the monopolists of the textile industries of the world to the extent to which we once were. Nor could any sane man expect that we should for ever retain our former exceptional position. Other nations move as well as we. They buy the machines which we invent and make; they employ our foremen to teach them the arts we have acquired, and in time they learn to weave and spin for themselves instead of coming to us for every yard of cloth or every pound of yarn. This relative advancement of foreign nations and, too, of our own Colonies and Dependencies was and is inevitable. It is part of the general industrialization of the world. But what we have to note with satisfaction is that this process has involved little or no positive loss to us, that we are still far ahead of all other nations in the production of textiles, and that even in those cases, notably the woollen industry, where our export has fallen off we can point to an increased demand by our own people for the goods we manufacture. It is not in this spirit that Mr. Williams will look at any British industry. Even where he has a fairly good case, he spoils it by gross exaggeration and by the suppression of counterbalancing facts. COTTON YARN AND THE PRICE THEREOF. Dealing first with cotton, he follows his usual device of picking out bumper years, and then exclaiming, “See what a fall since then!” he goes on:—