Agriculture 1,311,720 Fishing 25,225 Mining 561,637 Stone, clay, road-making 209,972 Transport-- (_a_) Railways 186,774 (_b_) Roads 366,605 (_c_) Canals, rivers, seas 208,443 (_d_) Messages and porterage 194,044 Houses, furniture, and decorations 820,582 Food and lodgings 797,989 Iron and steel 380,193 Other metals 146,550 Ships and boats 170,517 Carriages and harness 108,780 Machines and implements 342,231 Textiles 1,128,589 Dress 1,099,833 Earthenware and glass 90,007 Chemicals and compounds 56,047 Books 135,616 Animal substances (manufacture) 76,566 Vegetable substances (paper, etc.) 196,889 General mechanics and labourers 805,105 Commercial-- (_a_) Merchants and agents 363,037 (_b_) Dealers in money 21,891 (_c_) Insurance 31,437 Engineers and surveyors 15,441 In glancing down this list of the chief industries engaged in the production of commercial wealth, it will be recognised at once that the manufacturing and transport industries are those to which steam-power and the economies of large production have been especially applied. Though, historically, the first industrial use of steam-power was in coal-mining, it remains true that the extensive application of modern machinery to agriculture and the other extractive industries is of comparatively recent growth, while the work of retail distribution has hitherto made but trifling use of machinery and steam-power. Only within the last few years have a few gigantic retail distributive businesses shown a tendency to apply steam and electricity to mechanical contrivances for purposes of distribution.