[TO THE EDITOR OP TIM "EPECTATOR.".1 Sin,—It would be interesting
to know on what your corre- spondent "Free-Trader," in the Spectator of August 29th, bases his apprehension that the pottery trade is "rapidly being ruined." If such were the case, it would probably be evidenced by a falling off in the population and rateable value of the Pottery towns ; but such is not the case. The population of the six Pottery towns, Hanley, Burslem,.
Tunstall, Stoke, Fenton, Longton, increased from 178,027 in 1891 to 208,872 in 1901, being an increase of over. 30,000, or more than 10 per cent. The rateable value has increased in a corresponding degree. • The figures that he quotes give no cause for alarm. They show that our exports of chinaware and earthenware are double those of
our imports. The imports amount to less than one million. The total output of the Potteries probably amounts to sixteen millions. It is true that the American tariff made things look very serious. for the Potteries ; the decline in the export trade to America was immediate and considerable.
What was the result out there ? A_ large amount of capital was attracted by the huge plunder obtainable by the help of the Protective tariff. Men who had never made a pot in their lives started in the potting trade. Carpenters, joiners, weavers, were attracted from employments in which they were efficient, and were employed in a trade for which they were useless ; potters unable to obtain employment in England by reason of their incompetence or want of character obtained easy employment in America. The English firms supplying this market were for a time seriously affected. They redoubled their energy and their enterprise ; the cost of production was carefully watched ; new designs were prepared, and a better class of goods supplied. These firms are now full of orders, having practically re- captured by skill and ability whet appeared to be a lost market.
The exports to the United States for the six months ending June, 1903, were £302,503 is. 2d., as compared with £277,169 19s. id. in
the corresponding six months in the preceding year, showing an increase of 425,333 2s. ld. There is no possible comparison between the class of goods now sent to America and those sent prior to the increase of the tariff. The goods are better and of superior design, and there are no more able potters in the world than those engaged in supplying this market.
On the other hand, the American potters are finding continually increasing difficulty in supplying their own market in competition with English goods. Some evidence of this is found in the decrease of American exports of pottery to England ; whereas the imports into England from America in 1901 amounted to the sum of £17,627, in the following year they had fallen to 43,513.
The loss of the white granite trade, often attributed 't1 Pro- tective tariffs, was really due to a change in the taste of the people for lightly decorated goods. The granite-makers, however, were not ruined; they are still in the trade and doing well, but they . are making superior earthenware of a lighter character.
The Long,ton china manufacturers have suffered keenly from German competition; but this is partly due to their want of adaptability to changed conditions, and partly to the fact that the manufacture of the cheapest goods does not accord with the- general character of the English potter. He is too good a potter,. and should be engaged in better work. There are several firms in the cheap china trade who by changing their methods of pro- duction and introduction of new designs have been and are holding their own in the market. The pottery trade cannot at present be called a ruined trade.
Newcastle, Staffordshire.
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