"DEPENDENT ON FOREIGN SUPPLIES."
Ix 1845, the total declared values of English exported manufactures amounted to fifty-one and a half millions; the declared values of the ex- ported cotton manufactures, to rather more than nineteen millions. The manufacturers of clothing for the great mass of our population, and the manufacturers of one-third (in value) of our manufactured exports, are dependent upon "foreign supply" for the substance which they manufac- ture. The stoppage of that supply would stop their mills and throw all their hands idle. The whole cotton manufacturers of Europe are equally dependent with our own upon " foreign supply" for the raw material of their manufacture. The average annual consumption of cotton by European manufacturers from 1826 to 1830 was 365 millions of pounds; during the five years from 1841 to 1845, it was 900 mil- lions of pounds. The increase in the consumption during the last twenty years has not been irregular or intermitting: the average consumption of the first lustre was 365 millions of pounds; of the second, 500; of the third, 700; of the fourth, 900. The " foreign supply" has steadily and equally increased with the European demand. The ma- nufacturers have received their raw material from the distant regions of its growth as easily and with as much certainty at the time it was wanted as if it had grown at their own doors. The cotton-manufacturing states of Europe are no more dependent upon the cotton-growing states of Asia, Africa, and America, for supplying them with the raw material, than the latter are upon the former for taking their staple produce off their hands. Hence, all the multitudinous capitalists and labourers throughout Europe who live by the cotton manufacture sleep soundly though foreigners grow their cotton for them. Ask Mr. Miles himself what is most likely to abate American pugnacity at this moment, and he will tell you—fear lest the cot- ton crops of the Southern States should become unsaleable. Of the cotton worked up in Europe 56 per cent is taken by English manufacturers i • and this proportion has been unaffected by the immense increase in the Con tinental cotton-trade.
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