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QUANTITIES OF WOOL AND MANUFACTURES OF WOOL IMPORTED INTO, and of WOOL EXPORTED FROM, DENMARK, 1874 TO 1891.

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Wools in the French market have reflected the general situation just described in the English and American markets. The permanent commission on tariff values in 1892 say:

In 1891 we established a fall in price of about 13 per cent on the average price of 1890, already so low, and it seemed as if the price could not fall lower, and yet if we compare the mean prices for the two years, 1891 and 1892, we find that Australian wool has fallen by 155 per cent, the wools of the River Plate, Montevideo, by 7.5 per cent. The French wools by 12 to 15 per cent, according to the quality.—(C'est`un véritable effondrement des cours. The bottom has dropped out of the market.)

In connection with prices on the French market may be noted one fact, or statement, made by this commission, the application of which is not confined to conditions in France. Commenting upon the fact that wools from Buenos Ayres ruled in the markets at about the same price a few years ago as Australian wools, it says:

Taking as a type a first quality of French wool, the price of which combed was 5 francs, the combed wool of Australia was 4 francs 75 centimes and a prime quality of Buenos Ayres was 4.50 francs. To-day these proportions are reversed. The prime quality of Buenos Ayres has attained a value of a similar grade of Australian and the price of the first quality of French wool has often fallen below the price of the other two kinds of wool. The reasons for this are various. It may be said in a general way that the wool of the River Plate has greatly improved within a few years. The sheep raisers of these countries have purchased at good prices breeders of the Merino sheep to improve their flocks, and these selections have become evi

dent in the production and improvement of the wool. In France, on the other hand, as almost everywhere through Europe, wool has been neglected and the efforts of raisers have been devoted to the production of meat and increase in weight.

The types of wool to be compared are no longer the same. The grade of the River Plate wool has become superior and the wool of France inferior to what they were formerly. As to the leveling of the prices of River Plate and Australian wools, this is attributed generally to the fact that the River Plate wools are better adapted to the manufacture of such woolens as have been in favor during the last few years.

There should also be added the influence already mentioned of a very largely increased production in Australian wools, which depressed prices of those wools in the world's markets, and must, therefore, have exerted a depressing effect on prices of those wools. The general course of prices of River Plate and Australian wools (combed) in the French market may be seen from the following table:

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The latest available returns of the sheep industry in France are those for 1891, which may be taken as a general gauge of the production of wool in 1892.

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While we have seen that Great Britain uses, in her woolen industry, less than one-half of the total quantity of wool imported, France, on the other hand, consumed nearly nine-tenths of her imports of wool. In 1892 the quantity of wool imported was 203,862,629 kilograms. The quantity exported was 21,753,217 kilograms, leaving a net import of 182,109,412 kilograms as compared with a net import of 169,291,000 kilograms in 1891 and 150,380,000 kilograms in 1890. To this should be added the wool obtained from imported skins and the shearing of sheep imported alive and the domestic wool clip, making the total supply for French manufactures 248,256,000 kilograms as against 238,932,000 kilograms in 1891 and 220,000,000 kilograms in 1890. On this showing France consumes one-quarter of the entire wool supply, and about onehalf of the wool used in European countries, giving her the first rank in the countries manufacturing wool. The increase, quantitatively, in the wool consumed in manufacture was greater in Germany than in France, and French exporters, while setting aside any fear of active competition on the part of England or the United States, shielded principally by their specialties, expressed their fear of serious competition on the side of Germany. While the consumption of France in 1892 was 10,000,000 kilograms greater than in 1891, it was estimated that the increase in Germany was 15,000,000 kilograms. Of the wool used in the French industry in 1892 one-fifth was of native origin, onethird of Australian, and more than two-fifths of the River Plate. The remarkable feature in this showing is the enormous strides in the imports of wool from Australia in the last three years.

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