ruined, bankrupt and prostrate, England prospered and grew more powerful in the very heat of the conflict, notwithstanding the large drafts that were being made upon her energies, and the enormous debt contracted.

When the war first broke out, the English Government placed a loan among the London merchants of $375,000,000, which was taken in less than a week. The national debt was increased by $3,044,661,645. This vast sum was readily obtained from English capitalists. The English government not only sustained its own armies and bore its own expenses in the part taken in this struggle, but loaned $328,507, 145 to other countries between 1792 and 1815. The following is a statement of the foreign loans made to other nations in the wars against Napoleon:

It may be safely said, that no candid and impartial observer can examine the history of the rise and development of the commercial supremacy of England, in domestic productions and foreign trade, without arriving at the conclusion that it is due more to the policy of protection than to any other one cause. It was not until the people of England conceived the idea that they could make their own clothing and implements that the foundations were laid for that vast manufacturing system which has been the chief source of their wealth and prosperity. As long as they relied upon the Continent and the East for these articles, they made no progress. It was not until they imitated the example which had been set by the Venetians, the Dutch and the Flemish, and turned the attention of their own people to manufacturing, that their material prosperity began. They did not cease sending their wool to Flanders. to have it carded, made into cloth, and returned with the value of Flemish labor added to the raw material, until Edward III. invited John Kemp with his weavers into England to set up their industry, prohibited the export of wool, and gave the woolen manufactures the protection of the government. By a system of protective tariffs the people of England were turned to a study of the arts and mysteries of manufacturing and to a cultivation of a taste for a high degree of perfection in industrial pursuits. 1 The Condition of Nations, by G. Fr. Kolb, p. 64.

England's commercial

policy.

When we put side by side the statement quoted from the Prime Minister in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and the report of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1604, a most striking contrast is presented. It is absolutely certain that this change could not have been wrought under free trade. It was only by the aid of, and interference of, the English Government in favor of its own people, that they were enabled to forge their way to the front and establish their commercial supremacy.

Had it not been for this policy the Dutch would have continued to monopolize the fisheries and foreign trade. They would have stepped in and not only controlled the trade of the New World, but by underselling and harassing English manufactures at home, strangled every new industry and defeated every attempt at building up manufacturing in England herself. Without the support of the naval power of the government not one of the trading companies could have maintained its existence. Had not England become the seat of manufactures and protected her artisans, the Dutch and Huguenot refugees would undoubtedly have gone to Germany, as many of them did. The growth of foreign trade dates from the passage of the Navigation Laws. And yet the wares produced in English factories formed a basis for that vast volume of foreign exchanges without which there would have been but little use for ships, and no foundation upon which to build her commerce. The most valuable part of the whole field of English enterprise was the domestic industries.

We may trace the history of England from the earliest times to the close of the eighteenth century, and with the exception of the cotton manufactures, which came in under the invention of machinery, and of those industries which enjoy natural protection, we shall not find a manufacturing industry which does not owe its existence to protection. The same may be said of their shipping and fisheries. This policy has raised England from a most insignificant position to the first place among the nations of Christendom. It found her monarchs pawning their crown jewels to foreigners to raise a small sum of money, and left her the lender of millions to the nations of Continental Europe. Before protection was adopted, misery and distress prevailed everywhere among the masses, the land was overrun with beggars and able-bodied tramps unable to find employment, and in fact with no industries in which work could be had, and no means for the relief of their destitution, excepting public charity. The policy of protection converted England into the workshop of the world, and by increasing the independence of the people made their emancipation from tyrannical forms of government and unjust laws possible.

CHAPTER II.

GROWTH OF INDUSTRIES FROM 1800 TO 1860.

industries.

Since the adoption of free trade in 1846, the Manchester School has attempted, by every means possible, to bring the policy of protection into disrepute by creating an erroneous impression of the influence it exerted upon English industries. They have endeavored to show that the manufactures of Great Britain so languished and declined under protection, that free trade was resorted to as a relief from a policy which was a Growth of blight upon the business interests of the country. An impression to this effect has become quite prevalent in the minds of those who have given credit to such statements, without making an investigation of the actual facts. The causes which, from the close of the Napoleonic wars to 1850, contributed to restrict the unlimited expansion of the external trade of the country will be pointed out in subsequent chapters. The absolute monopoly of foreign markets, which fell into the hands of the British manufacturers at the close of the Napoleonic wars, could be maintained only by keeping open the best markets in the world to the admission of their goods. The adoption of protective tariffs by the United States and Continental countries prevented this from occurring.

While the rise of industries in these countries interfered with the extension of British trade, South America, Asia and Turkey still remained open, and gave the British manufacturer an undisputed market of vast importance. At the same time, even the United States and the Conti

were compelled for a long time to depend upon Great Britain for a large variety of manufactures. It was not until about 1865 that the Continental countries had so far adopted the use of machinery that they began to be independent of her. A steady expansion of British industries is found to have taken place from 1815 to 1874. The protective period terminated in 1846, and the free trade period extends from this date to the present time. During the first three-quarters of this century the British manufacturers held not only an almost exclusive monopoly in neutral markets, but in certain branches of production in a large measure controlled the trade of all countries.

For the purpose of refuting the reflections which have been cast on the policy of protection in its practical working up to 1846, a brief review

of the progress of English industry during the closing years of the protective period becomes important.

TABLE NO. I.

Population. Showing Growth of Population in the United Kingdom and Principal Manufacturing Cities During the Census Years from 1801 to 1861. Compiled from Reports of the Census.

By an examination of Table No. 1, it will be found that a great increase in the number of inhabitants of the United Kingdom and of the principal manufacturing cities occurred during this period. The population of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), increased from 10,880,000 in 1801 to 18,846,825 in 1841, being 72 per cent. Taking the periods of twenty years before and twenty years after 1841, the growth of population was as follows: From 1821 to 1841, 29.9 per cent; from 1841 to 1861, 23.4 per cent. While the population of Ireland increased 56 per cent during the forty years preceding 1841, and 20 per cent during the twenty years preceding 1841, it declined 29 per cent, or from 8,175, 124 in 1841, to 5,798,967 in 1861. This was caused, in part, by the exodus which took place as the agricultural interests of the country were being undermined and destroyed by the excessive imports, under free trade, of the farm produce of other countries. The population of the United Kingdom increased 71.9 per cent between 1801 and 1841. While it increased 26.7 per cent, or from 21,302,392 in 1821 to 27,021,949 in 1841, it only increased 7.5 per cent, or to 29,070,932, between 1841 and 1861. This decline was, of course, caused in part by the decrease in Ireland.

Excluding from consideration the decline in Ireland, there is nothing in the increase of the number of inhabitants between 1841 and 1861 to 1 Includes army, navy and isles in British sea.

show that any material impetus was given to the country by the adoption of free trade. The growth of the nation following the adoption of free trade is dwelt upon by the free traders in order to create an impression that the change of policy revolutionized affairs and set the country going at a marvelous pace.

The growth of the principal manufacturing cities during the last years of the protective policy is very significant. Their increase in population was in general greater between 1821 and 1841 than between 1841 and 1861, as is shown by the following table, taken from the census report of the United Kingdom. The most extraordinary growth of these cities during both periods referred to compares favorably with that of the cities of the United States. Their expansion was not due to any shifting of industries or to causes other than a natural growth brought about by the increase of factories and the general advancement of industrial and commercial interests.

THE INCREASE IN POPULATION OF THE CHIEF INDUSTRIAL CITIES OF ENGLAND,
AS SHOWN BY PERCENTAGES, IS AS FOLLOWS:

London
Manchester and

increased between 1821 and 1841, 41%; between 1841 and 1861, 19%

Increase of population

in the cities.

The development of all of the resources of the country under protection had preserved a division of occupations, and such a diversity of pursuits, that the whole industrial life of the people was well rounded out and balanced.

The census of 1841 shows that, in their occupations, the people were Division divided as follows:

of the population according to occupations.