Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/168

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CONSUMPTION OF WOOL.
143

has generally exceeded the cost of production. This has generally stimulated production, and yet not so rapidly as the demand increased; hence the cotton of America, has gone on displacing successive portions of Eastern cotton, until the former now occupies all the channels of consumption; and so it will be with Australian wool. The consumption of foreign wool alone in England, is fifty millions of pounds. The greater portion of this will probably be displaced by the Australian colonies. In like manner it will gradually cease to be worth while to raise sheep for their wool in many of the countries which now produce it."

The following table of the importation of wool into the United Kingdom in 1835 and 1838 is also extracted from the Encyclopædia Britannica.

1835 1838
Germany 23,798,186 lbs. 27,506,282 lbs.
Russia 4,024,740 3,769,102
Rest of Northern Europe 1,157,345 1,063,074
Spain 1,602,752 1,814,877
Italy 1,051,005 1,758,894
Greece 1,281,839 848,091
Rest of Southern Europe 1,304,416 1,040,613
Northern Africa 816,625 511,526
Southern Africa 191,624 422,506
Rest of Africa 5,102 1,867
Australia 4,210,301 7,837,423
East Indies 295,848 1,897,266
Rest of Asia
South America and Mexico 2,195,400 4,059,958
North America 239,349 62,976
All Countries 42,174,532 52,594,355