NEW CURRENTS OF TRADE.
Besides the surprising development of our sales of manufactured goods in the most advanced industrial countries of Europe, which may be said to have introduced an entirely new element into Old World trade, we find other phases of commercial expansion which were quite as unexpected and are likely to profoundly affect our economic, and perhaps our political, future. The rapid growth of cotton manufacturing in our Southern States, for example, could not have been anticipated a few years ago, although it seemed probable to those familiar with the peculiar advantages of the South for engaging in this industry that some day that section would emerge from its position of dependence upon outside markets for the consumption of its cotton and create its own home markets by the erection of mills. Within the years 1889-1899, inclusive, according to Mr. A. B. Shepperson, of New York,[1] the number of spindles in the South increased 190
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per cent., against 11.4 in our Northern States, 4 1-3 per cent, in Great Britain, 30.6 per cent, in continental Europe, 71 per cent, in India. "In the percentage of increase of spindles and of consumption of cotton" (206
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per cent, in Southern and 29 per cent, in Northern mills), says Mr. Shepperson, "the South makes the best showing of the countries compared, while India is a good second."[2] There are now nearly 4,000,000 spindles in the South, against 1,360,000 in 1889, and new mills are constantly being built,[3]% although the past year has witnessed depression in the industry due to the troubles in China. The entrance of the South into oriental trade is almost as novel a feature of our expansion as any that have been indicated, and it is one that seems likely to have a most important bearing upon our social and political evolution, as well as upon our influence in international trade. The South has suddenly acquired a great stake in the affairs of the Far East, and what this may mean in the adjustment of our relations with other countries having large
- ↑ Cotton Facts, December, 1899.
- ↑ Increase of India in number of spindles, 71 per cent.; in consumption of cotton, 88per cent.
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- ↑ "The current year," says Prof. Henry M. Wilson, of Raleigh, N. C, in an article in the 'Textile Manufacturers' Journal' of December 20, 1900, "has witnessed greater strides in cotton manufacturing in the South than last year, when the growth of the industry was considered phenomenal. New spindles and looms have been added, new mills built, and others projected at a rate that causes the careful observer of the South's progress to gaze with amazement upon such activity. Nowhere in the world is the interest being taken in cotton manufacturing as here in the South, where most of the staple is produced. From returns made to the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, the number of new spindles added this year in old mills, new mills and in mills under construction is 1,456,897. New looms added to these same mills number 27,613."
