in the ten years. The population of the rest of the country was 8,039,678 in 1861, and added only 631,184 thereto in the ten succeeding years. The town populations, according to this mode of division, had therefore increased by 17 per cent., while the remaining population had increased only 8 per cent.; and, according to this principle of division, of the population of England and Wales, nearly two-thirds (62 per cent.) belonged to the towns, and rather more than one-third (38 per cent.) | to the rural districts.

While the prevailing tendency of the population has thus, beyond doubt, been to gravitate to the towns, there are not wanting symptoms of an incipient movement in the very opposite direction, more particularly in the most recent years.

Numbers of merchants and tradesmen,

more particularly those of the wealthier class, who were formerly compelled by the exigencies of their business to dwell in the larger towns, have recently been enabled, by the rapid development of railway communication, to remove to private residences in the country. The resident population of the City of London, which in 1861 numbered 112,063, had sunk in 1871 to 74,897. For centuries this portion of the metropolis had never had a population of less than 110,000. In the year 1631 its inhabitants are estimated to have numbered 111,608, and in 1801 they were as many as 128,269. The sudden and unprecedented decrease of 37,166 persons, or 33 per cent., which took place in the ten years from 1861 to 1871, is no doubt partly due to street improvements, but it is also in great measure to be attributed to the increasing habit in certain ranks of society of seeking their places of residence as far away from the centres of business as circumstances allow. Thus the central portions, not only of the metropolis, but also of almost all the largest towns in England, have of late years been increasingly abandoned to commerce and industry. Soon after the middle of the nineteenth century, the phenomenon was for the first time seen of merchants in the City of London who travelled a hundred miles a day simply between their places of residence and their offices of business-a phenomenon probably still without a parallel in any other nation in the world. The fact of a returning tide from the towns towards the country is quite consistent with, if not confirmed by, the relative progress of the urban and rural populations at the last two censuses. Thus the rate of progress of the rural population (reckoning under this head the utmost which can possibly be conceded) was only 4 per cent. in the ten years, 1851 to 1861. It was 7 per cent. in the following ten years. The urban population in the earlier decennium added 19 per cent., but in the latter period only 18 per cent., to its numbers. This reverse current, however, has, as appears from the numbers just quoted, hitherto been on too small a scale to affect materially the truth of the assertion that the urban population has in recent times been progressing at a far more rapid rate than that of the rural districts.

As the pursuits of town populations are chiefly of a manufacturing and commercial character, so those of the country are mainly agricultural, and the more rapid growth of the former is a clear indication of the fact-which is

abundantly confirmed from other sources, hereafter to be mentioned that England was every day becoming more and more a manufacturing and commercial nation, and relatively less and less agricultural in its pursuits. A comparison of the number of persons engaged in the various classes of occupations at each of the last three censuses likewise bears witness to the same fact. Thus the actual number of persons occupied in agriculture in England fell from 2,011,447 in the year 1851, to 1,924,110 in 1861, and to 1,559,037 in 1871. The classes of persons not strictly engaged in agriculture rose from 15,916,162 in 1851, to 18,142,114 in 1861, and to 21,153,229 in 1871. In the occupations classed as commercial there were 815,424 persons engaged in 1871, as against 623,710 in 1861, an increase of 30 per cent. Again, in industrial or manufacturing employments the number of persons occupied in 1861 was 4,828,399, while in 1871 it was 5,137,725, an increase of nearly 64 per cent. in the ten years. Within the same period, the population engaged in farming and the cultivation of the earth had decreased as much as 19 per cent.; and was, therefore, receding three times as fast as the manufacturing classes were advancing. It must be remembered that these statements refer simply to the mere numbers of the persons engaged in the various classes of occupations mentioned. The effect which has been produced upon the general welfare of the respective classes of persons in question is not capable of being determined by a mere knowledge of the changes which have taken place in their numbers alone. To enable us to form a judgment upon that point, additional data of a different kind, which will be adduced in a subsequent chapter, are requisite. Of the population not included in any of the three classes mentioned, the occupations described as professional were followed in 1861 by 481,957 persons, and in 1871 by 684,102, showing an increase of more than 200,000, or nearly 40 per cent., in that brief period. The domestic class, which includes, among others, married women and widows engaged in the management of households, as well as domestic servants, housekeepers, innkeepers, &c., rose from 4,287,020 in 1861, to 5,905.171 in 1871. The rest of the population-the indefinite and non-productive class, which, besides including all the children and scholars under twenty years of age, comprises all persons of rank and property, as well as those whose occupation could not be determined with precision— numbered 7,683,794 in 1861, and 8,512,706 in 1871. In the three last-mentioned classes there has thus been an

aggregate increase of 2,648,914 persons during the ten years in question-a fact which, as the persons in question are mainly dependent for their subsistence upon the agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing portion of the community, tends to show that the labour of these latter classes has been more productive than formerly, and that the nation at large is to the same extent more wealthy.

The smaller relative importance of agriculture as compared with other occupations, which we have observed in the case of England and Wales, is also found to obtain in the case of Ireland and Scotland, though not in the same degree. In regard to Ireland, the case may be

A.D. 1851-71.]

575

If we except the domestic servants, the army and navy, and the milliners and dressmakers, each of the persons engaged in most of the above occupations may, on the

In Scotland, too, the agricultural was far outstripped by the non-agricultural portion of the population in its rate of increase. During the ten years from 1861 to 1871 the town populations, numbering about 1,100,000, added 240,000 to their numbers; while the inhabitants of the rural districts, numbering 1,900,000 in 1861, had increased by only 56,000 in 1871. The non-agricultural districts had therefore increased by nearly 22 per cent. in the interval, while the agricultural districts had increased scarcely four per cent.

Of the single or special occupations, which gave employment to the largest numbers of persons, that which stood first in England and Wales in 1871 was domestic service. In that year no fewer than 1,237,149 persons were so occupied; in 1861 their number was only 1,106,974. The increase in this occupation was therefore 130,175. The farm labourers and farm servants in 1861 numbered 1,188,789; in 1871 their numbers had been reduced to 980,178. This decrease of 208,611 is to be attributed to the extension of the use of machinery in agriculture, combined with the increasing fashion of uniting a number of small farms together into a single large one. Altogether, there were in England and Wales nineteen separate special occupations in 1871, in each of which more than 100,000 persons were engaged. Besides the two already mentioned, there were the general labourers, who in 1871 numbered 516,605, and 309,883 in 1861; the workers in cotton, 468,142 in 1871, and 456,616 in 1861; the milliners and dressmakers, 301,109 in 1871, and 287,101 in 1861; the coal miners, 268,091 in 1871, and 246,613 in 1861; the farmers and graziers, 249,907 in 1871, and 249,745 in 1861. Of the remaining trades, occupying more than 100,000 persons between 1861 and 1871, the carpenters and joiners increased from 177,969 to 205,833; the workers in the iron manufacture, from 125,771 to 180,207; the washerwomen and laundrykeepers, from 167,607 to 170,598; the merchant seamen, from 159,469 to 169,933; the tailors, from 136,390 to 149,864; the blacksmiths, from 108,165 to 112,471; the grocers and tea-dealers, from 93,483 to 111,094; the engine and machine makers, from 60,862 to 106,680; and the house-painters, plumbers, and glaziers, from 74,619 to 103,912. The shoemakers, on the other hand, declined from 249,745 to 223,365; the woollen-cloth makers, from 130,034 to 128,464; and the English in the army and navy, from 199,905 to 175,217.

On each of these leading trades or occupations, therefore, with the exceptions mentioned, it may be assumed that there were probably more than 400,000 persons dependent. There were, further, seventeen special trades or occupations, each giving employment to from 50,000 to 100,000 persons, each of which probably afforded subsistence to between 200,000 and 400,000 persons. The bricklayers numbered 99,984 in 1871, and 79,458 in 1861; the gardeners, 98,069 in 1871, and 78,533 in 1861; the masons and paviors, 95,243 in 1871, and 81,434 in 1861. Between the same dates those engaged in the worsted manufacture increased from 79,242 to 94,766; messengers and porters, from 75,629 to 93,182; commercial clerks, from 55,931 to 91,042; shirtmakers and seamstresses, from 76,493 to 80,730; charwomen, from 65,273 to 77,650; publicans and innkeepers from 53,713 to 77,049; butchers and meat salesmen, from 68,114 to 75,847; drapers, from 57,653 to 74,337; carmen and draymen, from 67,651 to 74,244; governesses and tutors, from 49,743 to 68,595; bakers, from 54,140 to 59,066; schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, from 56,139 to 58,152; and cabinet-makers and upholsterers, from 41,037 to 56,945. Those engaged in the silk manufacture declined in number from 101,678 in 1861, to 75,180 in 1871.

In addition to the occupations we have here mentioned, there were ninety-six other occupations or trades employing over 10,000 persons, but under 50,000. The numbers in 1871 were, in the majority of instances, considerably larger than in 1861.

Of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom, therefore, as a whole, whether they be contemplated in their distribution over the town and the country districts, or in their classification according to the occupations they followed, it is clear that, as they advanced in the nineteenth century, they became, more particularly in Great Britain, more and more devoted to manufactures and commerce, and less and less to agriculture. And this conclusion is completely confirmed by other circumstances, especially by the character of the imports and exports, which we shall presently proceed to consider.

CHAPTER LI.

HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL PROGRESS-continued. Trade and Commerce of the United Kingdom-Analysis of the Imports and Exports - Animal and Vegetable Food - Drinks-Raw Materials of Manufactures - Manufactured Goods-Enormous Preponderance of Food and Raw Materials in Imports, and of Manufactured Goods in Exports - Dependence on Supplies of Food from Abroad-Wealth of the Country-Estimates of the Annual National Income-Professor Leone Levi and Mr. Dudley Baxter-Progress of the Nation during the Ten Years 1800-1870. THE direction which the industry of the United Kingdom took, and the progress it made in the period under review, is, indeed, indicated by nothing more strikingly than by its foreign commerce. In the very nature of the goods which a nation purchases from other peoples, and

of the goods it sells to them, the character of its own occupations is necessarily more or less clearly reflected. A mere glance at the catalogue of British imports and exports shows at once how vast is the manufacturing industry of this country, and a comparison of the returns of the most recent years with those of earlier dates places, in the clearest light, the immense strides with which that industry has of late been progressing. The commercial greatness of Britain dates not from yesterday. Her reputation, as the greatest commercial nation the world has ever seen, has, in fact, been the growth of centuries.

and exports reached the almost incredible total of five hundred and fifty-four millions, or more than eight times the value at which they stood near the commencement of the century.

The large increase of population in the United Kingdom during the present century has already been noticed, and we have now shown that that increase of population was concurrent with a still larger increase in the foreign trade of the country. While the population had only doubled itself in the interval, the foreign trade had advanced to eight and a half times its former value. As

Yet even if we go no farther back into the past than the commencement of the nineteenth century, and compare the foreign trade of Britain of that period with that of the present day, we shall find that, though at the former period her commerce was already the envy and admiration of the whole world, it was as yet but in its infancy. In 1805 the value of the British and Irish produce exported from the United Kingdom was declared to be about thirty-eight millions sterling. In 1871 the exports of home produce amounted in value to two hundred and twenty-three millions. The imports from abroad in 1805 were valued in the aggregate at not more than twenty-eight and a half millions sterling. In 1871 their value had reached three hundred and thirty-one millions. The total imports and exports in 1805 were estimated at sixty-six and a half millions. In 1871 the year's imports

regards the general character and nature of the goods exchanged with the rest of the world, the imports consist in an overwhelming proportion of food, and of the raw materials of manufactures. The quantity of manufactured goods imported into the United Kingdom, compared with the imports of food and raw materials, appears altogether inconsiderable. The mere fact that the value of the food alone which was imported into the United Kingdom in the last few years amounted to more than one hundred and thirty millions sterling (£130,000,000) annually is highly significant. The exports of food, on the other hand, are now comparatively trifling. Even in the year 1871, when the quantity of corn, meat, and other provisions exported was vastly in excess of the average, owing to the prolonged siege of Paris, and other events in the Franco-German War which was then raging, and

A.D. 1871.]

when large quantities of provisions were dispatched from England to the relief of the starving population of the unfortunate capital and other localities in France -even in that most exceptional year, not more than ten millions' worth of food and drinks was sent out of the ports of the United Kingdom, the total value of the exports in that year being two hundred and thirty-three millions. But even ten millions sterling is a very high and unusual figure for the exports of food and drinks from the United Kingdom in the most recent times. The exports of corn and flour have not averaged more

577

necessaries of life, cannot indeed be better shown than by comparing the value of the food and drinks, and of ingredients of food and drinks, brought into the country from abroad in the most recent years, with that of the same articles imported in earlier years. To illustrate this fact we will compare the changes which have taken place within the fourteen years from 1858 to 1871. And first, as to animal food-the quantity of oxen, sheep, pork, bacon, beef, &c., which the United Kingdom drew from abroad, was, within the period in question, almost quadrupled, as will be seen from the following list:

than £400,000 per annum since the year 1851, and they were still smaller for a long time previously to that date. But in the year 1871, principally owing to the extraordinary events referred to, corn and flour to the value of as much as £3,441,982 were exported from this country. Formerly agricultural produce was largely exported from Britain; but of late years the soil has not produced sufficient food even for the home population, necessitating the importation of food and drinks into the country in vast quantities. The value of the corn and wheat imported in 1871 was as much as £42,691,464, and in the following year it had risen to £51,228,816; and the total value of the food and drinks of every class imported in 1872 was, in round numbers, upwards of one hundred and forty millions sterling.

The extent to which, in the second half of the nineteenth century, the United Kingdom had become dependent on other countries for the supply of the

Eggs Fish Lard

From this table it appears that while the animal food imported into the United Kingdom in 1858 was worth less than six millions sterling, the quantity imported in the year 1871 was estimated to be of the value of nearly twenty-four millions, or within a trifle of four times as much as that of the same class of imports fourteen years earlier. The imports of vegetable food from abroad have, how

ever, always been much larger than those of animal food. Since the abolition of the Corn Laws, the quantity of grain imported into the United Kingdom has been constantly and rapidly increasing; and, next to cotton, the various kinds of corn form the most important class of all commodities The extent to brought into this country from abroad. which the importations of vegetable food have recently been increasing, may be seen by reference to the following list of the principal articles of that class imported :VALUE OF THE VEGETABLE FOOD IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM IN 1871 AND 1858.

:

Here it will be observed that while the value of the vegetable food imported in 1858 was little more than thirty-eight millions sterling, it had risen within fourteen years to upwards of sixty-eight millions, and was, therefore, within eight millions of doubling itself.

Putting the imported animal and vegetable food together, it appears that while their aggregate value in 1858 was nearly forty-four millions sterling, it had increased in 1871 to more than ninety-one millions; so that, in other words, the United Kingdom had, within a space of fourteen years, grown nearly twice as dependent on the rest of the world for its supplies of food as it was earlier. Drinks, and commodities used in the preparation of beverages, form another and very important section of this class of imports, in which also a great increase has taken place in recent years. The most considerable of them are contained in the subjoined list :DRINKS, AND INGREDIENTS USED IN MAKING BEVERAGES, IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM IN 1871 AND 1858.

The value of this class of commodities, therefore, as appears from these figures, had nearly trebled itself in the course of the fourteen years under consideration.

From what has been hitherto stated, therefore, it appears that this class of imports has increased to the extent of more than 220 per cent. between the dates we have been considering. Before a final comparison can be drawn, however, there are certain additions yet to be made to the total, comprising a number of commodities either undistinguished by name or too numerous to be given in detail. With the addition of these minor articles, the grand total of food and drinks imported into the United Kingdom will be as follows:

It is therefore clear that, in the course of the fourteen years between the dates selected, the imports of food from abroad have more than doubled themselves, having risen from the value of fifty-nine millions sterling in 1858, to upwards of one hundred and thirty-one millions in 1871. The proportion of food and drinks imported rose from forty-one shillings' worth per head of the population at the earlier date, to eighty-two shillings' worth at the later period. The revenue of the Government exceeded the value of these imports in 1858 by ten millions sterling. In 1871 the importations of food and drinks had reached in value a sum nearly twice as great as the national revenue.

The relative extent to which the population of the United Kingdom was dependent for the most necessary articles of food on foreign nations, may perhaps be more clearly illustrated by showing not simply the value, but the average quantity of the principal articles of food imported in the most recent years. The annual average quantity of wheat and wheat-flour imported in the three years 1858 to 1860, was equal to twenty-five million hundredweights. Assuming the average annual consumption of wheat of each individual in the population at about four hundredweights, this quantity would furnish about six and a quarter millions of people with their year's supply of bread-that is, between one-fourth and one-fifth of the entire population of those years. In 1871 the quantity of wheat and flour imported was equivalent to thirty-nine and a quarter million hundredweights, which furnished bread enough for nearly ten millions of people—that is, for nearly one-third of the increased population of those years. The following tables show the average quantities of all the principal articles of food and drink imported in each of the three years 1858 to 1860, and in each of the three years 1868 to 1870, with the increase per cent. at the latter dates, as ten compared with the earlier :average years