cts in which competitors have
been most formidable. Various finishing processes, and particularly the
mercerizing of yarn and cloth, have increased the possibilities in
cotton materials, and while staples still form the bulk of our foreign
trade, it seems that as the stress of competition in these grows acute,
more and more of our energy may be transferred to the production of
goods which appeal to a growing taste or fancy.

_British Home Trade._--The home trade in cotton cloths is a great and
important section, but it is not comparable in volume to the export
trade. It involves more numerous and more elaborate processes, and the
qualities for home use are generally finer and more costly than those
for export. Of course by far the larger part of the yarn spun in
Lancashire is woven in Lancashire, but of the cotton cloth woven in
Lancashire it is roughly estimated that about 20% is used in Great
Britain. Not only is the average of quality better, but the variety of
kinds and designs is greater in the home trade than in the export trade.
A good home trade connexion is considered an extremely valuable asset,
and as the trade is highly differentiated the profits are usually good.
Some manufacturers devote themselves exclusively to the home trade, and
some exclusively to foreign trade, but there is a large class with what
may be called a margin of alternation, which serves to redress the
balance as business in one or other of the sections is good or bad.

Certain kinds of light goods made for India and other Eastern markets
are not used in the home trade, and the typical Eastern staples are not
generally used in their particular "sizings," but with these exceptions
and various specialities almost every kind of cotton cloth is used to
some extent in Great Britain. Grey calicoes for home use, except the
lowest kinds, are comparatively pure, and of late years the heavy
fillings which used to be common in bleached goods have become
discredited. The housewife long persisted in deceiving herself by
purchasing filled calicoes, and the movement in favour of purer goods
owes a good deal, strangely enough, to the increase in the making-up
trade and the consequent inconveniences to workers of sewing machines,
whose needles were constantly broken by hard filled calicoes.

This development of the making-up trade has become an important element
in the home trade, and it has greatly reduced the retail sale of
piece-goods. The purchase of