so lowered the cost of production as to render
Lancashire the cotton factory of the world. Figures are quoted in the
table to show the rate of growth in different periods of England's
imports and exports as regards the raw material and products of this
industry. It is important to remember when reading the last 6 columns
that the value of money was the same in 1831-1835, 1851-1855 and
1876-1880: the sums of Sauerbeck's index numbers for these periods were
454, 451 and 444 respectively. In the last two periods there were
considerable depressions in prices. If prices had remained constant, in
the periods 1891-1895 and 1896-1900 the figures of exports would have
been L90 millions and L91 millions respectively. The growth in trade has
been partly occasioned by the enormous increase in the volume of cotton
goods consumed all over the world, which in turn has been due to (1) the
growth of population, (2) the increase in productive efficiency and
well-being, and (3) the substitution of cotton fabrics for woollen and
linen fabrics. The rate of growth between the periods 1771-1781 and
1781-1791 (which is not shown in the above table) was particularly
remarkable, and reached as high a figure (when measured by importations
of weight of cotton) as 320%.

+---------+-------------+-------------+-----------------------------+---------------------------+
| | | | Exports of Cotton Yarns |Imports of Cotton Yarns and|
| | | |and Manufactures, Million L. | Manufactures, Million L |
| | Imports of | Raw Cotton | | |
| Year. | Raw Cotton, |re-exported, +------+-------------+--------+------+-------------+------+
| | Million lb. | Million lb. | | | | |Manufactures.| |
| | | |Yarns.|Manufactures.| Total. |Yarns.| (excluding |Total.|
| | | | | | | | Lace.) | |
+---------+-------------+-------------+------+-------------+--------+------+-------------+------+
|1700-1705| 1.17 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |
|1771-1775| 4.76 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |
|1785-1789| .. | .. | .. | .. | 1.07* | .. | .. | .. |
|17