British worker is no doubt irregular and
ill-paid employment. The first step to improve his position is
therefore to improve employment. Hence the most urgent reform is the
revision of Great Britain's economic policy. Great Britain's present
economic policy, Free Trade, was based upon the supposition that Great
Britain, as Cobden prophesied, was, and always would remain, the
workshop of the world; that other countries were compelled to buy
British manufactures because British manufactures were as necessary to
them as foreign foodstuffs are now to Great Britain. In 1846, when
Free Trade was introduced, there was some reason for that supposition.
Before the advent of electricity manufacturing was based exclusively
upon coal. Great Britain's absolute predominance in manufacturing for
the markets of the whole world immediately before the introduction of
Free Trade may therefore best be seen from the following table:

PRODUCTION OF COAL IN 1845[1277]

Quantity produced. Percentage of
Tons world's production
Great Britain 31,500,000 64.2
Belgium 4,960,077 10.1
United States 4,400,000 8.9
France 4,141,617 8.4
Prussian States 3,500,000 7.0
Austrian States 659,340 1.4
---------- ----
49,161,034 100

The above table shows that Great Britain produced two-thirds of the
world's coal, and the coal of most other countries was supposed to be
unsuitable for manufacturing purposes. However, Great Britain produced
not only two-thirds of the world's coal, but she produced likewise
two-thirds of the world's iron, she consumed two-thirds of the world's
cotton, and she possessed two-thirds of the world's shipping. Her
railway mileage was greater than that of the whole Continent of
Europe.[1278]

Times have changed. Great Britain is no longer the workshop of the
world. British manufactures are no longer indispensable to foreign
countries. In the present age of steel, the production of steel is the
best index of a nation's manufacturing eminence, and how greatly
conditions have changed, and are still changing, to England's
disadvantage may be seen from the following figures:

OUTPUT OF STEEL

United States. Germany. Great Britain.
Tons Tons