The 1901 census
1900 was a boom year, with trade at record levels, but 1901
saw a dip in exports, a fall in demand for cotton and a
mild economic depression that was to persist for several
years. This was reflected in the 1901 census, which showed
a decline in factory employment in both the cotton and woollen
industries. The service industries - commerce, finance,
transport and communications - showed the strongest growth. |
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Exports versus imports
Britain's export trade grew from £298 million in 1874
to £354 million in 1900. Imports grew more, however,
from £668 million to £877 million over the same
period. This imbalance was partly off-set by the income
from British shipping, worth £76.3 million in 1900,
and from financial and insurance services, while huge dividends
from overseas investments kept Britain solvent. However,
the average annual growth of exports dropped to 0.7% between
1890 and 1900 (compared with a rate of 4.4% in the decade
before 1870).
'King Coal'
One vital export was coal, a trade more than doubling in
value between 1881 and 1901 and employing 752,000 miners
in 1901. New fields had been developed in the booming areas
of south Wales, south Yorkshire and the east Midlands. The
government's 1907 Census of Production estimated its net
value at three and a half times that of the primary iron
and steel industry. Yet how long would this non-renewable
energy source remain competitive? Not only were oil-fired
ships beginning to come into use in 1901, but less than
2% of Britain's coal was machine-cut at a time when its
rivals were turning to mechanised methods of coal production.
The crisis in
agriculture
British agriculture was in serious decline in the second
half of the 19th century. The proportion of the
workforce it employed fell from over 21% in 1851 to 8.6%
in 1901, and there was a major population shift to the towns.
Rents fell by a quarter and wheat acreage by a half as cheap
wheat flooded in from North America. Cheap transport and
refrigeration allowed frozen meat to be imported from both
North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, as well
as fresh fruit from the Caribbean. Even dairy produce came
from abroad - Siberian or New Zealand butter and American
Cheddar cheese.
However, by 1901, despite a brief outbreak
of foot and mouth disease, the worst of the agricultural
depression was probably over. Home demand for fresh milk
and high-quality meat remained buoyant, and the next census,
in 1911, was to show an increase in the number of farm labourers.
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