1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Agriculture/British Imports of Live Animals and Meat

British Imports of Live Animals and Meat.

The stock-breeders and graziers of the United Kingdom have, equally with the corn-growers, to face the brunt of foreign competition.

Up to 1896 store cattle were admitted into the United Kingdom for the purpose of being fattened, but under the Diseases of Animals Act of that year animals imported since then have to be slaughtered at the place of landing. The dimensions of this trade are shown in Table XIV.

Table XIV.—Numbers of Cattle, Sheep and Pigs imported into the
United Kingdom, 1891–1905.

Year.	Cattle.	Sheep.	Pigs.
1891	507,407	344,504	542
1892	502,237	79,048	3826
1893	340,045	62,682	138
1894	475,440	484,597	8
1895	415,565	1,065,470	321
1896	562,553	769,592	4
1897	618,321	611,504	. .
1898	569,066	663,747	450
1899	503,504	607,755	. .
1900	495,645	382,833	. .
1901	495,635	383,594	. .
1902	419,488	293,203	. .
1903	522,546	354,241	. .
1904	549,532	382,240	. .
1905	565,139	183,084	150

The animals come mainly from the United States of America, Canada and Argentina, and the traffic in cattle is more uniform than that in sheep, whilst that in pigs seems practically to have reached extinction. The quantities of dead meat imported increased with great rapidity from 1891 to 1905, a circumstance largely due to the rise of the trade in chilled and frozen meat. Fresh beef in this form is imported chiefly from the United States and Australasia, fresh mutton from Australasia and Argentina.

Table XV. shows how rapidly this trade expanded during the decade of the ’nineties. The column headed bacon and hams indicates clearly enough that the imports of fresh meat did not displace those of preserved pig meat, for the latter expanded from 4,715,000 cwt. to 7,784,000 cwt. during the decade. The column for all dead meat includes not only the items tabulated, but also

Table XV.—Quantities of Dead Meat imported into the United Kingdom, 1891–1905—Thousands of Cwt.

Year.	Fresh  Beef.	Fresh  Mutton.	Fresh  Pork.	Bacon and Hams.	All  Dead Meat.
1891	1921	1663	128	4715	9,790
1892	2080	1700	132	5135	10,500
1893	1808	1971	182	4187	9,305
1894	2104	2295	180	4819	10,610
1895	2191	2611	288	5353	11,977
1896	2660	2895	299	6009	13,347
1897	3010	3193	348	6731	14,729
1898	3101	3314	558	7684	16,445
1899	3803	3446	669	7784	17,658
1900	4128	3393	695	7444	17,912
1901	4509	3608	792	7633	18,764
1902	3707	3660	655	6572	16,971
1903	4160	4017	706	6298	17,498
1904	4350	3495	610	6696	17,517
1905	5038	3811	506	6817	18,680

the following, the quantities stated being those for 1905:—Beef, salted, 142,806 cwt.; beef, otherwise preserved, 598,030 cwt.; preserved mutton, 30,111 cwt.; salted pork, 205,965 cwt.; dead rabbits, 656,078 cwt.; meat, unenumerated, 875,032 cwt. The quantities of these are relatively small, and, excepting rabbits from Australia, they show no general tendency to increase. The extent to which these growing imports were associated with a decline in value is shown in Table XVI.

The trend of the import trade in meat, live and dead (exclusive of rabbits), may be gathered from Table XVII., in which are given the annual average imports from the eight quinquennial periods embraced between 1866 and 1905. An increase in live cattle accompanied a decrease in live sheep and pigs, but the imports of dead meat expanded fifteen-fold over the period.

The rate at which the trade in imported frozen mutton increased as compared with the industry in home-grown mutton is illustrated in the figures published annually by Messrs W. Weddel and Company, from which those for 1885 and 1890 and for each year from 1895 to 1906 are given in Table XVIII. The home-grown is the estimated dead weight of sheep and lambs slaughtered, which is taken at 40% of the total number of sheep and lambs returned each year in the United Kingdom.

Table XVI.—Average Values of Fresh Meat, Bacon and Hams
imported into the United Kingdom, 1891–1905—per Cwt.

Year.	Fresh  Beef.	Fresh  Mutton.	Fresh  Pork.	Bacon.	Hams.
	s. d.	s. d.	s. d.	s. d.	s. d.
1891	42  1	39  6	47  6	37 11	46  4
1892	42  5	40  6	46 11	40 10	47  4
1893	42  4	39  3	50  0	53  0	58  5
1894	40  0	37 10	48  5	43 10	49  1
1895	39  0	35  2	46  1	39  0	44 11
1896	37 10	32  7	45 11	34  6	43  0
1897	38  5	30  3	44  0	35  5	42  8
1898	38  2	29  7	41 10	36  2	39  6
1899	38  8	31  7	41 11	35 10	41  5
1900	39  7	34  5	43  0	41  9	46 10
1901	39  6	36  7	43  4	47  1	48  8
1902	42  8	37  9	44  2	52  9	52  1
1903	40  3	39  0	44  1	52 10	55  1
1904	37  1	39  3	45  2	47  1	49 11
1905	35  6	38  6	46  0	46  6	47  4

In the imported column is given the weight of fresh (frozen) mutton and lamb imported, plus the estimated dead weight of the sheep imported on the hoof for slaughter. The quantity imported in 1899 was double that in 1890, and quadruple that in 1885. Moreover, in 1885 the imported product was only about one-seventh as much as the home-grown, whereas in 1890 it was more than one-fourth, and in 1906 close on two-thirds.

Table XVII.—Average Annual Imports of Cattle, Sheep and
Pigs, and of Dead Meat, into the United Kingdom over
eight 5-yearly Periods.

Period.	Cattle.	Sheep.	Pigs.	Dead Meat.
	No.	No.	No.	Cwt.
1866–1870	194,947	610,300	64,827	1,155,867
1871–1875	215,990	864,516	74,040	3,134,175
1876–1880	272,745	938,704	44,613	5,841,913
1881–1885	387,282	974,316	24,355	6,012,495
1886–1890	438,098	800,599	19,437	7,681,729
1891–1895	448,139	407,260	967	10,436,549
1896–1900	549,818	607,086	91	15,785,354
1901–1905	510,468	319,272	30	17,384,366

This large import trade in fresh meat, which sprang up entirely within the last quarter of the 19th century, has placed an abundance of cheap and wholesome food well within the reach of the great industrial populations of the United Kingdom.

Table XVIII.—Home Product and Imports of Sheep and Mutton
into the United Kingdom—Thousands of Tons.

Year.	Home-  grown.	Imported.	Year.	Home-  grown.	Imported.
1885	322	47	1900	332	179
1890	339	92	1901	330	191
1895	319	157	1902	322	191
1896	329	164	1903	318	210[1]
1897	327	175	1904	311	185
1898	333	182	1905	312	195
1899	339	187	1906	313	207

At the same time it cannot be gainsaid that it has opened the way to fraud. Butchers have palmed off upon their customers imported fresh meat as homegrown, and secured a dishonest profit by charging for it the prices of the latter, which are considerably in excess of those of the imported product.

1. In 1903 two of the principal sources of supply of mutton shipped in excess of their exportable surplus, for which they suffered severely in 1904—hence the somewhat irregular movements after 1903.