its exportation—the imports of Eastern rice into Italy alone having increased from 11,957 tons in 1878 to nearly 70,000 tons in 1883.
That the same causes are also exerting a like influence upon the marketing of the cereal crops of the United States is shown by the circumstance that the freight rates on the transport of grain from Bombay to England, by way of the Suez Canal, have declined from 32·5 cents per bushel in 1880, to 16·2 cents in 1885; and to the extent of this decline has the ability of the Indian ryot to compete with the American grain-grower, in the markets of Europe, been increased.
How great was the disturbance occasioned in the general prices of the commodities that enter into Eastern commerce by the opening of the Suez Canal, and how quickly prices respond to the introduction of improvements in distribution, is illustrated by the following experience: The value of the total trade of India with foreign countries, exclusive of its coasting-trade, was estimated at the time of the opening of the canal in 1869, at £105,500,000 ($527,500,000). In 1874, however, the value was estimated at only £95,500,000, or at a reduction of ten per cent; and the inference might naturally have been that such a large reduction as ten millions sterling ($50,000,000) in five years, with a concurrent increase in the world's population, could only indicate a reduction of quantities. But that such was not the case was shown by the fact that 250,000 tons more shipping was employed in transporting commodities between India and foreign countries in 1874 than in 1869; or, that while the value of the trade, through a reduction of prices had notably declined during this period, the quantities entering into trade had so greatly increased during the same time, that 250,000 tons more shipping (mainly steam, and therefore equivalent to at least 500,000 more tons of sail) were required to convey it.
In short, the construction of the Suez Canal completely revolutionized one of the greatest departments of the world's commerce and business; absolutely destroying an immense amount of what had previously been wealth, and displacing or changing the employment of millions of capital and thousands of men; or, as the London "Economist" has expressed it, "so altered and so twisted many of the existing modes and channels of business as to create mischief and confusion" to an extent sufficient to constitute one great general cause for a universal commercial and industrial depression and disturbance.
The deductions from the most recent tonnage statistics of Great Britain come properly next in order for consideration. During the ten years from 1870 to 1880, inclusive, the British mercantile marine increased its movement, in the matter of foreign entries and clearances alone, to the extent of twenty-two million tons; or, to put it more simply, the British mercantile marine exclusively engaged in foreign trade did so much more work within the period named; and yet the number of men who were employed in effecting this great movement had decreased in 1880, as compared with 1870, to the extent of about
