426 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
including the hardware manufactures of Birmingham and Sheffield, the sugar-refining of Greenock, Liverpool, and London, the manufactures of earthenware, glass, leather, paper, and a multitude of minor industries.* The depression in English agriculture was so widespread that the Commissioners of 1892 were “ unable to point to any part of the country in which [the effects of the depression] can be said to be entirely absent,” and this notwithstanding the fact that the seasons since 1882 “were on the whole satisfactory from an agricultural point of view.”† Just the reverse was the case with Indian trade and industry. The foreign trade of the country, which had bounced up during the American Civil War, showed greater buoyancy after 1870, and continued to grow throughout the period of the falling exchange at a rapid pace. During the short space of twenty years the total imports and exports of the country more than doubled in their magnitude, as is shown by Table XIV.
TABLE XIV
| IMPOR | RTS AND EXPO | ORTS (BOTH | MERCHAN | NDIZE AND TRE | EASURE)§ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Exports R. | Imports | Year | Exports R. | Imports |
| 1870-71 1871-72 1872-73 1873-74 1874-75 1875-76 1876-87 1877-78 1878-79 1879-80 1880-81 | 57,556,951 64,685,376 56,548,842 56,910,081 57,984,549 60,291,731 65,043,789 67,433,324 64,919,741 69,247,511 76,021,043 | 39,913,942 43,665,663 36,431,210 39,612,362 44,363,160 44,192,378 48,876,751 58,819,644 44,857,343 52,821,398 62,104,984 | 1881-82 1882-83 1883-84 1884-85 1885-86 1886-87 1887-88 1888-89 1889-90 1890-91 1891-92 | 83,068,198 84,527,182 89,186,397 85,225,922 84,989,502 90,190,633 92,148,279 98,833,879 105,366,720 102,350,526 111,460,278 | 60,436,155 65,548,868 68,157,311 69,591,269 71,133,666 72,830,670 78,830,468 83,285,427 86,656,990 93,909,856 84,155,045 |
§ From Appendix II (Nos. 1 and 2) to the Report of the Indian Currency Committee of 1898.
- Report by Dunraven, Farrer, Muntz, and Lubbock in the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Depression of Trade and Industry, par., 54, C. 4893. † Final Report of the Royal Commission on Agricultural Depression in England, C 8540 of 1897, par. 28.