ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the competitive situation of the British iron trade in respect of raw material, labour, transport, and tariff systems. It has no record of the capital expenditure in the iron trade of Great Britain as a whole, nor is there too much information on this aspect of the subject for any other country. In Great Britain there is a liability to two extremes to undercapitalise, as in the case of the Consett Iron Company. The British iron industry is increasingly handicapped by public burdens, and more especially by those that belong to local and imperial taxation. Other burdens that have been levied on the trade during recent years have been the direct consequence of legislative interference, which threatens every year to make manufacturing industry more onerous. The royalties paid in respect of most minerals worked under the same and similar conditions are quite as high in the United States as in this country, with very few exceptions.
