ABSTRACT
Next to Canada, the greatest buyer of British iron and steel among the colonies is Australasia. The total volume of British exports of those metals to this continent over the last five years, has fluctuated between 400,000 tons and 500,000 tons. It would have been materially greater but for the competition of Germany, Belgium, and the United States. Perhaps four-fifths of the total iron and steel consumed in India is still imported from Great Britain, Germany, and Belgium, in the form of wrought iron and steel. It has been recognised that the native charcoal iron cannot compete with the ordinary kinds of iron and steel made with mineral coal, which are being imported and sold at low rates. India is wedded to old methods and traditions, and hence the consumption of malleable iron is relatively greater than in any other country. The united iron exports to India are about one-fifth of those of Great Britain.
