AN able report on the trade of France during 1886 and the first three quarters of 1887, by Mr. Crowe, the British Commercial Attache in Paris, has lately been published. It is partly founded on M, Faure's report on the budget of the Ministry of Commerce and partly on private reports on some special indus tries. It seems to show that the same changes have been at work in France as inEngland, and most European countries. These changes may not have been so apparent in the trade of America as in hat of older countries, but we do not doubt they are producing the same effect there. In France there has been a marked falling off in the profits of manufacturers, while at the same time there has been a demand for work larger than the supply, which is diminished by emigration and military service, and also by the circumstance that the physical effort of men is less. Mr. Crowe gives the figures of the export and import trade of France from 1877 to 1885, and epitomizes them by saying that she has come through the last ten years to export and import less food products and materials for manufactures, her imports of manufactured goods have fluctuated, rising from the value of 503 millions of francs in 1877 to 730 millions in 1882, 720 millions in 1883 and falling to 558 millions in 1886. During the latter half of 1886 the export of silks increased to 260 millions of francs. The increase in the yield of cocoons apparent of late, the report says, is said to be due to the fact that eggs, as recommended by M, Pas-tour, are now selected by the microscope. The Italians first and the French later have been enabled to produce as much as 35 kilos of cocoons per ounce of grain, instead of 14 or 15 kilos as heretofore, a fact that should be brought to the notice of the T'sung-li Yamen, for such an increase in the production of silk as this means would be of the greatest benefit to producers and to trade, Her exports of manufactured goods have remained practically unchanged, averag+ ing annually the value of 1,700 millions of francs, there having been a considerable improvement in 1886, From 1880 to 1885 the decrease in the total trade of France has not been less as regards value than 1,324 millions of franes, put by Mr. Crowe at £52,980,040. The depression in trade is evident, he says, in many tions, diminished railway re+ ceipts, diminished consumption of coal, decrease in the number of bills dis+ counted at the Bank of France and increase in the number of commercial failures. The statistics for all these are iven, and from them it would appear, the imes says, that French trade at home and abroad has shrunk between 1881 and 1886 by 27 percent. The remedies for these evils which M. Faure mentions, without absolutely advocating them, are numerous; some of them are sensible,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.