Iron-Ore Requirements of Great Britain. [Volume: 8, Issue: 4, 1889, pp. 251-258]

252

UINITED STATES ASSOCIATION OF

[VOL. 8,

tries of the world may be regarded as dating from about the year
1866, when the Bessemer process had been fairly set on foot. In
that year, however, the United Kingdom imported little or no ores,
the only European countries that then received supplies of foreign
ores being France, Germany, Belgium, and Austria. The united
imports of these four countries amounted to nearly 900,000 tons,
or one-seventh part of the quantities now imported into the chief
iron-making countries from outside sources.
" In 1868 the United Kingdom came into the field as an importer
of iron-ores on a scale of some little importance, receiving 88,770
tons from Spain, and 12,073 from Norway, besides smaller quantities
from other countries. The total quantity of iron-ore imported into
the United Kingdom in this year was 114,435 tons, and the home
production was 10,169,000 tons, so that the imports were only 1.12
per cent. of the home production.
"Up to 1877 the total imports of iron-ore into the United Kingdom never, in any single year, exceeded 1,000,000 tons. In the
memorable year 1873 they rose to 967,000 tons; but they fell again
for some years afterwards, and the trade was practically limited to
1,000,000 tons a year, until, in 1880, it bounded up suddenly from
1,083,000 to 2,634,000, being an increase of over 1,500,000 tons
in one twelvemonth. It is somewhat remarkable that this increase
should have happened concurrently with the development of the
basic process, which was just then coming rather prominently into
consideration. In 1882 the imports into Great Britain rose to
3,282,000 tons, which was an advance of nearly 2,250,000 tons
on 1879. From this point, however, the movement of the ore
import trade was slower until 1887, when the trade took another
bound, and the total quantity imported rose from 2,876,000 tons
in 1886 to 3,762,000 tons in 1887...... "
The paper is accompanied by a table showing the quantities of
iron-ore mined in the United Kingdom, as well as imported into it,
and the percentage which the imported ores bear to the domestic
for the years 1868 to 1888, both inclusive. From this table we
note that in 1868, 10,169,231 gross tons of domestic ore and 114,435 gross tons of foreign ore were consumed in the United Kingdom, the proportion of foreign ores to domestic ores being but
1 per cent.; and although the domestic production increased rapidly