Report on the trade in refrigerated beef, mutton and lamb

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1800540760

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-185131

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report on the trade in refrigerated beef, mutton and lamb

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1925

Scope:: vi, 65 Seiten; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter II. Historical

Collection:: Economics Books

CHAPTER II.—HISTORICAL. The frozen meat trade, now so important nationally and internationally, is of less than fifty years’ growth. Its rapid development may be traced to the coincidence of an exportable surplus and a ready overseas market. Refrigeration was, as it were, the spark which united these elements and made the international trade in meat possible. Before the invention of refrigeration and its successful application to ocean freight, various attempts had been made to realise the flocks and herds of the pastoral countries as exportable meat; canning had already been successful, and both canned beef and mutton were on the English market long before the frozen article made its appearance. Dried and salted beef and, more successfully, salted pork products were also articles of international commerce. But all these left the main problem unsolved, namely, that of placing in a distant consuming country an article of the same kind, capable of being prepared for the table in the same way, as meat killed in the consuming country itself. There was always, of course, the possibility of sending the animals over alive and to a degree this was, and is being, successfully done. The difficulty of carrying live animals long distances by sea has, however, always been a hindrance to the development of this branch of the trade, especially in the case of Australia and New Zealand. Moreover, it demands expensive freight arrangements and these entail relatively high selling prices with a consequent limitation of market. So far as the United: States, South America and Canada are concerned, both live and frozen meat have at times, reached the English market together, although of course, commanding different prices. (i) The United States of America.—The United States is not now an important source of meat supplies—except as regards pig-products. It was from the United States, however, that our first supplies of frozen meats were obtained, and it is. interesting to trace briefly the course of development within that country, because later on the results of the experience gained were applied to the development of the export trade with Great Britain. Moreover, although from the United States to-day, practically no chilled beef is shipped, the American companies which, between 1880 and 1890, built up great dis- tributive businesses in Great Britain are now largely in control of our supplies of chilled meat from South America. These companies have always been distinguished by great enterprise and when decreasing supplies in the United States and cheaper supplies from the Argentine began to threaten their European organisation, they established meat works in the Argentine so- that they could continue their business. That the United States should have been the first to develop the consignment of frozen meat to this country was natural, for not only was the United States the nearest surplus-producing

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