170

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

A difference equally striking appeared in the case of tin-plate.
The weight of tin-plate produced was approximately the same in
the two countries: 529,000 tons in Great Britain, 587,000 tons in
the United States. The number of persons employed was, however,
 vastly greater in Great Britain: 20,628 against only 5846
in the United States. In terms of physical output per person
employed, the figures were 25.6 tons per head in Great Britain and
100.4 tons per head in the United States. As Mr. Flux remarks,
“while the quality of goods was not necessarily equal, the divergence
 in the net output (in terms of money) appears to be related
rather to the volume of output than to the price obtained per unit
of quantity.” !
In sugar refining, the number of tons refined per year was 87 in
Great Britain, somewhere between 150 and 180 tons in the United
States. The figure for the United States was somewhat uncertain,
because the statistics did not make it clear that all the American
sugar consumed went thru the refineries; some fraction certainly
did not; the maximum figure (180 tons) was computed on the
supposition that the whole supply was refined. Even taking the
lowest figure (150) the contrast with the British figure (87 tons)
is marked. In flour milling the contrast, even tho less great, is
also marked. The output in Great Britain was 153 million cwt.,
against 429 million in the United States; the number of persons
employed was 36,177 against 66,054. This works out, in round
numbers, 4250 cwt. per head in Great Britain, compared with
6500 per head in the United States. And here too the figures
of horsepower in the industry point to human factors as most
important among the causes of the difference. The horsepower
per employee in the flour mills of Great Britain was 5, in the
United States 13. The indication is that capital, plant, machinery,
played a larger part in the latter country.
In other industries, where direct statements of physical output
were not available, it was none the less possible to make significant
comparisons. This was the case where the output in money
1 The price obtained (average value) was £14 per ton in Great Britain, £11 per
ton in the United States.