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