WASTEFUL  MULTIPLICATION  OF  DISTRIBUTORS  67

in  the  Census  Reports.  The  common  notion  that  we  are
becoming  more  and  more  a  manufacturing  nation  is
incorrect  so  far  as  employment  of  labour  is  concerned.
Taking  the  aggregate  of  the  manufactures  from  the  Census
returns,  as  interpreted  by  Mr.  Charles  Booth,  *  it  appears
that  whereas  up  to  1861  manufactures  engaged  an  increasing ­
  proportion  of  our  population,  since  that  date,  although
there  continues  to  be  an  absolute  increase  in  the  numbers
so  employed,  that  increase  is  slower  than  the  growth  of
the  population.  The  percentage  engaged  in  manufactures
from  1841  to  1881  is  as  follows:

1841  27.1  per  cent.
1851  327
J861  33.0
1871  31.6
1881  30.7

Though  we  cannot  place  in  exact  line  with  the  preced'ng
returns  the  results  for  1891  and  rçor,  there  is  every  reason
to  believe  that  the  proportionate  decline  of  employment  has
continued,  and  that  not  more  than  30  per  cent,  of  the
occupied  classes  are  engaged  in  manufactures.  Set  off  the
increase  of  coal-miners  against  the  decline  of  agricultural
workers,  and  a  small  increase  of  the  numbers  engaged  in
extractive  industries  is  obtained.  What,  then,  has  become
of  the  two  millions  and  a  half  added  to  our  working  population ­
  between  1881  and  1901  ?  Outside  the  manufacturing
and  extractive  industries  there  is  only  one  other  large  department ­
  of  “  making  ”  industry,  the  building  trades.  The  only
branch  of  “  making  ”  industry  besides  mining  which  has
shown  a  marked  advance  in  the  amount  of  occupation  it
affords  from  1881  to  1901  is  building,  which  absorbs  rather
*  “  Occupations  of  the  People,  1841—1881."