The industrial resources of Ireland / By Robert Kane.

  • Kane, Robert, 1809-1890.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The industrial resources of Ireland / By Robert Kane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tain disadvantage in regard to fuel. Every thing which dimi- nishes the quantity of fuel, diminishes the amount of this dis- advantage, and hence removes the greatest difficulty felt in the financial success of industry in Ireland. Thus if the Eng- lish manufacturer have an advantage of ls. per ton in the price of coals, and that there be ten tons of coal used to make a ton of iron bars, his advantage is 10s.; and that 10s. may enable him to send his iron to every part of Ireland, and to destroy our market. But if, by processes in which fuel is economized, the bars be made with five tons of coal, in place of ten, then his total advantage in fuel becomes but 5s., and this may not be, indeed would not be, sufficient to enable him to keep possession of the Irish market. It is evident also that if one party adopt methods of economy, and the other party do not, the scale is at once and decisively turned in fa- vour of the party who avails himself most rapidly of all im- provements.