QUINQUENNIAL PERIODS, &c.—(Continued.)
| Annual Average. | 1851-1855. | 1856-1860. | 1861-1865. | 1866. |
| Import (Qrs.) | 8,345,237 | 10,912,612 | 15,009,871 | 16,457,340 |
| Export {{{1}}}„ | 307,491 | 341,150 | 302,754 | 216,218 |
| Excess of Import over export | 8,037,746 | 10,572,462 | 14,707,117 | 16,241,122 |
Population Yearly average in each period, |
27,572,923 |
28,391,544 |
29,381,460 |
29,935,404 |
| Average quantity of corn, &c., in qrs., consumed annually per head over and above the home produce consumed, | 0·291 | 0·372 | 0·543 | 0·543 |
The enormous power, inherent in the factory system, of
expanding by jumps, and the dependence of that system on the
markets of the world, necessarily beget feverish production,
followed by over-filling of the markets, whereupon contraction
of the markets brings on crippling of production. The life of
modern industry becomes a series of periods of moderate
activity, prosperity, over-production, crisis and stagnation.
The uncertainty and instability to which machinery subjects
the employment, and consequently the conditions of existence,
of the operatives become normal, owing to these periodic
changes of the industrial cycle. Except in the periods of
prosperity, there rages between the capitalists the most furious
combat for the share of each in the markets. This share is
directly proportional to the cheapness of the product. Besides
the rivalry that this struggle begets in the application of
improved machinery for replacing labour-power, and of new
methods of production, there also comes a time in every
industrial cycle, when a forcible reduction of wages beneath the
