The great commercial centres of Britain after London are GLASGOW
(800,000), LIVERPOOL (700,000) and MANCHESTER (640,000, including
SALFORD). All these cities have derived the greater portion of their
size from the progress they have made during the present century. All,
of course, owe their progress and their prosperity largely to their
natural advantages of situation, etc. LIVERPOOL stands on the margin
of the Atlantic, "the Mediterranean of the modern world," and thus
enjoys the principal share of the trade with America, especially that
with the United States. Great Britain's imports from the United States
amount to over $500,000,000 per annum, and her exports to the United
States (exclusive of bullion, etc.) to over $100,000,000. (Formerly
the exports to the United States were twice this amount.) Of this vast
trade, amounting to one fifth of Britain's total trade with the world,
Liverpool enjoys the lion's share. Nearly all the cotton, not merely
of the United States but of the world, that is used in Europe is sent
to Liverpool for distribution. Similarly, GLASGOW, situated with its
aspect directed toward the same maritime routes, enjoys also an
immense transatlantic trade both north and south. And MANCHESTER,
situated in the very heart of the richest coal districts of the
kingdom, and within easy reach of the great cotton port, Liverpool,
has built up a cotton-manufacturing industry surpassing that of all
the rest of the world.