German composition

Section 145 Manufactures of England⁠1

The principal branches of⁠2 the industrial pursuits are the manufactures⁠3 of cotton, woollen⁠4, and worsted goods, iron and hardware, earthenware⁠5, hosiery, mining⁠6, and shipbuilding. The geographical distribution of the manufacturing⁠7 population is dependent partly on natural, partly on accidental circumstances. The proximity of a coal-field⁠8 decides the point⁠9 in many instances⁠10; for, even where the raw material is bulky⁠11, it is generally more practicable to bring⁠12 it to the coal (Kohlen), than the coal to it, an⁠13 instance of which is furnished by the copper-ore of Cornwall being taken to Swansea to be smelted. The iron manufacture is carried on⁠14 generally at⁠15 the coal-fields, the⁠16 chief seats being south Wales, Staffordshire, and Derbyshire. The cotton manufacture has⁠17 been located in Lancashire and Cheshire for the last three centuries; but⁠18 it has attained its present dimensions very much through those counties being readily furnished with the raw material from America, as⁠19 well as from the abundance of coal outside those counties; Manchester, Bolton, Oldham, Stockport, and Macclesfield are the chief seats of the manufacture.—Bevan, “The Student’s Manual Of Modern Geography.”

Notes

1 Die englische Industrie.

2 of — pursuits, der Industrie.

3 Fabrikation, f.

4 The preposition ‘of’ is best repeated in this enumeration; worsted, aus Kammwolle gefertigt; ‘goods’, here Stoffe.

5 irdenes Geschirr or Töpferwaren.

6 Berg-und Schiffsbau.

7 manufacturing = industrial.

8 Kohlenlager, n.

9 the point, darüber, which place last.

10 instances = cases.

11 schwer und umfangreich.

12 hin´schaffen; than — it = than the reverse, als umgekehrt.

13 It is well to begin a new period here, thus: ‘An example of this (dazu) furnishes the copper-ore of Cornwall, which is taken (befördern) to (S. 72, N. 4), S.’, etc.

14 betreiben, insep. c. str. v.

15 at the = in the neighbourhood of the.

16 the — being = which are mainly situated (belegen) in.

17 has been located, ist ansässig. The Present is often used in German where the English use the Perfect to express the duration of an action up to the time of speaking; as—Unsere Familie wohnt seit zwanzig Jahren (or schon zwanzig Jahre) in Manchester, our family has been living in Manchester for these last twenty years.

18 but — America. This clause containing a Gerund (being) preceded by the preposition ‘through’, must be construed according to S. 1, N. 3, and S. 87, N. 6 in the following way: ‘but it (sie) has received its present dimension especially thereby (dadurch, read S. 87, N. 6), that these counties can easily be (S. 2, N. 1) supplied with the raw material from America’. The three verbs must, of course, be placed at the end, and in such a way that the governing verb (can) stands last, and the auxiliary of tense in the middle.

19 as — counties = as also (wie auch noch) thereby, that the coal is [use the pl. in German] to be got (zu haben sein) in abundance in the neighbouring counties.