Towns > Dundee > 1809-1912 - Dundee directory > 1900-1901

DUNDEE DIRECTORY,
1900-1901.
GENERAL NOTICE.
The affairs of the City, looked at from a comprehensive standpoint,
have been signally satisfactory during the past twelve months. This
thriving state of matters, we are glad to record, has not been confined
to our staple industry. On the contrary, whilst our mills and factories
have been unwontedly busy — rivalling, in fact, their palmiest days, —
all minor branches of business have been equally active. Not only has
production been large, but good prices throughout were obtained.
For months the difficulty has been to supply the demand, entailing
heavy pressure upon producers. Every mill and factory in the city
has been in full swing, and not for long has the market been so steady
and unvariable. Whilst employers are reaping the benefits of this
accession of good trade, the rank and file of operatives are also feeling
the advantage as well. There was abundant employment for all.
In fact, the masters have had a difficulty in getting hands. As a
consequence the privation and distress which always accompany dull
times were conspicuously absent, except amongst those who are
afflicted with chronic improvidence.
This thriving state of trade is to be attributed to two causes. In
the first place, markets, long surcharged with a plethora of goods,
have been relieved ; and, in the second place, it is a result of the
heavy demand made for our fabrics consequent on the outbreak
of war in South Africa. It is, however, apparent, from indications
already in evidence, that this run of prosperity is likely to give way,
and some leading operators in the market are afraid that it is probable,
before many months elapse, we may fall back into the old order of
things. Experts, at the same time, are not so despondent. They are
of opinion that Dundee has seen its worst, and that with the opening
up of new outlets, and the great improvements that are constantly
being introduced into our methods of production, we shall hold our
own with other manufacturing centres.
While our textile industries were forging ahead, others have not
been lagging behind, notably the building trades. The extension
of the City continues to go on apace, and unfeued tracts of ground are
opened up every year. New buildings fill places which recently were
either fields or gardens, and a community which for a long period
was strictly urban has now branched out and populated the semi-
rural districts. New streets, new villas, new tenements mark the
path of progress, and the hand of the artificer is still steadily engaged
in developing, beautifying, and adding structural elegance to our
town. The building trades, like the jute trade, during the period
just closing, have been very prosperous. Large contracts, on the
whole fairly profitable, were successfully carried out. If any branches
of industry have benefited by the increase in the population, the
consequent extension of the City, and the construction of public and