OUR FOREIGN TRADE.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
Six,—The reply of the President of the Board of Trade to Sir C. Renshaw in Parliament on Monday should comfort those of your readers who are feeling cast down by the pessimism regarding our foreign trade which appears to be so prevalent at the Colonial Office at present. Mr. Gerald Balfour acknowledges that had not the price of raw material and manufactured articles fallen considerably in recent years, the aggregate value of the foreign trade of the United Kingdom would now be much greater than in any former year. He gives the following as "the approximate computed value of imports and exports at 1873 values on the assumption that the average of the articles of our foreign trade has followed the general movement of prices of commodities as shown by the Board of Trade index number " :—
Year
Aggregate Trade of the United Kingdom.
Rate per Capita.
1873
.f.,626 000 000
£19
1883
861,000,000 23
1893 1,029,000,000
26 1902 1,323,000,000 31
In an adjoining column will be found the per capita rate of trade transacted by each inhabitant of the United Kingdom. I would like to add that if the German and American figures be subjected to like treatment, it will be found that the Germans' foreign trade amounts to about £15 and the Americans' to £9 per head ; and, moreover, if export figures alone were dealt with in a similar manner by Mr. Balfour, the share of the Briton would be found to be equal to the Germans' and Americans' combined.—I am, Sir, &c.,
[Yet in spite of this splendid record we are to throw our whole fiscal policy into the melting-pot !—ED. Spectator.]
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