A TRUE COMPARISON.
Unfortunately, however, the comparison is not with a normal year. During the- greater part of 1926 trade was demoralized first.by the general strike and later by the coal stoppage, and in a year that was bad throughout the con- cluding five months were the very worst. It is rather diffi- cult to discover any year since the War which could be described as really normal, for, while round about 1920 and 1921 our trade figures were swollen by what has since come to be known as an artificial boom based on inflated prices, each year has really been depressed when compared with the pre-War years, all allowances being made for higher prices and increased population. The year 1925 was by no means a good year, though of course it was free from the industrial cataclysm which characterized 1926, and, if the figures of our trade for last August are compared with those for August of 1925, exports instead of showing an increase of about tiomoopoo reveal a decrease of about £6,000,000, while the adverse trade balance was much smaller in August, 1925, than it was for the past month. Moreover, much of the decline in imports during the past month and the increase in exports was under the head of coal, thus showing very clearly that we are making comparisons with an abnormal month. When matters therefore are viewed in their right perspective, the position as regards our foreign trade, and especially as regards our exports, would seem to be that the cumu- lative effects of the prolonged coal stoppage have been 'revealed right up to the first seven months of the present Year and that now at long last there are some signs of_a turn in the tide. That it may prove a real " turn " and the beginning of a trade revival everyone must devoutly hope, but, some part at _least of theimprovement,has to be attributed -to -a :filling rip Of stocks- Aihich depleted and it will not be until later on that we shall 'be- able to determine what are the prospects of a real trade revival.
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