The Board of Trade has issued a Report upon the
condi- tions and prospects of British trade in Canada by Mr. Richard Grigg, Special Commissioner of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Intelligence. We are plainly. told that British trade might be much larger if we were at more pains to consult the taste and needs of Canadians. For one thing, the British manufacturer depends largely upon merchants and agents for the distribution of his goods, and acts as though the only proper labour for himself were mere production. He does not find out enough about the small but determining variations of taste in the different Canadian markets, and consequently does not specialise for particular districts. Americans, and to some extent Germans, regard production • and distribution as inseparable parts of the same business. If this is not new, it is nevertheless worth saying in so forcible a way. Since 1892 the British share of the Canadian import trade has fallen from 35.5 per cent. to 24.5 per cent., while the American proportion has risen from 45-6 per cent. to 596 per cent. Preference, though it may have modified this decline, has not- done so in any serious sense. America has an enormous geographical advantage in the competition with Britain, and British merchants can only hope to bold Canadian markets by intelligence and enterprise, particularly as Mr. Grigg predicts that our most mighty rival in the future will be Canada herself.
