BRITISH AND FOREIGN TRADE WITH BRITISH SUBJECTS.
AFEW months after taking office as Colonial Secre- tary, Mr. Chamberlain issued a circular despatch to the Governors of British Colonies requesting information with regard to the alleged displacement of British by foreign-made goods in Colonial markets. The replies to this inquiry are contained in a Blue-book which has just been published. They are summarised and brought into focus in an introductory Memorandum by Mr. C. Alexander Harris, which was printed in full in Wednes- day's Times. It is a very interesting and suggestive paper, and will do much to enhance the value of what ought to prove one of the most serviceable investigations ever insti- tuted by a British Minister. Unquestionably it shows that the subject demands the very earnest attention of British manufacturers. For unless it can be proved that the element of accident enters into the returns very much more largely than, having regard to the great and diversi- fied field which they cover, appears at all likely, they must be accepted as pointing to a really serious decline in the hold possessed by British goods of Colonial markets. The period dealt with by the returns covered the years 1884-91 inclusive, and the years taken in order to illustrate the progress or falling-off in foreign competition are 1884, 1889, and 1894. The articles dealt with, under Mr. Chamberlain's instructions, were only those of which the total importation in each Colony was substantial (not less than £500), and of which, at the same time, the foreign importation exceeded 5 per cent. of the total importation of the commodity. Even under these limitations the proportion in value of the total importation into the Colonies, to which the present returns relate, is about 38 per cent. That appears to afford, as Mr. Harris claims, a sufficiently broad basis for conclusions deserving attention. It certainly presents a field sufficiently large to make the declining tendency visible within it a subject of by no means agreeable contemplation. In 1884, 1889, and 1894 the aggregate values of the goods in which foreigners competed in the markets of our Colonial posses- sions, excluding India, were, respectively, £58,063,296, £56,490,249, and £19,911,872, and the values of the com- peting imports from foreign countries into those possessions were £14,926,086, £15,717,021, and £15,912,822, giving a rising foreign percentage of 25.71, 27-82, and 31.88. But that is not all. The operation of the Merchandise Marks Acts is believed to have had a good deal to do in causing the apparent increase of foreign im- portations. But "an examination of the reports which accompany the returns reveals a general opinion in the Colonies that the importation of foreign - made goods has increased in a much larger ratio than is shown by the returns, which notice only the port of ship- ment ; while it is clear that in particular lines in certain Colonies there has been a rapid increase in the percentage of the imports from foreign sources of supply In particular classes of goods the foreigner now, in some cases, does more than 50 per cent, of a trade which a few years ago was admittedly British." Among the leading instances of this kind of displacement are mentioned each facts as these :—In carriages and waggons the United States have increased their trade to South Africa about twentyfold in the period under review, and instead of 20 per cent., hold more than 50 per cent, of that trade. To Victoria the United States now send 80 per cent. of the hammers imported into that Colony, and the United States and Germany provide 66 per cent, of the "im- plements of industry" imported by Tasmania. In New Zealand Germany has obtained almost a monopoly of the trade in musical instruments, and the same country has increased her sale of "biscuits and bread" to the Straits Settlements fivefold in the decade under review, and now has 50 per cent, of that trade. In the cases just men- tioned the alarming advance made by the foreign producer is only too well indicated. But Mr. Harris's Memorandum also gives a painfully long table of other commodities in regard to which the foreign is displacing the British manufacturer—to what ex- tent is not stated—in one or more Colonial markets, and specifies both the countries by which the dis- placing article is furnished, and the reasons for which it is said to be preferred to those of British origin. The commodities in question are of the most diverse kinds. Thus "apparel and slops" from Germany are said to be preferred in New South Wales, Victoria, and Sierra Leone because they are "cheaper and more serviceable." In Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, Victoria, and South Australia, Belgian firearms are taken in preference to those of British make because they are cheaper and more " showy." Belgian candles, again, are preferred at Hong- kong and in the markets served from that port, and In New South Wales, as being "decidedly cheaper" than the British article. Clocks and watches from the United States are preferred in the Leeward Islands and South Australia, from Germany in South Africa, and from Ger- many and Japan in the Straits Settlements ; and the reasons of preference mentioned are that the foreign-made articles are of "cheaper make, more attractive, more artistic, better looking." "Cheaper and more showy" cotton goods from Germany and the United States are preferred in the Straits Settlements and British Honduras. German cutlery is taken, because cheaper, in the Straits Settlements and Lagos, and, on the other hand, fine woollen goods from Germany are preferred on account of their better designs in the Straits Settlements and Tasmania, though in heavier goods there is not much competition with the British maker in the Colonial markets. Chemical products from Germany, again, are preferred in New South Wales because they are " better manufactured, apparently depending on more skilled knowledge."
The extracts we have made are enough to show that no one description of cause can be said to account exclusively, if even predominantly, for the displacement of British goods in Colonial markets which has been going on in the period reviewed by the replies to Mr. Chamberlain's despatch. In classifying them Mr. Harris shows himself definitely of opinion that cheapness is the chief factor in producing the preference shown by Colonial purchasers for the products of Germany, Belgium, and the United States. There will probably be a widespread disposition among British manufacturers to consider that the cheap- ness in question goes with =serviceableness, and is therefore more or less in the nature of a fraud, which will in no long time be found out. And when superior " finish " is mentioned as one of the chief means by which the foreign manufacturer wins the preference of the British colonist, the ousted British producer will, in many cases, be inclined to consider that such finish is merely making a fine art of cheating. Indeed, the British producer often seems to hold that there is a certain ethical impropriety in making a very cheap article attractive. It is impossible not to recognise that this state of mind is connected with what has been one of the main elements of strength in the manufacturing position of this country. The belief that the article made in England was sure to be what it professed to be has been a pillar of British trade. No one can desire that this character should be lost, or can doubt that in the long run honesty will prove the best. policy from the point of view of national commerce. Even in the present returns, and elsewhere, there are cases recorded in which the cheap foreign imitation of a. good British article, as cutlery, for example, after having obtained a temporary vogue, has been found out for the imposture that it was, and the errant Colonial customer has reverted to the home manufacturer. And it may reasonably be hoped that more and more of such exposures will take place with like results. But it would be a very grave error, as Mr. Harris's Memorandum plainly shows, for British manufacturers, or British workmen either, generally to suppose that the results of Mr. Chamberlain's inquiry merely illustrate the temporary rewards enjoyed by ingenious and more or less fraudulent imitators, whose ultimate, and probably even early, discomfiture may be calmly awaited. The fact is far otherwise. After all, if British colonists or any other customers definitely prefer cheap and smartly got-up goods, whether in cutlery, hardware, clothing material, or ready-made clothes, which they know will not wear, there is no moral reason why the British manufacturer should not oblige them, unless— and that, of course, is a very important proviso—he cannot do so without treating his workpeople unjustly. Further, it is for the workpeople, in their Unions, to consider how far it is worth their while to make their employers lose trades, and with them the power to give certain classes of employ- ment, through rigid inflexibility as to the rates of wages. It may be worth their while sometimes, but by no means always, and steps tending to such a result should not be taken without full consideration. It is important, both for manufacturers and workmen here, to remember that the Colonial markets are very largely composed of persons whose fortunes are "on the make," and who, hoping and expecting to be much better off a few years hence than they are now, see in cheapness, especially when com- bined with attractive get-up, a merit distinctly superior to that of durability. That state of the Colonial markets will continue for many years, and though the proportion of persons with large incomes will steadily increase, it would, in our judgment, be a rash thing for the British manufacturer to await the growth of that class and neglect the at present very numerous class to whom well-finished cheapness is the present suminum barium.
And why should a cheap article not be well-finished.? The prejudice to the contrary is partly, we fear, snobbery, if mainly perverted Puritanism. Everything should be made as well as it can be for the money, and as nice- looking. This complaint about want of finish from the Colonies is, as Mr. Harris points out, only another side of the complaint of want of flexible adaptiveness to the needs of markets, which is an old defect of the conservative English character. A commercial country must provide what its customers want, not what it is pleased to think they ought to want. We believe that in some branches of British manufacture—of the worsted trades, for example— the lessons of adversity have to no small extent been learned. There have been great improvements of late in the get-up and in the packing of British goods. There have been important developments in the capacity and the readiness of manufacturers to turn from one line of production to another when new fashions or new habits make changes necessary. But there is a great deal yet to be learned in this way. There is a great deal to be done in the improve- ment of the artistic capacity both of employers and em- ployed, and in the development of the application of science to industry. There are still a good many people, both masters and workmen, who scoff openly, or in their hearts, at technical instruction, and believe in the eternal predominance of the purely " practical" man. The returns to which we have called attention should do a great deal to kill this essen- tially stupid spirit, which must die altogether if the per- manent prosperity of British industry is to be assured.
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