The Trade Returns for the past year are most encouraging.
The imports, valued at the enormous sum of £1,631,901,864, showed an increase of 23.9 per cent., but the exports, valued at £798,372,971, increased by 59.2 per cent. Exports and re- exports together, valued at £962,694,911, increased by no less than 80.8 per cent. The balance of trade is still against us, as the American exchange shows, with the pound sterling at no more than 3 dollars 77 cents on Wednesday as compared with the par value of 4 dollars 86 cents. Nevertheless, if our exports continue to increase more rapidly than our imports, the American exchange will soon improve and prices will fall. The returns of our principal exports, especially manufactured goods, show a most gratifying increase in value from £38,282,000 in 1918 to £90,857,000 last year. The woollen exports, for instance, were doubled in quantity ; cotton goods did almost as well ; jute piece goods increased sevenfold. The world is hungering for our manufactures. We have only to supply an almost unlimited demand.
Previous page
