The Board of Trade Returns for 1903, briefly alluded to
in our last issue, will require very adroit handling to prove of any assistance to Mr. Chamberlain. The total volume of trade is valued at £903,000,000, or £25,000,000 above the highest previously recorded, and nearly equal to that of Germany and the United States put together. Perhaps the most significant figures of all, however, are those relating to exports. In the year 1903 we exported manufactured goods to the amount of £235,000,000, an increase of £11,000,000 on 1901, of more than £7,000,000 on 1902, and nearly £1,500,000 on Mr. Chamberlain's picked year 1872. Furthermore, while miscellaneous items show little increase, it is the great industries—iron, machinery, wool—that bring up the total. Lastly, it may be noted that while we exported £39,000,000 of bullion and specie, we imported within £300,000 of the same amount. But Mr. Chamberlain is not concerned with figures, but tendencies. As he tells us, he is " ringing the tocsin," and the tocsin was quite as often a bell to cause alarm as to give warning.
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