THE CARRYING TRADE.
[To THY EDITOR OF TUB " SPRCI'ATOR.1
want to make an appeal to the Spectator and its correspondents for more discussion and light on a point that seems to me generally ignored. It is acknowledged on all sides that the services rendered by us in our carrying trade provide a part of the means by which we pay at the present time for the excess of our imports over our exports, but further information on this subject is hard to find. The only reference to it in Mr. Balfour's pamphlet is in a footnote, and yet it must be important to know how much we pay for by this means, and what, year by year, has been the proportion between interest owing to us on foreign investments and pay- ments made to us as carriers. In approaching the subject I am puzzled by two contrary considerations. On the one hand, the development of the merchant service must always be of immense importance to an Imperial sea-Power ; yet the Protectionists would apparently gladly see capital transferred from it to home industries if only our exports are thereby in- creased. Have they seriously considered this aspect of the question ? On the other hand, we are all aware that the pro- portion of British labour employed at the present time in the mercantile marine is far too small ; and hence it would appear that if the capital employed in the carrying trade were trans- ferred to home industries the British labourer would benefit by the exchange. I venture to suggest that the matter deserves a far closer investigation than it has received.-!
Previous page
