GERMAN V. ENGLISH TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 140, 14 June 1888, Page 4

GERMAN V. ENGLISH TRADE.

The opinion has gained considerable ground in the old country, and to a limited extent also in this country, that trade was at last leaving Britain and falling into the hands of our most enterprising rivals, the Germans. Some went so far as to assert that the Ger" mans were beating us along the whole line. ' It is astonishing how prone Englishmen are to believe this, that, and the other statement, made either in ignorance or jealousy, derogatory to their country's position, Bismarck some time since sneered at Britain, when on being asked what he thought would be oar nation's policy in the event of a European crisishesaid, " Oh, I leave that nation altogether out of my calculations," ,and. straightway many Englishmen jumped to the conclusion that this dictum from the man that is mightier than kings proved that their nation was merely a cypher, and voiceless and powerless to speak or act in any great crisis that might arise in European affairs. It was subsequent to Bismarck's making this remark that the British fleet steamed up the Dardanelles, and, anchoring off Constantinople, intervened between the conquering Russian armies and the vanquished Turks, and prevented Russia from seizing her long-coveted prize, Constantinople, when it was apparently actually within her grasp. ,

We are, however, a great mercantile people, a nation of shopkeepers, as the- First Napoleon termed us, and although the majority of Englishmen look forward without any very great nervous trepidation to their country's naval and military future, yet, the question of trade is to most more or less of a mystery, and to hear that their country's trade is leaving it, and going to a rival, without being able to refute the statement, is calculated to leave a more or less bitter sting of mortification behind it.

It was no doubt for this reason that the London Board of Trade instructed that eminent statistician, Mr Giffen, to inquire into and report as to whether, as had been alleged, certain foreign countries, especially Gerniany, were making greater relative progress in their imports and exports than we as a nation were experiencing. Mr Giffen has reported, ■ and he states that it is perfectly true that the trade of Germany has advanced, but at the same time ours has not diminished. He says that there is nothing to show that Ger man trade has " enormously developed in comparison with the development of our own in the United Kingdom. Our British imports in 1875-7 and 1884-5 were valued at at both periods, and the exports at in 1875-7 and 2523,000,000 in 1884-5. German imports at the two periods were V-241,000,000 and respectively, and the exports /•130,000.000 and £ 151,000,000 for the same periods. It is thus clear that German trade has increased as to exports only, and that our export trade has increased, but not so fast as that ot

Germany. There is nothing to show here that the export trade of the latter has been gained at our expense. The fact of the matter is, that German trade with countries near to themselves has increased, as it was likely to do, faster than ours with those countries; but in regard to markets where the two countries compete on equal terms as to distance, the trade of Germany is far inferior to that of Britain."

The statistics show the value of British and German trade in the important markets of the world. For instance, of the fifty million pounds' worth of goods imported by Italy, 20 per cent, is provided by Britain, and only 8 per cent, by Germany. China imports twenty-two millions, Britain securing 28 per cent., Germany none, Japan six millions, of which Britain's share is 48 per cent. . Germany's 7. British India imports is sixty-seven millions, 75 per cent, of which is British, and Germany's share is o*2. Britain's share of the sixty-one and a-half millions imported by Australia is 52 per cent.; Germany's is only 0-3.

The chief competitors are France, Germany, and the United States, and Mr Giffen found that the value of British exports to either of these three was equal or exceeded that of the two others to the same country. The imports of France, Germany, and the United States put together amounted to four hundred and fifty - five millions, and the great bulk of this was made up of the value of British exports to these countries. To European countries, Germany's trade has increased seventeen millions, and to the same countries British trade has increased six and a-half millions. But to other countries the position is reversed. As regards the export trade of France and the United States, France shows an actual decrease of ,£909,000, and the United States shows anincrease of only Britain shows an increase, however, of thirty-nine millions,

So far, at all events, it seems that Britain still holds her own in trade matters against all competitors, and there certainly is no necessity for indulging in idle fears of a future prospect of national trade decay. Mr Giffen says: " Our predominance in the great common markets remains substantially what it was ten years ago." More than that could hardly be expected. If the " predominance," notwithstanding competition and greatly increased trade, is as "substantial" as it was ten years back, the probability is that in ten, twenty, fifty, or a hundred years' time, future generations of Englishmen will still be found recording the same predominance.