The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1903. IMPERIAL TRADE AND FREE TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4, 5 January 1903, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 1903. IMPERIAL TRADE AND FREE TRADE.

For the saus* that laaks *asiaUu»«« For th.© wrong that needs resistance For the future in the distance And the good thait we can do.

The English Board of Trade has lately issued a collection of statistics that seems to shed a rather lurid light on the position and prospects of Imperial trade. The Under-Secretary of the Board, Sir Alfred Bateman, has written a "Memorandum on the Comparative Statistics of Population, Industry and Commerce in the United Kingdom and some leadings countries," which is intended to point the moral of the statistics. The. conclusion reached by this distinguished official is naturally enough favourable to the existing fiscal system. But we very much doubt if any unbiassed critic will share Sir Alfred Bateman's cheerful optimism.

In the first place we are. assured that there is nothing in the figures quoted to suggest that "while the export trade of our neighbours has been increasing our own export trade has been diminishing' or even standing still." Yet when we come to examine the statistics on which this statement is-based, we are confronted by the alarming fact that this conclusion is reached by the simple process of ignoring the part played by coal in the British export trade. Now the increased export of British coal is, in the eyes of very many authorities, a highly dubious blessing. Not only does it represent the rapid and irreparable diminution of England's most valuable commercial asset, but it means that for commerce and for possible and often imminent war, England is arming: her foes with her.own best weapon. Between 1870 and 1900, while the total output of British coal just doubled itself, and the home consumption increased 80 per cent., English exoorts of coal to foreign countries increased 287 per cent. It is only by including coal in the list of export that Sir Alfred Bateman is able to assert that British foreign trade has not declined. For when we come to consider the matter in detail the figures bear a very different construction.

The only valuable test of the condition of the British export trade is to be found in the statistics for manufactured and partly manufactured goods. Between 18S3 and 1890 the total exports of this nature were valued at 1659 millions pounds. Between 1891 and 1898 the total value was 1592 million uounds. This means a decrease in eight years of 67 million pounds, or an average of more than eight millions a year. The years 1900-01, it may be observed, are here omitted, because the South African war and the Far Eastern crisis introduced abnormal conditions into our commerce. But -there is no way of evading this conclusion ■that if for obvious reasons we refuse to include coal in our trade returns, infinitely the most valuable British exports are falling off at the rate of eight million pounds a year.

But Sir Alfred Bateman has not been content to supply us with material for this gloomy conclusion. He has compiled similar statistics from the trade returns of Germany, France and America, so that comparison between the position of England and that of her greatest commercial rivals can be easily made. Taking the same periods as before, we find that between 1891 and 1898 the export of manufactured goods from France increased 22 million pounds over the previous eight years:, from Germany the manufactured exports rose 49 million pounds, and from the United States the manufactured exports rose 114 million pounds in the same time. In other words, while the manufactured exports of the United Kingdom were falling, at the rate of eight million, pounds a year, from France they were rising nearly three millions a year, from Germany they were rising six millions a year, and from the United States they rose at least 14 millions a year. The only consolation that Sir Alfred Bateman offers is that as the exports from these countries do not always cover the same articles the grand total of their increase is somewhat reduced. But as it even then works out at 160 millions as against our decline of 67 millions, we see little excuse for congratulation here.

Sir. Alfred Bateman further observes that v he sees no reason to believe that this increase of manufactured exports from France, Germany aud America implies any displacement of British internal trade. Yet in this very memorandum the Board of Trade returns show that during the last eight years the imports of manufactured goods into the United Kingdom have enormously increased. The total rose from £53,000,000 in 1883-4 to £88,000,000 in 1899-1900, and Sir Alfred Bateman adds that the increase "has been virtually continuous throughout the wmole period." If this does not mean the "displace-

ment" of British manufactures in the Home markets we fail to ■ see what significance is to be attached to the figures. Further evidence of the same depressing character is to be derived from the figures dealing with European trade as a whole. In neutral markets it seems that imports from the United Kingdom fell from 18 per cent, in 1884-5 to 15 per cent, in 189S--1599. Imports into the same countries from Germany were at 18 per cent, of the whole 1884-5 and at the level in 1898-9. From the United States imports into European countries, excluding the United Kingdom, rose from six per cent, of the whole in 1884-5 to thirteen per cent, of the whole in 1898-9. If we extend our examination to non-European markets the contrast is even more striking. During the same period British imports into China have declined from 25 to 17 per cent., while the' United States' proportion has risen from three to eight per cent. In Japan our share of imports has fallen from 45 per cent, to 21 per cent, of the whole, while Germany's has increased from seven to eight per cent., and that of the United States has risen from nine to fifteen per cent.

Even inßritish markets "beyond the seas" the same sad tale may be told. In 1884-5 the imports from the United Kingdom into British colonies formed 54 per cent, of the total imports, while Germany had less than one per cent., and the United States less than nine per cent. By 189S-99 the British percentage of imports had fallen to 45, the''German total had risen to nearly three per cent., and the United States' total to nearly 12 per cent. So that even in her own Imperial markets England is being steadily superseded by her more enterprising and successful rivals.

We do not understand by what logical process Sir Alfred Bateman and the-Board of Trade reconcile, these plain figures with their cheerful assertion that British export trade is not declining and that British manufactures are not being displaced. But we are fairly confident that all intelligent men whose eyes are not blinded by economic traditions - and superstitions will see in these statistics one of many conclusive proofs that the "Protection" which they abhor has, helped the wealth and trade of our rivals to expand and increase far faster than our own under so-called "Free Trade."