PROSPECTS OF A TRADE REVIVAL.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13160, 6 July 1908, Page 6

PROSPECTS OF A TRADE REVIVAL.

5 Perhaps the most hopeful sign on the commercial aud financial horizon just at present is the excellent prospect of a bountiful harvest, especially in America and Canada. Very few people, except among those who have given special attention to the subject, realise what a powerful effect a good harvest exercises in improving the conditions of trade as a whole. With a heavyyield of wheat on the .-\merican Continent, the traffic returns on the railways will improve, and thousands of . cars now laid up will be brought once moro into requisition. The railway companies, encouraged by the revival, may resume some of the betterment works now suspended, and this will lead to a revival of the steel industry, now so much depressed in the United States. The farmers, if favoured with a bumper harvest, will naturally have more money to spend, and it is not 1 unreasonable to suppose that some of ' it will bring about increased activity in ' tho woollen trade, and thus directly 1 benefit New Zealand. 1 But we have, as yet, by no means reached, the limit oi the fur-reaching advantages which are likely to follow ' in tho train of a bountiful yield of wheat. If the good harvest leads, as it almost inevitably uinst do, to cheap- ' or bread, every class of the community, ' but especially the working classes, will 1 derive direct benefit. And the benefit " will be passed on to other sections of 1 tho community. With cheap bread, tho • groat mass of consumers will have more ' money to spend on other commoditios— [ on New Zealand butter, cheese, and c frozen meat, for example, so that producers in this colony will reap a direct ■ advantage. Tho same factors coupled > with cheap money will lead to an im- • provement in trado conditions at Homo. t Sir Edgar Speyer, a. well-known finan- ■ cior, speaking recently at a meeting ■ of the Underground Electric Railways l of London, said that, owing to tho I deafness of commodities, Londoners l had found their spending power much > reduced in recent years. But prices -of many commodities had already de- ) cliuied, and if, as he thought probable, > tho price of also foil, the spond- > ing power of Londoners would show a 1 great expansion. The cheapness of » money should also lead to increased • building, and ho looked for a general i revival of activity. Wo see no reason i to think that this is taking too optii mistic a view of the situation. Wo ; 6hall not be surprised, however, if > money should become dearer in Loni don in the autumn, say in November r or December. There should bo a fairly . heavy drain of, gold' to Amerioa for tho , crop-moving demand and to pay for - tho lioavy shipments to England. More- . over, if tho anticipated, revival in . trado takes place this in itself will > mean en increased demand for money. . We fancy, therefore, that if the New > Zealand Government is thanking of [ applying to London for its next loan > it should not delay its application very . long.