GERMANY'S TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 111, 11 May 1921, Page 10

GERMANY'S TRADE

BEGINNING TO BOOM

GROWTH OF GERMAN IMPORTS;

(FROM OUR O#4i CORMSPOMSINI.) I LONDON, 3rd March.

Figures for the last quarters of 1920 show what strides Germany is making with her export trade to this country. The largest figures relate to dyes and dyestuffs obtained from coal tar. Far. the quarter ended September last the value under this head was £1,010,546, wfijl'o for theDDecemberr r quarter the value had increased to £3,041,798, the respective quantities being 23,732cwt and 59,366cwt. Domestic enamelled Jiollow-ware increased from £67,777 to £98,387; sugar, unrefined, rose in quantity from 3670cwt to 144,146cwt, and in value from £11,927 to £240,432. The 22,024 pairs of cotton gloves, valued at £37,345, had jumped up to 37,168 pairs valued at £50,055; and toys and games (not of rubber or leather) increased from £304,557 to £485,----337 on the quarter. The reason for admitting only M.P.'s to the projected exhibition of cheap foreign goods is the desire to avoid giving these commodities publicity. Alongside each article will be the corresponding British product, and the prices of each will bo shown. The main object of the National Union of Manufacturers in organising the exhibition is to bring home to M.P.'s the need for adequate provisions in the forthcoming (government measure to deal with the devastating foreign competition resulting from collapsed exchanges. Mr. Jarvis, at the British Toy Manufacturers' dinner stated' that 22,500 out of 30,000 men in the industry are now out of work on account of German dumping, and the flood of German toys so far experienced is nothing compared with that about to enter these markets.

The season immediately preceding Christmas provided a striking demonstration of the effectiveness of German plans to extend foreign trade. S6me months prior to the end of the year warehouses in all tho large cities in England were filled with German toys of all kinds. Representatives of German firms, including many Norwegians, Swiss, Danes, and Swedes, canvassed the trado thoroughly, offering their wares at an average increase in price over pre-war days of about 100 per cent, and promising quick deliveries. One Gorman firm sold 30 different kinds of dolls in England, three of them at prices considerably below the English dolls. It is estimated in America that the sales of German toys in England in 1920 amounted to over 9,000,000 dollars, compared with 1,850,----000 dollars in 1919. GERMAN DYES. Writing from New York, Mr. P. H. Middleton (Guaranty Trust Company) says the representatives. of German dye manufacturers are carrying a wonderful range of colours, in a wide variety and high quality! A British dyemakei reports that the Germans are offering a 'certain dye which is much required in the Bradford trade at 7d to Is a pound, •which he is unablo to produce for less than 4s a pound in a quality inferior to that of the German. Representatives of German textile houses aro in England offering cloth dyed in 500 .different shades. British makers state that it is .impossible for them to produce cloth at ithe-prices asked by_ the Germans, even after the big fall in th© price of Taw material*. The Blowing down of some of Britain's new industries, such as dyes and chemicals, photographic \ materials, and scientific instruments, and in some cases the actual closing of factories as the result of German competition, have brought forth vigorous protestss' to the Government aad appeals for protection. AN OEGANISED ATTACK. Recently it was pointed out that the well-being of the British magneto industry was vitally important in regard, to our national safety, and an exposure was made of the determined and carefully or- i ■ga,nised attack by a combination of j German manufacturers and financiers, backed by Government assistance, with the result that German magnetos were being offered' for sale in this country at about £5 .wholesale, whilst the British article fcannot be made for sale under from £12 10s to £15.

1 The conditions (says The ■ Financier) are not equal. On the one side, we have a victorious country, which, though j winning a war, has seen taxation heaped on taxation, wages piled on wages, debt heaped on debt, and waste crammed on the top of waste until, to put it plainly, it cannot s pay its way arid make magnetos under 250s each. On the other hand is a defeated country, crippled to such an extent that its taxation is relatively low, its factories overflowing with orders, its workmen labouring with. , gleeful activity, and its production costs so comparatively small that it can make magnetos and sell them here at a price which would hardly pay for the labour involved in the {production of the Brij tish article. There is no doubt as to the fixed intention on the part of Germany to create a monopoly in tho magneto industry, no matter what it costs nor what amount of organisation is involved. TRADE BOOM IN GERMANY. Writing from Berlin to the Daily Chronicle,. Mr. Leonard Spray says that tho complete statistics of last y«ar's | issue of shares of new companies and capital increases of existing, ones " sugj gest the paradox that national bankruptcy and private prosperity go hand in hand." New companies numbered 450, with a total in shares of 1,461,000,000 marks. Companies which increased their capital numbered 1752, with a total value of new shares of 6,741,000,000 marks. As a matter of comparison, in 1913 the total value of existing shares was 15,500,000,000 marks; so that the amount of new money coming from the public last year alone came to more than, half the total sum invested in private trade and industry in. the year before the war. Engineering and allied trades come first with 43 new companies, to which is subscribed 172,000,000 marks, and 304 capital increases absorbing no less than 1,050,000,000. Forty-four electricity companies raised '738,000,000 marks in additional capital, whilst eight now companies issued shares of 28,000,000. Metal working industries produced 29 new companies, with 76,000,000 marks, whilst capital increases took place in 147 cases to a total of over 300,000,000. The flood of money, even tf only paper, continues flowing in undiminishod, perhaps in greater, volume. Krupp's opened the New Year ball with an issue of 250,000,000, which was enormously over-subscribed. Last year seven new shipping companies were formed, with shares of tho value of seven and a-half millions, whilst 15 cohipanies increased their capital by 123,000,000. GERMAN "THINKING MACHINES." Investigations in leading German; centres of industry by special represents tives of the Daily Mail have been in progress for some while, and the conclusion is arrived at that Germany is "shamming dead." At Chemnitz (the German Leicester), for instance, the writer was told of novel and wonderful 1 labour-spying devices, c-f new machines

which wfll turn out articles hitherto only made by hand, and of entirely original methods of knitting silks, artificial Bilks, and metal thread: Theas are a closelyguarded secret, and for the moment none of those machines is being put on the market. It was more evident at Chemnitz than at any otlser place I visited in Germany that the- order has gone out from Berlin : "Keep quiet until things are settled with the Allies!" Berlin, by the simple device of restricting the import of raw materials ajid the. export of 'the finished article, ensures ■that business at Chemnitz is kept suitably "quiet."

It is remaikabte that though most of the products of Plauen (the German Nottingham) axe heavily taxed, being classed- as /'luxury articles," after a "slump," thfifind'Ustry is now recovering rapidly. Most of the home workeis ar« engaged on the cheaper and coarser lines, for which there is a steady demand, in Germany. In v this region of industrial Germany one hears a groat deal of the so-called "community of interests associations," under which prices are fixed by a sort of trust, controlling to a great extent the linen, embroidery, and lace market, and many "making u.p" firme at Plauen, Chemnitz, or Berlin have been bought tip or persuaded to sign special contracts for many years to come. Thic "making up" trade, equipped with powerful cutting, stitching, and sewing machines, driven by electricity at a tremendous speed, is claimed to bo another of Germany's coming industries. As_ everything is done by machinery, the price of the,; finished article is generally amazingly low. The firm which is turning out these rapid "making-up" machines—"thinking machines," the Germans call them, from the extraordinary ingenuity of their construction—is now completely equipping two large factories for the Aaxgentine. They will be the first of this type in that country. OTHER TRADE REVIVALS. From the same source, too, comes the announcement that Jena, where die powerful German optical glass industry is preparing to flood the world market with lenses and cinematograph apparatus, there is very little labour trouble, and the 10,000 workers engaged in the optical trade are themselves something more than ordinary workmen. Dresden's thriving piano trade and Meissen's historic porcelain industry are now busier than ever. During the war, under the pressure of necessity, the optical glass industry revived in England, and to-day Great Britain is capable of becoming a dangerous technical rival of Germany in what was formerly practically a German monopoly. Unfortunately, from the commercial point of view, while the German rate of exchange is as low and British wages are as high as at present, Great Britain stands a poor chance of challenging Germany's position of supremacy. As for pianos, the guide observed: "There is nothing much doing in Germany, of course. -The country is full of pianos. During the war we sold very cheaply, and few people failed to avail themselves of the chance to purchase a new piano at a ibargain figure. Even in the average workman's home in Germany a piano—often an automatic piano—is regarded as being almost as necessary a piece of furniture as the kitchen table. Our only hope is export, and you see we are preparing for it." SUPPLIES OF GERMAN PAPER. In these days of world-wide paper shortage the question naturally arises (says the Daily Mail investigator): "Where does Germany get the pulp from?" The answer is simple. During the war Germany did not make much use of her extensive plantations of trees intended for pulping for paper. Subjugated Poland supplied ■ a large proportion of the enormous quantities of pulp used by Germany during the war. Consequently, when the armistice came Germany's forests were almost untouched; she possessed a considerable stock of pulp and paper, and her book shops were stacked to the ceilings with books published in every imaginable language. Now that Germany has again begun regular felling for her paper production, she is producing much raoro paper than she actually requires. The result is seen in the present price—3o pfennigs (nominally 3d) of a German newspaper printed with good ink on excellent paper, only three times the pre-war price, an increase which falls far below the average rise in cost- of other articles of daily use. The advantage, in the way of cheap catalogues, circulars, and the like, over foreign competitors which Germany derives from her superabundance of paper is obvious. Walking in Leipzig through the streets where the publishers' offices are grouped, I came across the names of publishers known to every student of the classics, to every novel reader, to every traveller on the face of the globe. In this line there are r secrets, no tricks. The Leipzig publishers mean to.go "full steam ahead" selling cheap, well-printed, well-bound, often well-illustrated books, each firm sticking to its traditional line, be it art or theatre, lexicons or novels.