DEPRESSION OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY.

Evening Star, Issue 7428, 25 January 1888, Page 1

DEPRESSION OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY.

Of the tour sections into which the final report of the Royal Commission on the Depression of Trade and In dustry in the United Kingdom is divided, the second and third, which embody their views as to the extent and causes of the depression, are certainly more interesting than the fourth, which contains their practical suggestions. Their recommendations, as the Commissioners themselves confess, are neither numerous nor important. Something, they suggest, might be done in the way of looking up new marlets, and a little by the improvement of technical education; transport by railway and canal might be in places improved, fraudulentmarking or description of goods might be checked, the Limited Liability Acta might be amended ; but on the whole their advice is to leave well and even ill alone; legislative interferences, they consider, is likely only to retard the return of the one and to enhance the other. Trade and industry, if they are to be righted at all, must be left to right themselves; interference with then), they hold, has not succeeded in the past —it is not likely to succeed now. Such advice, though sound and judicious, is nevertheless, it must be confessed, a little disappointing. It seems a somewhat meagre result to have obtained at the expense "of so much labor and so many months of exhaustive inquiry. On the other hand, it is undoubtedly a matter of great importance to have obtained, not by vague surmise but by systematic research, some measure of the evil through which the country has passed, or perhaps is still passing, and to trace out, as far as may be, the causes to which it has been due. On these points the inquiries of the Commissioners do seem to throw much valuable and much needed light. In the first place, they are inclined to believe that both the extent and the intensity of the depression has been over rated. The complaints, as they point out, have come mainly from the class of producers. Particular localities, and particular industries have no doubt suffered, and suffered severely; a low rate of profits has ruled, so that few fortunes have been made; but the general wealth of the country has increased, and iucreased at a more rapid rate than the population. But if this is so, how are we to explain the general sense and feeling of depression which undoubtedly prevails? One explanation is to be found in what the Commissioners assign as the first cause of the depression—the serious shifting that has taken place in the distribution of wealth. They have hardly, however, sufficiently followed out the wide-spreading ramifications which have followed from the admittedly depressed condition of agriculture, while they have attached a somewhat undue importance to the evidence attainable from the satistics of foreigh trade. The general probabilities point to the correctness of the conclusion that the extent and violence of the depression <iiave been over-esti-mated, and that people are inclined to regard the position of affairs as more hopeless than the facts themselves warrant. If the Commissioners have, however, rightly analysed the,recent economic history of England, ii is not hard to account for the existence and prevalence of a general feeling of .discouragement, particularly in the producing classes. Their contention is that there have taken place in recent years great changes in the distribution of wealth; that the result of these changes has been to give a larger share than formerly to the consumer and the laborer, and consequently a less share to the manufacturer and capitalist. Wage*, in other words, have remained stationary, or even increased; and their purchasing power has been added to, while profits have largely diminished. The argument is that not only is the decrease in profits sure to be more felt and more heard of than the accompanying rise in wages and the purchasing power of money, but the very decrease itself has operated through checking fresh enterprise,)thus leading directly to that feeling of stagnation which is so widely prevalent, and not a little also to that lack of employment which has certainly been a more marked feature of recent years than any considerable fall in wages of those who have been able to find work. No part of the report is of more immediate interest than that which.deals with the question as to how farthe depression may be due to England having presumably lost her old position of supremacy in the markets of the world. On the whole, the conclusions of the Commissioners are reassuring on this head. If the monopoly is gone, the preeminence as a manufacturing andtmd' ing country seems to remain. The restrictive tariffs of Protectionist countries have done England harm; manufacturers are apt not to pay enough regard to the tastes and wants of customers; the fraudulent marking of inferior or foreign goods with English trade marks has done injury; yet in the neutral markets of the world England still holds her own, and the volume of British trade goes on steadily increasing. The picture drawn by the Commissioners of the present position and future prospects is neither very bright nor very dark; it is, so to speak, neutral tinted. While, on the one hand, there'sterns no immediate hope of the return of " roaring times," or of wealth and prosperity increasing by leaps and neither is there-any cause to

look towards the future with apprehension and disrnav.

There is little doubt that the depression in this and other colonies is connected more or less directly with the depression in the IToine Country, and that a revival of trade there; would at once react on our commerce. The circumstances, however, differ in essential particulars, and the causes which have brought about had times are by no means altogether identical. For instance, it is in a great measure owing' to the. scantiness of our population tha: ihe. demand for commodities, whether imported or locally produced, has not kept pace with the supply. Tin; very moderate rate of increase since immigration has practically ceased, has not allowed the expansion of any industry, and has especially affected the building trade in all its branches. There are more houses in the cities and suburbs than are at preswnt required ; consequently the trade practically is paralysed. We notice this as a forcible illustration; others will no doubt suggest themselves. As a matter of fact good times can hardly be looked for in the ordinary course until some means are adopted for attracting suitable people fco our shores. This is the one thing needful ; and, this accomplished, prosperity is certain to follow. As things are, we have far too many persons," in proportion to the population, employed in distributing. Every retail business is overdone, and the towns, large and small, congested with non-producers. This is one very patent cause of bad business, but it is one which must remedy itself in time. It is the most palpable delusion to imagine that a Protective tariff' would have any effect iu setting tilings right. It must, on the contrary, intensify the evil, the causes being what they are.