MONEY AND BRITISH EXPORTS

Evening Star, Issue 18533, 16 January 1924, Page 3

MONEY AND BRITISH EXPORTS

Sir Leo Chlozza Money says in tho ‘ Daily News ’; — “It is easy to forget that Britain supports a great population by industry, and that she could not do so in any other way, “It is the necessary dependence of our population on oversea trade that has made us feel so severely tho effects of tho troubles on the Continent of Europe.

“The realty surprising thing, in tho terrible circumstances, is not that we have suffered, but that we have not suffered more.

“In 1913 we exported British produce (worth £525,000,pOO. In tho first ten months of this year our exports were 637 millions, or at the rate of 764 millions per annum. “But prices are much Higher now than in 1913, so that the 764 millions of 1925 are equivalent in volume to about 400 millions in 1913.

“Therefore our exports of British produce this year are really about one-fifth less than in 1915. They are, however, approaching the level of 1910, which was a year of good trade in peace. That is a great achievement, properly understood. “ But our larger population—wa have now some two million more people than when the war broke out—needs a bigger trade than that of 1915 to recover the standard of 1913, and a bigger trade still if wo are to secure tho higher standard of life wo all desire for our people. “ That, despite all the dislocations of war, and tho distress which has followed it in Europe, we are tins year exporting nearly £800,000,000 worth of British produce, is a great tribute to our existing fiscal system. Wo are doing much better in 1923 than in 1922, and there is no doubt whatever that further recovery will follow. Our exports this year will exceed those of 1922 hy about £50,000,000, and it is rank folly to jeopardise our recovery by gambling with our fiscal system.”