TOPICS OF THE TIME.

Hastings Standard, Issue 33, 4 June 1896, Page 2

TOPICS OF THE TIME.

The British Vice-Consul- at Tokio, in his report of the trade of Japan for the year ended October, 1895. presents a highly hopeful prospect so far as British interests are concerned. We have already mentioned the indications of an expanding wool trade with that country. The consular trade report

states that the trade " far surpassed that of any previous year, and was more than three and a half times that of 1885. In fact, the value of the trade in silver in the third quarter only of 1895 very nearly approaches that of the whole year of 1885." Of the whole foreign trade, 35 per cent, was with the British Empire, and of this more than one-half with Great Britain. Of the imports, Great Britain sent 36 per cent, and British India 11 per cent. ; while the whole of the producing countries embraced in the British Empire contributed 55 percent. of the imports into -Japan. United States occupies a fairly important position, and Germany, on the other hand, is medium,- except in so far as manufactured articles are concerned, in which she is Great Britain's chief competitor. Imports into Japan during the nine months of last year were : From Great Britain, 33,000,000d01. ; British India, 9,000,000d01. ; and from Germany, 8,000,000d01.

The Argentine gold premium is a very disturbing factor in the carrying on of the commerce and industry of the the country. A writer in the London Times,'! for some years resident in Argentina, combats the statement that the paper dollar is "worth nearly as much as ever for use in the country, except for the purchase of imported goods," stating that it was onlj' worth from Is to Is 3d for locally produced as well as for imported articles, and in the payment of wages. That is true only in a partial way, as wo saw from the statement recently published from Buenos Ayres to the effect that owing to the premium of gold—in other words, the rise in the value of the paper dollar—the farmers who had fixed engagements with then* servants lost heavily by the alteration. Changes are so frequent that the adjustments cannot be conveniently made from week to week. While the value of the paper dollar wus declining the result as a rule would be in favor of the farmer; while it is rising it would be in favor of the servant. The premium on gold rose, with fluctuations, from 25 in 1885 to 331 in 1891, when it reached the maximum, from that time falling away to 170 in 1892 ; then rising to 331 in 1891, since receding to 200. It can well be imagined how the currency of the country changing in value in this remarkable way prejudices business. The importance of standard of value of a more stable character is, no doubt, fully appreciated by those concerned. The "Statist'* thinks that the recent fall in the gold premium to 200 was too sharp and too rapid. It disarranged all business, and turned it into something like a gamble. With the increasing prosperity of the country the tendency of the gold premium must be to decline, and while is is falling it may be assumed that the handicap it will put on production will correspond to the stimulus given to it when it was on the risingscale. Still, we are inclined to think that the weight of the Argentine production and consequently competitive influence on our markets in recent years are due more largely to the necessity to produce to meet foreign demands than to the stimulus of cheap paper money, though this undoubtedly helped in the result.