TRADE WITH FRANCE.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7631, 24 January 1903, Page 3

TRADE WITH FRANCE.

Every year John Bull becomes a bigger customer of his next-door neighbour. A French economist, M. Victor Berard, reckons at 500 million francs alone the yearly sum total spent by English people in Paris shops and in French health resorcs. In 1893 John Bull patronised Jacque3 Bonhamme's goods to the tuoe of 962 million francs. In 1901 the figures had risen to 1064 millions. "At the bottom of our hearts," says the writer, " we can but rejoice in Great Britain's prosperity, since it is the cardinal factor of our own. The more money England has to spare the more will she have to spend upon our industries and our produce." A grand total of nearly two milliards of francs in the shape of .inglish gold i? thus annually poured into French coffers. _ Five milliards, be it remembered—i.e., two hundred million sterling—were paid by France to Germany after the war of 1870-1. Twenty, perhaps 10, years hence the average of British business, wholesale and individual, with France may attain that colossal sum. "Who can say ? -,