BRITISH CAPITAL ABROAD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 1 April 1929, Page 5

BRITISH CAPITAL ABROAD

INVESTMENTS IN EMPIRE REDUCTION SINCE THE' WAR Some striking figures are given in & review of Imperial finance, recently issued by an important firm of brokers in London. From a table appended to the statement it is shown that since 1900 the total capital issues under the headings of the United Kingdom, colonial, and foreign, have amounted to £10,891,600,000, of which £2,929,300,000, being 26.89 per cent., was invested overseas aud £1,483,600,000 or 13,62 per cent., in the Dominions and colonies. Over the whole period this total gives a yearly average investment in the Dominions and colonies of £51,158,620, apart from private advances. Taking the eight years ended 1914, the yearly average loans to the Dominions and the colonies amounted to £69.2 millions, and for the eight years ended 1928 to £75.9 millions, but allowing for the drop in the purchasing power of money on the basis jof Board of Trade indices of wholesale prices, the yearly average for the eight years ended 1928 would be £48,000,000, as compared with £69,000, 000 before the war. The point is made that in the last five years industry at home has absorbed £101.9 millions a year of new money, or £68.5 millions a year, allowing for the lower purchasing power of money, whereas in the five years before the war it required only £33.3 millions a year. The reorganisation and rebuilding of industry at home, which have been proceeding since the war, entail, it is pointed out. a heavy drain on capital, which may temporarily affect the rate of overseas lending. . Included in the article is an analysis of the distribution of the external trade of the United Kingdom in 1927, indicating that 65.12 per cent, was with foreign countries, 21.29 per cent, witli the Dominions, 7.42 per cent, with India and 6.12 per cent, with the Crown Colonies and the dependencies, making a total for the British Empire of 34.88 per cent. The latter represented £715.8 millions, as compared with a value for the trade with foreign countries amounting to £1336 millions.

The' exports from the United Kingdom to .he British nations are shown to have declined from 49 per cent, of the whole of the exports in 1895 to 36 per cent, in 1923, the latest year for which complete figures are given, These percentages suggest, it is argued, that British, loans io the Dominions and colonies do not operate to the same extent as at one time as a direct stimulus to export trade, and the delay in the effect of lending in creating new exports from Britain constitutes an added strain on the exchange value of sterling. From the point of view of Empire commerce, the most satisfactory feature of the statement is the comparatively high purchases of the manufactures of the United Kingdom per head of_ the populations of the oversea Dominion:', as compared with foreign countries. Thesj purchases during 1926-27 are set out as follows :

"The Times" remarks that, as the populations of (he British Dominions increase, the consumption of British manufactures, assuming" a continuance of the high purchases per head, should expand, and from such development, provided loans are wisely employed, there should, be a better return, in the form of total trade, on the moneys advanced by Britain.

£ s. d. New Zealand .... 14 16 5 .... 9 19 6 South Africa .... 3 19 7 .... 2 16 0 India .... 0 4 11 .... 0 9 3 Germany .... 0 9 1 United States . . .... 0 7 9 Italy .... 0 4 8 .... 0 0 9