THE COMMERCIAL FUTURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21279, 5 September 1932, Page 8

THE COMMERCIAL FUTURE

An indication of the extent to which economic questions absorb attention nowadays is the prominence given by the British Association to discussions by various authorities of the present world outlook. A section of it with special significance is that dealing with the altered outlook British industry and commerce face. References to the vast industrial development which succeeded the years of exhaustion find difficulty caused by the Napoleonic wars* are frequent when the prospects of the immediate future are considered. That period can properly be considered the golden years of British development, however seriously the gold was tarnished by social blemishes which would not be tolerated to-day. But it has to be realised that the. conditions which helped the way to that rapid expansion do not now exist. Britain was easily first in the process of industrial development, and there were few competitors for the markets of the world. Now every country with capabilities, and some poorly adapted for the purpose, are in the race to manufacture and to sell. Then huge tracts of country, virtually entire continents, lay in their primitive state waiting to be tamed, settled and made productive. Now their occupation has proceeded far, the easy markets created as they grew are not appearing as they did.

At the beginning of the industrial age populations were on the move everywhere, and the tide of British emigration ran especially high. Now, even if the same instinct to migrate existed, restrictions have appeared in almost all countries with space for more population. The movement created new markets then. There is little of the kind to do so now. Opportunity offered readily; the nation best fitted to seize it grew in wealth, influence and power. This nation was the British. It is being increasingly recognised, as the views expressed before the British Association show, that opportunity will have to be created deliberately if openings for trade, if demand for the products of industry, are to be found anew. No one nation can do this alone, for restrictions, embargoes and policies of exclusion bar the way at every turn. Not only must there be an ordered plan covering population movements, industry and the investment of capital, there must be co-operation between countries, for which the organisation of the Empire offers the ideal framework. The proper appreciation of these conditions, and the effort to use them to meet present-day needs may have a profound influence on world history.