BERLIN SHOPKEEPERS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14039, 23 April 1920, Page 2

BERLIN SHOPKEEPERS.

ILACKMAIL OS FOREIGNERS. Daily ■ Telegraph Co respondent.) „ Lttwifciani should be called withoat igr to a, characteristically iropooent ctice.wrhich » causing much annoy«to berv. The a&tge in 9tion. may be illustrated by » conte easw. This morning. iu u> aeconoid bodbbopr 1 asked tor * certain wfuch w 3L& prodiiti'd. The .h nen aired! for it was six or, eight times price of publication. bat i« i «ne k » Rfft of print »n«i *•» nwded (or urgent- purpose 6 his demand. was CM to. The bargain »» thus cornte. Xorerthd'css, the salesman re•d into Iha.lbackgl'ouiKl for » comaron with., the proprietor ot the swop, i returnVd with the uimoonceinent t &» fcSer 6bok waw being; rfola tu a iumer ilte price would W "very co«jpjjbty l£jh®r." To walk out of the p wsu9 the, an Ij possible reply to this empted extortiottT tjc& attempts to squeeze extra prootrt of foreigners are by no m«ins r. They Ttegan in a- desultory anc * stating Wiy at least <tix months ago. i ham.l&Mi gaining in scope andUem ever since.. Now that thev have cited the secondhand book trade they r be 9ft«i to con»titate the rule lev tharf the exception. Cas"* n* ivp le to /»y knowledge in which fcng- , people, when! settling tor pur- | sew, have bwn to pay between , i and 200 per cent. above the price anally asked 'iwid agreed upon. In | wail, h6werer r the premium demandIrom the foreigner doe» not attain ie dimensions. At big stores the ad- - on nttde to his hill w only 20 or . per cent, as 'yet, but that mjij lie arded as merely the thin end ot the would hare iw believe :t he '» iiftiikg on patriotic omte." In his apology he advanced ; , coMideriltioos, which have ui comes that both of them are afeolntelv enabtev In the first place, though very much to the point, he argues t the ESrttente L> to btame ' or J-'}'* rk having a foreign vatne little her than that of the paper on which is printed. Yet the Germans t hemreft are- now admitting in ever-larger Bhers'that it is their own ntrym#W who are chiefly responsibly this state of, thing*. It is indeed open Wnestion. even among tnent. ether t&> "Wight of capital from f -tax-o&Hector tae not done mwo to ireas «&«• international value or their Tency than the flood of foreign ares whiefo poured into, the county nr the signing of tho Aiul regards this import itso L whilc tiu. »nch in the Western Customs damtainly made it difficult to ' T»h. it i* nevertheless an old trntn it trade, tike water, only tiiicfc its a level. Goods Sow only to the points ere they are wanted. Amt-rtcan relate-. French perfrimes and si k ticoats, and English cigarettes , have mandated the country i: tht •mans had not cried, out for them I bought them. Foreign :ommodrty like any other, and tt> a«. in the long nm depends*on tht »of supply and demand. It hasj. fcostic- value simply because the its are w» keen on getting tt es illegitimate as well a» legittmaU . i that they are prepared to pay at»t anything for it great ansietv in the outside world invest in mark valuer. he second pretext ot the Orman Dkeeper for hi» extortions from trit •igner i.* even shallower and more ocrvticid. It is that he must hell; tisconrage the great "clearance >ale ch is draining the country ot wares ttpeiwabie to it. Even it this sa t e realiv disadvantaaeous ty t.er»v. it ». perfectlv obvious tnat repurchases could have no perceptirne ct on 'ft one way or the other, int" [ "clearance" sale" is taking place, in the' shops by pounds and single cles. but in offices by tons and by 2T08».0r the hundred. Moreover, toeing conducted on normal business s, and' each party to it knows where is. That is to say. the seller asfcs it he thinks, ho can get. and it the er agrees that deal is done, though » true thait this can onlv he saut It reservations, nowadays, smre coriBt» are coming in from nll_ sides t German merchants are refusing to B their obligatkms to dehver goods ®s an - increase in the contract price gxeed to-. In retail trade, however, it is happening every day is this: ( EhgHsmnaa or Frenchman sees a article.n» a shop window and goes to bu"v it» ; Ht* is then tol<l the ire on "the ticket applies to Gennarts r, and"ih»t if he wants the thing he it pay 35 ftr 50 per cent, more for it. Ws -.pracedure is. of course, nothing nor" leas than business chicanery, can orilV be successful because, in sequence of the rate of exchange, the agner can boy many things cheap 6 even if he has to pay for them a uderable percentage more than the man: At the moment, for example, ona who has an income in pound* fingesifl boy here anything whatever t is to be "had in Germany a good I cheaper" than he conld in London. b, a suit l)f clothes is not dear at [) marks if bought with F.ngksh ley changed at the rate of 400 marks the pound. That, however, is no eern of^-.the shopkeeper. Tt is imtinence on his part to make ralculas as to the source of his customer s jey. To him the mark is worth a rk,"whether it comes from a German l Dutchman; The extortion of more n the latter is simply the appropriaI of additional illegitimate profit, eh he presumes to demand because thinks the customer will lie willing aay for i*L Moreover, the plea thai couirtry :stan«fe to low by a "cleare sale/* "is also conclusively retnteil the Germar» them«eh-es. Day after ■ the cry goes np from their econortb, ptilitidtans. nnsiness men. and S» that- the only thing whirh. in the g rrrp ciir-yestore Germany to nnaiisanitv is export, more export, aiu. r export. The whole explicit pnre of the perpetual clamor for foreign itts is that Germany, by iniporcina i and raw material* on practicable ma, may arm- herself for that export jjcib alone promises her solvency ana iriiitv. So that the retail branch ot 'clearance sale.'" far from , helps in some small degree to check alarmma depreciation of her rurcy brought about by the timid and mtriotic fugitives from getzfierger t Bolshevism. .. , tt is possible that this differential otraent of tho, foreigner may be a mch of the Peace Treaty, but in an. Ie we have an effective remedy m r own hand*. Alt we need to do is applv to the Germans their own e and. when they come to our coun»s, make them p.iv the additional rcentage to the prices which tnej «rt from- us here. No norm* I r-"^' unan-i.*''particularly anxious to live re at the present juncture. Geriliy is not a delectable land. On trie ler hand, there are tens or tliouujs of Germans whose one thouglu to get outside the walls of their son house -at the earliest possible meat and, for reasons into which it not necessary to enter here, this intry has onlv to gain from the preice in it of .Kntente visitfirs. tente countries have no particular ijgOß to welcome Germans need not insisted: upon; we have therefore If to give the" Germans a jrood dose their own medicine, and the trouble 1 soon be over. It doe* not affect the validity of the ejccinic that the existing peculiar 'in the* international money xket can proiuce very strange and •adoxical phenomena. Here is a m ia which the actually ifl*forroe«l a punishment into a rertL Ib 191 C a man from the then frontier was arre*t.d in Switrinrf tor amaggJing. He was remd ob • hail of 0,000 francs), which m eo«t pf 7/jOO marks. For some mm the «a*e dmtjged on, ami was adM ooif quite recently. The acmn! wsn •mnyuuxed to a fine of :},OOO je», *jst 3I#D franc* <:o«t*. He r<IR|L m tli« balance of his bail, kjrr frahc*, which he changed for fiOO mArtu. little fvntnre brwight him a net profit of /jOQma/fc*. A% one of the humors tlw «xchan2e this' deserves to be ipfcd *ith the of a Swiss hrewt *fcidii t* *aid to have found it ecoBMil til UM its beer bottles with Mtnfw'ltroaer notes?