The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 1920. MOTHER COUNTRY’S FOREIGN TRADE.

Southland Times, Issue 18858, 25 June 1920, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 1920. MOTHER COUNTRY’S FOREIGN TRADE.

j Recently we published the return of j Britain s foreign trade during May showing i that the value of the goods exported | amounted to over £119,000.000. The rej exports totalled £20,500,000 and these two ! items give us an aggregate exportation of ; £139,500,000, This figure represents a j large increase on the exports for the corres- | ponding month of 1919 and also constitutes ■ a record, being by far the largest amount | for any month in the history of British j trade. The first five months of the pres- , ent year have been remarkable for a rapid | increase of trade, the increase over the first ! five months of 1919 exceeding £300,000,000, | which gives ample demonstration of the j manner in which the Old Country, in spite ! of the pessimists and those who declare that Britain is bankrupt, is recovering herself. The following table shows the exports for each of the five months of this year and gives the increase over the corresponding months of 1919: Including Inc.-over Exports. Re-exports. 1919. £ £ £ Jan. 105,879,000 131,344,386 79,441,086 Feb. 85,964,130 108,567,919 56,538,841 March 103,699,381 130,730,738 68,672,968 April 106,251,692 126,659,111 54,830,241 May 110.319,000 139,578,958 *54,974,000 Total 521,113,203 636,881,112 314,457,130 "Not including re-exports. It will be noticed that the total increase : s actually larger than the total of £314,457,136 given above because that figure docs not include the re-exports. Coming to the import trade we find that the figures for May are lower by £821,000 than the figures for the previous month and some £17,000, 000 lower than the January total. There lias been a steady decline, varied by a rise of £6,000,000 in March. That rise was due in part to heavy in-comings of grain and of manufactured goods. The import trade during each of the five months, however, represented a big increase over the corresponding months in 1919 as the following table shows:—Imports. Inc. over 1919. ; £ £ I January .. 183,498,388 48,951,952 February .. 170,514,272 03.824,931 March .. 170,647,515 70,804,530 April .. 107,154,309 55,088,486 May .. .. 106,333,000 30,721,000 j 864,147,484 209,480,905 The tremendous increase in the trade figures compared with 1913, the last complete year before the war, is explained i to a large extent by the greatly enhanced | values, but all the same there is evidence ! of a growth in quantity. The following ; table compares the figures for the first five months of 1913, 1919 and 1920, all being in thousands:— j 1913 1919 1920 j £ £ £ ; Imports .. . . 320,605 594,094 563.201 , British exports .. 214.223 270,193 521,114 j Re exports .. 50,510 72,296 115,767 Total exports 264,733 342,489 636,881 Excess of imports . . 55,862 231.605,226.320 An examination of these figures will show that the disparity between imports and exports is not so marked in 1920 as it was in 1919; but that the position of 1913 has not yet been regained. In 1913 the excess of imports over exports was about 17 per cent of the total imports. In 1919 this excess amounted to 42 per cent, but last 1 year it had fallen to 26 per cent. The cx- | cess, however, is apparent and not real, because there tire ‘‘invisible exports,” which are represented by shipping freights, interest on foreign investments, insurance and banking’ services. It is these ‘‘invisible exports” ihat explain why Britain has been able to carry on with an apparent excess of imports over exports every year. The return from “invisible exports” has been estimated at £640,000,000 for the twelve months, which means £266,600,000 in five months or more than enough to wipe out j the adverse trade balance as shown in the j tables above. It may be supposed that the 1 improvement in trade will continue, though i the rate of increase may be slower, but if ; we assume that the excess of imports over exports proceeds at the same rate for the ! year, the total excess at the end of twelve i months will be £543,000,000. As against this we can set the “invisible exports” valued at £640,000,000, giving Britain a favourable balance of trade of £97,000,000. It may be argued, of course, that the high prices ! for manufactures now ruling have tended to swell the export figures, but (he same argument applies to a slightly less extent to the imports, much of which is raw material. The f.gurcs are misleading, it is true, in that the quantity of the production is not shown. The official statements in the Old Country show conclusively that production

has not yet reached the pre-war standard,, but it is steadily improving and that fact taken in conjunction with the value figures leads us to the conclusion that the outlook in Britain is distinctly promising.