BRITISH EXPORTS

Southland Times, Issue 20015, 1 November 1926, Page 8

BRITISH EXPORTS

INTERESTING COMPARISONS. The Board of Trade Journal recently published a review of the distribution of our overseas trade, from which we take the following account of the British exports per head of population of importing countries (states the Belfast Chamber of Commerce Journal). The table shows the value of the exports of goods, the produce and manufacture of the United Kingdom, per head of the population of the principal importing countries, in 1913 and in the twelve months ended June, 1926. A glance down the table shows how much higher is the value of British goods taken per head of their populations by British countries than by foreign countries. It would be misleading to strike an average of the value per head taken by the British Empire as a whole, because the population of India, with its low consumption of British goods per bead, accounts for about four-fifths of the total populations of the British countries shown. But an interesting comparison can be made by contrasting the imports per head of individual British and foreign countries, which are more or less similar in their character as markets or producing countries. Thus,' to give a few instances, Canada may perhaps be compared with the United States, New Zealand or the Irish Free State with Denmark, and India with China. In some cases the estimates available regarding the population are more than a little uncertain, and too much stress should not be laid on comparisons between such countries and others the populations of which are known with considerable exactitude. We now turn to the variations shown between 1913 and the year ended June, 1926. in the values of our exports taken per head of the populations of individual countries shown m the table. Among foreign countries Switzerland, the United States and Denmark alone appear to have taken more, or about as much, from us per head as in 1913, having regard to the nse in prices. On the other hand, even the money value of what the following countries took from us per head was reduced:—Germany, France, Italy, Japan and rhe rhree South American countries. China, in the latest period as in 1913, took from us at the rate of 8d per head. Russia and the Succession States, if grouped together, took from us at the rate of 1/8 per head in the latest period, compared with 2/1 in 1913. The British countries distinguished in the table show a much better record of increases per head compared with 1913, while at the same time the populations of all India and the West Indies increased substantially. Increases of more than 50 per cent, over 1913 in the value taken per head are shown by New Zealand, the African Colonies, the Straits Settlements, etc., and the West Indies. The increased values per head taken by India and Ceylon, however, were far from commensurate with the rise in prices. Canada alone showed a slightly smaller actual money value per head than in 1913. The following statement shows, for certain specific markets, the value of exports of United Kingdom produce and manufactures per head of the population of those markets:—

— Year ended 1913 U.K. June, 1926. ilk. Exports Exports Per head. Per Foreign Countries— £ s d £ s d Rind a 0 2 1 0 4 Succession States .. 0 2 1 0 0 11 Sweden ........ 1 9 2 1 15 0 Norway .. ►. .. .. 2 9 11 2 16 3 Denmark 2 0 11 2 19 1 Germany .. .. .. 0 12 1 0 10 7 Netherlands .. .. .. 2 10 3 2 19 9 Belgium 1 14 8 2 1 5 France 0 14 6 0 13 Switzerland 1 1 10 2 1 4 Spam .. .. 0 7 9 0 8 2 Italy 0 8 3 0 7 7 Other Europe 0 3 8 0 5 6 Egypt and Soudan .. 0 12 8 0 16 2 Other Africa 0 2 5 0 3 9 Dutch East Indies .. 0 10 0 4 3 China .. 0 0 8 0 0 8 Janin .. .. .. .. 0 5 2 0 4 9 Other Asia 0 1 5 0 1 7 United States 0 6 1 0 9 0 Cuba 0 18 7 0 13 8 Brazil 0 10 2 0 9 5 Argentina .. 3 0 6 2 15 5 Chile 1 14 11 1 11 6 Other America .. .. 0 5 6 0 8 4 British Countries— Canada 2 18 11 2 17 8 Australia 7 1 6 9 16 9 New Zealand 9 19 10 16 1 4 Union of South Africa 3 10 2 4 3 8 Irish Free State .. .. 11 14 10 India 0 4 6 0 5 3 West Africa 0 6 5 0 12 1 Rest of Africa .. .. 0 5 8 0 10 2 Straits Settlements, etc. 2 11 0 4 8 5 Ceylon 0 19 8 1 1 10 West Indies, Honduras, Guiana, etc. .. 1 13 2 Q 18 6 Other British Countries* 3 6 6 3 5 0 *Not including countries which were foragn in 19 LX