SIX MONTHS OF FOREIGN TRADE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 2799, 12 September 1883, Page 3

SIX MONTHS OF FOREIGN TRADE.

(Pall Mall Gazelle, July 13th.) Tho Board of Trade returns which ha»o just been issued confirm, ns regards tho foreign trade, tho opinion as to tho Btato of business which we havo of lato expressed. Tho foreign trado of tho country for some time past, liko the trado of tho country gonorally, has been stationary, but stationary at n high level, the aggregate turn-over being as high, or almost as high, as m the previous yoar, which was, perhaps, the year of tho largest business m our foreign trado on record. The conclusion is not an unsatisfactory one. On account of the depression m prices as compared with former periods, an impression has been formed m aomo quarters that business itself is utterly dull and unproaperous. Tho merchant, as distinguished from the producer and consumer, has for various reasons been m a difficult position. But tlm production and consumption of tho country, if wo look at the things tlieniPelves and not at tho values by which they aro measured, havo been on a large scale. In tho strictest sense of tho words, therofore, looking at tho national interests ns a whole, the business of tho country must be spoken of as prosperous and not as depressed, though special interests may bo suffering. At least the foreign trado, which ia our special subject at present, must be so spoken of. Let us look first at tho irovemont of shipping, not a bad test of the quantity of buainoss done. What wo find is that m the six months ending Juno tho entries nf shipping with cargoes at ports m tho United Kingdom m tho foreign trade wern 12.207,000 tons as compared n-itb 11, C0G, 000 tons m the corresponding six ' months of 1882, and 10,017,000 tons m tho corresponding six months of 1881. Again, m tlio six months the clearances with cargoes were 14,102,000 tons as compared with 13,355,000 tins m the corresponding six months of 1882, and 12,242,000 tons m the corresponding six months of 1881. In the coasting trado thero is also an increase of tho Bhipping movement, though only a slight one. All thi3 indicates an increased turti-ovor m business as compared with the last two years. It is, no doubt, quite truo that with the constant substitution of steamers for sailing skips that is going on, and the greater periodicity of voyages thereby introduced, there is a tendency for the entries and clearances of shipping to increase without a corresponding increase m the cargoes moved. Still, with all deductions and qualifications, we may conchide that tho great increase of entries and clearances means a certain increase of business. Even were there aro periodic voyages thero ia great pressure and exertion to fill up the vessels as much as p'ssible, and voyages will not bo long continued unless with suflicient cargo. Turning from the shipping figures we have first to nntico the. figures as to the exports of British and Irish produce — that part of our foreign trade m which there is usually the keenest interost. What wo find hero is that thero is a nominal reduction m tho ng^rcguto value of the exports for the six months as compared with the corresponding six months of 1882— viz., from £118,278,000 to £11G,OGG,000, or a reduction of about 1 per cent, only, but at the Bamo time a great increase as compared with tho corresponding six months of 1881, when tho amount was £109,308,000 only. In fact, allowing for tho somewhat lower prices generally, corresponding to the somewhat lower prico3 of the raw material imported, there is no reduction as compared even with 1882, but rather an increase. As we have said, howover, the year 1882 was the year of tho largest foreign trado the country has over dune, and it is surely satisfactory wlipn wo aro more than holding our own with such a trado. In many of the groat staples of our foreign export trado there is a decided increase us compared with last y ear . In coal the increase is about £400,000, or about Bpercent; m cotton manufactures about £000,000, or about 2 per cent ; m jute manufactures £102,000, or nearly 10 per cent ; m machinery £445,000, or about 11 per cunt ; and so of other articles. On the other side thero is a decrease m " iron manufactures," which is especially marked m the case of pig iron ; and silk, liuon, and woollen manufactures also show a decrease. On balance, howover, there is improvement, which would havo made itself decidedly felt m the aggregate values but for tho fall In prices corresponding to tho fall m the prices of the raw material. As to the imports, there is less to bo said, tho one prominent fact here being that thero is no question of the magnitude of the increase for tho six months, which is about £10,000,000 on a total of £200,818,000 m tho corresponding six months of 1882, and nearly double that amount on a total of £198,813,000 m 1881. The magnitude of the consuming power of the country could not bo moro clearly shown. As compared with 1882, about 5J millions of the increase is due to the increased importation of articles of food, but this is very little more than the normal increase of tho imports' of food no should look for corresponding to the increase of population. A large part of the increased imports m tho tivo years is undoubtedly an increase m tho imports of raw material. Tried by every test, therefore, our foreign trade shows that at the present time the advance to tho high point reached m 1882 has been fully maintained. The feeling of depression which exists m many quartors ought not to blind the country to the fact that hand-to-mouth business is large m volume, that employment of labor is steady, and that tho masses are producing and consuming largely. The condition is not quite so satisfactory as it is when prices are rising and the morchant and speculative capitalist are having their innings as well as the wages-earners and tho general mass of the community. But prices of commodities cannot be always rising, and thero is something amiss m grumbling when we are fairly well off. Ono moro remark may be added. The imports having increased more than the exports, we shallporhaps be hearing once more the cry about the adverse halance of trade ; but surely that is hardly a cry which it will again be worth while to refuto. While the shipping business of the country and our investment of capital abroad increase as they havo lately been doing, we must expect from time to time that the excess of imports ovor exports will also increase. Wo should be doing a bad business if it did not increase.