MR CHAMBERLAIN AS A BUSINESS MAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7069, 10 April 1901, Page 2

MR CHAMBERLAIN AS A BUSINESS MAN.

HIS TRADE MOTTOBefore he retired, in order to devote himself to public work, Mr Chamberlain was a partner in the Birmingham firm of Nettlefovd and Chamberlain, and at one time he devoted to his business all that remarkable energy which of late he has devoted to the affairs of the nation. In a small ■way, he followed in the extension of hi.s business much the same policy as he afterwards adopted ,at the Colonial Office io promote Imperial commerce. He turned his attention to finding new markets for trade, and improving those which already existed : — " From the first he showed remarkable business aptitude, uniting with the power of seeing far ahead a capacity for detail, a combination as rare as it is valuable. For instance, finding that little or no trade was done by his farm with France, he turned his attention to the cause of this want of enterprise. He found that the English weights and measures were used by" the English house to describe its waxes', and speedily arranged that tables drawn up according to the decimal system should be thenceforth used. This was a practical measure, but Mr Chamberlain also deferred to the usual French custom of this tr.ide, and had the screws put up in packets of similar size and wrapped up in the same blue paper that the French merchants were accustomed to see when they bought screws from French manufacturers. Presented in this accustomed and pleasing guise, the English article soon proved its .superiority, with the result that a big French trade was developed, where before there had been a very sma-11 one. '"It is not interest in particular that governs the world.' said Mr Chamberlain at Leicester in 1900. ' but sentiment."" And :nrty-five years earlier he made up his mind that- if Frenchmen preferred to have their screws wrapped in blue paper it might bs a sentimental fancy, but, nevertheless, biue paper they should have. ' Always concede lif.tle things peacefully,' was his motto; 'always stand out for big outs firmly.'" — From Miss Merrit's " Joseph Chamberlain."