Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-19

bnies this disproportion is very marked | Tax ng only, in the case of Australasia,
 the comparatively recent period during llWhich Mir. Chamberlain has asked for re-
 turns 1t will be found that in 1881 the | total external trade with British posses | sions amopnted to f57, ,340, 763. In 1892 it llwas f6O,952,541, showing an increase in l round numbers of little more than f3500,- | Q08 The foreign trade of Australasia in F1SH was 7,213, 916, and in 1892 it had risen fstos IA, ,394, ,557, or very nearly double the | figure of the earlier date Had trade with
 the United Kingdom progressed to any l thing like the same extent the effect | would have been of the utmost impor- tance to British industry. The increase, on an examination of the detailed re- | turns. will be found to have gone almost entirely to the United States Germany, France and Belgium and by so much has served to stimulate the competitive enterprises of those countries. An almost similar state of things is to be traced in the trade returns of South Africa, where also mining enterprise has of late shown tendency to pass into French, German and American hands. In Canada, where twenty years ago the
 imports from Great Britain formed 55 per cent of the entire imports of the colony, the proportion has now sunk to 37 per | cent, while in the same period the propor- tion of imports from the United States have risen from 35 per cent to 46 per cent, and those from France and Germany have heavily increased. Common re- port attributes a great portion of this transference of custom to the conserva- tive habits of the British manufacturer, who refuses to meet the requirements of new markets by a sufficient invention of new patterns. Instances in point are furnished by the agricultural machinery trade of Australasia, the mining ma chinery trade of south Africa, and the | carpet trade of Canada. In each of these
 cases the buyer for the colonial market | repea tedly complains that, while the British material is good, the pattern is so bad as to be practically useless. His complaints are disregarded, and con siderable porton of the trade passes in direct consequence to the more enterprise ing manufacturers of inferior material in the United States. Cheap window-glass Is a trade which for other reasons has passed almost wholly in Australia into Belgian hands. Examples may, unhap- pily, be multiplied, and, while common, report is busy with varying explanations, no authentic diagnosis of the situation has yet been made and placed on record by fully competent experts.
 MT. Chamberlain's dispatch Is an in- vitation to the colonial governments to supply this want. He commits himself to no suggestion as to a possible remedy for the existing state of things. He does not even assume that the colonies will necessarily regard 1t as an evil. He | merely asks that an investigation be set on foot as to the extent to which in each of the colonies foreign imports of any kind have displaced or are displacing similar British goods. and of the causes of such displacement. On purely busi- ness grounds we are entitled, in the double capacity of customers and pur- veyors to the British colonies, to seek to | discover the best means of extending our l commercial relations with them The practical new departure of the dispatch Is that MT. Chamberlain addresses him. self directly to study of the conditions of the foreign trade of the colonies. The secret which he desires to surprise is not the secret of British failure, but the secret of foreign success. He asks for a return which shall show for quinquennial periods ending in 1884, 1889 and 1894 the value of all articles of foreign importa- ton, whenever the value reaches per cent of the total value of the importa- |, tion of the article into the colony. The return is also to give in each case the reasons which induce the colonial inn porter to prefer foreign article to simi- lar goods of British manufacture. In or der to assist the investigators in their work, and to secure uniformity in the method of making returns, the reasons have been tabulated under the headings of price, quality,l suitability and pattern of goods, differences of packing and
 
 quested that any other cause which may exist shall also be mentioned.
 The classification of the goods to be commented upon Is the condensed class- | fication used by the board of trade in the Annual Statistical Abstract for the re- ports of the United Kingdom, supple mented by a schedule of subdivisions suggested by the chambers of commerce. | In addition to written descriptions, the colonial governments are requested, rlxx,r f, I1 fn tfat.r Cf | goods. which the London chamber of | commerce has undertaken to house and | distribute according to the instructions | that may be received. The present dis | patch deals only with the export trade of | the United Kingdom and the import trade of the colonies. The returns have | been very carefully and practically pre- | pared, and if the colonial governments | perceive the value of the opportunity l which such an Investigation offers for | the expansion of local trade, much mu- | tual advantage may be derived from the l inquiry. It cannot, however. be too | clearly borne in mind that while an in- vestigation of the kind may be extremely | valuable in preparing the development of | trade it is in it's nature only prelimi- | nary step. Good results may fairly be | anticipated, but they must depend wholly | upon the energy with which individual | enterprise may see fit to make use of thd | knowledge gained. The government may collect information of the conditions of | the market. It rests with the producer | and the manufacturer to profit by the in- l formation.