The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-04-30
The Growth of German Trade.

Evidence accumulates that E%ngland's ex.
port trade, which is the principal source of
her prosperity, is seriously threatened by
German competition. The latest informa-
ton on the subject is contributed to the
National Reriear by Sir PHILIP MAGNUs, a
member of the Royal Commission on Tech
nical instruction, which lately visited Ger
many with a view of ascertaining the re-
cent progress of education in that country.
Sir PHILIP has availed himself not only of
his own observations, but also of some strik-
ing comparative statistics compiled by Sir
CoURTENAY BOYLE, and just published by
the Board of Trade.
1t appears that since 1880 the exports OF
manufactured articles from Germany have
increased from SALE, 900, 900 to $545 ,OOO,-
900, and that the increase, Notwithstanding
some fluctuations, has been fairly c~ontinu-
GUS throughout this period. 1t must, how
ever. be remembered that the figures quoted
quantities of G~erman-made goods which,
shipped from Rotterdam, Antwerp, and
Flushing, are included in the statistical
tables as exports from Holland and Bel
GUM. II, now, we look at the exports from
Great Britain during the same term of
years, we find that they nave fallen from
81 ,O75 600, 900 in 1888 to 1920, OOO, 900 in
1894. While between the years named
there has been so grave a decline In the ex-
port trade of the United Kingdom, the i'm
port of articles called manufactured during
the same period has enormously increased,
namely, from $24O,O0O 900 in 1885 to
$4O5 900, 900 in 1896. If we compare the
annual average value of imports into the
United Kingdom from Germany for the
period 1sSO-s4 with the period 1S91.9 %,
we learn that there has been an in
crease from less han 1850, 900 to more
than 81, 75O. 900 in cotton manufactures;
an increase from 81 SOC, 900 to So, 10000
in glass manufactures, and an increase from
81, 800, 900 to 5000, 900 in paper and
pasteboard. These are only a few of the
different classes of manufactured goods of
which the imports from Germany into
Great Britain lave increased. Nobody, of
course, denies that the entire volume of
England's export trade is still much larger
than that of Germany the question of vital
interest Is whether 1t is increasing or dimin.
ishing, and, supposing 1t to be increasing,
whether the rate of upward movement Is
the same. To this question there is but one
answer. The export trade of Germany is
increasing at a much greater rate. No
wonder, then, that Sir CoURTENAY BOYLE
should tell the Board of Trade that "we
can scarcely expect to retain our past un-
doubted prominence, at any rate not with
out strenuous effort, and careful and ener-
getic improvement in method"
Another body of testimony to which Sir
PHILIP MAGNUs refers is the collection of
reports furnished by British Consuls to the
Foreign Office during the past year. Here
one encounters a repetition of the facts that
German wares are gradually displacing
those Of English make; that this displace-
ment is not due to any superiority in the
character of German goods, but TO the
lower price at which they are sold to the
better adaptation Of the articles to the