The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-14
THE COMMERCIAL POSITION OF
 THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

It used to be a common error of those
 who attempted a statistical survey O the commerce of the world to omit from Britain's proportion the value of tht ships she builds and sells to foreigners This error has to some extent been rec. tified within the last two years, because | the Board of Trade returns now in- clude the value of new ships sold tc | foreigners. The value. of these last year was GS,6OS, 153. In almost every case such vessels, on leaving the build CTS hands, fill up with coal. or other cargo, to take to their port or destina- tion. They may never enter a port of the British Isles again; yet they swell the volume of the years entries out ward of tonnage under foreign flags, and the total so entered alarms those who do not know how the increase oc- CUTS. But, besides new ships, we sell a large number of secondhand vessels every year to foreigners, and replace them with new ones for ourselves. These second hand vessels run at low working cost under foreign flags. not
  British vessels in the freight market; and keep down the profits of ship-own- ing But they help the development of the worlds commerce in a wonderful degree. These sales-whet to our benefit or to our hurt-are trade opera tions that ought to be reckoned among our exports just as much as the sales of coal to foreigners Last year these sales amounted to between five and six million pounds.
 But the value of the volume of Brit aims share in the worlds commerce is augmented in much larger degree by what her vessels do for foreign coun- tries. The amount of freight so earned by British vessels, which may not enter a British port for years cannot now be less than eighty million pounds per an- mum, for 1t was computed by a reliable authority four years ago at seventy million pounds, and large additions have since been made to our tonnage. The cargo carried by these vessels fig ures In the imports and exports of the countries between which they trade; but the freight earned Is as much,
 
 an exported cargo of Manchester cot tons It should be added to the above summation of the value of the external trade of the British empire. It would be an instructive object lesson in mari- time commerce if some official would compile from the national records a statement of the number, size and char acter of all the vessels under the Brit ish flag which are engaged in trading all the year round between foreign ports alone.
 Perhaps the most striking instance one could indicate for American read CTS is the case of the Anchor Line of Glasgow which has service of large and costly steamers regularly employed In carrying cargo and peasant laborers from Italy to the United States and back again. These Italian laborers leave the Mediterranean in the spring and earn enough money to pay their passage back in the fall--to sunshine and idleness at home in the winter. It Is large trade. and the steamers en- gagged in it do not touch at a British port at all, and never return to the Uni ted Kingdom until they need overhaul ng or repairs. Again, there are large of British vessels in the Pasi- | ic which never come home, and which 'arely enter a British port The sec md largest if not now the largest, mer- 'hant fleet in the world in point of ton lage-that of the British India Steam Navigation companyh-as most of it's fessels constantly engaged in eastern waters, many of them never seeing l Great Britain from the time of their birth until they are brought home to !