The Minneapolis journal., 1905-10-06
Our Grain and Flour Trade with
= Germany. ~. "

Our Grain and Flour Trade with
- Germany. ~ "
| !. The report coming In yesterday of the
sale Of round lot of No. northern
spring wheat to Germany, occasioned
much, surprise in the grain trade, and
made for greater confidence among
those who are believers in the legiti-
macy of cash wheat prices at about
present levels. Unlike the situation
last year, there is now a surplus left
for export from our crop. Opinions
differ as TO it's size. Whether it be
150,00o,000 bushels, or less than 1Q0,-
1000 bushels, really matters little in
this connection. So long as there is
wheat for export, prices have got to be
on such basis as will enable exporters
to sell. If the millers can sell the
| flour so much the better, but in any
| case the production of an exportable
surplus meaD.s prices on an export basis
sooner or later. =
Today wheat Of the No. l northern
grade, raised in the Canadian northwest
| shipped into Winnipeg, and finally
landed at the water front at Fort Will
lam or Port Arthur, Ont, can be
bought for export at about II or 7Sc
No. l northern raised on our side Of the
line is quotable in Minneapolis or Du-
luth about Sc higher. Hence it seems
impossible that we should have done
any considerable export business in
wheat. With Germany, however, it is
a little different from what it is with
other countries, for tariffs are in our
favor as against the United Kingdom or
the British colonial wheat-producing
/, countries. .,><| ,.*., <|c4> '->-, '><r
~!&Germany will soon put into effect a
new tariff that will exclude our wheat
and flour from her markets. While it
is true that our great customer is the
United Kingdom, we have sold consider
able to Germany. In the ten years
preceding 1900 she took 1,s12303 BUSH
els of our wheat and 1850, ,541 barrels
flour: In 1891, she bought only 1854
barrels flour and 263,sS7 bushels wheat.
Then Mr.. Blaine, whose reciprocity
ideas were working to the front, OBJ
tanned a reductior of tariffs in our IA,
vor and our business began to increase.
In 1894, we revoked the Blaine treaty.
and since that time our commercial re.
lationship with Germany has been one
OF varying good and bad years and f1uc.
tuatlng conditions However, in 1908
according to German official statistics,
Germany took, for actual consumption
IN one form or other, about 25,O00,00O
bushels of our wheat. ~ = =;
Today thero is a duty Of $1.55 on
American -four. but Holland admits our
Hour free, and as considerable Aonr
passes from Holland into GERMANY It
Is: impossible to know exactly what pro.
portion the latter consumes. Best esti
mates show that in 1908 Germany con-
sumed American flour to the value Of
$5,o3o,O ,OoO:..# On, wheat, the present Ger
4 man tariff, +, against the American prod
ffuct, is $0.277, but, unless our govern
ment shall by some reciprocal arrange
ment men head it of, the tariff after March
i next will be. $O.486. This would prac-
Etically put us out Of business with Ger
many IN wheat. Meanwhile it must not
\ be forgotten that the new German tariff
on -four, effective at the, same time.
will be 81 a barrel. The German tariff
makers have not spared us either wav.
I The situation just now is a. peculiar
one. Germany gets much Of her wheat
and rye fromssRussia, and evidently it
was il the minds ofsthe trainers of the
1 new German 2fariffss that mo hardship
would fall upon the people thru .prohih.
4 itory tariffs against the American prod
uct, for Russia would always be close
4 at, hand. 1t happens, however, that the
Russian an Japanese war, the confusion
following at home, the passing over the
1 frontier Of many Russian peasant men
and women, and the general internal
1unsettlement made the Russian crop
acreage much smaller this year, and
with that4@a bad season followed. Rus.
:sia9has lost enormously in wheat, rye
land other cereals, aud it may not be a
simple matter for Germany to turn to
!. her after all.
j This is something that will bear
I waite hing. If the German importers
J should find the situation serious enough
they might readily import our wheat
! from now until the new tariffs prevent
q Eat a rate that would bear in an impor.
! tant way uponszthe. diminution Of the
American surplus, and SO it may be
that our prices will not have to go to
the level Of the Canadian export prices
after all.
A church advertisement in the Min.
nesota Daily, the university paper
8 seems to- have aroused the curiosity Of
the university reporters for all the
! papers, and to that extent it proves the
Il value Of advertisinp We can SOC M