TRADE PROSPERITY

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1732, 24 April 1913, Page 6

TRADE PROSPERITY

In delivering his Budget speech in the House of Commons on Tuesday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Lloyd-George) referred to the present commercial prosperity of Great Britain. Ho went on to say that in consequenec of the increase in tho Navy and the insurance scheme the 'expenditure for tho coming year would show an increase of £7,500,000; but, working on the assumption that the year would be "the most glowing for British trade ever seen," new taxes would not be necessary. . This makes , peasant onough reading, although the "glowing" prospects of trado booming cannot obscure the fact that tho extra £7,500,000 has to como out of the pockets of the taxpayers; and, as Sir Algernon F. Firth, President of tho Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom recently pointed out, if business is to extend and be prosperous traders need cheap money. Moreover, if tho national and local expenditure goes on piling up burdens on individuals and on industries at the present pace, it must prove a serious handicap when less prosperous times return. This aspect of tho financial position was referred to by Mr. Austen Chamberlain in discussing the Budget. He expressed anxiety that the Government was not profiting by the good times, but was spending every penny and mortgaging overy penny of further income, without increasing the reserve to meet bad times. Tho year 1912 was a great trading year. According to figures quoted by Sir Algernon Firth, tnc total turnover of £1,344,000,000 of imports and exports constituted a record. _ The increase in domestic amounted to £56,000,000, or 9.6 per oent., and in domestic exports to £35,000,000, or 7.3. per cent. The increase, however, was not confined to Britain. Every other manufacturing or trading country had increased in a similar or even greater proportion. Tho trade of Germany had increased ,in imports £29,000,000, or 6.1 per cent., and in exports £38,000,000, or 9.7 per cent. The increased imports of the United States were £59,500,000, or 18.6 per cent., and exports £63,500,000, or. 14.8 per cent., and for the first time the United States had passed Great Britain in the figure of her domestic exports—£492,ooo,000, against Great Britain's £487,000,000. This was chiefly owing to the higher quantities and prices of cotton, copper, and metals which she had sent out. The German figures were based en the values of the preceding year, whilst Great Britain's were on the actua 1 - values. AVhcn tlia actual figures of German trade were published it would probably be found that the increase was considerably in excess of that stated. Tlio figures of unemployment, Siu Algernon Firth states, seemed l.u prove that Britain could not have produced a great deal more had they experienced the demand for the goods. Mr LloydGeorge's sanguine expectations for the coniii"" year, it is to be hoped, will !):■ :• ■ realised. Tho greatest nienatv t. .i;:li expectations apparent at th_' moment is the continual increase in the burden of taxation on industries and the uncertainty engendered by the labour unrest.