GERMAN TRADE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2256, 16 September 1914, Page 7

GERMAN TRADE

DEPEOTENCe'-UPON : . IMPORTS. In view of the war which has suddenly' thrown Germany back upon Her resources, the opinions of Herr Wolfvon Schierbrand, published recently in New Y'ork, in this work on Germany, entitled "The AViekling of a World Power;" is worthy of close attention. Herr Schierbraud says:— "Germany must do her utmost to preserve her markets, for she, liko England, must largely, export in order to live. German agriculture does not. now produce, and is not. likely to produce in the future (even under a new- and more favourable system of commercial treaties and tariffs); enough food for the nation." It is computed that nearly 60 per cent._ of the people in Germany aro engaged in industrial or commercial pursuits. The overwhelming interests are industrial. About one-thud of the foodstuffs consumed comes from beyond her frontiers, and the.great bulk of her im-, ports are indispensables. The United States of America is one of the largest countries supplying Germany. The imports i'roni this source comprise manufactured goods only to the extent of one-sixth, the remaining five-sixths being cereals, hides, leather, and such like materials..Seventy-five per cent, of German exports comprise, in tho order of their importance, beet sugar, textiles, fabrics, chinaware, and toys. : Foodstuffs, therefore, are of small significance under this head. "Germany is now," says the writer, "essentially an exporting and importing country, unable to live for. even a month without supplies from abroad, just like England.' The time was when Germauy was 'sufficient to herself,' when her fields and meadows brought forth enough nourishment for all her people. That time, however, is past. .She now can'not feed all her hungry mouths. Sho would-have to .let die every third inhabitant of the Empire wero she to rely wholly on her own agricultural product. This a -truth which has not yet been sufficiently recognised within her own borders. But, unpalatable as it is to her, it. is, unfortunately, a truth. "Germany, in common with other countries of tho world, has suffered during recent, years from a continual rising of tho price of fresh meat. Imports have steadily increased, and. the home supply has proportionately decreased. The. production of cattlo, even during good years, does not supply the demands of the market, and the increase year by year does not keep pace relatively with the increase of population, and fails absolutely if the individually increasing demand for meat is taken into account. On October 10, 1910, a cattlo count took pluco in Bavaria. Compared with .the provious returns hi 1907, those for 1910 showed an increase for pigs, which form 50 per cent, of tlie meat consumed in Germany, of 8.7 per cent., and for goats of 1.6 per cent.; but the supply of sheep had receded by 13.2 per cent. The reduction in young cattle alone amounted to 17.7 per cent., and in Lower Bavaria even to 21.1 per cent. Such figures show that during recent years Germany has become moro and more dependent upon the younger countries of tho world for her supply of butchers' meat. The impcrtation of foreign cattlo has been rendered dimcult, "but not impossible, by tho veterinary precautions, which aro even more prohibitive than the high duties levied upon foreign stock. Notwithstanding the restrictions, however, the importation of fresh meat, with the exception of pork, has increased year by year. Tho agricultural products and foodstuffs imported into Germany m 1011 were .valued at 6,541,000,000 marks (about £327,550,000), and in 1912: at 6,560,000,000 marks (about £323,000,000), while the exports wero represented by 1,423,000,000 marks (about £71,lo0,000), and 1,592,000,000 marks (about £/9,J00,000) for the two years respectively. Tha principal countries from which these.impnrts wero drawn were Belgium, France, Great Britain, * Austria-Hun-gary, Russia, British India, and tho United States.