AN IMPERIAL EFFORT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2955, 15 December 1916, Page 17

AN IMPERIAL EFFORT

WORK OF.THE BOARD OF TRADE

ORGANISING FOR THE TRADE WAR

; The work of the Imperial Board of j-Trade since the outbreak- of war in :-!August, 1914,. forms one of the hopeful chapters in the history of the Empire's : struggle against a powerful enemy.' The 'declaration of war produced,- as was .generally expected, a far-reaching dislocation of trade and commerce, and (placed a ver/ large section of thfc busii'ness men of the Empire in a position ,of grave difficulty- and uncertainty. ObIviously trade had to be reorganised to jineet the new conditions, and it was .vitally important at the same time thatißritam should not merely .supply herself with goods formerly imported from Ger— •many, but should make '• a vigorous effort to supply markets from whioh .German goods were now: excluded. ' The .'Board of Trade became active at onoe, and the assistance that 'it gave - to. manufacturers and traders has since ;!been acknowledged by the business com•imunity in unstinting terms. ; MAKINC A BEGINNING. The, first move in >tlie campaign against German trade was made by the Board of Trade. within two or three weeks of the declaration of war, when British industry and commerce "might almost have been 6aid to be in a state of chaos- . There is little doubt that l the, lead then given by the Board'_ of 'Trade infused new life into the industrial jworld; and was a very important factor •in restoring a sound basis. The board's first step was the examination of the chief industries in which German manufacturers. had been firmly., established. These industries were examined from 1 the statistical pointobf view ,a's; well as ■from the general standpoint,' with the object of discovering where and why the ■Germans had succeeded, and the information so gathered was distributed free of charge to the British, manufacturers jwhom it concerned. About ISO- separate reports of this character were.prepared and distributed ,iii a very short space of time.; The immediate result iwas an enormous -number of inquiries from British firms, which recognised the value of the work and desired additional information, and the Board of Trade was compelled to undertake the extension and reorganisation of the branch that had been dealing with the investigations.' . EDUCATIONAL'WORK. After tho issue. of the . reports, the •Board of Trade decided to arrange exhibitions 'of articles with which the Gennan manufacturers ,bad been particularly successful. This soheme was' pursued systemaiically, trade after ' trade being taken.' Samples of the German goods were collected from - the wholesale,, retail, and-shipping hou&cs, ■ and then manufacturers and buyers were invited to meet, in the exhibition rooms and to discuss the possibility of making and selling similar-goods in the United Kingdom. Prior to;,the opening of the exhibitions, the officers of the Board of Trade took stops- to induce -manufacturers to make certain articles of which buyers were in immediate need of supplies. The exhibitions wore extraordinarily: successful. -They were jheld at the rate of one'per fortnight, 'and twelve in all were held. After the closing of each exhibition the board published a list. of the ■ British manu-: :facturers of\the various articles that' had been exhibited, and these lists were issued free to all buyers who were interested. One rfesult of the exhibition of German goods was an insistent demand by British manufacturers for similar exhibitions of British goods, to which buyers from home and overseas could be invited. The board consented to arrange such exhibitions, and tlie first was hold in May, 1915. Although only eight weeks had been available for preparation, the number of- firms exhibiting was over 500. The space occupied by the- exhibition was upwards of 100,000 square feet, every available inch having been asked for. Buyers were admitted to this exhibition, and the volume of business, done, • as far as could be ascertained from exhibitors, exceeded £1,600,000, while the business refused was even greater in amount. 1 ■The success of the exhibition was so great that at a banquet given to the President of the Board of Trade and .the organisers , of the exhibition, an urgent request was made by the manufacturers that the hoard should continue the exhibition as an annual affair. This has been done. The second exhibition was held in the spring of this year, and the third will be opened at the end of February next. The exhibition is developing into an annual fair that will rival the. great Leipzic Fair, which used to draw buyers, from all . parts of the world to Germany. BRINCINC BUYERS MANUFACTURERS TOGETHER. ) - While these special arrangements were being made, the work of the Commercial Intelligence Branch of the Board of Trade was proceeding-on ordinary lines, but oii a much enlarged scale. The staff of the branch, numbering SO at the outbreak of war, grew within a few weeks to 250. A strong effort vr'as made to meet the disordered conditions by discovering manufacturers who could produce goods not previously made on' a large scale in the United Kingdom and by introducing- these manufacturers to buyers who previously-, had bought their goods from German firms. The value of the work done in this direction cannot be over-estimated. The business of many, buying houses had been entirely disorganised owing to lack ofjcnowledge of home sources of supply. At the same time there were many British manufacturers who could produce articles that were . required, but who had not been working in those particular lines before the war. and so had little or no knowledge of the directions in which-to market their goods. Tho Commercial Intelligence Branch,

working in these directions, created a very valuable set of records concerning the whole /of the industries of tlia United Kingdom. The information will be of enormous value when the conditions become normal again. In addition to ' collecting and supplying information, the Board of Trade has done a great deal of research work during the war. period in the direction of studying intensively those industries in which Germany has been most successful, and discovering the reason for that success, and also the reason, if auy, why British"firms had not competed on -equal terms. Tho information that has been. gathered 'and recorded will lie available when the war is over, and the time comes to solve the problems that are bound to arise •in connection with the efforts to place British industry on a new and stronger footing. INFORMATION FROM ABROAD. The Imperial Board of Trade has not confined its attention to what may be called home interests. It has taken active steps to secure from overseas information that will be useful in the development' of 'British export trade. While ' the exhibitions of German and Austrian samples were being held in London,, arrangements were made for the collection of similar

samples from all parts of the world. These samples began to arrive subsequently in considerable. volume, and a separate exhibition of German and Austrian goods as marketed abroad was organised in London. This exhibition was open for some time in London, and then travelled _ through the. United Kingdom, visiting all the chief industrial centres, in order that manufacturers engaged ur the export trade might see tjie sort of competition they .'were required to' meet and the .class of goods that the foreign markets were accustomed to buy -' from' > the Germans. Manufacturers, buyers, and work people examined the'samples, and .officers of- the Board of' Trade gave such information as was required relating to the goods. This exhibition is now in, Canada, having been borrowed by the Canadian Government. In addition to goods, the Board of Trade took steps to secure specimens of the catalogues issued by German and 1 Austrian firms. .Several thousands of these eatal4;ues are now in the possession of the Board of Trade. They have been fully indexed and classified, and they are'available for inspection by British firms who may wish to see them. .A collection of such catalogues was recently sent from New Zealand to form part of the maiu collection.

FOSTERING THE EXPORT TRADE

...The enormous increase in the work which the Commercial Intelligence Branch of the imperial Board of Trade has had to handle since the outbreak of war has made tho reorganisation of the branch necessary. The branch' has now been combined with the Exhibitions Branch, which dealt formerly with international exhibitions, and will be in future a powerful Department of Commercial Intelligence. The President of the Board of Trade has appointed as Controller of this Department Sir William Clark, K.C.5.1., U.1.E., who recently retired from the office of Minister of Commerce in India.. He was formerly an officer of the Board of Trado, and subsequently was private secretary to Mr.; Lloyd George, both as President of | the. Board of-'Trade and Chancellor of the Exchequer. ' The reorganisation means-that the . manufacturers of the Kingdom will have placed .at their disposal a large and important Department, the'activities of which will be much more far-reaching in the future than they-have been in the past. The main duty .of this Department-will be to -foster tho export trade, to advise on the development of industries, and to keep the channels of trade from the United Kingdom to tho overseas markets as clear and as accessible to the manufacturers of the United Kingas they. can be made, so that British goods may be placed on the overseas. markets on the best possible terms.It is to this Department that- His Majesty's Trade Commissioners report, thpir reports being disseminated by this Department to the manufacturers concerned: '

In addition to the activities outlined above, tho Imperial Board of Trade has given most careful attention to all the' trade questions arising out of the war, and to the problems that ' are ■ bound to arise an connection with the restoration of economic stability on a sound basis after the war. It has always had at its disposal an advisory committee of business men. This advisory committee, intended to keep the Commercial Intelligence Branch in touch with business interests, has naturally had inuch additional work to do in connection with war problems. Then, in addition to this committcc, tho Board of Trade lias appointed various other committees of business men in connection 'with the study of particular industries. Separate committees have been formed in this manner for such trades as the textile, engineering, shipbuilding, electrical, and so forth. It is understood that tho reports of theso committees are to be available about the end of the present year. The Board of Trade has also appointed a committee to examine what, may be called Ihe secondary industries. Theso are largely industries concerned with tho production of fancy articles, in which Germany was practically preeminent prior to the war. The task of the committee was to study the past conditions of the industries and ascertain how best- they could bo assisted to develop after tho war. The report of this committee was published some months ago, and contained a number of suggestions for improved methods. The :possibilities of the Russian and Italian markets have engaged the

special attention of the Board of Trade. Germany in former years had a very great volume of trade with Russia and Italy, and it is considered possible that the amount of trade which can be gained by the United Kingdom from these countries may be sufficient to recompense British manufacturers for the loss of "trade in Germany. Some months ago the imperial Board of Trade sent a spccial Commissioner to inquire into the possibilities of the development of British trade with Italy. Being an Englishman who had lived in Italy for a number of years, and been in close touch with leading Italian people, he was able to bring expert knowledge to bear upon the inquiry. Cablegrams from London published in tho Now Zealand newspapers recently show that steps have been taken to build up trade with Italy both inwards and outwards, thus relieving the Italians of their old commercial dependence on Germany. The Board of Trade is arranging to send a Commissioner to Russia on a similar mission.

Various other committees have been appointed itl the United Kingdom to study financial and commercial conditions with a special view to after-war trade. One of tile most important of these committees, concerned with the financial questions relating to trade, lias- recently reported in favour of the establishment of a British trade bank,

with branches in overseas centres, and in close touch with existiug banking corporations. The first interest of this bank will be to facilitate the financing of export business and to placo at the disposal of manufacturers at home information regarding the financial stability of firms overseas, a work of vital importance. Generally it may be said that, the work which the imperial Board of Trado.has been doing during the war and directly for the prosecution of the war, apart from special inquiries bearing upon after-war "conditions, will be of the highest value when the war is over. The conditions created by the war have given the Board of Trade opportunities to got into very close touch with industrial and commercial circles. A groat deal of information that probably would not have been .available in normal times has been placed at its disposal, and the experience of the last two years in this respect must bring about a vast development of the usefulness of the Board of Trade in its relation to the Empire's trade and commerce when the war is over.