GOOD BUYERS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 59, 7 September 1926, Page 18

GOOD BUYERS

I ■ .■ X I BRITAIN'S EMPIRE CUSTOMBRS INCREASING THEIR I ! NUMBER. I ! HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT. { | (By Sir Max Muspratt, Bart, President of the Federation of British j | Industries and Chairman of United Alkali Co., Ltd,, Liverpool.) \

One of the most abiding traits in the Englishman's character is his fatal tendency to self-depreciation. It is no new thing, as anyone who cares to glance through the pages of history will clearly see. Ever since England was a nation, Englishmen have been "agin the Government" and indulged to the full their appetite for running down almost everything English. That it is a form of pride seems to be shown by the fact that, let a foreigner start a tirade against England or English instihition, and the very man who a short while ago was railing against his own country will immediately take up the cudgels on its behalf. Considered purely as a national characteristic, it may have its interesting, even its amusing aspect, but looked upon as a factor in our trade prosperity, it is a serious matter. Since the war there has brea a spate, of pessimism fed, I must admit, by the utterances of many responsible leaders of industry, and ably directed, through the medium of the Press, to every quarter of the globe, with the result that in many of the important yet distant markets with whom our exporters have been accustomed to deal, there is a steadily growing impression that Great Britain is on its last legs, and that the British Empire as such is recking to its fall.

UNWARRANTED PESSIMISM.

The existence of this belief is primarily no one's fault but our own, and is due almost entirely to the over-indul-gence of our favourite habit. Three or

four years ago this pessimism might have been warranted, but at the present time, though admittedly several unhealthy symptoms are still observable in the body industrial, British trade is by no means in the palsied and enfeebled state that so many people hold it to be. It is true that the volume of our export trade is not up to what it wa3 before the war, but at the same time it is also, true that we are doing practically the same share of world trade as we were in 1913. In other words, it is rather the volume -A world trade than of British trade which has shrunk. Side by side, however, with this falling-off in our export trade has gone a great increase in the trade turnover in the Home market since the war. So noticeable has been this development that, taken in conjunction with other indications, if< has led many responsible observers to debate whether the whole basis of British trade and commerce is uot changing, and that the United Kingdom is not turning from an export to a home trade nation. Whether this view be correct or not, last year's trade balance, containing though it did many encouraging signs, certainly showed a further decline in exports as against an increase in imports. But, leaving this vexed question on one side, one of the most hopeful points about the trade record of 1925 was, that whereas there was a decrease in British exports to foreign .countries, there was actually an increase of British exports to the British Empire. Moreover, though imports into Great Britain from foreign countries showed a very small increase, those from the Empire showed a very considerable advance indeed. No country within the Empire showed a more noticeable improvement both in import and export trade with the Mother Country than the Dominion of New Zealand, and this is all the more satisfactory as the improvement was registered in a year when tariff changes could not but react adversely on the volume of trade done, while there can be little doubt that there will be a still greater improvement to be recorded in the coming year, when the results of the South Seas Exhibition, at Dunedin, make themselves felt.

total exports. Thus, at the present moment, the New Zealand-United Kingdom trade figures are the most encouraging reading of almost any in the world, but it is perhaps doubtful whether they will register any material and rapid improvement. The whole trouble with New Zealand, as with the British Empire generally, is that it contains at present too tew people. No market in the world has gi eater potentialities for development than the British Empire, thai is, with the possible exception of South America. But high though the individual purchasing power is throughout the Empire (New Zealand's £15 15s per head is followed by Australia's £10, South Africa's £i and Canada's £3, while the highest rates from foreign countries are Denmark £4 per head, Argentine 3>2 16s per head, Sweden £2 6s, and the Netherlands £3 9s, such large countries as the United States and China showing rates of only 9s 6d and lid per head respectively), the sparsity of population is still such as to provide British manufacturers with no'* immediate alternatives to the very densely populated markets upon which they formerly depended for their trade,- and which for one reason or another are so largely closed to them. There is everything to be gained and nothing to be lost by the intensive de- , yelopment of inter-Imperial trade, but it is the aggregate of customers rather than the individual wealth of each customer that means large orders. The real development of Empiro trade will therefore depend ultimately upon the increase in Empire population, and this must perforce be a slow process. But if year after year the trade records of component parts of the British Empire show a steady increase in United Kingdom imports, while the Mother Country goes on increasing her imports of Dominion produce as she has during recent years, we Bhall be certain <jhat the trade development of the Empire is a healthy one and must not be dissatisfied if the progress is not more rapid. The trade development of the Empire depends ultimately rather on men than on money, but that it will steadily develop there is no doubt.

BRITAIN'S BEST BUYER

This is not to say that the New ZeaUnd trade record is not one of which to be proud. Actually New Zealand, with a population of some 1,300,000 people, buys annually over 20 millions worth of United Kingdom produce, a per capita purchasing rate of £15 15s per head! This is an enormous figure, and is easily the highest rate prevailing among any buyers of United Kingdom goods. The chief articles of import are t.aturally manufactured goods, the largest items being iron and steel manufactures, machinery of all descriptions, cotton textiles, wearing apparel, and chemi-< eals. On the other hand, Great Britain is already a very large buyer of New Zealand products, and only last year considerably increased her purchases by over £15 millions in the twelve months, or over 80 per cent, of New Zealand's