The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1936. BRITAIN’S TRADE.

Evening Star, Issue 22445, 16 September 1936, Page 8

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1936. BRITAIN’S TRADE.

This week’s market report from London emphasises the vital bearing on trade of international and national peace. The events in Spain have not only paralysed business activity in that unhappy country, but have disrupted the considerable commercial intercourse with Britain and France. Much British capital is invested in Spain, and it is, to say the least, in jeopardy at the moment. After so many severe losses through internal upheavals in various countries, it is surprising that British investors are willing to place their money outside the Empire. It is in reality an evidence of the inherent strength of British trade and of the courage and enterprise of those who control the country’s financial and industrial affairs. The Board of Trade returns for August reveal that the industrial activity at Home is maintained, the volume of imports being considerably greater than it was a year ago, though there is little improvement in the exports. A policy that has had a wholesome effect on the position is the Board of Trade’s success in arranging trade agreements with various countries. The latest was with Brazil, the

most favoured nation treatment being accorded to that country on a basis of reciprocity. Industrial activity in the United Kingdom is estimated to have been 10.5 per cent, greater in the second quarter of 1936 than in the previous quarter, and 10.9 per cent, greater than in the second quarter of 1935. The indices both for manufacturing industries and all groups represented the greatest volume of production in any quarter so far recorded, although normally there is less activity in the second than in the first quarter of the year. It is pleasing to note continued expansion of trade between Britain and Empire countries. The Home Country now takes from them 41.53 per cent, of the total value of all her imports, while the total value of the exports of British products to Empire countries has increased to 48.64. Under present world conditions the value of the British market to the dominions and colonies can hardly he exaggerated, and to those who take the long view it must be evident that there should be no hesitation in New Zealand in purchasing goods that have to be imported into the Dominion of British manufacture, even if it entails a slight disadvantage to the buyer. The ‘ Economist,’ in commenting on the general position in Britain, issued a word of caution. It remarked that the upward slope of the curve was not as steep as it was in 1933, but it was still distinctly upward. Amid all the favourable indications, however, there were others of a different character, not so much unfavourable as evidence that the recovery movement had reached an advanced stage—maturity. The ebb and flow of trade from boom to depression and vice versa is much under discussion to-day, and the ‘ Economist ’ puts the position neatly in these words: “ There are those who say that booms could and should be eternal. But the prudent man will assume, until proof to the contrary is produced, that booms, like men, are subject to a morphology which human efforts can influence, but cannot alter. That being so, the prudent man will already be making his preparations for the change in the economic trend that must come some day, and may come soon.”-