THE WORLD’S TRADE BOOM

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2019, 2 March 1907, Page 3

THE WORLD’S TRADE BOOM

RESPITE FROM COMPETITION LONDON, Jan. 4.

Commercial England faces 190" in a complacent mood. It hopes for another whole year of the'“groat prosperity” which defenders of its fiscal system who know not Mr. Schooling interpret as a “triumphant proof of their theories, and which other people who read American and German returns recognise as a result of abnormal trade conditions prevailing practically through the world. The great manufacturing countries, which in ordinary circumstances are the most capable of making their pressure felt in the markets, have at present more than they can do to meet the demands made upon them. England is sharing in the hoom, and at the same time getting a considerable measure of temporary relief from competition in its unprotected home market and elsewhere. It has been waiting for something to turn up during the last ten years, and something has turned up —for the present. - “It is as though,” says one expert who surveys the position, “the commercial organism had been stimulated by an administration of oxygen.” No oxygen, however, was needed by Germany. In 1905, when 1 it was less absorbed by its dealings with other countries, it poured (according to corrected Board of Trade figures just published) £53,838,546 worth of goods into the English home market, easily beating every other European country in this facile raid of the Britisher’s preserves. It will repeat and extend the attack a little later when its exporting capacity has been enlarged and the existing demand in other Quarters slackens. At present .the Germans are up to their eyes in profitable business, and their remarkable suecess is recorded with impartial adnnration and enthusiasm by an onlooking American consul in a report to his Government. Every branch of manufacture, he says, is taxed to its utmost productive capacity. In the coal and iron industries supplies are being purchased in increasing Quantities from abroad, chiefly Britain, in order to make up the deficiencies at home. So the mines and furnaces orders hooked months ahead cannot be overtaken. The State railroads in tlio coa 1 districts are far from being able to cope with tile traffic requirements. At the time his report was written from 35,000 to 50,000 tons of coal were kept back from would-be consumers in the Essen district owing to a shortage of trucks. The railway receipts for October were £BOO,OOO in excess of the total for the corresponding month of 1905. The business activity in all directions causes an unusual scarcity of labor, the production in the coal and iron trades in particular being kept down through that cause. Nevertheless, both of these industries have broken all records in productivity and profit, and many of the companies engaged in them are extending their existing works and building new ones. The industrial activity comes from the United States. The German example is indeed even exceeded in America, because in addition to the demand for larger exports, home consumption lias greatly increased, owing to the prosperous condition of agriculture and its extension in the newer fields of settlement. England has of course inevitably benefited by the preoccupation of its most successful competitors, and while supplying some of them, notably Germany, with large quantities of row materials, has increased its own output of manufactured goods. lij the last eleven months its exports have risen by 14.2 per cent. Throughout the manufacturing world tlio prices of leading commodities have gono up. This has been especially noticeable in the case of metals. Iron, which a yoar ago wa selling at 535, is now 625. In the same period silver lias advanced from 30 5-16 d per oz. to 33Jd —the highest point for thirte'en years. Copper lias risen from £SO to £ 107 per tom tin from £l6O to £196; load from £2O to £22 10s. Platinum lias almost doubled in value, and is now at the remarkable figure of £7 10s per oz. Aluminium has also greatly increased in value, and coal is 3s a ton dearer than it was a year ago. And so with the bank rates. In England the advantage gained at first from an increased gold supply lias been almost outbalanced by an average money rate higher than air known for sixteen years. The pressure In Germany has been even greater. The bank rate in Berlin is now 7 per cent. According to the fmanciail editor of the Standard, a 7 per cent, rate in London was averted at the end of the year onlv “hv the Bank of France adopting unusual course of purchasing English sterling bills, holding them in its portfolio, and releasing a corresponding amount of gold for shipment to London.” It is suggested as a possible danger of the immediate future that in order to satisfy its continued demand for gold, America may make a further heavy call upon the Bank of England. Toe speculative element in the American boom -is very prominent. Should it result in a financial panic, which is at least conceivable, England would bo severely involved. Age coriespondent.