RATE OF EXCHANGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2082, 27 January 1920, Page 4

RATE OF EXCHANGE.

OX iiIMTISII AX!) AMEHICAN .MOXEY, A .SL’KPIiISJXU DIFFER EX CE. ‘ A." evidence of the startling change brought about by the difference in the rate of exchange between the English sovereign and the American dollar, we have seen an invoice of a shipment of goods just landed at Wellington by the To.fua (says an exchange), and a few details will be of great interest to our readers. The value of the goods as per invoice amounted to £7B 18s Bd, and the exchange on this sum was no less than £2O ss, or over - 20 per cent. An the cost of -the goods, the

rate of conversion being 3 dollars 82 cents per one pound 'sterling. This means, approximately, -that for every £1 worth of goods bought the loss in exchange is 4s. In addition to this', on the same invoice the loss in exchange on the freight alone amounts to 25 per cent, of the freight paid. That is to say, the ordinary freight rate has been increased 25 per cent, by the loss in exchange. On the top of all this it is the intention of the New Zealand Customs'Department to assess all duty on the basis of the cost of the goods including the difference on exchange. Consumers must, there Core, expect to pay very high prices for till American supplies. It is only a (|iiesliun of old stock’s becoming exhausted before these increases will be jyade manifest. .Since the above was written, advice has been received showing that the English-pound sterling is worth only 15s 3d in America, and that there is every indication of a still thriller decline. The one bright spot in connection with this otherwise unsatisfactory condition of affairs is Unit America will not he al)!c to sell goods in New Zealand which can be Imported from England —a tremendous , preference in favour of British goods.