BRITAIN AND HER RIVALS.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 191, 19 June 1903, Page 4

BRITAIN AND HER RIVALS.

Dealing with this subject, the Wanganui Herald says -Mr Clarence Webster, lecturer on Economic History in the New York University, has recently published a most compi'ehensivf* epitome of the history of the world’s commerce, which is particularly inter - esting to Britishers at the present time, in view of Mr Chamberlain’s preferential trade proposals. In a chapter on “England and Her New Rivalries,” Mr Webster devotes his attention more particularly to the great advance in the commercial world made by Germany and the United States, aud the con>equent change, for the worse, in England’s industrial position. The writer, however, does, not suggest, as many statesmen do, that Great Britain is declining ; all that the facts show is that s he has lost her supremacy ; her decline is comparative, not absolute But the question which strikes one is, when will adverse conditions turn the comparative into the absolute. After referring to the exceptional conditions which led to England’s-supremacy, the removal of which conditions aided other countries to become active competitors, Mr Webster says it seems quite certain t Oat England’s one sided freetiade policy, whatever may be said about its general advantages,’ has tended to change her relative industrial position. By this policy she has allowed the products of other countries to enter her dominions practically free of duties, without securing reciprocal privileges. This policy lias been almost equivalent t > a bounty to protectionist countries, for it tended to confirm them in their policies. As a result of this, British capitalists have frequently found it mo: e profitable to invest in foreign protected industries than in unprotected home manufactures, and have thus he ped to build up great industrial rivals. Another cause for the relative change in England’s industrial position has been the relative decrease in her inventive ingenuity since the time of those revolutionary inventions that first gave her supremacy in the textile industries. During the present period, American ingenuity, German research and French dexterity have been contributing more than English inventors to the improvement ox industrial machinery and of methods. Mr Webster gives a solatium for the loss of her position as the workshop of the world when he points out, on the other hand, that England has been building up her c »pitalistic supremacy. Her capital has flowed out steadily into her colonies, and nearly every country in the world. Consequently, she has become the world’s creditor, and wields the power that accompanies capitalistic supremacy. Her capitalists own vast tracts of land and work farms in nearly every country of the world ; they also control railr-oads, manufacturing plants, and mines in many of the most strategic places on every continent. In this waj’ - England keeps her cows in Australasia, Canada, and Argentina; cultivates her wheat in Manitoba, the United States, and India ; grows her cotton in the U.S., India, and Egypt; spins it not only at Home, but even in India, and China, Egypt, and Mexico ; makes her maeh l inery in Germany and the United States. Thus, not only her many colonies, but the whole world has become a part of her domain through the power of her capital The total value of British investments abroad today is variously estimated at from ten to twenty two billion dollars, but probably an estimate the writer thinks, midway between t e two extremes would be nearly correct. Mr Webster’s conclusions have o i!v been arrived at after years of careful study, embracing the most ancient o: laws as well as the most ancient of pamphlets, and will no doubt greatly-

influence British and colonial statesmen when approaching the great topic of preferential trade for the Empire. '