TRADE AFTER THE WAR.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 168, 25 April 1916, Page 1

TRADE AFTER THE WAR.

England, like the United States, is eagerly the place of the various commerci&r nations in the world's trade, after the war. The English point of view as summed up by an article in the " London Bankers' Magazine," which takes this ground:— " German competition cannot possibly be anything like the same after the war as it was befoie. Our biggest rival is paralysed, and will long remain crippled and boycotted, as a direct outcome of her mad military ambition and the disrespect she has created. All this will be reflected in vastly increased trade opportunities for us. The war has in no way, and will not in any way, permanently diminish the world's appetite for manufactures. There is temporary suspension, or dislocation, of business in some quarters. That is all. When peace returns, it is probable that we shall experience an unprecedented demand for manufactured and engineering products. While the war lasts merchants' stocks are running down. They will need replenishing. People are economising in some directions, doing without many things while prices are abnormal. Purchasing will be fenewed all round when, after the war, prices begin to drop. "American competition will not be of the same character as German competition has been. In the past, the race for trade supremacy has been between Britain and Germany chiefly, with America a bad third. And where the Germans had not beaten us, they were rapidly overtaking us in most lines. As recently as I'JOO, Germany exported only 1,000,000 tons of iron and steel and

manufactures thereof, against our 3,500,000 tons. But in 1913 Germany exported 0,000,000 tons, against our 5,000,000 tons, the United States exporting only 'J, 000,000.

" The success of German competition was mainly due to subsidisation. It is important to keep this in mind, for the same conditions cannot prevail after the war. German goods for export were carried on the state railways at half the ordinary rates, and they were bounty-fed by the trade syndicates, steel rails, for example, enjoying a bounty of as much as oos per ton. That, and not cheap production, was the secret of German success. Where we were beaten by the Germans, it was generally by virtue .of their export subsidisation policy. In the future, Germau finances will not permit of such lavish bounty - feeding of exports."