GERMAN TRADE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 20 August 1907, Page 4

GERMAN TRADE.

A REMARKABLE DECLINE. The remarkable period of prosperity which all German industries have been enjoying since J1M.12 is (says the Berlin correspondent of the Standard, on .June SI) now approaching its termination, and Germany will soon bo face to face with a period of industrial depression, if not of actual crisis. This, according to liuaucial and commercial experts, is the unmistakeablc meaning of the official report issued by the Dusseldorf Iron and Steel Exchange, which announces, in guarded, but nevertheless significant, language, a serious diminution in large orders. The admission is all the more remarkable because the oltieial reports Usucd from this source have long denied, with great emphasis, what was clear to mose expert observers, namely, that the period of unexampled prosperity was rapidly approaching a conclusion, so that the ominous importance of this pessimistic report cannot be doubted. The last report issued by the Association of German Steel Manufacturers gave a tolerably clear indication, of the trend of industrial affairs, although the warning conveyed between the lines was veiled in various optimistic predictions, which deceived no one acquainted with the actual state of things in the iron and steel trade.

Although the tirst signs of the approaching depression have made themselves apparent in the iron aud steel trade, the same unuiistakeable tcmlenisy towards a dinmnilion of prosperity is. noticeable in practically all the other German industries, which in the near future wiD lie affected by the same wave of bad fortune. This termination of the unparalleled period of industrial success" wiu'ch (lermany lias now been enjoying for several years has long been foreseen on the Herman Bourses, so that capitalists whose money was invested in industrial undertakings have had time to make adequate preparations for the approaching depression. The industrial expert of the National Zeitung writes:—

"The period of great prosperity 5s at an end. The laconic bulletin of tho Ihisseldor? Iron and Steel Exchange makes the fact clear licyond. all doubt, and gives the stamp of official confirmation to predictions of the approaching decline in the industrial prosperity ol • iennivny. The Dusseldorf Iron aud Steel Exchange was the very last place from which we should have expected this candid confession of decline, because the report- hitherto issued from this source : invariably emphasised the permanent .character of the wave of industrial prosperity and the absolute lixily of the iron market, but now all concealment is at sili end. It is now admitted, even in this quarter, that the future is uncertain, and that our period of great prosperity, which began Jour and a-liah years ago, just two years after the last crisis, comes to an end in 11)07,''