BRITISH TRADE.
GOOD DEAL OF GROUND TO BE RECOVERED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, March 11. A cablegram from London mentions that British imports for the mouth of February allowed an increase of £8,044,321 as compared with the figures for February, 1917. The exports for the month increased by £7,813,200 and the re-exports by £2,370,255. These figures indicate that British _trado is reviving with the terKination of hostilities, but official statistics show that they leave the British manufacturer and merchant with a great deal of ground still to be recovered. The war inflicted enormous damage on British trade, owing first to the concentration of industrial effort on the production of munitions and then to the shortage of shipping. The Imperial Board of Trade is working hard now to assist the manufacturers to regain their old position.
The declared values of British imports and exports do not reveal fully the reduction of trade, since the facts are concealed to some extent by increased prices, the actual trend is shown clearly in the following table of British exports. The figures in the first column show the declared value of the goods-exported in each year and the figures in the second column show the estimated-value on the basis of the prices of 1913, the last year of normal trade: Declared Value on Year. value. 1913 basis. £ ■£ 1913 525,200,000 525,200,000 1914 430,700,000 432,500,000 1915 .... 385,900,000 353,500,000 1916 500,300,000 381,700,000 1917 .... 527,100,000 347,800,000 An even more significant table allows the weight of British exports over the same period of years. These figures have been issued by the Imperial Board of Trade: — Coal, coke. Other articles tons. tons. 1913 ..... 70.700,000' 15,400,000 1914 ... 01,800,000 12,500,000 1915 45,800,000 9,400,000 1916 41,200,000 9,500,000 1917 37,800,000 6,900,000 The total weight of British exports declined from 92,100,000 tons in 1913 to 44,700,000 tons in 1917.
It is important to remember, in considering these figures, that the value of British exports to France, Italy and Russia in 1917 was more than three times the value recorded in 19)3, the increase being • due to the export of munitions of war to the Allied countries. - The manufacturing resources of the United Kingdom and the carrying capacity of the British mercantile marine were placed unreservedly at the disposal of France, Italy and the other Allied Powers. This made for the effective prosecution of the war, but it produced a great diminution in Britain's trade with the States of the Empire and neutral countries The Imperial Board of Trade estimates that the United Kingdom's export trade with British Dominions and neutral countries was diminished by forty per cent, during the war.
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Taranaki Daily News, 15 March 1919, Page 7
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435BRITISH TRADE. Taranaki Daily News, 15 March 1919, Page 7
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