THE UNCONQUERABLE "£".

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1919, Page 12

THE UNCONQUERABLE "£".

A CITY VIEW. . LONDON STILL THE COMMERCIAL CAPITAL OF THE WOULD. EVEN THE SLUMP MAY DO GOOD. "We in Great Britain have very little to fear from American competition,*' says Mr. Mackay Edgar, head of the great trading firm of Spereling and Co. (London), and a frequent visitor io the United States. "Whoever we ; . be—bankers, financiers, manufacturer-, merchants, shipowners, or ship builders —we in Great Britain can more than hold our own. The winning cards are in our hands, and it is simply a question cf palying them rightly. "Don't think that I am crabbing America. That would be absurd in view of her size, wealth, resources, and the industrial character and aptitudes of her people. Her position is a very strong one. But so also is ours. AMERICA'S TROUBLES.

"We see and know our own weaknesses and difficulties, and we do not see hers. But America has some pretty considerable troubles ahead of her and some very heavy handicaps to overcome. In my opinion we stand a better chance of getting through the rough waters than she does. "This question of the American exchange. It looks a very bad thing for us when the pound is only worth about 17s in New York. So in a way it is. But it is very much worse for the Americans It means that we cannot afford to purchase in the United States, that we will buy anywhere except there and that we will only take such American goods and products as we are physically unable to yet from some other country where the exchange is less adverse. The fall in the value of the pound as measured in dollars is the biggest obstacle to American exports that anyone could desire. "America just now wants to export all she can. She is loaded up with goods and products. .She has paid extravagant and utterly uneconomic wages to produce them, and she has done so on the expectation that Europe would have to purchase them at any figure. But the European demand is falling off—largely because of the chaotic state of the exchanges. "America must either sell at a loss or cut down production. In either case there is bound to be a drop in wages. And when wages begin to drop, then look out for squalls. LONDON'S STRONG POSITION. "We tali* a lot over here'about the demands of labor. We grumble at the high cost of living. Hut our difficulties so ■far as labor and the cost of living are concerned are nothing to America's. Everything there-production, prices and wages—has reached such a sky-high level that the drop when it comes—and it will come—will be nothing less than a crash. "1 am confident that it will' be a very long while before the supremacy of London is shaken. "America has the money, but she has little else. She has not the experience or the facilities or the geographical advantages that we have for conducting the business of international finance.

''For generations the commerce of the world has got itself transacted through London; the channels have been cat. very deep, and they will not be easily changed. "London to-day is as predominantly the centre and clearing house of international trade and finance as she ever was. "I have large shipbuilding interests in Great Britain, and I say quite simply that I do not. fear American competition. Why not? "In the first place because their yards cannot turn oui. and will not be able to for a long while to come, the special ships for the purpose of special trades which are the backbone of the British mercantile marine. "Secondly, because their costs of construction are very far ahead of ours. "Thirdly, because their expenses of operating a ship are also, owing to legislation, at least 30 per cent., heavier than ours. Fourthly, because they have not even the beginning of that wonderful network and organisation of shipping agencies which our own people have built up round the world. "Fifthly, because a mercantile marine, which is a necessity to us, is a luxury to them. "Sixthly, because the instinct for the sea has been very greatly impaled, and because ihe ordinary American can always get a better paid and more congenial job on laud, NOT LIMITLESS RESOURCES. "But I have another and strong reason for not being alarmed bv the prospect that lies before Great Britain. The predominance which America enjoys by reason of her command of vast natural resources is a rapidly wasting asset Excessive and improvident exploitation the growth of the country and the high consuming power of the people are using up her supplies of the basic metals anil minerals. "Some day, and before very Ion" America will have to come to us for the oil, copper, and perhaps the iron ore she needs just as she has to come to us for tlio wool."