PRICES FALLING.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 October 1920, Page 6

PRICES FALLING.

_ ENGLISH PHENOMENON. Prices in England are beginning to ! fall. The process is no steep slope ' movement, but a gradual process, and is j general. | This view was expressed recently in j Sydney by Mr. C. P. Amies, buyer for ! the Perth branch of the Australian firm of Foy and Gibson, who had just returned after a. ten months' business trip of England, France, Belgium, Holland, China, Japan, and America. During that period he saw much of interest apart from the commercial vicissitudes due to the war. England, lie said, was the most prosperous country, but although better positioned than France and others in the commercial sense, she was not well oil' from the living point of view. It was cheaper in many ways in France, and so rapid was the process of rehabilitation proceeding among tlio French that production was now 00 per cent of normal. But France was suffering on account of the exchange, and the harmful eileot of this was reflected in many ways In, for instance, its trade relations with Australia. Goods now imported into Australia from France were assessed on the pre-war value of the franc; no allowance has been made for the depreciation and the exchange anomaly, and as a result French traders were unable to work the potentialities of the Australian market. Bitterness in the mind of the French merchant and financier was the resultant, and Mr. Amies cited his personal experience. Much as he desired to purchase in I 1 ranee he was unable to do so on account of the position referred to. In the course of .his travels in Belgium, France, and England, Mr. Amies found the German agent much in evidence. Trade is proceeding between Germany and the countries named, and also America, Six months ago he found • a. determination among a large section of English people not to trade with the old enemy, but now the realisation that unless trade facilities are afforded her Germany will not be able to reconstruct her economic fabric, and thus pay her indemnity, has brought about a change in opinion, and now trade is proceeding quietly. German agents as soon as they land in England are made aware of the disfavor in which they are held.