I.—: English Trade.

I. English Trade—II. Cotton—III. Wool—IV. Profits in the Steel and Iron Trade.

All Mr. Chamberlain’s arguments are based on the Balance of Trade. In the Glasgow speech he described the growth of imports—which had risen from 63 millions in 1892 to 149 millions in 1902, an increase of 86 millions—as a national danger.

As a matter of fact, figures prove the continuous development of English trade.

and the last period, 1900-04, exceeds all the others. But, say the Protectionists, the increase in foreign trade is an increase in imports, and these twentieth-century politicians believe with Colbert that imports spell ruin.

Thus between the first and last period imports have increased 84 per cent., exports 60 per cent.

The significance of figures depends upon what they represent.

From the first group, five millions must be subtracted for tobacco: thus, while 75 per cent. of the imports are food and raw materials, 81 per cent. of the exports are manufactured goods, to which postal parcels may be added. The partisans of the Balance of Commerce evidently find that their countrymen eat too much: that is why Mr. Chamberlain is anxious to put a tax on food.

Comparing the imports of textile raw material with the exports of textile manufactures, we find:—

Thus the value of the exports of textile manufactures is £35,000,000, or 43·7 per cent. above the value of the raw materials, a figure which is far from representing the difference in value between the materials and the manufactures, since the forty-one million inhabitants of the United Kingdom keep part for their own use. Between 1886 and 1905 there is an increase of £229,000,000 in the consumption of raw cotton; but had there been no increase, had there even been a diminution in the consumption of raw cotton, that would not prove that the cotton industry was therefore on the verge of that abyss which Mr. Chamberlain describes. Since 1874 the speed of the spindles has continually augmented, and thus produces finer and finer thread, requiring less and less raw material in proportion to the length produced. In England the consumption of cotton is 33 to 34 lbs. per spindle to 65 abroad.