480 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F, 



anything it receives, and does not re-export. The impoi^ts and 

 exports in the respective cases have not the same relation to 

 the general economic conditions of the countries concerned. 

 To comi^are the entrepot country with a (jountry which has only 

 direct foreign trade, so as to show the volume of imports and. 

 exports in respect of what is received for final consumption and 

 what is exported of the labour of the country, it would be neces- 

 sary to deduct from both sides of the account of the ento-epot 

 country the A'alue of the produce imported and afterwards 

 re-exported in a manipulated form. In this way, I am sure, 

 the imports and exports of the United Kingdom would be 

 largely reduced from what they appear to be, aud the United 

 Kingdom would not appear to import so much more than some 

 others for final consumption, or to export so much more than 

 some others with which to obtain purchasing power abroad. 

 Reckoning in this manner, I am not sure but that Australasia 

 would appear even moi'e at the head of exporting countries 

 than it now does, the labour per head x'euresented in its 

 exports being truly enormous. Some countries, such as Belgium 

 and Holland, again, would have their tale of imports and ex- 

 ports reduced even more than that of the United Kingdom, as 

 their business is so very much a business of transit only. In 

 any case these are points obviously requiring consideration, 

 when the imports and exports of different countries are com- 

 pared or contrasted. They ought not to be put together at all in 

 any discussion till thev are reduced to common denominators. 



Another point I would urge is the importance of the question 

 of size and general similarity in conditions in comparing the 

 volume of the foreign trade of any two countries. If the 

 United Kingdom were to be split up, and Ireland, say, were to 

 have separate customs, the foreign trade of Gi'eat Britain would 

 be enhanced by the addition to the account of the imports fi'om 

 Ireland on one side, and the exports to it on the other, which 

 would then become foreign trade, deducting, however, the 

 present imports into Ireland from foreign countries, and the 

 exports from it to foreign countries which are now included in 

 the foreign trade of the whole United Kingdom. If Holland 

 again were to be united with Germany, and Belgium with France, 

 it is doubtful whether the foreign trade of both Germany and 

 France would be increased very much, and might not even be 

 diminished, so much of the foreign trade of Germany and 

 France being nov/ with Holland and Belgium ; while the 

 aggregate foreign trade of the world would be diminished by 

 the elimination of the two countries named as separate 

 countries, and they would no longer appear as having the 

 largest amount of imports and exports per head. In the same 

 way the formation of the Australasian countries into a federation 

 with a single Customs frontierwouldgreatly diminish the volume 

 of imports and exports as now stated. According to Table B 

 appended, the imi^orts of the Australasian colonies added 

 together, for the year 1889, amounted to about £69,043,000, 

 and the exports to £62,706,000 ; but if we separate what each 

 colony imports from and exports to the rest of the world, exclud- 

 ing what it imports from and exports to its neighbours, the 



