432 APPENDIX. 



narrow looms was 15 looms to each weaver. (T. W. 

 Uttley, I.e., pp. 4, 50, etc.) 



As for the American competition in the Chinese 

 markets, Mr. Helm gives imposing figures. 



J. MR. GIFFEN'S AND MR. FLUX'S FIGURES 

 CONCERNING THE POSITION OF THE 

 UNITED KINGDOM IN INTERNATIONAL 

 TRADE. 



A few remarks concerning these figures may be of 

 some avail. 



When a sudden fall in the British and Irish exports 

 took place in the years 1882-1886, and the alarmists 

 took advantage of the bad times to raise the never- 

 forgotten war-cry of protection, especially insisting on 

 the damages made to British trade by " German 

 competition," Mr. Giffen analysed the figures of inter- 

 national trade in his " Finance Essays," and in a 

 report read in 1888 before the Board of Trade Com- 

 mission. Subsequently, Mr. A. W. Flux analysed 

 again the same figures, extending them to a later 

 period. He confirmed Mr. Gifien's conclusions and en- 

 deavoured to prove that the famous " German com- 

 petition " is a fallacy. 



Mr. Giffen's conclusions, quoted by Mr. A. W. Flux 

 (" The Commercial Supremacy of Great Britain," in 

 Economical Journal, 1894, iv., p. 457), were as follows : 



" On the whole, the figures are not such as to in- 

 dicate any great and overwhelming advance in German 

 exports, in comparison with those of the United 

 Kingdom. There is greater progress in certain direc- 

 tions, but, taken altogether, no great disproportionate 

 advance, and in many important markets for the 

 United Kingdom Germany hardly appears at all." 



