Trade and the Flag 21 



goods. It is said that during the crisis produced by Emperor 

 William's telegram to President Kruger, goods bearing the trade 

 mark " Made in Germany " were in many places quite unsalable. 

 Because Germany has given support to Turkey, Turkish trade 

 follows the German flag and not the British. 80 But sentiment is 

 not all-powerful as societies to encourage consumers to use home 

 products have found. Yet sentiment is often a factor in trade 

 between mother country and colony through the operation of gov- 

 ernment expenditures, for governments are expected to encourage 

 imperial trade whether it is the economical course or not. Nev- 

 ertheless governments do not always do this but sometimes con- 

 sider the taxpayer and purchase government goods in the cheapest 

 market. Yet if any favoritism is shown it is apt to be in favor 

 of imperial goods as compared with foreign. 



To summarize : we find that factors encouraging imperial trade 

 are colonial investments, emigration of citizens to colonies, knowl- 

 edge of colonial conditions, use of a common language, common 

 banking and monetary conditions, better transportation and facil- 

 ities for communication, official attitude and sentiment. Even 

 leaving out of account the movement of goods which is due solely 

 to tariff regulations, there is warrant then for saying that a cer- 

 tain part of the trade between the mother country and the colony 

 is due to their political relation. How much we can only conjec- 

 ture. That the popular view exaggerates the amount of such 

 trade must be admitted. 



The conclusions drawn from the study of trade returns are 

 that the commerce of the newer colonies especially is growing 

 faster than that of the mother countries ; that a large proportion 

 of the trade of the colonies is with their respective mother coun- 

 tries ; that viewed from the standpoint of the mother country 

 colonial trade is insignificant as compared with foreign trade ; 

 and that the proportion of the trade of the mother country which 

 is derived from her colonies is, as a rule, not an increasing one. 



80 Cf. Miller, Travels and Politics in the Near East, 496. 



197 



