The Colony’s Foreign Trade. 271 
value of the trade with each group of countries is given herewith for 
the first and last years of the decade under review : 
Import Trade Export Trade 
per cent. per cent. 
——————— > —— SS 
CouNTRIES. 1902-03 1911-12 1902-03 1911-12 
United Kingdom... 50.45 48.49 41.84 32.83 
British Colonies... 9.19 12.87 7.79 43.06 
Foreign Countries ... 35.33 33.65 46.40 19.99 
Transit Trade sao OES 4.99 3.97 4.10 
The falling-oft in the import trade with the United Kingdom is more 
apparent than Faplk During the last three years the system of credit- 
ing the countries with the “value of the trade done was changed, and the 
statistics have been kept according to the country of origin instead of 
the country of shipment. So it comes to pass that the United Kingdom 
does not get as much credit as she used and ought to get, while there is 
an apparent improvement in the trade with the British Colonies. A 
further change isannounced : from the current year it is the country of 
consignment that will be credited with the trade. The export trade with 
the Colonies has more than quintupled, due of course to Canada’s sugar 
transactions. Ten years ago, when a surtax was placed by Canada on 
German sugar entering her ports, the Dominion took only 13,777 tons 
from British Guiana out of a total export of 120,127 tons. Last year 
her indents amounted to 63,577 tons out of exports totalling 99,368 tons, 
the takings of the United States being 21,523 tons against her indents of 
89,896 tons at the beginning of the decade. Exports to the United 
Kingdom have meanwhile dropped from 16,527 tons to 14,454 tons. A 
further falline-off may be expected in view of the Reciprocity Treaty 
between the West Indies and Canada and the denunciation of the 
Brussels Sugar Convention by the United Kingdom. 
A distinguishing characteristic of the colony's trade is that its 
exports exceed its imports in value. So faras my researches go, it is 
only on three occasions since Emancipation that it has been the other 
way about. One of these occurred in the decade under review, as_ will 
be seen from the subjoined statement of the value of imports and exports 
during the period :— 
YEAR Imports. Exports. 
1902-3 ... 6,931,605 $ 8,782,796 
1903—4 aaa 7,948,913 8,688,181 
1904-5 ae 7,380,437 9,557,029 
1905-6 a 7,978,587 9,573,093 
1906-7 a 8,115,862 8,846,917 
1907-8 an 8,473,720 8,215,408 
1908-9 ae 8,826,946 10,100,047 
1909-10 Ee 8,517,396 Bawea 
1910-11 nee 8,398,879 8,736,951 
1911-12 ... 8,575,556 10 ,429,275 
