440 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



firm, however, is not devoid of advantages. It has a certain connection, a 

 goodwill, and with able management these will enable it to compete with the 

 newcomer, whilst the managers will have time to consider how to put the manu- 

 facturing side of their business on a par viith that of the rival firm. The 

 jjosition in a simfile instance like this is fairly easy to understand. In the 

 case of a nation, with its many and varied interests, it tal^es a very much 

 longer time for the situation to develop. The agitation for Tariff Reform and 

 Colonial Preferences is a proof that several years before the war broke out some 

 Englishmen were awake to the fact that a new condition had come into existence, 

 and that, if we were to preserve our advantageous position, we must take careful 

 stock of newly-arisen factors in world-trade. For Germany was not the only 

 one, nor perhaps the most serious, of these factors. The United States of 

 America, from the time of the Civil War, had bent her energies to the work 

 of internal development. Having concentrated on this for nearly forty years, 

 she began to expand a world-policy both political and commercial. Japan, too, 

 emerged with unexpected suddenness into the arena. Thus, as the nineteenth cen- 

 tury drew to a close, the economic interests of England required careful and 

 earnest attention. The fiscal controversy undoubtedly had the great and important 

 effect of "waking English traders out of the lotus-eating condition into which 

 they were in danger of sinking. All our principal and many of our less 

 important industries were carefully reviewed, with results that can be realised 

 by a study of the annual statistics published by the Board of Trade. There 

 was, however, a very subtle policy being pursued, which recjuired very minute 

 knowledge and wide experience to grasp. It was our proud boast that we left 

 trade free and untrammelled, that we believed in the health-giving effects of 

 open competition. It needed the stern lesson of the war to make known how 

 this generous policy could be utilised to our detriment by a rival commercial 

 nation. The facts as to the exploiting of the mineral resources of the Empire, 

 as to how the dye and colour industry and various by-product industries have 

 been developed so that certain vital trades almost passed under foreign control, 

 came to light only just in time. 



It became plain, as these facts leaked out, that we needed a better system 

 of industrial and commercial intelligence. There was also a lack of unity of 

 working among our principal industries incompatible with the growing inter- 

 dependence which has been a marked feature of modern economic life. 



Hitherto, apparently, it hae been no one's business to survey comprehensively 

 the resources whence our raw materials are drawn. Even those resources within 

 the Empire have been nervelessly left to be exploited b}- the first comer, and 

 the mask of an English name has enabled foreign capital and energy to divert 

 some of our valuable minerals to foreign countries, whence we have been com- 

 pelled to purchase them at unnaturally enhanced prices. Sufficient of the facts 

 have been made public to warrant the demand for reconstruction and improved 

 organisation of those departments responsible for the national trade. 



It would be most unwise as well as ungenerous to attempt to blame our Board 

 of Trade. That department has, on the whole, worked hard and well for British 

 interests. But it is both wise and necessary to criticise the policy that has 

 overweighted this one Government department. And although there should 

 be very careful consideration before either recommending or making a drastic 

 change, attention ought to be given to the frequently expressed opinions of 

 both Chambers of Commerce and individual traders in favour of the creation 

 of a Ministry of Commerce. To this Ministry there might be transferred 

 some of the functions of the Board of Trade, whilst at the same time the new 

 Ministry might be responsible for maintaining that general survey over trade 

 and commerce without which any organisation we may attempt would be in- 

 complete. 



If this view be accepted, it is not fair to charge our industrial interest with 

 lack of organisation. An examination of any one of our industries — ship- 

 building, shipping, the manufacture of various goods for export — shows that 

 each has been well, and in many cases exceptionally well, organised ; but the 

 organisation requires to be completed by some machinery with responsible 

 officials to co-ordinate the organisation of the several interests. Even in this 

 direction something has been attempted. The Associated Chambers of Com- 



