anv marked improvement since then. Business generally has been 

 exceedingly slack and dragging, with comparatively small transactions, 

 and especially as regards the soap industry, very little news of an optimistic 

 character can be reported. On the contrary, in this branch of busi- 

 ness competition has become even more keen, with the result that 

 the few large transactions which were carried into effect had to be 

 closed at prices which, in the case of first-quality goods, can hardly 

 pay any of the parties concerned. England continues to suffer perhaps 

 in a larger measure than any industrial country on the Continent from 

 the after-effects of the American crisis, and this fact, taken together 

 with the far-reaching radical, nay, almost socialistic legislation of the 

 last few years, which can hardly be justified financially, no doubt 

 paralyses all trade and traffic, with the result that a healthy develop- 

 ment of business enterprise appears to be downright unattainable. 



A comparison of British oversea- trade in the year 1908 with the 

 foreign trade of the competing Nations (among which, we may remark 

 in parenthesis, Germany appears to have lost the least ground) may 

 here be of interest. The decline in exports was as follows *•) : — 

 From the United Kingdom . . 11,4% 

 „ United States . . . 8,7% 

 From France . . . -> •■;■:.. . 5,8 % 



h Belgium . . . . . 4,3 °/ v ; 



„ Germany . . . , . 1,4 °/ 



Australia continues to occupy the principal position of interest 

 among the British Colonies. According to the Report of the Hamburg 

 Chamber of Commerce, the decline in the price of wool has caused 

 a serious want of available capital in that country, and even at the 

 present time the scarcity of money has not been quite overcome. 

 German exports to Australia have, moreover, been injuriously affected 

 by the preferential duties in favour of the Mother Country established 

 under the Australian Customs Tariff, which was provisionally applied 

 last year, and which has since come into action. The sale of German 

 goods is further unfavourably affected by the absence of good- 

 will (we quote from the above-mentioned Report) which is often 

 shown in Australia towards German trade and German merchandise. 

 So far as our own experience goes, we are unable to give an 

 unqualified endorsement to this view, for even under the new Customs 

 Tariff the sale of our manufactures so far has continued to develop 

 in an entirely satisfactory manner. 



The final settlement of the Morocco question, which has so fre- 

 quently threatened to destroy our friendly relations with France, has 

 been received everywhere with lively satisfaction. Particularly in our 



x ) Compare Report November 1908, 5. 



