Page 418 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

410 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDrnS
re-exports so-called, in order to show h~w much we
import for home consumption. The sum at whith this
additional re-export is here estimated is £7°,000,000,
a point to be afterwards referred to, but much or little
the sum beyond all qUestit should be taken into
account.
Estimating, then, at £400, ;:>0,000 the amount which
we import from abroad for ho~e consumption, we have
next to inquire as to its proportion to the total income
of the people. Is it a large sum in proportion to our
total income or not?
As far ,as can be judged it is by no means an exces-
sive or unusuaL amount, looking at the experience of
other countries. I t is about one-fourth to one-fifth of
the total income of the country, which cannot be less
than £1,75°,000,000, and is almost certainly more.!
But cases where communities export a fifth, a fourth,
or even a third of their income in order to maintain
their economic independence are not uncommon. It
would probably be found that almost all newly-settled
countries have to export some such proportion. Canada,
Australia, India, Egypt, for instance, all export so
much as to show that the proportion to their income
must be very large. Among the great states such as
Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, the pro-
portion of the United Kingdom appears the highest,
which is no doubt owing specially, I should say, to the
necessity of importing food articles from which the
United States at least is exempt, and where Germany
and France, though partially under the same necessity,
are not so yet in the same degree that we are, though
they are both, but especially Germany, tending that
way. In any case, whatever the proportion is, and
however it compares with other countries, our resources
for obtaining the £398,000,000 annually without strain
seem more than sufficient, and this is the next point for
examination. ~
fP
1 Statement by Mr. Bowley at Southport meeting of the British
Association for Advancement of Science, 1903.