Page 73 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

ON INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL COMPARISONS 67
relative import and export statistics in which these
essential differences are lost sight of, and imports and
exports are treated as if in all cases they were the same.
The next point I would urge is that the imports and
exports of what I would call an entrejJtJt country are
not of the same species as the imports and exports of
a country which has a direct import and export trade
only: that is, which exports its own home produce on
the 0I\e side, and imports articles for final consumption
on t~e other side. A country which largely receives
either raw produce or produce in different degrees of
advancement towards the form in which it is finally
consumed, and then. after manipulating that produce
to a greater or less extent, re-exports it, has obviously
a very different kind of foreign trade from a country
which manipulates nothing or hardly anything it re-
ceives, and does not re-export. The imports and exports
in the respective cases have not the same relation to
the general economic conditions of the countries con-
cerned. To compare the entreptJt country with a country
which has only direct foreign trade, so as to show the
volume of imports and exports in respect of what is
received for final consumption and what is exported of
the labour of the country, it would be necessary to
deduct from both sides of the account of the entrtjJ'dt
country the value of the produce imported and after-
wards re-exported in a manipulated form. In this way,
I am sure, the imports and exports of the United King-
dom would be largely reduced from what they appear
to be, and the United Kingdom would not appear to
import so much more than some others for final con-
sumption, or to export so much more than some others
with which to obtain purchasing power abroad. Reckon-
ing in this manner, I am not sure but that Australasia
would appear even more at the head of exporting
countries than it now does, the labour per head repre-
sented in its exports being truly enormous. Some
countries, such as Belgium and Holland. again, would
have th~r tale of imports and exports reduced even