COMPARISONS SAID TO BE “ODIOUS.”
Turning to another paragraph headed “Odious Comparisons,” we find—
“Under the general heading of iron, wrought and unwrought, the returns of our German exports exhibit a fall from 374,234 tons in 1890 to 295,510 tons in 1895.... Of unenumerated iron manufactures Germany supplied us with 219,841 cwt. in 1890 and with 311,904 cwt. in 1895.”
Had Mr. Williams taken the trouble to convert the German figures from cwts. into tons he might have found this comparison somewhat less “odious.” If we send Germany 295 thousand tons against 15 thousand tons she sends us, our iron manufacturers have not much to grumble at. But, as a matter of fact, no reliance can be placed upon these particular figures, because, as was pointed out in a previous chapter, much of the stuff that we get from Germany is credited in our Blue Books to Holland and Belgium, and these countries in the same way are debited with a large amount of British stuff that ultimately finds its way to Germany. Exactly the same causes of error vitiate the figures published in the German Green Books, and it may safely be asserted that there is no means of ascertaining with even approximate accuracy how much British iron and steel goes to Germany and how much German steel and iron comes to Great Britain. What can be ascertained is the total export of German iron from Germany to all parts of the world, and the total export of British iron from the United Kingdom to all parts of the world. This comparison, which is one of the best means of testing the relative progress of Great Britain and Germany, is worked out in the following table:—
Iron and Steel Goods.
In Millions of Tons, Metrical and British.
[A Metrical Ton = 2,204 lb.; a British Ton = 2,240 lb.]
| 1884 | 1885 | 1886 | 1887 | 1888 | 1889 | 1890 | 1891 | 1892 | 1893 | 1894 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Exports from Germany (Metrical Measure) | ·8 | ·7 | ·8 | ·8 | ·7 | ·7 | ·6 | ·8 | ·8 | ·8 | ·9 |
| Total Exports from Belgium (Metrical Measure) | ·4 | ·3 | ·3 | ·4 | ·4 | ·5 | ·4 | ·4 | ·4 | ·4 | ·4 |
| Total Exports from United Kingdom (British Meas.) | 3·5 | 3·1 | 3·4 | 4·1 | 4·0 | 4·2 | 4·0 | 3·2 | 2·7 | 2·9 | 2·6 |
The above figures undoubtedly show a distinct decline in British exports of iron and steel, but they also show that that decline is not due to the increased invasion of our own or of neutral markets either by Germany or by Belgium. It is due to a decline which subsequent events have shown to be temporary in the world’s demand for iron and steel goods. Even were this decline permanent, it would not be the fault of our manufacturers, nor—except as a device for reducing their personal expenditure—is there any reason why these gentlemen should sit in sackcloth and ashes.