Two-thirds of Germany's import and export trade is enumerated under separate headings in the following tables. The considerations applying to the enumerated portions may be assumed to apply more or less to the remaining one-third, which is composed of commodities of minor importance individually.
| German Exports, 1913 | Amount: Million Dollars | Percentage of Total Exports |
| Iron goods (including tin plates, etc.) | 330.65 | 13.2 |
| Machinery and parts (including motor-cars) | 187.75 | 7.5 |
| Coal, coke, and briquettes | 176.70 | 7.0 |
| Woolen goods (including raw and combed wool and clothing) | 147.00 | 5.9 |
| Cotton goods (including raw cotton, yarn, and thread) | 140.75 | 5.6 |
| 982.85 | 39.2 | |
| Cereals, etc. (including rye, oats, wheat, hops) | 105.90 | 4.1 |
| Leather and leather goods | 77.35 | 3.0 |
| Sugar | 66.00 | 2.6 |
| Paper, etc. | 65.50 | 2.6 |
| Furs | 58.75 | 2.2 |
| Electrical goods (installations, ma- chinery, lamps, cables) | 54.40 | 2.2 |
| Silk goods | 50.50 | 2.0 |
| Dyes | 48.80 | 1.9 |
| Copper goods | 32.50 | 1.3 |
| Toys | 25.75 | 1.0 |
| Rubber and rubber goods | 21.35 | 0.9 |
| Books, maps, and music | 18.55 | 0.8 |
| Potash | 15.90 | 0.6 |
| Glass | 15.70 | 0.6 |
| Potassium chloride | 14.55 | 0.6 |
| Pianos, organs, and parts | 13.85 | 0.6 |
| Raw zinc | 13.70 | 0.5 |
| Porcelain | 12.65 | 0.5 |
| 711.70 | 67.2 | |
| Other goods, unenumerated | 829.69 | 32.8 |
| Total | 2,524.15 | 100.0 |
| German Imports, 1913 | Amount: Million Dollars | Percentage of Total Exports |
| I. Raw materials:— | ||
| Cotton | 151.75 | 5.6 |
| Hides and skins | 124.30 | 4.6 |
| Wool | 118.35 | 4.4 |
| Copper | 83.75 | 3.1 |
| Coal | 68.30 | 2.5 |
| Timber | 58.00 | 2.2 |
| Iron ore | 56.75 | 2.1 |
| Furs | 46.75 | 1.7 |
| Flax and flaxseed | 46.65 | 1.7 |
| Saltpetre | 42.75 | 1.6 |
| Silk | 39.50 | 1.5 |
| Rubber | 36.50 | 1.4 |
| Jute | 23.50 | 0.9 |
| Petroleum | 17.45 | 0.7 |
| Tin | 14.55 | 0.5 |
| Phosphorus chalk | 11.60 | 0.4 |
| Lubricating oil | 11.45 | 0.4 |
| 951.90 | 35.3 | |
| II. Food, tobacco, etc.:— | ||
| Cereals, etc. (wheat, barley, bran, rice, maize, oats, rye, clover) | 327.55 | 12.2 |
| Oil seeds and cake, etc. (in- cluding palm kernels, copra, cocoa beans) | 102.65 | 3.8 |
| Cattle, lamb fat, bladders | 73.10 | 2.8 |
| Coffee | 54.75 | 2.0 |
| Eggs | 48.50 | 1.8 |
| Tobacco | 33.50 | 1.2 |
| Butter | 29.65 | 1.1 |
| Horses | 29.05 | 1.1 |
| Fruit | 18.25 | 0.7 |
| Fish | 14.95 | 0.6 |
| Poultry | 14.00 | 0.6 |
| Wine | 13.35 | 0.5 |
| 759.30 | 28.3 | |
| III. Manufactures:— | ||
| Cotton yarn and thread and cotton goods | 47.05 | 1.8 |
| Woolen yarn and woolen goods | 37.85 | 1.4 |
| Machinery | 20.10 | 0.7 |
| 105.00 | 3.9 | |
| IV. Unenumerated | 876.40 | 32.5 |
| Total | 2,692.60 | 100.0 |
These tables show that the most important exports consisted of:—
- Iron Goods, including tin plates (13.2 per cent),
- Machinery, etc. (7.5 per cent),
- Coal, coke, and briquettes (7 per cent),
- Woolen goods, including raw and combed wool (5.9 per cent), and
- Cotton goods, including cotton yarn and thread and raw cotton (5.6 per cent),
these five classes between them accounting for 39.2 per cent. of the total exports. It will be observed that all these goods are of a kind in which before the war competition between Germany and the United Kingdom was very severe. If, therefore, the volume of such exports to overseas or European destinations is very largely increased the effect upon British export trade must be correspondingly serious. As regards two of the categories, namely, cotton and woolen goods, the increase of an export trade is dependent upon an increase of the import of the raw material, since Germany produces no cotton and practically no wool. These trades are therefore incapable of expansion unless Germany is given facilities for securing these raw materials (which can only be at the expense of the Allies) in excess of the pre-war standard of consumption, and even then the effective increase is not the gross value of the exports, but only the difference between the value of the manufactured exports and of the imported raw material. As regards the other three categories, namely, machinery, iron goods, and coal, Germany's capacity to increase her exports will have been taken from her by the cessions of territory in Poland, Upper Silesia, and Alsace-Lorraine. As has been pointed out already, these districts accounted for nearly one-third of Germany's production of coal. But they also supplied no less than three-quarters of her iron-ore production, 38 per cent of her blast furnaces, and 9.5 per cent of her iron and steel foundries. Unless, therefore, Alsace-Lorraine and Upper Silesia send their iron ore to Germany proper, to be worked up, which will involve an increase in the imports for which she will have to find payment, so far from any increase in export trade being possible, a decrease is inevitable.[127]
Next on the list come cereals, leather goods, sugar, paper, furs, electrical goods, silk goods, and dyes. Cereals are not a net export and are far more than balanced by imports of the same commodities. As regards sugar, nearly 90 per cent of Germany's pre-war exports came to the United Kingdom.[128] An increase in this trade might be stimulated by a grant of a preference in this country to German sugar or by an arrangement by which sugar was taken in part payment for the indemnity on the same lines as has been proposed for coal, dyes, etc. Paper exports also might be capable of some increase. Leather goods, furs, and silks depend upon corresponding imports on the other side of the account. Silk goods are largely in competition with the trade of France and Italy. The remaining items are individually very small. I have heard it suggested that the indemnity might be paid to a great extent in potash and the like. But potash before the war represented 0.6 per cent of Germany's export trade, and about $15,000,000 in aggregate value. Besides, France, having secured a potash field in the territory which has been restored to her, will not welcome a great stimulation of the German exports of this material.
An examination of the import list shows that 63.6 per cent are raw materials and food. The chief items of the former class, namely, cotton, wool, copper, hides, iron-ore, furs, silk, rubber, and tin, could not be much reduced without reacting on the export trade, and might have to be increased if the export trade was to be increased. Imports of food, namely, wheat, barley, coffee, eggs, rice, maize, and the like, present a different problem. It is unlikely that, apart from certain comforts, the consumption of food by the German laboring classes before the war was in excess of what was required for maximum efficiency; indeed, it probably fell short of that amount. Any substantial decrease in the imports of food would therefore react on the efficiency of the industrial population, and consequently on the volume of surplus exports which they could be forced to produce. It is hardly possible to insist on a greatly increased productivity of German industry if the workmen are to be underfed. But this may not be equally true of barley, coffee, eggs, and tobacco. If it were possible to enforce a régime in which for the future no German drank beer or coffee, or smoked any tobacco, a substantial saving could be effected. Otherwise there seems little room for any significant reduction.
The following analysis of German exports and imports, according to destination and origin, is also relevant. From this it appears that of Germany's exports in 1913, 18 per cent went to the British Empire, 17 per cent to France, Italy, and Belgium, 10 per cent to Russia and Roumania, and 7 per cent to the United States; that is to say, more than half of the exports found their market in the countries of the Entente nations. Of the balance, 12 per cent went to Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria, and 35 per cent elsewhere. Unless, therefore, the present Allies are prepared to encourage the importation of German products, a substantial increase in total volume can only be effected by the wholesale swamping of neutral markets.
| German Trade (1913) According to Destination and Origin | |||||||||
| Destination of Germany's Exports | Origin of Germany's Imports | ||||||||
| Million Dollars | Per cent | Million Dollars | Per cent | ||||||
| Great Britain | 359.65 | 14.2 | 219.00 | 8.1 | |||||
| India | 37.65 | 1.5 | 135.20 | 5.0 | |||||
| Egypt | 10.85 | 0.4 | 29.60 | 1.1 | |||||
| Canada | 15.10 | 0.6 | 16.00 | 0.6 | |||||
| Australia | 22.10 | 0.9 | 74.00 | 2.8 | |||||
| South Africa | 11.70 | 0.5 | 17.40 | 0.6 | |||||
| Total: British Empire | 456.95 | 18.1 | 491.20 | 18.2 | |||||
| France | 197.45 | 7.8 | 146.65 | 5.4 | |||||
| Belgium | 137.75 | 5.5 | 86.15 | 3.2 | |||||
| Italy | 98.35 | 3.9 | 79.40 | 3.0 | |||||
| U. S. A. | 178.30 | 7.1 | 427.80 | 15.9 | |||||
| Russia | 220.00 | 8.7 | 356.15 | 13.2 | |||||
| Roumania | 35.00 | 1.4 | 19.95 | 0.7 | |||||
| Austria-Hungary | 276.20 | 10.9 | 206.80 | 7.7 | |||||
| Turkey | 24.60 | 1.0 | 18.40 | 0.7 | |||||
| Bulgaria | 7.55 | 0.3 | 2.00 | ... | |||||
| Other countries | 800.20 | 35.3 | 858.70 | 32.0 | |||||
| 2,522.35 | 100.0 | 2,692.60 | 100.0 | ||||||