parative exports of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and the United States during the last twenty-five years. The figures are arranged in accordance with the wishes expressed by Free Traders at the opening of the fiscal controversy. No single year is taken as a point of departure. To avoid all disputes as to the significance of 1872 and the exceptional character, as it is contended, of the inflation and reaction following the Franco-German War, the seventies are altogether excluded. No attempt is made—for the present—to go below the surface of the totals, to distinguish coal from manufacture, or to examine the morphology of the trade. New ships are included, and the figures are made up in quinquennial averages. Every concession being made that Free Trade statisticians can demand, the result appears as follows:[1]
| Average, 1880-84. |
Average, 1885-89. |
Average, 1890-94. |
Average, 1896-99. |
Average, 1900-04. |
Increase, Per Cent. | |
| Mill. £. | Mill. £. | Mill. £. | Mill. £. | Mill. £. | ||
| England | 234⋅3 | 226⋅2 | 234⋅4 | 239⋅6 | 239⋅2 | 23 |
| Germany | 155⋅4 | 153⋅5 | 155⋅1 | 184⋅4 | 239⋅6 | 54 |
| France | 138⋅3 | 132⋅3 | 136⋅8 | 144⋅3 | 168⋅8 | 22 |
| United States | 165⋅4 | 146⋅2 | 184⋅7 | 212⋅6 | 292⋅8 | 76 |
We shall have to make further reference to this table; but it is at least clear, when the figures are arranged for
- ↑ Note upon the Trade Returns for 1905.—The latest figures would make no material change in these calculations. For the nine months ending September 30, 1905, British exports were no less than £21,000,000 higher than in the previous year. (1) This amount averaged makes little difference to the percentage; (2) the great bulk of the increase this year has been with the neutral markets, especially China and Japan, and affects no argument as to the state of our relations with the chief protected countries.'
