Dec. 21.
Tr is difficult in these days to take up any financial or commercial publication without finding the greatest prominence given to the difficulties attending international trade. These have never been so great as they are to-day, and although we are told that with the lapse of a few months things will adjust themselves, we are unable to stifle the apprehension that so far from being widespread as one would wish, that adjustment will only be partial, and perhaps no more than' will enable industry in the more prosperous regions to eke out an existence. So much can be gleaned from recent writings on the subject and from the series of resolutions passed by the International Financial Conference at Brussels, whose conclusions as' regards currency and exchange are reproduced by us to-day on page five. The experts participating in that Conference, while working out a system whereby international credits might be re-established, pointed to the vital necessity for the removal of all impediments to international trade and the further removal as soon as possible of all control from commerce. The point deserves a good} deal of consideration, but it might be as well to show first of all the somewhat extraordinary trade situation brought about not. only by lack of credits and the existence of barriers to commerce: but likewise as part of war's aftermath.
Taking trade both locally and generally and the influence exercised upon it by the situation with which the Brussels Conference endeavoured to deal, we find that the first half of this year was eminently prosperous. Both imports and exports were booming, so much so in fact that all the evils which accompany a boom Daceupar 25, 19204 have since shown themselves, The world was on the crest of th wave of extravagance, and peopl were purchasing goods regardless of their cost and, one might! almost imagine, equally regardless of the financial position of the prospective consumer. When the latter displayed his inability to buy, the fat was in the fire, and certain parts of Europe and American became badly overstocked with commodities. A good instance can be cited in the amount of tea which England' imported. As a rule it has a supply sufficient for half a year, but now the country can go on drinking tea for eighteen months. without importing a single ounce: of the leaf, As a result prices of tea have been tumbling down, and we believe it is possible today to have Indian tea imported into Shanghai at twopence less. than the cost of production. That illustrates one phase of the sit. nation. Another may be demonstrated by the fact that the latest Home quotation for hides is below pre-war level, which means: below present producing cost. The reason for this is that the Government, which had to lay in heavy stocks of leather during the-war, has since ben disposing of them. At a heavy loss, it is true, but that is one of penalties which war exacts. Countries exporting these and like produce are ac~ cordingly faced with the fact that the market for their staples is non-existent, and will remain so until all these accumulations have been dispersed. At the same time,. being unable to export they lack the wherewithal to pay for imports, and accordingly trade reaches a, state of stagnation.
All the time many of the countries of the world are crying out that they are naked, stripped bare of what in normal times they would consider the merest necessities of life. Little wonder, ther, that, with merchants in the more prosperous countries faced with serious loss because of slumping prices, the financial and commercial experts of the world are searching for ways and means of instituting international credits, so that goods may once more cit culate. The question, however, arises whether the existence of these credits would be sufficient to overcome the barriers to trade which have grown up during and since the war. Translated into plain language the meaning off these barriers is that every nation wishes to sell as much as possible to all the others and to purchase:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.