General Trade Recession and International Crises Potent Factors in Sales Decline The first Motor Show which, so far as can be traced, was ever held either in this country or abroad, took place in the old Royal Aqua-num, Westminster in 1897. Two years later the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland (now the R.A.C. organized an exhibition in Richmond Park. And the present series of exhibitions, which are organized by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, ' started at the Crystal'Palace in 1903. The thirty-second Show in this. series opened at Earls Court on October 13. The Show can rightly claim to be the largest in the world devoted to the products of a single industry. It is international in its character—50 per cent. of the exhibitors in the motor section are foreign. It has 517 exhibitors in all, states the "Financial News."
Statistically, therefore, the current Motor Show impressive, Will investers in the industry consider it impressive from their viewpoint too? The size of an exhibition and the dustry's profit-earning capacity are not necessarily complementary. Investers will, perhaps, better appreciate the various features of the Show if they recall the main developments in the industry, and the difficulties which have had to be faced, during the past twelve months. For 1937-38 was not a successful year. In the first nine months of the season, the production of private cars and taxi-Cabs fell by rather more than 12 per cent—in July, the last month for which figures are available, output actually dropped by about 25 per cent, although the comparison was with a very good month of 1937, At the same time, the registrations of new cars showed a fall of 11 per cent. in the first quarter of the season, of 12 per cent. inthe second quarter, and of 19 per cent in the third. "The decline has thus been gathering pace.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.