§ COLONEL HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if his attention has been called to the report of the foreign trade of Germany given in the last issue of The Statist and to the increase it shows in German exports in 1893, compared with 1892, in every line but one, and to a total amount of £8,525,000, even iron showing an increase of 12 per cent.; and if, having regard to the decline in British exports by £8,500,000 in the same periods, and by £45,000,000 between 1890 and 1893, 1457 Her Majesty's Government propose to take any steps to relieve the depression in trade?
§ MR. MUNDELLAThe full particulars of German exports for 1892 and 1893 will be found in The Board of Trade Journal for March, and they show an increase in 1893 over 1892 of about £8,500,000. 1892 was the lowest year of German exports since 1885, whereas British exports in that year were £14,000,000 in excess of 1885. British exports in 1890 were £50,000,000 in excess of 1885, whereas German exports have not risen in any year to anything like the same extent as our own. It is impossible, therefore, to make comparisons by the rise or fall of a single year. There can be no doubt that German trade profited to some extent by the dispute in the coal trade last year, and the Government are anxious, as far as possible, to prevent such disputes, but they have no intention of changing the commercial policy of the country.