SIR HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that the exports from America of iron, steel, and agricultural implements amounted last year to 145,000,000 dollars, or treble the value in 1897; and that the greater proportion of these surplus goods, not required by the American people, were sent to England, Scotland, and Ireland to compete with British productions, taxed by Imperial imposts and local rates; and whether, in the interests of British and Irish workers, he will take steps to secure such fiscal treatment of these and other 42 competing foreign manufactured imports, amounting to £100,000,000, as shall establish the equality of foreign goods with British goods in the British markets, and place upon the foreigner some portion of the pecuniary burden of the Boer War.
§ *THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (SIR M. HICKS BEACH,) Bristol, W.The exports from America of iron, steel, and agricultural implements amounted last year, as stated by my hon, Friend, to 145 million dollars, which is not treble, but just over double the value of 1897. But I must demur altogether to his statement as to the proportion taken by the United Kingdom. For the year ended 30th June, 1899, the proportion of these exports taken by the United Kingdom was, according to figures furnished to me by the Board of Trade, under 20 million dollars, out of a total of over 106 million dollars. The figures for 1900 are not yet fully made up, but they are not expected to differ greatly in this respect from those of the year before. If I rightly understand the second paragraph of the question, it suggests a fiscal policy to which I am not disposed.