§ SIR CHARLES M'LARENI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether, in view of the fact that in the statistics prepared by the Board of Trade relating to the exports and imports of this country the values of the exports are taken f.o.b. while the values of the imports are taken c.i.f.; in the statistics now being prepared for the use of the Colonial Secretary, and which the Government have promised to lay before Parliament, he will call attention to this fact and state approximately in separate columns the amount which ought to be deducted from the apparent value of British imports in respect of the commission, freight, and insurance earned by British merchants, shipowners, and underwriters by whom these imports are brought into the country.
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe basis on which imports and exports are valued will not be lost sight of in any statistics prepared by the Board of Trade. The mode of correction suggested in the last part of the Question does not appear either practicable or calculated to improve the statistics.
MR. GIBSON BOWLESCould not something be done in the way of showing the amount of freight and insurance if not commission.
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURI think it would be difficult.
§ SIR CHARLES M'LARENI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the difference in values per ton of many British exports, such as coal, iron, steel, and machinery, in times of brisk trade as compared with times of slack trade, and to the fact that an apparent decrease in value in such exports is frequently accompanied by an actual increase in the tonnage manufactured in Britain and exported; and whether, in the statistics of the exports and imports which the Government have promised to lay before Parliament, he will base the relation between exports and imports upon the tonnage and not upon the fluctuating market values of each year or period of years.
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe answer to the first part of the Question is in the affirmative. The point has frequently been called attention to in publications of the Board of Trade. It is always desirable, so far as practicable, to state the course of trade in particular articles in terms of quantity as well as of value, but a comparison of total trade from year to year based on tonnage, would not, I fear, be of much utility, even if practicable, as the whole of our export trade would be dominated by the weight of coal, and of our import trade by a few heavy articles such as grain and timber.