§ Let me preface a brief analysis of this side of the account by reminding the Committee that the year 1905, as far as the bulk of the industry and commerce of this country was concerned, was a year of slowly but steadily growing prosperity. Our oversea trade reached figures which have never been paralleled. The exports of British and Irish produce, a fallible criterion in itself, but capable of real significance when it is one of the links in a chain of evidence, had a declared value of £330,000,000. If we take, as we are now accustomed to take, the year 1900 as our standard year, the value of the exports of British and Irish produce, estimated at the prices of that year, would work out at £360,000,000, a steady rise in five years of over 23 per cent. Entries and clearances of vessels, and cargoes of foreign trade show a slight increase; and there was a rise in freights estimated at an average of about 10 per cent. The goods receipts of the principal railways grew by 1.32 per cent., and the clearances of London bankers by 17 per cent. The employment of labour, though still below the level of the standard year, 1900, has perceptibly improved. The percentage of unemployment fell from 6.2 in the 280 first quarter to 4.9 in the last quarter. This improvement, moreover, was general throughout almost all the great industries of the country, building and coal-mining being the principal exceptions; and, although there were reductions in these trades, and no actual general rise in the rate of wages, the tendency towards an upward movement became decidedly marked in the second half of the year. So far I have been speaking of the calendar year 1905; but, as the Committee are aware, our accounts include three-fourths of that year and the first quarter of 1906. I am glad to be able to say that all the favourable anticipations have manifested themselves with increasing emphasis in the now year. That I believe to be the main cause of an excess beyond what twelve months ago it would have been natural or legitimate to anticipate.