Mr. G. MURRAYasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will furnish the following statistics in sterling in respect to the trade of Great Britain for the years 1913, 1920, and 1921: total domestic production of all kinds; total domestic consumption of all kinds, indicating percentage of domestic production; total export and percentage of domestic production of all kinds, respectively, to foreign countries and to the 262W British Empire, and in addition enumerating separately the principal foreign countries and Overseas Dominions?
§ Sir W. MITCHELL-THOMSONFrom the results obtained through the Census of Production inquiries relating to 1907 and 1912, it may be estimated that the total value of the goods produced in the United Kingdom in 1913, taken at the place of production, was about £1,600,000,000. The exports of produce and manufactures of the United Kingdom in 1913 were valued, free on board ship at the ports from which they were exported, at £525,000,000. Making allowance for the difference between the values at the place of production and at the ports, about 30 per cent, of the goods produced are estimated to have been exported. The exports in 1913 to foreign countries were valued at £330,000,000 and those to the British Empire overseas at £195,000,000, and, on the same basis, these values would represent about 19 per cent. and 11 per cent. respectively of the aggregate of goods produced in that year. No Census of Production has been taken since 1912, and, accordingly, I am unable to give the values of the production in 1920 or 1921.
It has been calculated that, taken at the average values of the exports of 1913, the exports of the last quarter of 1921 represented approximately a rate of £326,000,000 per annum. There are some grounds for believing that the output of 1921 was about 25 per cent. less in volume than that of 1913, and, if this be the case, the exports of 1921 would represent 24 per cent. of the production of that year. The exports to foreign countries and to the British Empire overseas were recorded in 1921 at £404,000,000 and £299,000,000 respectively, and the division of the 24 per cent. in these proportions would assign approximately 15 per cent. to foreign countries and 9 per cent. to the British Empire.
Corresponding figures for individual countries may be calculated from the full details of exports to those countries printed in the official Trade Accounts for January of this year.