§ Sir W. Smithersasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the favourable or unfavourable national balance of trade for the years 1900, 1913, 1923, 1933, and the latest available date?
§ Mr. DaltonI have been asked to reply. In the years mentioned the excess of imports over exports of merchandise amounted, in million £, to 169, 134, 210, and 258 respectively, and in 1938, the latest year for which a figure is available, to £387,000,000. After allowing for invisible exports and imports, the amount 1177W available for investment overseas, as set out in the Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom, was £194,000,000 in 1913, £140,000,000 in 1923, nil in 1933, and minus £55,000,000 in 1938. No corresponding figure is available for 1900.