§ Mr. David Jamesasked the President of the Board of Trade what was the favourable or unfavourable visible balance of trade in the years 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950 and 1960; and what was the equivalent purchasing power of the above figures in terms of the 1960 purchsaing power of the £.
§ Mr. ErrollFigures for imports and exports on a comparable basis of valuation are not available for the years 1900–40. The table below therefore shows the excess of imports (c.i.f.) over exports and re-exports (f.o.b.) which is available for all the years. The equivalent purchasing power cannot be uniquely calculated; it depends on assumptions about how the amounts would have been spent. A measure of the relative importance of the figures is however given by the ratio that they bear to imports or exports, and in the table the ratio to imports is given as a percentage.
UNITED KINGDOM EXTERNAL TRADE Year Imports (c.i.f.) Exports and re-exports (f.o.b.) Excess of imports (c.i.f.) over exports and re-exports (f.o.b.) (4) as a percentage of (2) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (£ million) (£ million) (£ million) 1900 … 523 354 169 32 1910 … 678 534 144 21 1920 … 1,933 1,557 376 19 1930 … 1,044 658 386 37 1940 … 1,152 437 715 62 1950 … 2,609 2,259 350 13 1960 … 4,558 3,697 861 19