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Commissioner of Siamese State rail- other countries foreign trade is a con- roads were conducted recently by an venience or a luxury, to it is officer of the department to a number an absolute necessity. In only one of important plants throughout Eng- of the raw materials vital to her indus- land ; as a result, substantial orders tries--~oal-is there a surplus in the have been placed. Representatives of United Kingdom. All the others- the &dquo;Hangya&dquo; Co6perative Whole- ores, fibers, timber and oils, as well as sale Society of Budapest arrived in cereals and meats-Great Britain is England in August, 1920, to make pur- obliged to import either wholly, or in chases on behalf of the Hungarian the greater proportion, and the neces- Minister of War. They bought two sity for paying for them requires a hundred and fifty thousand yards of large and ever-increasing export trade. khaki cloth valued at ~140,000. Due Great Britain is today determined to to the efforts of the British Trade Com- recapture the trade won from her in missioner, the representatives of an pre-war days by the Germans, and, important British electrical company, although she is compelled to resume her who had recently visited New Zealand, financial and industrial role with enor- secured the first and most important mously increased burdens, she takes up post-war contract placed by the New the commercial struggle with the great Zealand Government for the first sec- advantage of having to learn very little tion of railroad to be electrified. about the conditions under which it It has been well said that, while to can be successfully prosecuted.

The Revival of Belgian International Trade By HARRY T. COLLINGS, PH.D. University of Pennsylvania, Former United States Trade Commissioner of

HE opening of the world war in live. The kingdom is poorly endowed T 1914 found Belgium actively en- with raw materials; nevertheless, the gaged in international trade. With an road to national prosperity seemed to area one-fourth that of Pennsylvania, lie in the direction of manufacturing Belgium was the most densely popu- products for exportation, while in- lated country in the world, if one com- creasingly larger quantities of food- pares entire countries only. For dec- stuffs were imported. In the calendar ades before the war the population had year 1913, Belgian per capita imports been increasing at the rate of about amounted to $127.59 and exports to one per cent a year, with a policy gen- $94.85, which may be compared with erally avowed of relying less and less our per capita imports of $17.94 and on their native soil for support and exports of $24.66 for the fiscal year development. 1913. Foreign trade is and has been the Briefly, it may be said that Belgium life blood of Belgium. For years before imported coal, ores, cotton, wool, hides, the war the people gave increasingly rubber, lumber and chemicals, and less attention to agriculture and more turned them into products more or less to manufacture. No other country finished. was the best cus- depends so largely upon its manufac- tomer, followed in order by and turing industries. It must export to Great Britain; these three countries

Downloaded from ann.sagepub.com at UCSF LIBRARY & CKM on March 9, 2015 21 also supplied the largest quantity of an organization for the control of inter- goods in return, France leading, fol- national trade to and from Belgian lowed by Germany and Great Britain. borders. This commission advocated Belgium took practically no part in an association of affiliated industries international trade from August, 1914 for export organization, extensive to 1919. And for some months after courses in commercial education, en- the armistice her participation in for- largement of the merchant marine, and eign commerce was limited to the the establishment of a Government purchase of foodstuf