• Few more important Blue-books have been published than the
Report issued this week by Mr. Henry Birchenough, the Board of Trade Special Commissioner, who visited South Africa early in this year to inquire into the prospects of British trade. Mr. Birchenough, who is not only a well-known business man but a serious economist, finds every reason to be optimistic about the future of a trade which in ten years has increased from £9,000,000 to £26,000,000. He considers that South Africa, and particularly the Transvaal, "offers a most promising and expansive market, for the future of which the past offers no adequate criterion." After an extremely interesting analysis of the lines on which the expansion will take place, he shows that there is no cause for uneasiness at any temporary depression, which may result from labour difficulties and "the natural reaction after a period of feverish activity." He thinks that since the war there is a strong pre- possession in favour of British goods, and he exhorts the British manufacturer and exporter to take advantage of this chance by better finish, more scientific packing, and a better system of agencies, matters which the foreigner has shown himself fully alive to. Mr. Birchenough has done a piece of exceedingly valuable work, and we hope that his countrymen will take the moral to heart, the more so as he puts our Commercial future on the proper basis of individual enter- prise and scientific methods, and does not embark on vague theories of economic change.
Previous page
