The Associated Chambers of Commerce held their annual meeting at
Nottingham on Tuesday, and Lord Avebury, who was chairman, made a speech in which he discussed, among other things, the injury done us by German competition. Part at least of German prosperity was artificial, the syndicates enriched by the home trade having sold abroad below cost-price all goods not disposed of at home, but BO far as it has been real it has benefited English trade. That is the kind of fact which needs to be dinned into those of our people who believe that because a neighbour prospers we must he grow. ing poor. The richer the neighbour the more she buys of us, and as we give nothing away, the more she sends in payment. So far from trade languishing here, "the total of our commerce Loa year was the largest ever transacted in any year in the history of the world." That does not of itself prove that it was the most profitable, but a broad basis for a business always makes it safer, and we confess to a great confidence in our traders' capacity for making a profit on every transaction. The subject is complex, as Lord Avebury says, and though our Consular agents are clever men, they are a little apt to overestimate the activity they see, and to depreciate the activity going on outside their ken.
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