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Show COLONIAL TRADE. BRITISH COMMERCIAL RETURNS SHOW INCREASE. Afford a Steady Market for Products of the Parent Country Comparison with the United States Articles That Francs Supplies to Her Possessions. French colonies show a rapid Increase In-crease in the proportion of their importations im-portations which they take from the governing country, An elaborate report re-port on the colonies of France, their government, finances, and commerce, has been published by the treasury bureau of statistics. It shows that the total value of imports into French olon:es, "exclusive of Algeria and Tunis, amounted In 1S9S to $47,741,416, Jhe imports from Trance and French colonies alone being $22,853,921. The following table shows the value ' of imports of French colonies during the year 1896, by principal articles: Textiles ! $10,104,917 Spirits, wines,' etc 4,S58,154 Cereals and flour 4,654.325 Colonial products 3.144,032 Machinery, hardware, etc... 2,977,700 Building stone, combustibles combusti-bles and etc 2.477,472 Animal products, hides, etc. 2.162,551 ' Yarns and threads 1,812,207 Oils and vegetable essences. 1,536,537 Metals 1,485,202 Phtmiipal nrrtrinr3 " 1.268.507 . Fish :..' .... 917,754 Paper, printed matters; etc. . 862,504 Pottery and glassware ' 747,621 Timber 733,041 Live animals 728,252 Vegetables, fruits and seeds. 644,388 Arms and ammunition 606.818 Furniture and woodwork 520,754 Dressed skins and furs ' 488,985 Drugs 322,814 Coloring matters 184,518 Clothing 119,633 Matting, wickerwork, etc.... 119,594 Dyes 111,375 Vegetable fibers, etc 99,174 Musical instruments 38,110 Sundry products and manufactures manu-factures ' 3,190,283 Total $46,917,236 Another and broader way of looking at it than the mere, study of articles imTinr-tpd is tn see the total commerce which the various nations have with their colonies, and the relation which their colonial commerce has to that of other parts of the world. A recent London letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer In-quirer has the following: The world has been very wide-awake lately to the fact that the colonies of the British Empire have been of vast service and importance to England in facing the surprise party which has been subsituted for the "picnic to Pretoria" Pre-toria" which was expected to take place in South Africa. It will, however, how-ever, amaze a large number of the mercantile public, even though they be well posted in trade statistics, to learn what an enormously valuable asset in England's trade is the colonial colo-nial business. Without going into detail, and assuming for the present that the total of their interchanges may be represented by round numbers say 2,000, the shares of the several holders stand thus: Great Britain and Ireland 694 The British colonies Germany - The United States France , . 2.000 Total The colonies most certainly are England's Eng-land's best customers, as is shown i in Mr. Mulhall's paper on "British Trade" in the March Contemporary. Take some figures for the lest decade. 1889-1898. England's aggregate interchanges, inter-changes, export and import, with great industrial communities were as fol- TbTBritish colonies 1,788,000,000 The onusa 1,399,000,000 The United States g24;ooo,000 Germany 682,000,000 France 4,693,000,000 Total , Thus England's colonial trade shows .n excess of 389,000,000 over her Lni-, Lni-, StX trade, an excess of 924.000 ; OU0 over that with Germany, and of 1,106,000,000 over the French trade in 1 space of ten years. The contrast is still more striking if one divides the aggregates according to exports and taportl It is well known how Eng-Unds Eng-Unds sales to European nations dwindle year by year under the operation opera-tion of hostile tariffs and restrictions. Take the United States for the period under review. Her ac count gives the following results: Purchases "from the U. S..l,019.000,000 .United States. 380.000,000 ToUl 1.399,000.000 The reports for the British colonies indicate much more equal conditions o trading and a freer access to their markets: Purchases from the colo- Sales' to 'the colonies! 839,000.000 ToUtl L788.000.000 |