Classification and Distribution of Imports.
—The close relationship between foreign com merce and internal organization is best seen by tracing commodities from their sources or fol lowing them to their destination within the country. For this purpose much of the United Kingdom can be removed from the map. A small fragment of Scotland, a single port in Ireland, the north and part of the midland and west of England, with London and its subsidiary ports cover the whole region of industrial and commercial importance. Lou don, including the minor ports from Harwich to Southampton, receives about 40 per cent of the total imports of the United Kingdom. Of this vast trade, food, in one shape or another, accounts for nearly half ; fruit, eggs, vege tables, butter and other minor agricultural prod ucts, with large supplies of beet sugar, from the neighboring districts of Europe; grain and meat from more distant countries; tea, coffee, rice and miscellaneous tropical and sub-tropical products; all are poured in to supply the needs of the dense population of the London area or to be distributed over the lines of communica tion radiating northward and westward.
Apart from food, the most important items of note in the statistics of London and its sub sidiary ports are the silk, woolens and other textiles consigned from France and other parts of the continent. In this matter London ap pears as the great consumer of luxuries; on the other hand the receipt of raw wool from distant parts of the world to the value of some f.37,000, 000, and of large quantities of tin from the East, shows her as a controller of markets and dis tributor of commodities which she does not utilize herself. For the rest, the trade is made up of innumerable minor manufactured articles, chiefly from European countries, and of mis cellaneous raw materials from every region of the world, partly for use in the many industries of the London area, partly attracted thither by facilities of transport and marketing.
The only group to compare with London consists of Liverpool, with the Mersey ports, now including Manchester. Together they take another 30 per cent of the total imports of the kingdom. Roughly, a third is staple food stuffs, mainly from across the Atlantic; Liverpool vie ing with London as a distributor of these com modities; another third is raw cotton, nearly the whole of the supply needed for native indus tries; while in the miscellaneous group, the cane sugar and tobacco of the Indies, the palm-oil, nuts and rubber of the African and American tropics are interesting reminders of the intimate connection of Liverpool with the older colonial and plantation trade. •
The remainder of the import business is divided between the eastern group of seaports, represented by the Forth, the Tyne with Mid dlesbrough, and the Humber; and the western, represented by the Clyde, the Severn and Bel fast. The main intercourse of the east coast is naturally with the continent of Europe, from the Baltic to the Black Sea; and, for the most part, it can be regarded as merely an extension of London for the receipt of continental goods. One commodity alone deserves special remark. Iron, in various elementary stages of manufac ture, enters the Humber from abroad, while Middlesbrough and the Tyne find it necessary to import more and more foreign iron ore for their smelting industries. The native supplies, for certain purposes, show a distinct and unpleasant tendency to run short. On the west coast, the Clyde and Severn, like Liverpool, need food for the population concentrated on their coal areas, and have a small share in the sugar and tobacco of the plantation trade. Glasgow must look abroad for iron ore, Cardiff and South Wales for iron, copper and tin, while Belfast needs flax and linen yarn to supplement native sup plies.
All ports alike, from London downward, absorb vast quantities of timber in various shapes. The native supply is a thing of the past ; so northern Europe, North America and the tropics are called in to provide this neces sary material for railways and mining, and above all for one of the greatest home indus tries,— building — an industry which does not figure in the export list but is none the of vital importance in the general economy of the country. An annual timber bill of i.33, 000,000 is a fairly prominent item in the na tional balance sheet. For food, raw materials, luxuries, for nearly all the needs of civilized existence, the United Kingdom depends partly or .wholly on supplies from beyond the seas; it is small matter for surprise that the question of safety of trade routes, on the one hand, and of the economic and political policy of the regions from which the necessary supplies are drawn, on the other, should loom larger and larger in the vie* of statesmen, as the economic depend ence of the country steadily increases.