Borrowing and business in Australia

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 183051623X

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-222122

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Wood, Gordon L. http://d-nb.info/gnd/1239193688

Title:: Borrowing and business in Australia

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Oxford university press, H. Milford

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: xv, 267 Seiten; graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part V. Australia during and after the great war

Collection:: Economics Books

246 THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE IN RELATION between the debits and credits in the British international account has only to be compared with the total of foreign loans to afford conclusive evidence of the shrinkage in Britain's power to save.l This comparison is set out below. Surplus of Income Account and Foreign Loans for Great Britain (In £ Millions) Total income from all sources Less excess of imports . Surplus available . . Overseas loans . : Surplus available at 1913 prices. v Overseas loans at 1913 prices . , 1913. 1928. 504 | 508 390 359 114 149 148 105 181 5 64 | 100 160 50 | 84 70 1926. It is clear from this analysis that the volume of foreign loan issues in 1928 was only 44 per cent. of the pre-war volume, although it should be noted that the amount retained for domestic investment was greater by about the same proportion. After 1924, since there was no available surplus from production, Britain was actually borrowing to finance her foreign loans, although the rate of borrowing progressively declined thus: 1924, £81 millions; 1925, £60 millions ; 1926, £55 millions ; 1927, £20 millions. Ineffect over the four-year period she thuslent £470 millions and borrowed £205 millions. Short-period borrowing, however, if it did not actually cease was almost negligible by 1928, since there was in that year a surplus of £30 millions applied to domestic investment. But the post-war surplus was £100 millions as compared with £180 in 1913; and the volume of loans but £70 millions as compared with the pre-war £160 millions. It would appear, therefore, that Australia cannot rely apon the imminent recovery of Britain’s former ability to pro- vide capital for investment abroad. Further, the reorganization of British industry is making heavy demands upon the capital surplus. Over the period 1924-8, inclusive, an annual average, reckoned on the pre-war price basis, of £70 millions was thus absorbed, compared with the annual average of £30 millions for the five-year period immediately prior to the war. Although ! See Gregory, First Year of the Gold Standard, pp. 15 ef seq.

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