30 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

Similarly, as population increased, the United Kingdom was
forced to draw upon other countries for necessary food supplies
that could not be produced in Britain, either because of climatic
conditions or limited area. Thus, British beef and mutton had tc
be supplemented by importations from the United States, Australia,
and South America. Grain had to be brought from the Americas,
India, Russia, and Australia. Tea and coffee were bought in China,
India, the East Indies, and Brazil. Sugar and molasses have been
imported from the West Indies since colonial days, but the heavy
consumption of more recent years was made possible by beet sugar
imported: from the Continent, especially from Germany. These
importations were paid for largely by the export of manufactured
goods.
Except for coal and iron, Great Britain had to buy from foreign
sountries most of its raw materials and its food supply and had
to find some means to pay for these imports. The only available
payment was to offer other goods in return and to offer services.
The goods were necessarily manufactures; the services were naturally
those connected with trade, viz, the furnishing of ocean shipping,
the development of foreign countries by British brains and capital,
‘he establishment of banking and financial facilities, and the acting
as a merchant for all the world, i. e., buying products from one
foreign country to sell them to others. British export trade, therefore,
 is not merely the seeking of an outlet for surplus manufactures
from time to time, but the everyday task of business, to be performed
with businesslike preparation and determination.
Imports and exports.—The relative position of the United Kingfom
 in international trade is indicated by the fact that in 1913 her
sombined imports and exports totaled nearly $7,000,000,000,* those
of Germany nearly $5,000,000,000, and those of the United States
more than $4,000,000,000. France and the Netherlands each had a
total of about $3,000,000,000, followed by Belgium, Russia, Austria-Hungary,
 and Italy, with $1,700,000,000, $1,500,000,000, $1.300.000.-700,
 and $1,200,000,000, respectively.
In the trade of the countries mentioned above, imports for domestic
 consumption or use exceeded exports of domestic goods in value
in every case except the United States and Russia. For the United
Kingdom the difference was $650,000,000 in 1913, for Germany
$160,000,000, and for France $315,000,000. As already explained,
this difference is mostly paid for by Great Britain through ocean
freights, income from foreign investments, and the trade in commodities
 among the countries.

I —————— ee
1 Includes $533,000,000 worth of foreign and colonial products imported and reaxnorted.
