COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE :
14 .
APPENDIX B.
Copy of Circular sent by the Colonial Office to the
various Colonial Governments at the instance of the
Commercial Intelligence Committee. (See p. 5.)
Sir, Downing Street, 30th March 1901.
On the 26th of July 1897, the Board of Trade appointed a Committee
to consider and advise as to the best means of bringing to the knowledge of
traders in this country the information furnished by Consuls, Commercial
Attachés, representatives of the Colonies and other officers as to the supply
and demand and other conditions of the markets in their respective districts,
and to report how far arrangements could be made for the exhibition of trade
samples in London or in provincial trade centres. This Committee reported
in July 1898, and, after full consideration of their report, a copy of which is
enclosed, and in pursuance of one of the principal suggestions made in it, a
Commercial Intelligence Branch of the Board of Trade was opened in
October 1899.
2. With a view to ensuring that the new Branch should be kept as far as
possible in touch with all those interested in its efficiency, and in order to
obtain advice of the widest possible scope upon questions of commercial
interest, the President of the Board of Trade appointed a consultative or
advisory Committee consisting of the members mentioned in the Minute of
which a copy is enclosed.*
3. At the instance of this Committee I now enclose copies of a leafletf in
which the origin of the new Commercial Intelligence Branch and its objects
are set out in some detail ; and I would ask that the leaflet may be brought
prominently under the notice of the Chambers of Commerce and all others
interested in trade in the Colony under your Government.
4. It is hoped that benefit may result from a proper use of this
Intelligence Branch, not merely to the trade of the United Kingdom, but
also to the trade of the Empire at large, and I invite the cordial assistance of
the Colony under your Government in the endeavour of the advisory
Committee to bring the branch thoroughly into touch with all representative
bodies of British commercial men.
5. A great deal of valuable information is at the disposal of Chambers of
Commerce both in this country and in the Colonies, but this information is
intended primarily for their own members, whereas it is desired to place as
far as possible within the reach of every individual all available particulars
which may be of use to him, and through him to the community at large.
There is, therefore, room for the Government to supplement private effort
in the collection and dissemination of commercial information.
ij' ,
6. It is desirable at the outset to centralise and reduce to a system the
information which already exists. Such information is collected in this
country through the representatives of the self-governing Colonies, the
various Chambers of Commerce, and the Imperial Institute, and in foreign
countries through His Majesty’s Diplomatic and Consular Representatives.
7. The High Commissioner for Canada, the Agents General for the
Australasian and South African Colonies, and the Chambers of Commerce
have shown every readiness to help the work of the new office ; and arrangements
have already been made with the Imperial Institute to co-operate in
giving information with regard to inquiries of a technical character, and.
should the need arise, in the matter of the exhibition and disposal of samples
of such foreign manufactures as compete with British made goods ; but this
does not fully supply the want of a properly organised system of interchanging
commercial intelligence between the United Kingdom and the Colonies.
8. The inquiries which, from time to time, reach the Colonial Office or
the Board of Trade, and those inquiries which have, so far, been addressed
* See page 1. | See Appendix A.
