63|247|227|218|216
Ger. Imports| 141|148|156|163|163|147|144|156|165|201|208|208|202|199|198
Ger. Exports| 145|149|160|164|160|143|149|157|160|158|166|159|148|155|148
-------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---

These figures may be illustrated diagrammatically as follows:--

[Illustration]

WOULD PROTECTION HELP US?

So far, therefore, as Germany is concerned, Protection has been, for the
general ends for which it was intended, a complete failure. Is there any
reason to believe that it would be more successful in Great Britain?
Every consideration of common sense points the other way. What Germany
had to do was to build up comparatively new industries, in face of the
overwhelming competition of Great Britain. In some instances she has
been successful, and in some instances it is possible that Protection
may have helped her by giving particular manufacturers an advantage in
their home market at the expense of the whole German nation. But in
England we have no such task to undertake. Our industries are already
established; our wares are already known in every quarter of the globe;
it is our competition that every other manufacturing country dreads. Nor
is that the only difference. In Germany and in France and in the United
States it is the home market that Protectionist manufacturers and
Protectionist statesmen are anxious to secure. All their efforts are
directed towards preventing their own citizens from purchasing British
or other foreign goods. But with us the home market is not the primary
consideration. Our business is with the whole world: our customers are
of every race and colour from the patient Chinaman to the restless New
Englander, from the supple Bengalee to the African savage. If we can
keep their custom we need have no fear of our power to satisfy the wants
of our own countrymen.

ON WHAT SHALL WE LAY A TAX?

It is, indeed, just because the advance of Germany in a few limited
directions has scared some people into the belief that we are losing our
foreign trade, that such books as Mr. Williams's "Made in Germany" are
written. The whole point of their lament is that Germany is ousting us
from neutral markets. Assume that it is so--though it is not--what then?
How will Protection help us to maintain the hold we are said to be
losing? All that Protection can do is to make more difficult the entry
of foreign goods into our own country. But what are the foreign goods