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    Are We Ruined by the Germans?
    Are We Ruined by the Germans?
    Are We Ruined by the Germans?
    Ebook157 pages1 hour

    Are We Ruined by the Germans?

    By Harold Cox

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    Are We Ruined by the Germans? by Harold Cox is an essay with statistics and various arguments that German commercial success has quickly overcome that of England in 1892. Contents: "Our Expanding Trade, Germany One of Our Best Customers, Picturesque Exaggerations, More Misrepresentations…"
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGood Press
    Release dateApr 25, 2021
    ISBN4064066130848
    Are We Ruined by the Germans?

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      Book preview

      Are We Ruined by the Germans? - Harold Cox

      Harold Cox

      Are We Ruined by the Germans?

      Published by Good Press, 2022

      goodpress@okpublishing.info

      EAN 4064066130848

      Table of Contents

      PREFACE.

      CHAPTER I. Our Expanding Trade.

      THE ART OF EXAGGERATION.

      THE WHOLE TRUTH.

      OUR TOTAL TRADE FOR TEN YEARS.

      OUR IMPORTS OF GOLD AND SILVER.

      EXCESS OF IMPORTS OVER EXPORTS.

      THE WORLD’S TRIBUTE.

      OUR ENTREPÔT TRADE.

      CHAPTER II. Germany: One of Our Best Customers.

      A VERY SATISFACTORY TRADE.

      OUR PRINCIPAL CUSTOMERS.

      THE ALARMIST’S ARTS.

      A SELF-DESTRUCTIVE POLICY.

      CHAPTER III. Picturesque Exaggerations.

      THE ALKALI TRADE.

      CHEMICAL MANURES.

      SOME SUPPOSITIONS ABOUT SALT.

      CHEMICAL DYE STUFFS.

      FANCY SOAPS AND FANCY ASSERTIONS.

      CHAPTER IV. More Misrepresentations.

      ICHABOD! OUR TRADE HAS GONE.

      COMPARISONS SAID TO BE ODIOUS.

      STATISTICAL LEGERDEMAIN.

      SHIPS BUILT FOR FOREIGNERS.

      WAR-SHIPS FOR FOREIGNERS.

      MACHINERY AND STEAM ENGINES.

      TEXTILES.

      COTTON YARN AND THE PRICE THEREOF.

      THE DAYS OF BIG FORTUNES.

      LINEN, SILK, AND WOOLLENS.

      THE EXPANSION OF OUR WOOLLEN INDUSTRY.

      THE NATURE OF GERMAN COMPETITION.

      THE PERCENTAGE TRICK.

      CHAPTER V. Our Growing Prosperity.

      THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR RAILWAYS.

      LENGTHENING TRAM LINES.

      POST OFFICE EXPANSION.

      EVER-GROWING INCOMES.

      REDUCTION OF NATIONAL DEBT.

      SOME STAPLE COMMODITIES.

      PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC EXPENDITURE.

      CHAPTER VI. Let Well Alone.

      THE CASE FOR PROTECTION.

      THE ALLEGED EXPANSION OF GERMAN TRADE.

      WOULD PROTECTION HELP US?

      ON WHAT SHALL WE LAY A TAX?

      A NEW ROAD TO FORTUNE.

      INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE.

      THE COST TO THE COLONIES.

      WHAT CAN WE OFFER?

      DIVERGENT AMBITIONS.

      A DREAM OR A NIGHTMARE?

      DOES TRADE UNITE?

      A NEXUS STRONGER THAN CASH.

      CHAPTER VII. Conclusion.

      NOT ONLY A PROTECTIONIST PAMPHLET.

      TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND THE METRIC SYSTEM.

      NO SIGNS OF DECAY.

      THE CRY OF WOLF!

      APPENDIX.

      THE ADVOCATUS DIABOLUS.

      NOT A PROTECTIONIST PAMPHLET.

      THE CHARGE OF DATE-COOKING.

      ARTFUL AND INGENIOUS.

      THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS.

      EXCESS OF IMPORTS OVER EXPORTS.

      THE ALKALI TRADE.

      THE CHEMICAL MANURE TRADE.

      SOAP IMPORTS FROM GERMANY.

      IMPORTS OF IRON.

      A PETTY ACCUSATION.

      FANCIFUL FOREBODINGS?

      A WARNING.

      PREFACE.

      Table of Contents

      The

      greater part of the contents of this little volume appeared originally in the Daily Graphic, in the form of a series of six articles written in criticism of Mr. Ernest Williams’s Made in Germany. To these articles Mr. Williams replied in two letters, and to that reply I made a final rejoinder. In the present reproduction this sequence has been abandoned. For the convenience of readers, and for the economy of space, I have anticipated in the text all of Mr. Williams’s objections which appeared to me to have any substance, and, in addition, I have modified or omitted phrases, in themselves trivial, upon which he had fastened to build elaborate but unsubstantial retorts. By doing this I have been able to preserve the continuity of my argument and at the same time to cut down a somewhat lengthy rejoinder into a brief concluding chapter. Incidentally a few new points and some further figures have been added to the articles. This arrangement, unfortunately, deprives Mr. Williams’s reply of most of its original piquancy; but, in order that my readers may have an opportunity of seeing what the author of Made in Germany was able to say for himself, his letters are reprinted verbatim in an Appendix. I am indebted to the proprietors of the Daily Graphic for their courteous permission to republish the articles, and to the Committee of the Cobden Club for undertaking the republication. I have only to add that the opinions expressed throughout are my own, and that the Cobden Club does not necessarily endorse every one of them.

      H. C.

      Gray’s Inn,

      December, 1896.

      CHAPTER I.

      Our Expanding Trade.

      Table of Contents

      In

      a little book recently published, an attempt is made to show that British trade is being knocked to pieces by German competition, that already the sun has set on England’s commercial supremacy, and that if we are not careful the few crumbs of trade still left to us will be snapped up by Germany. This depressing publication, aptly entitled Made in Germany, has received the quasi-religious benediction of an enterprising and esoteric journalist, and the puff direct from a sportive ex-Prime Minister. Thus sent off it is sure to be widely circulated, and, being beyond dispute well written, to be also widely read. Unfortunately—such is the nature of the book—it cannot be so widely criticised. It consists largely of quoted statistics and deductions therefrom, and few readers will have the means at hand for verifying the many figures quoted, while fewer still will have the patience to compare them with other figures which the author omits to mention. As a necessary consequence, a large number of persons will believe that Mr. Williams has proved his case, and some of them will jump to the conclusion, which is evidently the conclusion to which Mr. Williams himself leans, that the only way to prevent the commercial downfall of our country is to reverse the Free Trade policy which we deliberately adopted fifty years ago.

      THE ART OF EXAGGERATION.

      Table of Contents

      That may or may not be a wise thing to do, but at least let us be certain before taking action, or before taking thought which is preliminary to action, that we know our facts, and all our facts. The second point is as important as the first. On hastily reading Mr. Williams’s book for the first time, my impression was that he had only erred by overlooking facts which told on the other side. On general grounds, considering the signs of prosperity on every side, it seemed to me impossible that the condition of our foreign trade could be so bad as the author of Made in Germany paints it. A cursory glance at a few staple figures convinced me that my general impression was a sound one, that our trade was not going to the dogs, and that Mr. Williams had only succeeded in producing so gloomy a picture by fixing his gaze on the shadows and shutting his eyes to the sunlight. On this supposition I began a more critical examination of his book, not with a view to refuting his positive statements, but with a view to showing that in spite of the ugly facts which he had, on the whole usefully, brought to light, there were counterbalancing considerations from which we might draw, at any rate, partial consolation. This I propose to do, but in addition I shall be able to show that many of Mr. Williams’s alleged ugly facts are not in reality so ugly as he makes them look, and that what he has done, in his eagerness to prove his case, is to so choose his figures and so phrase his sentences as to convey in particular instances an entirely false impression. How this is done will be shown in detail later on. For the present it is sufficient to state that it is done, and that some of the most alarmist statements in Made in Germany will not bear critical

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