FOREIGN TRADE

is the commercial exchange, between different states or self-contained communities, of goods and services. In the United Kingdom trade with all parts of the empire as well as with foreign countries is included in the returns of foreign trade. Hxports are those goods which are sent out of the country, and imports those which are received, while re-exports are goods which have been imported, but are exported without any material change beyond repacking. History. In some degree foreign trade has always existed. The Phoenicians were early pioneers, while Rome, which drew tribute of foodstuffs and luxuries from all parts of its empire, became the greatest trading city of ancient times. After the collapse of the Roman Hmpire conditions became too ohaotic for settled commerce, but trade revived during the Middle Ages, although it was mainly confined to exchanges between adjacent countries in as Hngland and the Low Counes. The Age of Discoveries opened up immense fields for enterprise, and started again great currents of foreign trade acro the oceans, but generally such trade was of a speculative nature, as the common name of trading bodies, ‘Merchant Adventurers,’ indicates. It was not until the industrial revoJution revealed the po ibilities of large-scale production that men realized that exchange between different countries might be greatly to the advantage of both, by giving each the opportunity to concentrate on that work for which they were best fitted. When the invention of steamships and railways followed the industrial revolution, and made po ible the systematic opening up of new territories and the establishment of regular and speedy communication all over the globe, the great age of international trade began. In estimating how much trade has grown in the last century, and to what degree various countries have shared in this growth, certain difficulties arise. Comparison between different periods is rendered difficult by changes in the level of prices, while comparisons between different countries are dangerous owing to differing methods of calculation. For instance the United Kingdom calculates its imports on the basis of c.i.f. values, while the values of imports into the United States are given f.o.b.; again, a number of states a e their foreign trade in terms of official values fixed by law or otherwise, which may differ considerably from the market value of the produce. Neverthele , the growth of British foreign trade is sufficiently brought out by the following figures of trade to and from the United Kingdom: