British Trading Activity.
3.
69
The permanent nature of the present commercial revival in Great
Britain is apparent not only in the continuous drop in unemployment,
but also in the excellent trading results of individual firms. The
decease of unemployment in July is up to the best expectations, and
since the beginning of the year the number of unemployed has fallen
by nearly 800,000. At the same time the number of insured persons in
employment has been steadily rising, and in July this year it was
656,000 higher than in July, 1938. There is indeed hardly a single
branch of British trade in which business conditions have not
improved. In the British textile industry, which affords a typical
example of recovery from depression, spinning mills took an average
of 55,483 tales of raw cotton per week in July this year, compared
with 53,241 bales in June, and 40,599 bales in July last year.
Good trading results have also been the rule, and they are well
instanced by the Imperial Tobacco Company. The issued capital of
this concern is over £50 millions, and it has just been announced
that its interim dividend this year is 71⁄2 per cent, In spite of the
increasing claims of the home market, British firms have not been
neglecting their foreign trade. Thus, in the face of severe compet-
ition from many other countries, the contract for the installation
of new machinery for the printing of the currency in one of the large
South American republics was awarded to a British firm. Again, in
the Near East a British engineering firm has been successful in
obtaining an important irrigation contract to the value of £900,000.
The work involved includes the construction of dams and canals, and
the result will be to convert an enormous area of useless marshes
into valuable agricultural lands.