254
Miscellaneous
No. 103.
Despatch to Governors of Colonies on the Question of Trade
with the United Kingdom.
General.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O. 885
Reference :-
6
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
MY LORD,
SIR,
Downing Street,
November 28, 1895.
I AM impressed with the extreme importance of securing as large a share as possible of the mutual trade of the United Kingdom and the Colonies for British producers and manufacturers, whether located in the Colonies or in the United Kingdom.
2. In the first place, therefore, I wish to investigate thoroughly the extent to which in each of the Colonies foreign imports of any kind have displaced, or are displacing, similar British goods, and the causes of such displacement.
3. With this object, I take this opportunity of inviting the assistance of your Government in obtaining a return which will show for the years 1884, 1889, and 1894-
(n.) The value (if any) of all articles, specified in the classification annexed, imported into the Colony under your Government from any foreign country, or countries, whenever (and only when) the value of any article so imported from any foreign country, or countries, was 5 per cent. or upwards of the total value of that article imported into the Colony from all sources, whether within or without the British Empire, and when the total value of that article imported was not less than 5001.
(b.) The reasons which may have in each case induced the colonial importer to
prefer a foreign article to similar goods of British manufacture.
4. These reasons (which should take the shape of a report on each article, separately, of which the foreign import exceeded 5 per cent, of the whole import and of which
the total value imported was not less than 5007., as defined above) should be classified
and discussed under one or other of the following heads :-
(a.) Price (delivered in the Colony) of the foreign article as compared with the
British.
""
The term "price" is not intended to include the duty (if any) levied in
a Colony; it is the ordinary price in bond, and this should be clearly understood in making the report.
I 89682. 100.-19/95. G. 32. E. & S.
A
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