Colonies as compared with the trade we do with the rest of the world? Of all the things we buy from the world rather more than one-fifth comes to us from the Empire, and of all the things of our own manufacture and production we sell to the world, considerably more than one-third goes to the Empire. Taking imports and exports together, the colonial trade represents rather more than one-quarter of our total external trade. Moreover, upon the export side it has grown, and still continues to grow, more rapidly than our trade with foreign countries. Indeed, as has frequently been pointed out, it is the expansion of our exports to colonial markets which has of late years compensated us for the shrinkage in our dealings with European markets. Looking back over a period of years, our colonial trade has developed with remarkable steadiness. Its expansion has not, of course, been uniform, but its fluctuations have been less violent than those of our export trade to foreign countries, and its general tendency has been to consolidate and steady the business of the Mother Country just when it most needed such assistance.
It is certain that this comparatively steady growth of business with markets within the Empire must have added enormously to the prosperity of the manufacturing population of Great Britain during the last half-century. Looking now at the same imports and exports from the colonial side—
Canada sends 56 per cent. of her total exports to the Mother Country, and receives 25 per cent. of her imports from the Mother Country; that is to say, she does fully 40 per cent. of her total external trade with Great Britain.
Australia sends 50 per cent. of her total exports home, and receives 50 per cent. of her total imports from home; she therefore does half her total external trade with Great Britain.
New Zealand sends 75 per cent. of her exports home, and takes 60 per cent. of her imports from home, so that just two-thirds of her external trade is done with the Mother Country.
