Abstract
DISCUSSING the effect of American recovery on trade prospects at a luncheon arranged by the Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce on September 10 during the recent meeting of the British Association, Sir Josiah Stamp stated that the influence of a larger volume of American prosperity upon British trade would be chiefly through the stimulus of rising gold prices and lower value of gold, a revival of foreign trade, payment of debt through easier imports and a readiness to organise for an international standard of value. America could take the lead in reversing every one of the chief heresies at present throttling the world's prosperity. Unfortunately, a new phase of weakness has shown itself recently in American business activity, though in Great Britain a slight but distinct improvement has taken place since June last. In America, all the elements of which confidence can take advantage are now provided, though many new features have been introduced which confidence has to surmount, and confidence is slow in coming. The complex situation in America may be classed under three heads, (1) salvage and desperate relief efforts after the disasters of 1933, (2) steady application of recognised or new remedies for recovery and (3) long run provision for a new industrial order. The first stage is now becoming less important, and therefore the measures taken under the three heads, hitherto contrary and mutually antagonistic, ought less and less to be so and more and more to emerge with the second dominant. It is impossible, however, to press on the provisions for a new order, before trade under any order at all is strong enough to stand it. Meanwhile, our own trade revival is testing the limits of domestic trade, and if a general increase in export trades does not reinforce it, further extension can only be obtained with increasing difficulty.
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America and Trade Prospects. Nature 134, 450 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134450a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134450a0