Orders of the Day — Supply.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 6 July 1925.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Philip Lloyd-Greame Mr Philip Lloyd-Greame , Hendon

No, that is really a very difficult thing to do. I am not quite sure how you would make the calculation. You would have to take a varying value of sterling, and I do not think you could do it. Of course, where one is dealing with articles of production and with exports, you can bring the commodity value, which is a known thing, down to the 1913 value. We need more money for investment, because to-day more than ever it is important to have that money available for the development of new markets. Surely, there is only one way by which we can redress that trade balance and improve it, and that is by selling more British goods and more British produce both at home and abroad. That, I know, is an obvious thing to say, but I believe it is a thing which the country does not fully realise. If we can greatly increase the sale of British goods in the British market, then by every £1,000,000 worth more that we sell we improve our trade balance. In the same way, every time that we can produce more in agriculture we make it leas necessary to import. Again, the more we are able to sell the more we will fill our factories, and there is not a man in business to-day, and hardly anybody in the country, who does not realise that it is because our factories are half empty in many cases that the cost is so great. If we fill those factories, then our overhead charges are reduced and we are able to produce more cheaply. Every time we sell more we increase our balance and can invest in the development of new markets, thereby scoring by the orders we get immediately and by the trade which we breed. Therefore, I venture to repeat something which I said in another part of the country this morning. I would make the most sincere appeal to the whole of the British people to realise that if there can be a real national move—and it can only be done by individuals and by all in- dividuals—to buy more British goods, that is going to do more—indeed, there is nothing else except that which can really do it—to put this trade balance right.