77,051,5877., duty-free articles forming about 85-8 per cent. and articles subject to duty about 14.2 per cent. of the total imports. The only export duty is that on coal, imposed April 19, 1901. The International Sugar Convention, signed March 5, 1902, came into force under the Sugar Convention Act on September 1, 1903. Its general purpose is the abolition of sugar bounties, direct or indirect, and to this end it provides (1) for the government supervision of sugar factories and refineries, (2) for the limitation of the surtax (or excess of the rate of import duty over that of excise duty) to 6 francs and 5.5 francs per 100 kilos. on refined and raw sugar, respectively (or about 294d. and 264d. per cwt., respectively), (3) for the taxation or prohibition of the importation of bounty-fed sugar (but not as between Great Britain and her self-governing colonies), (4) for the admission of sugar from the contracting states and their non-bounty-giving colonies at their lowest tariff rate, and (5) for the establishment of a permanent commission to supervise the execution of the Convention. The declared value of the imports and exports of merchandise of the United Kingdom was as follows during ten years : The following table exhibits the average share, per head of population of the United Kingdom, in the imports, the exports of British produce, and the total, during ten years :- 1 The important difference between the system of the United Kingdom and other systems is that the former shows the values at the time of import and export, whilst most other countries the values are computed at the prices of a year or more in The share of each division of the United Kingdom in the trade of the country is shown in the following table in thousands of pounds (sterling) :— Thus of the total imports 899 per cent. are to England and Wales, 7.5 to Scotland, and 2.6 to Ireland; of the total exports, 90.5 per cent. are from England and Wales, 9.2 from Scotland, and 0.3 from Ireland; of the total trade, 90-2 per cent. falls to England and Wales; 8.1 per cent. to Scotland; 1.7 per cent. to Ireland. The following table gives the total value of the imports of foreign and colonial merchandise, and of the exports of British produce and manufactures from and to foreign countries and British possessions in the two years :— before. For goods imported the practice adopted is generally to take the value at the port of entry, including all incidental expenses (cost, insurance, and freight) up to the landing on the quay. For goods consigned to the English market for sale, the market value in England is required and recorded in the returns. This is ascertained from the declaration made by the importers, and is checked by the expert knowledge available in the Statistical Office, and by the price-lists and market reports of the day. For exports the value at the port of shipment (including the charges of delivering the goods on board) is taken. Imports are generally entered as from the country whence the goods were last shipped. Thus, countries with no seaboard (Switzerland and Bolivia) do not appear in the returns, and much of the imported produce of Central Europe is entered as from Holland and Belgium. But imports from the East which have been transhipped at Colombo or at Marseilles, and those from Chile and Peru, which have been transhipped at Colon, are, as far as possible, credited to the true country of origin. Imports from Canada via U.S. ports, and from the United States via Canadian ports are, as far as possible, assigned to their proper origin; but the distinction cannot always be made, and. especially in winter, an uncertain amount of imported Canadian produce is credited to the United States. Exports are, as a rule, credited to the country of ultimate destination as declared the exporters, but those to countries without a seaboard are credited to the country of the port of discharge. 528,391,274 542,600,289 283, 423,966 290, 800, 108 The following table shows the value of the imports and exports of gold and silver bullion and specie in five years : The following is a summary of the imports and domestic exports of the United Kingdom for the years ended December 31, 1903 and 1904. The figures for 1904 are those of the preliminary report :— |