Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Blaðsíða 59

ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION
5*
tain, Germany, and the United States occupy the first places. The
Northern Countries are by no means insignificant consumers of
the commodities of other countries. The North, covering a total
area of 1.4 million sq. kms., or more than France and Germany
put together, has a population of only slightly over 16 millions,
or 0.8 per cent. of the total estimated population of the world, but
the Northern nations nevertheless have a very remarkable pur-
chasing power in comparison with other countries. This fact, as
well as the importance of foreign trade in their economy, explains
why the Northern Countries’ combined share of world trade is 5
per cent. or six times greater than normal for the corresponding
population. Only the four principal economic powers: Great Bri-
tain, the United States, Germany, and France outstrip the com-
bined North as regards their share in world trade, while such
States as Russia, Japan, and Italy are left a long way behind.
With regard to Northern imports, it is worth mentioning that
in 1936, 16 million Northerners purchased foreign goods to a
value of over 200 million pounds, while the German Reich, with
67 million inhabitants, or four times as many as the North, im-
ported goods to a value of about 340 million pounds. France,
with a population of 42 millions, imported goods to a value of
slightly over 300 million pounds, and Italy, also with about 42
million inhabitants, goods to a value of only 130 million pounds.
As regards individual countries, too, the combined North is an
important customer. In 1935 the North occupied the second place
in Great Britain’s export trade with 7.8 per cent. of the total value
of British exports, a figure only surpassed by British India, whose
360 million inhabitants bought only slightly more, or 8 per cent.,
of Britain’s export, while the United States, Germany, and France
came behind the North as purchasers of British goods. In the same
year, 11 per cent. of Germany’s exports were sent to the North,
i. e. more than to France, Great Britain, the United States, or the
Netherlands. The North came fourth among the customers of the
United States, and even France has considerable exports to the
North, representing 2 or 3 per cent. of her total exports, a figure
that in French export trade is only exceeded by the immediate
neighbours of France and by the United States.
Another aspect of great interest must also be referred to in
analysing the foreign trade of the Northern Countries: just as they
export principally to the same markets and import from the same
countries, so the sales markets of the North coincide to a great