This procedure is being repeated in the launching of an optical-glass industry; this trade has also been in Teutonic hands.  I could cite many other instances, but these will show the new spirit of British commercial enterprise and protection.

Everywhere nationalisation is the keynote of trade activity.  Coal furnishes an instance:  The collieries of the kingdom not only stoke the fires of myriad furnaces but drive the ships of a mighty marine.  Through her control of coal England has one whip hand over her allies, for many of the French mines are in the occupied districts, and Italy’s supply from Germany has stopped.  Coal means life in war or peace.  Now England proposes a state control of coal similar to that of railroads.

It spells fresh power over the neutral shipping that coals at British ports.  If the government controls the coal it will be in a position to stipulate the use that the consumer shall make of it, and require him to call for his return cargo at specified ports.  Such supervision in war may mean similar domination in peace—­another bulwark for British control of the sea.

Throughout England all trade facilities are being broadened and bettered.  The local Chambers of Commerce, whose chief function for years was solemnly to pass resolutions, have stirred out of their slumbers.  The Birmingham body has formed a House of Commerce to stimulate and develop the commerce of the capital of the Midlands.

This stimulation at home is accompanied by a programme of trade extension abroad.  The Board of Trade has granted a licence to the Latin-American Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain, formed to promote British trade in Central and South America and Mexico.  Sections of the chamber are being organised for each of the important trades and industries in the kingdom, and committees named to enter into negotiations with every one of the Latin-American republics, where offices will be established in all important towns.

The Board of Trade has also learned the lesson of co-operation for foreign trade.  As one result, British syndicates, composed of small manufacturers, who share the overhead cost, are forming to open up new markets the world over.  These syndicates correspond with the familiar German Cartel, which did so much to plant German products wherever the sun shone.

England, too, has wiped out one other block to her trade expansion:  For years many of her consuls were naturalised Germans.  Many of them were trustworthy public servants.  Others, true to the promptings of birth, diverted trade to their Fatherland.  To-day the Consular Service is purged of Teutonic blood.  It is one more evidence of the gospel of “England for the English!”