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As is well known, the primary reason given for the new naval and colonial plans is trade interests. In response to this, we must quote Mr. Bounderby from Dickens’s Hard Times, calling out loud and clear: Facts and figures! Figures and facts!

The latest statistical data on Germany’s foreign trade, published in the official Statistik des Deutschen Reichs [Statistics of the German Reich], presents this issue in an interesting light. In 1898, our trade with individual parts of the globe was as follows:

More than nine-tenths of all foreign trade was conducted with countries in Europe and America. We did not initiate trade with these partners by means of torpedo boats, nor is it possible for us to use torpedo boats to expand and strengthen these relations. Rather, the expansion of trade with these countries has always been directly related to our trade policy, which has been characterized by a decrease in exports to America from 609 million marks in 1897 to 541.8 million marks in 1898 – undoubtedly the result of a prohibitive customs policy for industrial goods that was the American counterpart to our protective agricultural duties.

But it is even more interesting to learn that even in that part of the world where we already have colonies, these “protectorates” play only a tiny role in trade. German trade with the most important African regions developed as follows over the last decade:

Based on these figures, our own colonies play only a minuscule role compared with our trade with Egypt and Cape Colony, as well as with the English, French, and Portuguese regions in Africa.

The above facts and figures show with the desired clarity that it wouldn’t make the least difference to our foreign trade if our entire battle fleet evaporated into thin air. And anyone who intends to try his hand at world politics should at least refrain from hypocritically referring to “trade interests.”