CHAPTER I THE OPPORTUNITIES OF FOREIGN TRADE Advantages of Foreign Trade Why should any American manufacturer or producer, who has a satisfactory business at home, enter the foreign field? Even when he is convinced that foreign trade would be advantageous, how shall he set about it and how can he avoid the obstacles and overcome the handicaps that confront the stranger in a strange land? These questions this book purposes to answer. Foreign trade offers to the American producer an opportunity for greater profit, for greater independence, and for greater service. The exporter who discovers and develops a new market is as much a creator of wealth for himself and his country as is the miner or the farmer. Nor do the advantages cease with his increased income. His foreign trade will tend to make him independent of domestic conditions. He can weather a period of national financial depression without reducing his force or curtailing his output. High wages may continue and the cost of doing business may rise, but his increased production to meet his foreign orders will keep down the cost price of his goods. Here he will find a profitable use for the new factories and machinery bequeathed him by the war. Here is employment for his surplus labor and here are real careers for those of his employees who can qualify. Finally if he will properly equip himself, he will be in a position to grasp the greatest opportunity that has ever been offered the American trader. Now, if ever, is the time to establish overseas a permanent market for American goods and to lay the foundations of a trade that will give the United States the place among the world's exporting nations to which it is entitled by reason of its size and resources. The shelves of the world are empty. It will be years before the nations of Europe will be able to provide for more than their own needs. It should be possible for this country, if its business men utilize their opportunity, not only to maintain the remarkable trade it has gained during the war, but still further to develop and stabilize this avenue of industry. Such a development would vastly increase the national wealth. The task for a few years to come will be comparatively easy, though sooner or later the American exporter will find himself in competition with the world's best international traders. Only if he will properly equip himself can he then hold the position he has gained. Requisites to Success The price of success in the foreign field is most careful and constructive preparation. Foreign trade is not adapted to getrich-quick methods. It has a technique of its own which must be mastered. The trader must study his market. He must build for the future. He must not treat his foreign department as a dumping ground for what he cannot easily dispose of at home. He must seek business intelligently, for no longer does foreign trade come unsolicited. He must be ready to make a substantial investment of time, money, and energy. The results will amply justify the expenditure. One of the American trader's chief requisites for success is knowledge-specialized, expert knowledge. He needs no less the establishment of direct selling facilities, only possible to the average trader through co-operative effort. Above all he needs the support of a strong, aggressive, organized, and continued effort for the sale of American goods abroad and for the protection of commercial integrity in foreign lands. When to these requisites is added a proper individual equipment, the road to success is open. Foreign Trade as a Career It is not only to the capitalist and the established producer that foreign trade presents its opportunities. To the young man with health and ambition, energy and intelligence, if he is foot-loose, if he has imagination, and above all, if he is touched by the spirit of adventure, it offers a career whose attractions are strong. The spirit which may have lured his grandfather to ship before the mast, or his father to forsake the village store for the life of the commercial traveler, beckons him to a greater opportunity than they ever dreamed of. It is not merely a chance to see the world and to earn a good living, but a call to act as his country's emissary. The work of extending America's market is a pioneer work worthy of comparison with that of the early pathfinders who extended her boundaries. The opportunities are not restricted to salesmanship. Many a successful salesman returns to the office from which he started, to fill one of the executive positions which are the big prizes of the calling-big not only in their material rewards but in the chance they offer him to do constructive work of a high order both for his products and for the welfare of his country. The positions in the office of the foreign trader call for trained men. Here the habitual job-hunter meets his Waterloo. Mere willingness and general education are not sufficient. Special training and technical knowledge are indispensable. Vocational education for foreign trade is one of the great needs of the moment. If without such training a young man can secure a foothold in an export office he is indeed fortunate. If he hopes to advance or even to remain, he will at once set about the acquisition of the special knowledge that he needs. |