interior Planning Too many facile judgements have been made of what Britain should do in these matters to attempt yet another. It will be better to stick to some export management facts and leave the theorists to their neverending argument. In considering the question of export management the creation and service of markets must have an even greater priority than it has at home. Too much of Britain's export trade has been the result of haphazard growth. This has been stimulated to a great extent by the facts of her own historical background : dominance of the trade routes by virtue of sea power, an insatiable appetite for exploration and trading, and, above all, an ability to turn imported raw materials into serviceable and effective manufactured goods. These days are past. The world is largely explored, traditional forms of sea power have lost most of their importance in an age of jet and nuclear development, and, although the world's demand for manufactured goods is on a staggering increase as populations and standards of living rise, Britain is now up against the hard facts of tough competition. There are no longer any easy courses to take and while home demand is at an uneasy lull it is not hard to see why such a comparatively large proportion of the export of manufactured goods from Britain is carried out by so few and such large companies. Even allowing for the fact that a far greater number of smaller firms supply essential components and thus are, in a sense, also exporters, the total effort is far below what it should be. Is there a management answer to this recurrent question of expanding Britain's overseas trade? The answer must surely be 'yes', and the word that has again to be used, for all its vagueness, is 'will'. Where there is a will there is a way. It is one of the most remarkable facts of Britain's export trade that in cases where a management has really had the will to develop overseas business a will fortified by patriotism and a normal instinct for ultimate profit there have been and will continue to be stories of rewarding successes. It as far more, today, a question of quantity than one of quality. The real need is for a far greater number of producers of both goods and services, as the B.B.G. would put it, to 'have a go'. Even when all is admitted about the irritating documentation, the initial cost of finding agents, setting up companies, undertaking market research and, not least, the lack of tax incentive, a thriving export trade for an island so placed must surely be to the ultimate advantage of the exporter who has thus spread his risk. And this does not even take into account the austere economic fact of the 'balance of trade' the fact that a country importing so much of its essential food and fuel just cannot everlastingly be beholden to the rest of the world. The question of a greater industrial rationalization, i.e. fewer, more efficient producers, raises matters which dig deep into the history and character of the British people. to buy a house