The New Century: Profits and Perils

The twentieth century dawned with Blue Funnel in the midst of an expansive and prosperous phase. New ships and tighter conference arrangements had given Holt vessels an edge over their competitors, while large reserves and conservative finance enabled the Company to ride with some ease the ups and downs of the trade cycle which were part and parcel of commercial activity. Despite such cyclical movements, the years between the late 1890s and 1914 saw a sustained growth of Britain’s imports and exports, and all the main Blue Funnel trades participated in the expansion. For example, the volume of imports from Malaya and Singapore to the United Kingdom approximately trebled between 1900 and 1914, imports from Japan doubled, and from the Dutch East Indies nearly trebled (far more significant here was a doubling to the Netherlands, since the absolute amounts carried were so much greater). All these regions provided sources of a growing variety of primary products which formed the bulk of Blue Funnel cargoes. As far as Britain’s exports were concerned — still dominated by cotton textiles and other basic manufactured goods — the great Blue Funnel markets of China, Hong Kong, and Japan were all buoyant in these years. China’s direct purchases of British goods roughly trebled, while China’s imports from Hong Kong (which included transhipped British goods) also expanded rapidly.