CAPE TIMES -
1924, April 8
On a business
and pleasure trip, Mr. JM Gilfillan, of Gilfillan & Page Ltd., a big London
firm of wool importers, arrived by the Armadale Castle yesterday. Interviewed
by a representative of the “Cape Times” on the wool position in Europe, Mr.
Gilfillan said that all grades of wool were in a strong future; while the
financial position of the wool trade, about which fears were entertained in the
latter part of last year, no longer gave rise for any uneasiness. In spite of
the high prices now being paid for all classes of wool traders and
manufacturers seemed well able to finance their obligations. “During the
past season,” he continued, “a fair quantity of better class Cape wools have
been catalogued at the London auction sales, and these have commanded high
prices. The grading and breeding of your wools of late years, I must say, mark
a noticeable advance; and it is quite evident that if the farmers continue to
put back into bloodstock a proportion of the high prices they are getting, then
the prestige of South African wool on the European markets will indeed rise to
a very high point.”
CONDITIONS
IN GERMANY
Asked with
regard to the position of Germany as a buyer, Mr. Gilfillan replied that
economic conditions in that country had become much more settled since the
advent of the Renten mark; and although everything at present was excessively
dear, the uncertainty brought about by the wild fluctuations of the old
Reichsmark was disappearing; and trade was assuming more normal conditions.
Nevertheless,
he added, the great bulk of German traders and manufacturers had not yet
regained full confidence in the new currency, for Amsterdam and London still
held in their respective currencies a vast proportion of Germany’s trading
capital.
“For wool in
particular,” continued Mr. Gilfillan, “the German demand is enormous,
particularly in the classes produced by South Africa and Australia, which are
the most suitable for their trade. For these wools, all through last season,
they have been paying enormous prices, defying all competition from France and
Bradford, paying cash down in English money, and wanting to keep their mills
running. Nobody can stand up against them.”
At a Wool Sale in Cape Town in October 1939, 3 312 bales were offered. Mr. W. Young, chairman of the Cape Town Wool Exchange, stated that the market was firmer and the competition keener, especially from American and Japanese interests.
(CAPE ARGUS - 1939, October 30)
Read more about the crisis Wool Producers had to face earlier this year, and how this problem has been solved.
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