The German-Great Britain Trade Rivalry in Comparison to the US-Japan Rivalry.

             The German-Great Britain trade rivalry like theU.S.-Japan trade rivalry involved a rising power cutting intothe trade of an already dominant trading power. There wereseveral causes of the German-Great Britain trade rivalryaccording to Hoffman. The first was German"s industry"s zealin procuring new contracts and expanding markets. They didthis by fulfilling contracts even if they were very small andconstantly trying to stay up with market demand. Second,Germans had a knowledge of languages that the English firmslacked. Third, German industry was aided by their government.In contrast Great Britain did not even supply consularassistance in helping develop markets in British colonies.Fourth, British trade was hurt by the conservatism of Britishmanufacturers who were unwilling to develop new markets orhold onto those it already possessed. These four factors arejust some of the factors that helped German industry grow andrival that of Great Britain. .

             These four factors are all very similar to theJapan-U.S. trade rivalry. Japan like Germany was able tocatch up to the U.S. because the U.S. was large and arrogantand refused to believe it could face competition from Japan.Like Britain, U.S. industry believed that they could holdonto markets and would not face competition. British and U.S.industry were startled by the fast rate of growth andindustrialization that allowed Germany and Japan to transformthemselves quickly into trading rivals. This fast rate ofgrowth also caused friction between both sets of countries.Relations between Germany and Great Britain were damaged asthey bickered over markets in particular colonies in Africa .This is similar to the friction between the U.S. and Japanunfair trading practices and closed markets.

             Both the U.S. and Great Britain in response to losingmarkets toyed with the idea of economic nationalism andtariffs.