To give a value of Empire to the British: in 1908 imports and exports were:
Empire £2,000,000,000
German Empire £729,000,000
USA £685,000,000
France £539,000,000
Russia £205,000,000
A-H £195,000,000
Italy £158,000,000
The Empire exceeded the next 3: Germany, USA and France combined.
Within the Empire, the trade breakdown was:
UK £1,304,000,000
India £240,000,000
Australia £125,000,000
Canada £117,000,000
NZ £36,000,000
South Africa £76,000,000
Egypt £50,000,000
Most of this Trade was transported in British hulls, who were also transporting £400,000,000 of foreign trade aswell. Projections were that German import-export trade was going to over take the UK's by 1926 (without WW1) suggesting that GB would need to start introducing some form of Imperial Preference.