In 1856 the excess was 43 millions; in 1880 this figure, with interruptions, had risen to 125 millions. Let me ask, out of what fund have we liquidated all these supposed adverse balances?
Then let me ask, what would our Neo-Protectionists say if the products of our industry were annually exported to the extent of 411 millions, and we received back from the foreigner only 286 millions worth in exchange?
Look at the question in yet another light. How can it be otherwise than that our imports should exceed in value our exports? If a merchant export £100 worth of goods, and in exchange for them imports goods worth only £100, he must make a dead loss under the heads of freight, insurance, interest, and profits.
How can it be otherwise?
Let us suppose the goods cost him £100 at Liverpool. He exports them to some foreign country, and, of course, has to pay freight and insurance. Let us say this comes to 10 per cent. On arrival at the foreign market the goods must therefore be worth £110. They must be sold, of course, and let us suppose the proceeds re-invested in goods for importation here. Again comes in the charge for freight, another 10 per cent., which, added to the £110, makes the goods worth £121 on arrival at our ports, independently of interest on the money used, and what the merchant may lay on as profit.
And so the £100 of exports comes back as £121 at least, of imports, and must do so as long as trade is carried on.
And, on this showing, what becomes of complaints founded on the bare fact of our imports exceeding our exports, such as—
That the balance of trade is against us!
That we are being ruined!
That Free Trade is a complete failure!
And now, with reference to this last assertion, let us for a few moments contemplate some of the facts and figures which the records of the last quarter of a century afford us.
I will first take the figures of the years 1870 to 1880, as comprising the latest periods of inflation and depression
