The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-24 00:00:00

WILES TO RESUME SPECIE PAYMENTS.

The ability of the country to resume specie payment
will not be duo to any special legislation upon that sub-
ject, but to the condition of its industries, and to the
tinancial relations to other countries. These, of course,
will be more or less dependent upon the general policy of
the Government. The war exhausted the country of its
material wealth, and the States of the South were literally
impoverished. A necessary condition for the resumption
of specie payments was the development of the industry
of the nation, both South and North, and the conse-
quent accumulation of the movable products of industry
to sti:h an extent that our exports of those products
should be equal substantially to our imports. So long
as it is necessary to pay for merchandise imported by the
trhnsf. r of Government bonds or other evidences of in-
debtedness to other countries, so long it will be im-
practicable to resume and maintain specie payment.
When the products of industry exported shall be equal,
substantially, to the products of other countries imported,
there will be no demand for specie for export, except
what may arise from the circumstances that our bonds
held abroad are seat home, sold in our markets, and
the proceees exported in coin. When the credit of the
country shall be fully established in Europe, and there
shall be no doubt either of our ability or disposition to
meet all of our obligations, bonds, heretofore and now,
to a large extent held by merchants and bankers, will be
transferred to capitalists for permanent investment.
When this change shall have taken place the probability
of our securities being sent borne, under the influence of
p, litical or financial disturbances in England, will be very
slight, and wbon, as a concurrent fact, our exports, exclu-
sive of public securities, shall be equal to our imports,
specie payments may be resumed without even a temporary
embarrassment to the business of the country.
OUR COMMERCIAL MARINE.

One of the most efficient means of strengthening the
country in its financial relations with other countries is
the development of our commercial marine. The returns
show that a very large amount of the foreign trade is in
English hands. We are not only thus dependent upon a
rival country for the performance of the business which
should be in the hands of our o vn people, but our ability
to maintain specie payments is materially diminished. If
the entire foreign trade of the country, both of exports
and imports, were carried on in American ships the earn-
ings would not be less than $75,000,000 a year. At present
the freights of the foreign trade in American ships do
lot exceed $28,000,000. Were the trade exclusively in
American hands, a largo part of this difference of
$47,000,000 would be duo to citizens of the United States
and payable in other countries, this amount would be thus
added to our ability to pay for goods imported from those
countries.
lf, for example, an American citizen purchase in Now
York 1,000 barrels of flour for $6,000, and export it to
Liverpool in an American vessel, and it is there sold for
$7,000, a bill of exchange may be drawn, and an invoice
of goods of tho value of $7,000 purchased in England,
although at the Custom House at New York there would
he an apparent balance against the country of $l,OOO. But
if, on the other hand, the 1,000 barrels of flour are ex-
ported in a British vessel, the proceeds of the flour realised
in New Yom k, and which can be applied to the payment of
goods bought in England, will be only $6,000, and there
will remain an actual balance against the country of
$l,OOO. This familiar example shows the importance of
re- establishing our commercial supremacy upon the ocean;
and I deem it, therefore, essential to our prosperity that
the shipping interests of the country lie fostered, not only
as a nursery for seamen, but also as an essential agency
in enabling the Government to institute and maintain
specie payments. It is an interest, also, which, in its
development, is as important to the States and people
remote from the sea coasts, as it is to the maritime
eectione. Every additiou to our freilitiee for the export

of the products of the interior is as advantageous to
the producers as to the merchants and shipbuilders of
the laud.