The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-17 00:00:00

THE BALANCE OF TRADE REDBESSID

(From the New York Herald)

The receipt of a miillon and a quarter in veld by
the Petsia, is so uhusual a phenomenon tliat it may
we'l suggest some /Elections on the pres-nt con-
dition and future prospec:s of that mysterious
entity, which is called the balance of trade.
The balance of trade, we need hardly say, is
the Jiff-rence between the exports and imports of
a country ; thus the balance cf trade between -Eng-
land and ourselves is the difference b-tween our
imports from and exports to England. The balance
of trade is said to bo against a country when her
imports exce: d her exports ; in that case she is
bound to make up the deficiency either in specie
or iu paper securities which her creditors agree to
take.

The natural law of commerce ought to make this
country a creditor of all others, that is to say,
ought to establish a balance of trade in our favour

with evvry country with which we trade. For
we produce a largi'r quantity and have a larger
surplus of the necessaries of life than any foreign
nation ; we need nothing from abroad half Eo much
as foreigners need what we alone can send them,
but, such has been the ingenuity of foreigners, so
low the cost of labour in France and England, and
so large the means and appetitesof our people, that
this balance which should be in our favour has turned
against us. For many years we have been heavy
debtors to Euglaud. We have always taken of her
manufactures so much more than she ha, taken of
corn and cotton (tbough the has relied upon us for
work and food for her people) that for years we have
been compelled to get England to square the annual
account, and pay up the balance of trade, over 30
millions of specie and more than 20 millions in the
shape of paper securities of one kind or another.
Without this we should have been a bankrupt
nation.

Last year there was an attempt made by some of
the stockjobbers who were interested in the infla-
tion of values to show that the accounts of the year
made out a balance of trade in our favour. We
thought it worth while to explode this mischievous

nonsense at the time, and we showed from the sta-
tistical records that timing the last fiscal year the
balance of trade accumulated against us by England
somewhat exceeds 42 millions of dollars. It need,
of course, have been no such sum had our people
possessed the moderation to restrict their purchases
of foreign goods within convenient limits ; but we
must take people as they are.
The prospect then with which the present fiscal
year was commenced was one in which the balance
of trade, to be shown against us in June, 1858, would.
figure at not less than forty millions. It appeared
pretty certain in July last that there could not be
much deviation from this figure. Merchants,
bankers, and statesmen reasoned from itconfidently.
All these reasonings and expectations have been
overset by the revulsion. The whole fabric of our
commercial system has been changed by the events
of the past few weeks.
In the first place, an enormous portion or the
goods we have bought of England will not be paid
fur at all. An impression prevails that the dry
goods' dealers and some of the other importers
have not by any means seen the worst of the crisis ;
at any rate, it is well known that very many of
them have been compelled to fail in their engage-
ments to their English correspondents, and that
others will be compelled to pursue the same policy.
Thus a great proportion of our debt to England
will be wiped out by the dishonesty of the indivi-
duals who ows it. So far as the country is con-
cerned, the effect, barring the lo e of honour and
credit, will bo the same as if the debt were paid in
flouror gold. Again, the season of pressure, the close
of which, it must be hoped, we are now rapidly ap-
proaching, has had the effect of compelling us to cur-
tail throughout all the grades of society. From the
importer to the servant girl, everybody has curtailed
in some measure or other. And the most obvious
effect of the eh -nge may be found in that message
sent a few days since by a body of New York
merchants to Secretary Cobb, intimating that for
40 days not a single order for foreign goods had
been sent out. This, of course, will largely aid our
side of the commercial account, and greatly tend to
diminish the balance that would be stored up
against us. _ _

Whether the English, as a rule, will avail them-
selves of the present depreciated state of our public
securities to effect further purchases to any con-
sidet able extent, cannot yet be foreseen ; we hear
of orders to buy, but at the same time we see a
state of things in England and Europe generally
which leaves but little room for speculation of any
kind. If more of our securities do go abroad under
the effect of the present depreciation, why that wil
also tend to disturb the usual balance of trade, and,
help US. out of the English debt.

Altogether it would not he surprising if for many
weeks or months to come these three causes, viz.,
the insolvency of England's debtors here, the ces-
sation of importations, and the increase of invest-
ments by Englishmen in American securities of one
kind or other, operated to make us England's credie
tors, and to turn the balance of trade in our favour.