The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1859-03-27

his estates, or in fact the nature and extent of his
assets, he would be set down as a swindler-as pre-
s%enting a garbled balance-sheet with a view of de-
ceiving his creditors. Just as sensible is it to refer
to the balance of trade, as it is called, to determine
the wealth or poverty of a nation. It is found that
any given people who are most enterprising and
prosperous are sure TO have against them this nomi
nal balance, which really means that they have been
active, sagacious, bold, and successful.
Has il not occurred to those who complain of the
immense nominal balance, for instance, against the
United States, within a period of fifty years, that it is
an unsafe proof Of the alleged fact that we have been
TO that extent, or nearly, the losers by our foreign
trade intercourse? Is it not apparent that there is
somewhere either an error in the calculation or a
misrepresentation of the principle by which the prof
its and losses of our commerce with the balance of
the world is conducted? To answer these questions,
we admit, is a difficult task that is, to answer them
in the spirit of frankness and with a truthful appre-
citation of the actual account which our intercourse
with others presents.
We are put upon inquiry in this matter by the
great facts that those nations that have most closely
restricted the operations of commerce and naviga-
tion-that have sought to impose the heaviest taxes
upon the ships, products, and manufactures of
others-have become steadily more and more inn
poverished and helpless and that those who have
removed the shackles from navigation and trade
have as uniformly risen to the front rank in all the
great branches of industry, agriculture, commerce,
tonnage, manufactures, education, arts, and civiiza-
ton. So Interchangeable and invariable has been the
operation of this law that ii would almost seem that
Providence intends to punish exclusiveness of what
ever nature. But we take it there is a natural exA
PLANTATION to be rendered which will be found TO be
amply sufficient to satisfy unprecedented minds that
true economy consists in measuring the capacities
and wants OF all the world, and in adjusting such
laws of intercourse between the various parts as
will enable each to contribute TO the other precisely
those products of the soil, manufactures, art, and
mind which its inhabitants can best supply. This is
the most enlarged distribution of labor. This is
adapting each man to those pursuits in which he
can be most successful and useful and we contend
that the nation which shall approach nearest to this
principle in its intercourse with mankind will be-
come the richest, the %happiest, and the most en-
lightened.
But it is said that the balance of trade against the
United States within the last fifty years has been
considerably more in the aggregate than the whole
amount Of gold and silver now in the country. The
deduction from these premises is that we are, to that
extent, the losers by our foreign trade. In order
utterly to discredit this conclusion, it is only neces-
sary to remind the reader that our foreign trade and
navigation are but mere expressions of the general
industry of the country-mere agencies by which
surplus products are disposed of to those who most
need them at the moment. We have, in other words,
within half a century built up and put into opera
ton a great system of labor, the material of which
is of countless value. We have accumulated cor
responding strength by increasing our population,
and by adding to the sum total of gold and silver,
which is everywhere employed as a medium of ex-
change and a standard of value to settle accounts.
In making up a statement of our assets, then, we
must have an account of our materials-of our lands,
buildings, ships, goods, money, farm stock, produce,
manufactures-of our schools, colleges, benevolent
institutions, churches, roads, canals-of everything.
But the answer still recurs, we might have been
richer but for the annual balance Of trade against
us which we have had to adjust by shipments of
specie. Let us see.
We were served up in the year 1857 with a state
ment of imports of about three hundred and sixty
millions of dollars and of exports about two and a
half millions more, included in which is a large per
oentagc of specie. This account in itself is moth
ing for the specie may have been shipped to pay
money previously borrowed and applied to agricul-
turc, roads, or mining. We must, then, get at the
facts otherwise. There can be no question about the
amount of the exports and il may be assumed that
the losses and profits of exports and Imports are about
equal. There IS, then, The profits Of our immense ship
ping, and especially that employed IN indirect trade,
which enters directly into the import account, and
which should be deducted from that account, to be
considered.
Our government for many years has sought to es-
tablish, with nearly all commercial States, the prin-
ciple of reciprocity with one nation after another,
ending, we believe, with Great Britain. We have sue
ceeded in the removal of restrictions upon naviga-
ton and in effecting certain notifications of the rev.
enue laws of various countries. Without going into
particulars, we may refer TO the fact that for a long
while we have been the principal carriers for the
States of South America, the Spanish West Indies,
and to a considerable extent for the empire of Rus
STA. The profits of this trade, together with the
profits of direct commerce, has been enormous
nearly all Of which enters into the account of our
imports, For instance, o ship leaves Philadelphia
for Havana with a cargo valued at $50 600. She