New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-02-04

70 ;mnossib,e 10 treat such decisions as
these seriousiy The groundlessness vi
Mr.. Boutwells apprehensions was very con
clusiyely shown over century ago by MI
Hume in his Essay on the Balance OF lrade.
Hume supposes four-ffths OF the money OF
Great Britain to bs annihilated in ono nigh',
and the nation reduced to the same condition
with regard to specie it occupied in the reigns
If the Uenrys and Edwards. What would De
the conscouence1 Must not the price OF all
labor and commodities sink In proportion, anu
everything be sold as cheap as it was in those
agesf "What nation" he asks, could then
"dispute with us in any foreign market or
"pretend to sell manufactures at tho same
"price which to us would afford sufficient
"proftfr And thus the money which had been
lost would quickly be brought back until an
equilibrium was restored.
Hume then supposes that all the money OF
Great Britain had been multiplied fivefold IN
a night, when the contrary effects would foi-
low. Labor and commodities would rise to
such an ex0rbitant hight that no neighborlng
nation could afford to buy British goods
The surplus gold would be exported to pay
for the excess of imports, until an equilibrium
was again established. He concludes, very
sensibly, as it seems to US, that the same causes
which would correct the exorbitant inequall-
ties which he imagines, were they to happen
miraculousy, must prevent their ever happen
ing in the common course of nature. III Mr.
Boutwell, is really in earnest in believing 1t
to be for the lasting good of this country
to export more than it imports, 1t
ia wonderful that he cannot see that the way
to bring about such change Is to contract
the currency, whereby the prices of labor and
commodities would be lowered our exports
increased, our imports diminished, and
the produce of our mines retained IN the
country. But this Mr.. Boutwell, replies, would
produce great hardship. We know that con-
traction is an evil, but certainly small evh
il to be preferred to great one. Perhaps Mr..
Boutwell, will attach some weight to the
opinion of HuskissOn, to whose craftsmanship
England owes much of her commercial
supremacy. In July. 1923, but short time
previous to his untimely death, Mr.. Huskisson,
in a speech in the House of Commons, gave
il AZ his opinion that of all the evils which
chad afflicted his country during the long
"period of a hundred years, the suspension
" of cash payments by the Bank of England
(which il was attended, formed the greatest"
That act had produced more confusion in
property and had entailed more moral and
political evils on the country, than had ever
been produced by any other measure. There
was no sacrifice which the Government ought
not to make rather than to bring back the
distress, the suffering and the whole train OF
frightful calamties which would attend
second experiment with irredeemabe paper
money.
But we intended when we began this article
to set forth Mr.. Boutwels plumbers III regard
TO British trade. In one column OF his speech
he denounces as "utterly false" the theory
that Great Britain imports more than she ex-
ports, while in another column, which happens
TO fall directly opposite on the same page, he
expatiates on the wealth which accrues to
England as interest on her foreign invest
ments. If for all commodities imported En-
gland returns more than an equivalent in
commodities exported. we cannot understand
how the growth of the metropolis of London
is at all promoted by capital which, with It's
yearly increase, is solely employed in foreign
countries. The fact is that England does i'm
port constantly more than she exports. The
official totals of the real values OF commodl-
ties exported for the five years ended
with 1870 including foreign and CO.
lonia merchandise reexported, amounted 10
S., 100000 900, while the real values of the
commodities imported amounted to $780,
100000 an excess OF imports OF Sl,4jOOOO,OOO
or nearly $3OO,0OO,OO0 a year, converting the
pound sterling into dollars at five dollars Nor
can this excess be accounted for, as Mr. Bout
well too hastily concludes, by any popularity
in the valuation of the imports, OF by any
allowances which can be made for freights
paid to British ship-Owners. More than one
third of the shipping entered and cleared from
British ports during those years was foreign,
and it is enough in favor of England to suppose
that she gains O-thirds of the profits arising
from buying British goods in British ports and
exchanging them abroad for foreign goods
which are entered at British CustOm-houses
with a profit charged as part of their de-
cleared value" Gas Mr. Boutwell, asserts
though We have not been able to satisfy
ourselves on this point. Moreover, the whole
freight paid to ship-Owners is not profit, as
Mr. Boutwell, assumes. Part of it is spent in
foreign countries and is therefore destroyed
IA an element in the balance Of trade. We shall
assume fifteen per cent AZ an ample allowance
for freights and profit to the vessel-owner and
shipper 0ne-third Of the vessel-Owners and
shippers being foreigners, One-third OF the
freight and profits may be set against
second third. There remains One-thrd which
we shall allow to England. This, computed at
Is per cent of One-third of the total amount
of exports and imports, amounts to Sl92, 100000
n yaor Iaa vinu ahout three fifths of the "un-