Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1878-12-05
A Wonderful Trade Balance and
Its Moral,

Tho latest statement from the bureau Of
statistios shows that for tho ten months endo
ing October 81. the excess of exports of mere
ohandise from tho country over the imports
amounted in value to $237 100000. The
excess of exports for the year will not there.
fore fall below $285, 100000. This hoe ena.
bled and will enable us to keep ut homo the
years product Of our. gold and silver mines
and to nd according to the asoertained figures
for tho ten months, about four and a half mil
lions more-an aggregate increase in our
stock Of precious metals during tho year Of
between ninety and ninety five million dol
lars. The current of trade is in fact Mr..
Sherman's best ally.
But we have not told the entire story of the
country's remarkable good fortune. The
balance in our favor is chiefly paid in bonds,
| stocks and other securities issued in this
country. 1t is estimated that We owed at
one time the nations of Europe fifteen huns
dred millions in government bonds, railroad
stocks aud all sorts Of corporate and munici.
! pal pledges. This immense aggregate has
been reduced to the neighborhood Of three
hundred mllions-so low, indeed, that it is
said to be difficult to get together in London
the bonds desired whom balances to this
country are to be paid. Another year will
doubtless annihilate our foreign indebtedness,
l
money on that account
This remarkable result is not wholly due
to excessive exports, large rs they are, but
partly to q deoreaso in our imports The
value of imports for October was but $37 ,000,.
600, or $4,000, 900 less than the exports, and
$500, 900 less than the imports for the cor,
responding month Of last year. During the
reign Of extravaganza that culminated in the
crash of 1873, our imports largely exceeded
| our a o irku
nine millions to over one hundred and eighty
millions. Instead Of bonds coming homo we
sent abroad two hundred additional millions
each year. This went on until condition O..
general bankruptcy was reached and then q
radical change took place. We began to soil
more than we bought. During the year ends
ing June 30, 1875, the favorable excess was
10000 The promise now is that the balance
for the present fiscal year, ending with next
June, will be even greater rising to somewhere
about $500, 900, 900.
Let no one think that this grand result is
entirely due to an enforced economy. 1t is
partly due to that, and partly to our Increased
facilities for manufacturing, to our use Of
machinery in the making Of crops. to our
enterprise and industry end industry. We
no longer import much iron and Steel and
and our importations of cotton or woollen
goods ore annually decreasing. We are even
beginning to export these manufactured
products in considerable quantities. At the
same time we are making cheaper wheat,
pork and even cotton. We grow nearly all
the necessaries of life. and are rapidly com.
ing to manufacture both for homo use and
export the chief articles that wo formerly
bought abroad.
We are a fortunate nation in short. We
are as people getting rioh, faster perhaps
than any other nation ever did. But are .wc
Of the South getting a proportonate part of
tho benefits flowing from tho favorable trade
balances Assuredly not. And tho reason
why scarcely needs statement. Cotton that