The sun., 1879-05-04


exports In the time named was t5.956. .OOO, 900;
and these figures have been accepted for the
most part without vlgilant scrutiny by sta
tlstlclans who have contented themselves
with supplying various and conflicting theo-
ries OF the ways In which this deficit has
been met Just here comes In the novelty
Of the Liverpool merchants statement,
whose purport is to whittle down this seem
ing deficit almost to nothing.
Mr.. MCKAY begins by setting forth in de-
tail the commercial charges which he claims
should, I'm an estimate OF actual cost to the
nation. be deducted from the value OF i'm
ports rs appraised at the port OF entry. By
far the largest OF these IL the freight money
earned by English vessels In conveying such
merchandise To the United Kingdom With
this should be coupled. In his opinion the
premiums for marine insurance on three
fuurths Of the imports, that being the pro-
portion Of policies issued by British under
writer's. Other items belonging in the same
category, such as foreign bill stamps, bank
ers' commissions and brokerage, are
minutely specified, but these are Of minor
moment. In this way, he makes the sum
charges accruiug to subjects OF the United
Kingdom reach the considerable total Of
S2.592, 100000. He claims that every penny
Of this amount was saved to England as
against the foreign countries with which she
dealt and that the whole Of 1t ought conse-
quently to be deducted from the value Of
imports as appraised at the port OF entry.
Tho next step taken by Mr.. MCKAY Is to
specify every item that he thinks should be
credited TO exports Of British goods during
the same nineteen years, and by which he
would supplement from the viewpoint of
national earnings their market value at the
port OF clearance. Under this head by far
the largest addition would be for freight
money paid to British shipowners, and TO
this would be Joined the cost OF marine in
surancc not in this case ON three-fOurths,
but on the whole Of the goods exported. BY
these, and minor gains accruing TO the
British pocket from the business Of transfer.
together with the important item OF sellers
profits on goods forwarded, the amount OF
credits is run up to 50, ,260 SOC, 900. He insists
that this large sum must be added to the
commonly stated value Of British exports
In the home market before shipment II we
would compass an exact and exhaustive no.
tion Of England's credit account In her deal
ings with foreign nations.
BY these charges against imports on the
one hand and these credits attached to ex-
ports on the other, Mr. MCKAY succeeds in
bringing down the generally conceded eI-
cess OF $685., 900 to the relatively insig-
nifcant deficit OF Sll5,OOO,OO0. In other
words, according TO his estimate. the i'm
auI nv NJ (,rnat RrftaiN in tho
nineteen years under review-considored as
complex financial transactions growing out
OF foreign tradc-nearly balanced each other.
Whether all OF Mr.. hcKAY's deductions
and credits should be allowed, at all events
to the extent claimed for them, may be open
to question. But. as we have said, they are
admitted to be in the main well grounded
by recognized authority In the English
financial world. The earnings, however, OF
that portion OF her tonnage employed in
moving exports from and imports into
England and the commercial charges incl
dent to the same function, represent only
part OF England's profit from sea carriage.
To those gains must be added the amount
derived from passenger trade, and from that
considerable fraction OF her mercantile ma
rine engaged In conveying merchandise
between different foreign countries. 1t
seems probable that tho income accruing
from the last-named sources would much
more than extinguish the annual shortcom-
ing Of about s6,OOOOO0 confessed by the Liv-
erpool statistician, and would actually turn
the balance Of international traffic In her
favor. II Mr. McKAY's figures can be
trusted, or even acknowledged to substan-
TALLY represent the truth. the inference
would be- that the vast revenue drawn by
Great Britain from foreign investments is
not at all required to make good deficiencies
in the trade account, bat may be looked
upon as added 10 the national capital, in
which case the depression OF British iIdus-
tries, prolonged and grave as it has been,
could scarcely he deemed to threaten fatal
or even dangerous consequences.