The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-03-20
Forcing the Pace.

The sudden revusion which has taken
place in the course of our foreign trade can
not be taken into too serious consideration by
the merchants and manufacturers OF this
country. For the past six years the balance
of trade has been largely in our favor. Our
imports reached their greatest volume in 1873,
when we purchased foreign goods to the value
of over six hundred and thilty-five million
dollars. Immediately after the panic OF 1873
they began to decline, and, with some unim-
portant fluctuations, they had been steadily
falling off up to the close Of 1879. Our eX-
ports, on the other hand, rose rapidly, and
steadily increased until, during the twelve
months ending last December, they reached
the enormous total of seven hundred and six.
teen millions II Is mainly by the operations
which these figures Indicate that the country
was lifted out of the slough of despoHd In
which for five years il lay PROSTATE Had
the balance of trade not been thus largely III
our favor, the resumption of specie payments
would scarcely have been practicable, and we
should not now be standing upon that firm
financial ground which Is the only possible
basis of healthy and enduring prosperity. But
now the tide has turned Instead of selling
more than we buy, it is the other way about,
for while during the month of January we
imported goods from Europe to the unprecc-
dented amount of flfty-one millions, we only
exported exclusive of specie twenty-siX mil.
| lion dollars worth Of domestic products.
This is showing which should give. Us
pause. IL is easy to apprehend the causes ny
which such state of things has been brought
about Our manufacturers, finding that they
can sell their goods at home are no longer
under the necessity of cultivating foreign
custom, and thus the enterprise which was
opening European and Aslatic markets to
| 1.,In Univ IN
from Great Britain the commercial supremacy
of the world has been relaxed. People do
not care to send their goods abroad when
they can sell them here 10 advantage, and so
there has been induced an indifference to the
capture of foreign markets, which was the
height our ambition year ago. Another
reason for the revulsion, and perhaps the
principal one, is the great advance that has
taken place all around in the price of domestic
commodities There Is not line of goods in
which this advance has not been made to II
very material extent, while in certain i'm
portant branches of industry, notably IN the
iron and paper trade, it has amounted to fifty
or even a hundred per cent. Thus the point
Is reached at which profitable importation
becomes possible, and so the benefit from the
increased activity of business which should
accrue TO our own people Is transferred to the
foreigner.
| /, is ircyi'a l- that IN Increased demand
should 1t, followed by an increased price and
81 lonc ~ the demand is genuine and we'll
| founded there Is no cause for apprehension.
| There is. however, some reason to fear that
the increase in both the one and the other
has Its origin not in healthy trade but in ar
tificial and unwholesome speculation, Our
business men ought to ask themselves whether
they are not forcing the pace up to rate
which cannot possibly be sustained. 1t is
all very well to make hay while the sun
shines, but it is very poor policy to cut down
a growing crop in order to hurry up the har-
vest, and the fellow who killed the goose that
laid the golden egg in order to Immediately
realize his fortune was a fool for his pains.
The country is like a man convalescent after
long illness. If it Is subjected to strain
too severe there Is likely to be a break down.
There is a wise old provcrb which bids us
make haste slowly, and the advice isvery salu-
tary and pertinent at the present time-Norh
| Amsricdn.