Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1891 — ENGLAND’S GOLD AND SILVER. [ARTICLE]

ENGLAND’S GOLD AND SILVER.

A Losnon in the ''Balance of Trade The* '•ry"—England's Exports and Imports of the Precious Metals and Onr Own. One of the groat objects aimed at by the protectionists is to make our exports of domestic goods exceed our imports of foreign goods, in order that to make up for the balance wo shall have a stream of gold and silver flowing into the country. They assume that if it were not for the tariff we should buy more abroad than we should sell to foreigners. This would cause gold and silver to “flow out of the country,” and we should be of all men most miserable. According to those gloomy views of the protectionists how pitiable must be the pljght of free-trade England. 'Tha’t country imports every year many millions of dollars’ worth of goods over and above her exports. Does this result in an outward stream of gold and silver frem England to other countries? Here is a table showing Great Britain’s total imports and exports of gold and silver for the year 1890: Imported from Exported to France $24,240,090 $ 4,060,000 Holland 15,530,000 1,230,000 United States 12,970,000 5,U5*,00c Brazil 12,560,00# 6,991,000 Australia 10,400,000 nil South America 9,490,000 3,275,000 South Africa t9,8»0.«00 3.750,000 Portugal 8,C25,000 16,230,000 Egypt 2.315,010 4,025,000 East Indies 2,290 0 0 13,980,000 Germany? 1,020,000 8,190,000 Spain -. 601,00) 4,540,000 Totals $139,490,0)0 $74,150,000 Inports $139,190,000 Exports 74,151,000 Excess of Imports $65,040.0. 0 Compare with this onr own exports and imports of gold and diver for the two fiscal'} ears 1889 and 1890 as follows: Imports. Exjjorts. 1889 $28,91.3, 173 $95,641,553 18)0 33,976,326 52,148,420 Totals $62,937,3)9 $148,783,973 Excess of exports $85,85),674 A curious fact is that for these two years our exports of merchandise were about $60,000,000 in excess of our imports. According to the protectionists’ “balance of trade theory” this latter sum ought to have come back to us in gold and silver. On the contrary, we sent Great Britain in these two years $85,000,000 in gold and silver over and above what we rece.ved ba#k from that country. Thu’s it is that England, a country of absolute fro; trade, not only draws frem all other nations a vast stream of merchandise over and above what it sends to them, but also it receives in a single year $65,000,000 in gold and silver ovor and above her exports of those metals; and, while we are sending away more merchandise tha« we get back in exchange, we also send abroad much more gold and silver than flows into the country. The so-called “balance of Mil theory,” as advocated by the pro<pflT<B ista, cannot survive facts like