Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1891 — Profits In Foreign Trade. [ARTICLE]

Profits In Foreign Trade.

Here are the yearly profits which England gets out of its foreign trade, together with its interest on investments in foreign countries: Profits on freight j£ <5,000,000 Interest on the capital in foreign commerce 5,000,0 0 Insurance 2,500.000 Profits of the merchants J7,5C0,000 Interest on investments 55,000,000 Total 126,000,000 or $612,C00,0C9 per annum made out of foreign trade and by putting money into foreign countries. Yet we have many protectionist wiseacres in this country who tell us that “British free trade” is bringing a “bitter harvest’ upon England. Do these* figures show that foreign trade is an unmitigated evil? The organ of Ihe Protective Tariff League has found a new consolation for lhe woolgrowers to compensate them for the decline in the price of their staple since the McKinley bill went into effect. It says: “The duty on wool may or may not increase the price cf this year s clip, but five years from now the number of sheep will be increased, and the fleeces which are cut from those sheep will weigh more than those cut in 1890 or even in 1884. ” This maybe the effect of the tariff on the sheep, though we cannot see how it will come about. But

if the effect an the farmer Is to make hind 1 weigh less (and that is the way it works, now), we shall still think that there is a net loss to the country from the wool tariff.— Evening Post.