Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1892 — BALANCE OF TRADE. [ARTICLE]

BALANCE OF TRADE.

’t A balance-of trade in ou-r favor naeans a balance of profits in the pockets of lour- people. It meaE» tha:t we- are creditors instead of debtors, that foreign nations owe us money or goods instead of our country hieing- in debt Free-Trade to sneer at a balance of trade and say it ‘representg^no-wealth. Yet these very Fieo-Trade “professors” would far rather sell their text books4o English students-and get back good British goldi in return than use up their salaries in * buying English books without selling anything of thieir own. A balance of trade, is- ant index of a country’s business, of its purchases Itnd sales, erf-its profits or losses.

If it be profitable for am individual to sell more than he bujs and thus have a balance of money—virtually a private balance of trade —in his favor, whyis it not just as profitable for & nation? A balance of trade may be paid! in money, or in goods and services. Either mode of payment insurasto the profit of the country in, whose favor the-balance exists. If the payment be in goods or services, then the debtor nation must bestir itself to send these goods, whether of its own or of foreign production, or perform those services. As a consequence, we get more goods for less money then we would get were there no favorable balance. The beneficial effect of a payment in cash need not be explained. Money, it is true, is not consumable, it cannot be eaten or worn, but it has, a far more important function. Mqney is the life of trade. Where money is plenty business is active and enterprise aWake. Where money is “tight” industry stagnates. So our countryishould welcome a favorable balance of trade, and it> should welcome the American policy of Protection, the only policy that has given us a favorable balance in the past or will give it in the future. t: