of trade has held its ground in the face of the
most obvious facts, on the strength of the
current belief that there is profit in selling, and none
in buying. Against that doctrine we have to set
down, as matters of fact, that the imports of
England, France, and the United States, not to
mention other countries, do annually exceed
their exports, and that, consequently, the three
most flourishing nations in the world are driving
on to bankruptcy. Can it be so? Are the three
greatest nations of the world going down the
rapids and on to the brink of doom? One
would fancy that even Chowler would not
venture on such an assertion. He might
condemn any one of them "to everlasting redemption"
of a morning, but to declare that all three
are equally forlorn, is rather too much of a good
thing. In case, however, that Chowler may be
obdurate, and sad but stern may pronounce our
fate, I will try to show in a few sentences that
there is just as much profit in imports as in
exports, and that, indeed, if our buying did not
exceed our selling, we should be very badly off.

France has always had a profound distrust
of cotton umbrellas made in England. France
has indeed prohibited the importation of this
interesting article. Now, I confess to an
admiration of cotton umbrellas. It is pleasant to
see an old lady hobbling about on pattens, with
the tremendous cotton canopy overhead. It is
not unpleasant to see her descending from the
omnibus with the cotton protector dressed up
according to the strictest laws of the fashion—
the tape tied tight about the middle so as to
give it a slender waist, while the cotton folds
bulge above and below the waist with an amplitude
which seems to imitate the expansive
provision of nature in the lady herself. Surely,
I have said to myself, there are ladies in
France who will not despise the cotton umbrella.
Surely a patriot, desirous of propagating English
ideas, would wish to indoctrinate the French
female into the mysteries of the cotton umbrella.
I have therefore invested one thousand pounds
in the purchase of cotton umbrellas, waiting for
the alteration in the French tariff, the result of
which will probably be, that instead of these
articles being absolutely prohibited they will
only be saddled with a protective duty of thirty
per cent. At the end of the year, when our
trade returns are made up, it will be seen that
our exports in the article of cotton umbrellas
have been increased by at least the one thousand
pounds which I have invested. Follow my
adventure to France. It will go by Havre to a
wholesale house in Paris. What with commission,
insurance, and the cost of transport, I have to
pay fifty pounds for the conveyance of my goods
to the Parisian warehouse, besides three
hundred pounds to the French custom-house. As
the duty is so high I have to be content with a
small profit ten per cent, or one hundred
pounds, upon the whole. My customer in Paris,
therefore, will have to pay me one thousand four
hundred and fifty pounds for the umbrellas: of
which three hundred and fifty pounds goes to
pay expenses and duty, leaving me for my own
use one thousand one hundred pounds. What
do I do with this one thousand one hundred
pounds? Do I take bills, which I turn into
cash to send to my banker's? I can do much
better. I am going to do more good to my
species. I am a lover of punctuality. I shall
propagate watches among English men, as I have
propagated cotton umbrellas among French
women. I look at our trade returns, and see that
we take annually from France about one
hundred thousand watches, of which the average
value is between two pounds and three pounds
apiece. I mean to increase those returns, as
my friends will see when Mr. Fonblanque issues
his blue-book. My one thousand one hundred
pounds is to be invested in French watches. It
will cost me sixty pounds to carry them to the
port of London, in commission, insurance, and
transport. The duty I have to pay on them at the
custom-house is two hundred and forty pounds,
and I expect to make a profit on them of at least
ten per cent, or one hundred and ten pounds in
all. My goods will therefore be sold for one
thousand five hundred and ten pounds, and two
hundred and forty pounds of this sum having
been out of malice aforethought laid on at the
custom-house, the officers will declare in the
returns that I have imported watches to the
value of one thousand two hundred and seventy
pounds, on which they have charged so much
duty. As sixty pounds of this sum has been
disbursed in freight and other charges, the
money that finds its way into my pocket is in
all one thousand two hundred and ten pounds.
On the double transaction, therefore, I am a
gainer of two hundred and ten pounds, while
in the great ledger of the nation it is recorded
that, whereas I exported one thousand pounds
worth of goods, I have imported one thousand
two hundred and seventy pounds worth. Is it
not quite evident that if my imports were not
larger than my exports I should be a loser? Is
it not equally evident that if the national
exports exceed the national imports, England,
France, or the United States, which ever may be
the unhappy country, must be a loser? Suppose
the vessel that conveyed my cotton umbrellas,
were wrecked on the Goodwin Sands, and all
the umbrellas lost, I myself would not be a
loser, for the cargo would be insured, but the
money would be lost to the country; and yet
the one thousand pounds having gone out of our
ports would go to swell the sum of the national
exports, and jolly Protectionists would rub
their hands as they read this gratifying evidence
of the prosperity of the nation.

In such a transaction as the foregoing, one
can measure distinctly the profit that accrues to
the buyer. The country is the buyer, and in
the person of one of its citizens has profited to
the extent of two hundred and ten pounds.
Goods have been transferred from the places
where they are least valuable to the places where
they are most valuable, and in the simple process
of transference, both countries have gained.
Prohibit me by heavy duties from importing,
and you also prohibit me from exporting. The