Segar. — The Balance of Trade. 185 



to them • reasoning on matters connected with foreign trade is 

 only too certain to err, and it is impossible without having regard 

 to them to give their proper weight to many other considerations 

 that are. in their nature valid. 



Statistics of the Balance of Trade. 



Coming to the actual study of the statistics of the balance 

 of trade, we may note that the chief of the items already 

 enumerated as represented by the balance of trade are generally 

 (1) interest on loans and profits on investments ; (2) capital ; 

 (3) sums transmitted on account of individuals ; (4) payment 

 for services rendered. 



That interest on loans and profits on investments may be a 

 large item in a nation's account will be generally understood, 

 and we all know that some nations are always borrowing and 

 others lending. It may not at first, however, be realised how 

 important the third item may be. In the report for the year 

 1891 on the foreign trade of Italy it was estimated that foreign 

 travellers brought at least £21,000,000 into the country, 

 £7,000,000 of this being due to American citizens alone ; while 

 Mr. C. P. Austin, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, United States, 

 estimates the expenses of American tourists abroad at from 

 £15,000,000 to £20,000,000 over the expenses in America of 

 foreign tourists. Again, it is estimated that in France the general 

 travelling public, and the winter residents in the south, spend 

 annually about £15,000,000. The fourth item, that of payment 

 for services rendered, is particularly large, as we shall see pre- 

 sently, in the case of the United Kingdom on account of the 

 services rendered by British shipping. 



In considering the balance of trade it is well to remember 

 that unless a nation is making payments abroad it is the normal 

 state of things for the imports to be larger than the exports. 

 If goods are exported they sell for a price greater than their 

 price in the exporting country by the expenses of shipment, 

 including insurance and other charges. The goods bought 

 abroad are generally entered in the imports at a value including 

 their cost, insurance, freight, &c. The increased value is due 

 mainly to the services of shipping, and if foreign shipping be 

 employed the increase in value for the most part goes to the 

 carrying nation. But most nations employ, more or less, their 

 own shipping, and so appropriate to themselves some of their 

 extra value. In some cases, as in that of the United States, the 

 statistics of imports, instead of giving their values as landed, 

 give the values of the goods when shipped abroad, and so do not 

 exhibit the increase in value. But even with a number of such 

 exceptions it is found that when the total imports of all the chief 



