194 Transaction s. — Miscellaneous . 



considered than mere profit, even in business matters, and that 

 to weaken the national reserve for the sake of gaining a paltrv 

 half per mille or so will he regarded by it as an unfriendly and 

 unpatriotic action. As the State bank is powerful for good or 

 evil, there are few bankers in Germany who would care to run 

 the risk of offending it, and hence its wishes are usually respected.'" 

 ("The ABC of the Foreign Exchanges," pp. 131-2.) In this 

 description the words " import " and " export " refer to gold. 



Balance of Trade of France. 



In the graph in fig. 4, representing the balance of trade for 

 France, the great rise taking place between the years 1875 and 

 1880 is conspicuous. During that short period an excess of ex- 

 ports of about £13,500,000 changed into an excess of imports 

 of nearly £63,000,000, the total change in the balance of trade 

 being over £76,000,000 in five years. It corresponds very closelv 

 in point of time with the rise in the balance for the United King- 

 dom which took place during the years 1872-77, and with the 

 considerable fall in the balance for the United States which took 

 place in the years 1872-79. Before this rise in the latter years 

 of the seventies the French balance had been hovering about 

 zero, the imports just about balancing the exports except for 

 fluctuations of usual amount from year to year. Since the rise 

 the balance lias been falling pretty steadily on the whole, until 

 it has now almost reached its former condition. This probably 

 indicates that when we allow for the earnings of her shipping, 

 which has about one-tenth of the tonnage of that of the United 

 Kingdom, the investment of French capital abroad is about equal 

 to or rather greater than her income from former investments. 

 It is well known that France is now a large investor abroad. 



Balance of Trade of New Zealand. 

 In the case m|' the balance of trade of New Zealand, illus- 

 trated in fig. 3. gold is included amongst the export-. The 

 same general feature strikes us as in that of the United States 

 — namely, the change from an excess of imports to an ex- 

 cess of exports; ami although when the change from the one fco 

 the other took place tin' circumstances were much the same in 

 both countries, there is now a great difference. In the case of 

 the United States ihe excess of exports is accentuated bv the 



export of capita! Erom the superabundant wealth of the country ; 

 in the case of New Zealand the excess of exports is diminished 

 by the continued import of capital, or by the borrowing of the 

 colony ami the continued inflow of outside capital. 



The popular imagination is not so greatly impressed or so 



easily alarmed by an excess of exports as by an excess of imports : 



