1886.] 5*jJ [Dudley. 



business was confined to tin plates and metals, &c., and that they did not 

 deal in grain. If Naylor, Benson & Co., who have sold the steel rails, 

 a.e not under obligations to reciprocate, and take a corresponding quantity 

 of merchandise in value to the amount for which they sold the rails, in 

 order to make an export follow the import of the rails, who are under 

 obligations to do so? The answer is, no one. And though our granaries 

 may be full and running over with grain, the corn merchant of Liverpool 

 or London will not buy it unless they can purchase it cheaper than they 

 can elsewhere, and then they will take only the quantity which they 

 require and no more. As has been stated, if they can buy it cheaper in 

 Russia or India than they can of us they will buy it there, and that with- 

 out the least regard to the fact that Mr. Vanderbilt bought his steel rails in 

 England ; and it would be the same if we were to stop manufacturing 

 steel rails in the Uuited States and buy all we require in England, even if 

 it should be to the extent of their whole production. This will apply 

 with equal force to every other manufactured commodity made, or pro- 

 duct which the earth yields. As has been remarked, it is not the nations, 

 as governments, dealing with other nations, but individuals ; and each anx- 

 ious to make out of every transaction or contract, whether domestic or 

 foreign, all that can be made legitimately, and that without regard to the 

 interests of nations or other individuals. If we examine the statistics of 

 every civilized country on the globe, this will be verified. And permit me 

 here to say, that while every writer upon political economy in England is 

 proclaiming and asserting that for every import there must be an export, 

 and claiming the doctrine of reciprocity in trade as I have stated it — 

 the last named of which has been so often used to frighten our people and 

 especially the farmers of our country, that if we do not buy of them they 

 will not buy of us — there is no country in the world where the fallacy and 

 falseness of these doctrines are shown by their own published trade 

 reports more fully than they are in England. Their aggregate imports 

 for the last thirty years, without one single exception, have every year ex- 

 ceeded their exports. They have not shown in any of their writings or 

 reports that in one single instance the export has followed the import. 

 The figures for the last ten years, as taken from their trade reports, printed 

 by order of Parliament, are as follows : 



Years. Total Imports. Total Exports. 



1875 £373,939,577 £281,612,323 



1876 375,154,703 256,776,602 



1877 394,419,682 252,346,020 



1878 368,770,742 245,483,858 



1879 362,991,875 248,783,364 



1880 411,229,565 286,414,466 



1881 397,022,489 297,082.775 



1882 413,019,608 306,660,714 



1883 426,891,579 305,437,070 



1884 390,018,569 295,967,583 



£3,913,458,389 £2,776,564,775 



