BALANCE OF POWER 



547 



BALANCE OF TRADE 



is called a spring balance, which is not really a 

 balance in the true sense of the word. In this 

 device the goods to be 

 weighed are placed in a 

 pan which is suspended 

 from or presses on a 

 spring. The weight 

 causes the spring to ex- 

 pand or close, forcing a 

 needle or indicator round 

 a dial, which is mark, d 

 off in spaces indicating 

 pounds and ounces. This 

 form of balance is suffi- 

 ciently correct for meas- 

 uring meat and groceries, 

 but is not so delicately 

 adjusted as to measure 

 drugs for medicine or 

 other substances requir- 

 ing the utmost accurary. 



The true balance con- 

 sists of a horizontal arm 

 from each end of which a 

 pan is suspended. The 

 arm is perfectly balanced 

 across a knife edge of 

 metal or other hard sub- 

 stance. In one of the 

 pans is placed a weight; 

 in the other, the sub- 

 stance to be weighed. 

 When the weights in the 

 two pans exactly corre- 

 spond, the arm of the bal- 

 ance remains horizontal. 

 If the weights are uneven 

 one side of the arm will 

 rise. Balances are made 

 with such delicate adjust- 

 ment that they will indi- 

 cate the weight of a hu- 

 man hair; these are 

 usually enclosed in a 

 glass case to protect t 

 from dust and prevent corrosion from tin 

 atmofiplx n The Romans and Egyptians used 

 a balance that is still almost extensively em- 

 ployed, known as a steelyard (which see). 



BALANCE OF POWER, I In; condition whirl. 

 exists among nations when no one p<> 

 dynasty is sufficiently powerful to endanger 

 the independence of other nations. The prin- 

 ciple involved is as old as history, for it is 

 nothing more or loss than the law of self- 

 preservation, expressed in diplomatic terms. 



100-= 



200^ 



400-3 



JOO 





< >.M.M<>.\ SIMUNC, 

 USANCE 



If one nation, or a group of nations, becomes 

 so powerful as to threaten the independent 

 existence of less powerful neighbors, it is nat- 

 ural for the latter to form alliances in self 

 defense and thus restore the balance wherein 

 lies safety. Even primitive tribes have been 

 known to unite forces against an aggressor. 



While the principle is thus as old as history, 

 it is only in modern times that it has become 

 one of the fundamental doctrines of diplomacy. 

 It is, in fact, the foundation of international 

 law. Obviously, if any nation can impose its 

 will on weaker countries, there is an end to 

 international law, for in such case the will of 

 the strongest is law. According to Grotius and 

 later writers, it is not only to the interest but 

 is the duty of every nation to interfere, even 

 at the cost of war, when any member of the 

 family of nations tries to disturb the balance. 



Wars have been waged to preserve the bal- 

 ance of power as often as they have been waged 

 to destroy it. Between 1648 and the fall of 

 Napoleon in 1815, Europe was almost con- 

 tinuously at war, the preservation of the bal- 

 ance of power being the customary excuse for 

 the endless rearrangement of alliances. The 

 great coalition against Napoleon was one more 

 attempt to secure the same end. 



Since Napoleon's fall, the theory has still 

 held its place in Europe's diplomacy. To this 

 theory and to the diplomacy of Talleyrand, 

 France owed the favorable treatment it re- 

 ceived at the hands of the Congress at Vienna 

 in 1815 (see VIENNA, CONGRESS OF). When 

 Russian ambitions for expansion threatened the 

 life of the theory, Great Britain and France 

 fought the Crimean War to save it. The for- 

 mation of the Triple Alliance, between tin- 

 German Empire, Austria-Hungary and Italy, 

 was followed by the Dual Entente, later the 

 Triple Entente (which see), to offset the pre- 

 dominance of Germany in European politics. 

 The balance of power was, therefore, one of the 

 underlying causes of the War of the Nations 

 in 1914. See TRIPLE ALLIANCE; TRIPLE EN- 



K.II.F. 



BALANCE OF TRADE, in political econ- 

 omy, is the excess of exports over imports, or 

 vice versa. It the exports are larger, the bal- 

 ance is said < orabfo; if the imports, 

 th balance is uni The phrase first 

 came into common use in the seventeenth and 

 eighteenth centuries, in connection with the 

 "mercantile theory," which measured the pros- 

 I a country by the amount of actual 

 gold and silver it received or paid out for this 



