68 HOME TRADE AND FOREIGN TRADE 



amount of work; that is, a certain amount of 

 capital is destroyed, in order to carry the export 

 to its destination and make it an import. That 

 capital is the labour and food of the crew of a 

 ship or of a goods train, the wear and tear of 

 the means of transit, the coal and stores con- 

 sumed, the profit of the owner of that means of 

 transit, and, in the case of the ship, the dues, 

 lighting and harbour, which are a mode of con- 

 verting capital into revenue. 



Therefore an import is an export to the value 

 of which is added that of a certain amount of 

 used-up capital. In other words, an import is 

 always more valuable than the corresponding 

 export by the amount of capital used up in trans- 

 porting it. It also follows that, in quantity, the 

 exports of the world become, not precisely in 

 any one year, but in the long run, the imports 

 of the world, less an allowance for losses on the 

 way by wreck and fire. 



Just as a truck of coal is more valuable in 

 London than at the pit's mouth, by the capital 

 consumed on the road, so it is that an export 

 becomes a more valuable import. Hence we 

 might expect that the imports of any country 

 would always be worth more than its exports. 

 If, however, we consult the statistical tables of 

 the Board of Trade, we shall find that this is 

 not the case. There are countries the imports of 

 which are always, year after year, worth more 

 than their exports, which is exactly what we 

 should expect. But there are other countries 

 the imports of which are seldom or never as 



