67 



country. Moreover, there is a large amount of petty local 

 traffic for distribution of merchandize in retail by means of 

 weekly fairs held in several places in the Presidency. We 

 have no means of estimating the value of traffic which is not 

 carried on the main lines of communication, but there can be 

 no doubt that its aggregate amount is very large. 



30. Now, of the abovementioned sea-borne and inland 

 traffic, it will be quite within the mark to 

 trade° ^^'"^"*''^®^ ^* stato that niuc-tenths has sprung up since 

 1850 ; and this statement is applicable in a 

 greater degree to inland than to sea-borne traffic, as land car- 

 riage in former years owing to want of communication was 

 more expensive than sea carriage, and the land traffic was in 

 consequence restricted to articles of small bulk and high value. 

 It seems almost an act of supererogation to attempt to prove 

 that all this development of traffic has been of benefit to the 

 country, but as the increase of traffic, and especially foreign 

 traffic, is sometimes spoken of as if it were an evil and not a 

 benefit by persons who ought to know better, it may not be 

 considered altogether unnecessary to examine in what the 

 advantages of trade consist, and whether these advantages are 

 outweighed by any counterbalancing evils. The following 

 remarks of Professor Thorold Rogers explain succinctly what 

 are the advantages of trade in general and of foreign trade in 

 particular. He says : " The economical benefits of trade and 

 of that understanding between nations, which leads to the ex- 

 change of products, which protects merchants and merchandize 

 and gives temporarily to the foreigner, under more or less easy 

 conditions, opportunities of commerce, are obvious and trite. 

 The distribution of products to the greatest possible reciprocal 

 advantage is the first and most enduring stimulant to trade. 

 In all acts of exchange, the buyer has the strongest inducement 

 to get what he most needs, and in commerce, both parties buy 

 and both parties sell. Trade is again the most efficient instruc- 

 tor as to the natural benefits of soil, climate and material, and 

 it teaches this with the greatest rapidity and accuracy. The 

 greatest service which unimpeded trade does to a community 

 which has accepted it, is that it informs the people who desire 

 to exchange their products, what are the best kinds of material 

 on which to exercise their industry and develop that utility 

 which is the sole end of economical labour. Hence it supplies 

 the answer to the important problem — Has the industry in 

 which a country is engaged been determined on in the most 

 productive direction, does it produce the greatest possible 

 results 'with the least possible expenditure of force ? Hence it 

 acts as a stimulant for the discovery of labour — saving instru^ 



