A BRIEF EXAMINATION OF FREE-TRADE PRINCIPLES 317 



Britain's Trade Pre-eminence a Delusion 



The pre-eminence of Great Britain's trade is a matter of 

 common knowled'-re, but as most thin<fs in this world are esti- 

 mated and measured by their relation to something else, so 

 must Britain's trade be measured by the same relative standard. 

 The man who possesses £100 may be considered wealthy by 

 his poorer compeers, while a man M-ith £100,000 may be 

 regarded as a poor man by a multi-millionaire who possesses 

 untold wealth. Britain, with her Import and Export trade of 

 £1,000,000,000 annually, may truly be regarded to-day as pre- 

 eminent in the magnitude of her commercial transactions, but 

 even Britain has to submit her case to the same Standard 

 OF Delation. " What is her relative ]pudtiuii ! " is the question 

 here, and the only question that can or should be asked, and 

 when it is answered, it will be seen that, although pre-eminent 

 in magnitude, she is by no means pre-eminent in the more 

 vital question of Eelative riiOGRESSiON. 



Here is an attempt on the part of " The Free-trade ]\Iove- 

 ment " to show that because the incidence of British Imports 

 and Exports per head of the population happens to be greater 

 than in some other countries, it necessarily means individual 

 and collective prosperity to the British people ; an ingenious 

 method of manipulating National statistics, but fortunately 

 one not calculated to deceive anybody, save those ultra-con- 

 servatives of the Free-trade party who prefer to be deceived. 



Here is the table — 



Value of Expokts of Domestic Products per head of the Population 

 over two quixquen'nial periods * 



1870-1874 

 1890-1894 



France. 



Similar Table for Domestic Imports. 



The writer then says — 



" From these figures it appears : (a) That the imports and 

 * " The Froe-trade Movemont," p. 206. 



