272 Timehri. 
The excess in the value of imports over exports in 1907—08 was due 
to the short crop of sugar in that year, the exports being 14,124 tons 
less than in the year immediately preceding. By many this excess of 
exports is regarded as a trade balance in favour of the colony. So it 
would be if the excess came back in the shape of re-investments ; but it 
does not. This being so, I think I am entitled to regard the phenomenon 
as constituting economic hemorrhage. Excess of exports over imports in 
a colony like this where trade is carried on to a very large extent by 
means of outside capital, is only to be expected. The excess value goes 
to meet current liabilities in respect of borrowed capital for both Govern- 
ment and private enterprises ; and as nearly all the owners of sugar and 
other estates are absentee proprietors, the profits also go to fructify 
abroad. In some Crown Colonies, notably those in West Africa where 
the lands belong principally to the people, and not to the Crown, and 
where the products are chiefly agricultural (except the gold mines in the 
Colony of the Gold Coast) the profits of trade fructify to a great extent 
at home, and consequently the value of the imports exceed that of the 
exports. When new enterprises coumence in a country the value of 
the imports increase because of the value of machinery, implements, We. 
for purposes of development, but when a country is completely developed, 
the differe.ce between import and export values assumes a ratural ratio, 
and the prosperity of the cou:.try can then be more readily ascertained. 
It must be conceded that the general condition of British Guiana would 
be poor indeed if it had to depend on local capital and enterprise tu 
exploit its resources and direct its industrial activities. 
