6 Flux, Costs of Sea Transport in proportion to Values. 



are a greater burden on trade than the heavier charges 

 of former times. (See Plate 9). 



To approach more nearly to the case where we can 

 examine the details on both sides of the account with 

 some approach to precision, we may take the case of 

 the trade between the United Kingdom and British 

 Possessions abroad. The Channel Islands, Gibraltar, 

 Malta, and Hong Kong are omitted on both sides of 

 the estimate, for lack of complete returns. As bullion 

 and specie are included in the greater part of the Colonial 

 returns, we must include them also in the home side of 

 the account. Before passing to the aggregate values of 

 this trade, it may be worth while noting that a useful 

 piece of information is contained in the latest Statistical 

 Abstract for the Colonies. In the case of Barbados, before 

 1893 the imports into the colony were entered at their 

 values at the port of shipment. An estimated amount 

 for freight insurance and value of packages was included 

 from that date, and the addition to the values of the 

 total imports of the colony was 21*4^ in 1893, 15*9% 

 in 1894, and 13*3 % in 1895. So also with the Gold 

 Coast, where a similar change in 1894 resulted in an 

 increase of 15*3 % on the value as estimated at the port 

 of shipment, and in 1895 the addition was 14*7%. In 

 the latter case the imports from the United Kingdom 

 are separately given, and the charges for freight, &c. r 

 on these were 13*4% and 14*3% respectively in 1894 

 and 1895. 



Such changes in the mode of record as these would, 

 if they affected any large amount of the trade, render any 

 attempt at comparison with former years comparatively 

 valueless unless the figures were corrected for these 

 errors. The great bulk of the trade, however, has not 

 undergone any such change in the mode of record 



