out cause, from their misapprehension of the operation of our reciprocity system.

Those fears may be still more completely dispelled, from the increasing amount of our exports since the year 1815.

In that year the amount of our exports, according to official value, was 41,712,0027.*; being by much the greatest amount which we had ever previously exported. The amount of that year, doubtless, was much increased by the greatness of our foreign expenditure required to support the numerous army which we then had to maintain upon the Continent; and, possibly, also by an expectation of demand upon the Continent, which appears to have been disappointed; for in the following year our exports, in official value, amounted only to 34,774,5017. Many well-informed persons believed, that we should not be able to maintain a competition with manufac

* Parl. Papers, 1830. No. 315. Official value is according to certain rates fixed in 1696, which never vary, and thus show quantity. These rates will be found in Vol. xxii. of the Sessional Papers of the House of Commons for 1826. Declared value, which was not required until 1797, is the value declared to be the value of the articles exported at the period of export. The difference between the official and declared value of each year, shows the fall or rise in the exchangeable value. The difference between official value in different years shows the difference of the quantity exported. + Parliamentary Papers, 1830. No. 315.

turers on the Continent; who, it was conceived, could bring the products of their industry to market at cheaper rates than we could. Such apprehension has proved to be altogether groundless. Our exports have greatly increased, particularly since 1822, when they amounted in official value to 43,558,488., being greater than their amount in 1815; and last year they were in official value 60,090,1231., being, indeed, 402,5147. below their amount in the preceding year, but nearly a third more than their amount in 1815; which was 8,511,4227. in official value above that of the preceding year (1814).*

Our imports afford evidence upon which an equally firm reliance may be placed in proof of the increase of industry in Great Britain. Our export trade consists in the exchange of our commodities for the commodities of other countries. These foreign commodities so exchanged for ours are stated in the Custom House books, when they are imported, according to certain rates, which never vary. The official value of our imports thus shows the quantity of foreign commodities imported from time to time, as the official value of our exports shows the quantity of our commodities exported from time to time. The exchangeable value, or current prices, of both at the time are estimated in gold in this

*Parliamentary Papers, 1830. No. 315.

country; because gold now forms our standard of value; and in silver in other countries, because silver forms the standard of value in such countries. But the proportion between the exchangeable value of gold and silver as against each other is known, and can easily be estimated. Coin will never be taken in exchange for more than the quantity of the metal contained in it. The only use of coin is to show the quantity of metal in the coin without the trouble of weighing and essaying; and the par rates of exchange as between different countries have been fixed according to the quantity of pure gold or pure silver contained in the coins of each.

Our imports, like our exports, being stated according to certain official rates of value, the increase of our imports thus affords as unerring evidence of the increase of the products of our industry as the increase of our exports. Dividing the last thirty years into two equal periods, the imports, according to the amount every fifth year, appear to have been as under :

As the exports in 1831 above the preceding year gave assurance of a continuance of an increase of export, so the increase of import in 1831 gives equal assurance of an increase of

import. The imports in official value in 1831 were 49,713,8897., but in 1830 only 46,2451.:

The amount of import has not always been correspondent to the amount of export. On the contrary, in the year 1815, when we had the largest export ever previously experienced, being 41,712,002/. in official value, the import in official value was only 31,515,2221. But the explan

ation is, that the exchange of commodities is the exchange of equivalents; and an equivalent may be received by Great Britain in another country, as well as in Great Britain itself. In that year, the equivalent was received abroad, in furnishings and otherwise to our troops; in satisfaction of which a larger export became necessary. The amount of the import, however, shows how much of the equivalent is received in this country; and an increasing import shows increasing means of consumption through the returns of home industry, whose products are given in exchange for foreign products.*

No doubt, therefore, can be entertained of the

*Our older statistical writers, even down to the late George Chalmers (who had not been able to free himself from their delusion), confounded themselves about a balance of trade. Their error lay in not considering gold and silver as commodities which may be always purchased by other commodities. All trade consists in the exchange of equivalents, and we receive an equivalent, whether we exchange commodities commonly so called for other commodities commonly so called, or whether we exchange them for gold and silver.

increase of our national industry, though that industry is depressed by legislative and municipal restraints in a manner to be hereafter explained.

CHAP. II.

RISE IN THE EXCHANGEABLE VALUE OF MONEY.

By means of our exports, the period of the rise in the exchangeable value of money can be ascertained with the most perfect certainty. In the year 1810, our exports were, in official value, 33,299,4087., and in declared value 47,000,9261. In 1811, they were, in official value, only 21,723,532l., and in declared value 30,850,6187.; the proportion of which to 21,723,532l. is much less than the proportion which 47,000,9267. bears to 33,299,4037. the amounts in the preceding year. But the amount, as well as the period of the fall of prices,- in other words, the rise in the exchangeable value of money, is still more strongly marked by our exports. It so happens that the amount of our exports, in official value, in 1800, was 22,831,936l., and in declared value 36,929,0071.; so that an amount of exports in 1811, only 1,108,404/. under their amount in official value in 1800, shows a difference of no