he export of
railway and other material when goods are exported for the purpose of
constructing railways or other works abroad. The sales are made by
individuals in the United Kingdom to individuals abroad; but there is no
set-off of purchases on the other side. _Mutatis mutandis_ the same
explanation applies to the remittance of goods by one country to another,
or by individuals in one country to individuals in another to pay the
interest or repay the capital of loans which have been received in former
times. These are all cases of the movement of goods irrespective of
international sales and purchases, though the movements themselves appear
in the international records of imports and exports, and therefore it seems
to be assumed, though without any warrant, in the international records of
the balance of trade. There is yet another failure in the comparison. The
individual trader would include in his sales and purchases services such as
repairs performed by him for others, and similar services which others do
for himself; but no similar accounts are kept of the corresponding portions
of international trade such as the earning of freights and commissions,
although in strictness, it is obvious, they belong as much to international
trade as the imports and exports themselves, which cannot therefore show a
complete "balance of trade."

The illusions which may result then from the confusion of ideas between a
balance of trade or profit, and a balance of cash paid or received, and
from the identification of an excess of imports over exports or of exports
over imports with the balance of trade itself, though they are not the same
things, hardly need description. The believers in such illusions are not
entitled to any hearing as economists, however, much they may be accepted
in the market-place or among politicians.

The "balance of trade" and "the excess of imports over exports" are thus
simply pitfalls for the amateur and the unwary. On the statistical side,
moreover, there is a good deal more to be urged in order to impress the
student with care and attention. The records of imports and exports
themselves may vary from the actual facts of international purchases and
sales. The actual values of the goods imported and paid for by the nation
may vary from the published returns of imports, which are, by the necessity
of the case, only estimated values. And so with the exports. The actual
purchases and sales may be something ver