e to hand. A cargo of wheat from
California, for instance, takes from four to five months to reach
England. But it is paid for by drafts on England at 60 days sight,
which, sent forward by rail and steam, mature a month or more before
the arrival of the wheat in England. It is probable, indeed, that the
whole excess is paid for before it is received. The excess is certainly
not a debt owed by England; it is rather the payment of a debt owed to
England. It is sent in payment of interest and dividends on English
money invested abroad.

Mongredien shows that so far from its being an indication of debt when
the imports of a country exceed the exports, it is an indication of
wealth. Such a condition is a matter for congratulation. But many people
still cling to the early notion. While all are agreed that foreign
commerce is a good thing, and while the world is unanimous in thinking
that it is well to have the exports as large as possible, many people
still cherish a dislike to large imports. It is forgotten that you must
have imports to pay for the exports, and that, if you limit the imports,
you of necessity limit the exports. The exports must be paid for by
importing commodities and not by importing specie. The case has been
supposed of a protectionist Paradise, in which goods only were exported
and nothing but bullion received in return. Would a country be richer
for such a state of things? It would certainly not be richer, for there
would be an over supply of bullion, and it would fall in value in
comparison with other commodities. The workingman might receive twice
his former wages, but he would have to pay twice as much for everything
he consumed. Indeed, prices would rise much more rapidly than he could
induce his employers, by remonstrances and by strikes, to raise his
wages. Bullion would thus become very cheap. It would be worth about
half its price in foreign countries. The result would therefore be that
those holding it would send it abroad. But it would of course be sold
for goods, since the only other thing for which they could exchange it
would be bullion. The country would at once cease to receive nothing but
bullion. There would be great exports of bullion and great imports of
goods. Protected interests would be ruined, and everything would be
upside down, until the superfluous bullion would be worked off. Of
course a country which imported nothing but bullion and exported nothing
but goods would be impossib