, that the voyage had not been
profitable. If such commodities fell far short in value of the cost of
the outward cargo, then the voyage would be a very losing one; and yet
it would present exactly that state of things, which, according to the
notion of a balance of trade, can alone indicate a prosperous commerce.
On the other hand, if the return cargo were found to be worth much more
than the outward cargo, while the merchant, having paid for the goods
exported, and all the expenses of the voyage, finds a handsome sum yet
in his hands, which he calls profits, the balance of trade is still
against him, and, whatever he may think of it, he is in a very bad way.
Although one individual or all individuals gain, the nation loses; while
all its citizens grow rich, the country grows poor. This is the doctrine
of the balance of trade.

Allow me, Sir, to give an instance tending to show how unaccountably
individuals deceive themselves, and imagine themselves to be somewhat
rapidly mending their condition, while they ought to be persuaded that,
by that infallible standard, the balance of trade, they are on the high
road to ruin. Some years ago, in better times than the present, a ship
left one of the towns of New England with 70,000 specie dollars. She
proceeded to Mocha, on the Red Sea, and there laid out these dollars in
coffee, drugs, spices, and other articles procured in that market. With
this new cargo she proceeded to Europe; two thirds of it were sold in
Holland for $130,000, which the ship brought back, and placed in the
same bank from the vaults of which she had taken her original outfit.
The other third was sent to the ports of the Mediterranean, and produced
a return of $25,000 in specie, and $15,000 in Italian merchandise. These
sums together make $170,000 imported, which is $100,000 more than was
exported, and is therefore proof of an unfavorable balance of trade, to
that amount, in this adventure. We should find no great difficulty, Sir,
in paying off our balances, if this were the nature of them all.

The truth is, Mr. Chairman, that all these obsolete and exploded notions
had their origin in very mistaken ideas of the true nature of commerce.
Commerce is not a gambling among nations for a stake, to be won by some
and lost by others. It has not the tendency necessarily to impoverish
one of the parties to it, while it enriches the other; all parties gain,
all parties make profits, all parties grow rich, by the ope