mercial policy. As
a matter of fact, instead of sending gold and silver out of the country
to pay for our excess of imports, we almost every year import
considerably more bullion and specie than we export. The actual figures
are given in the following table:--

THE MOVEMENTS OF BULLION AND SPECIE.

In Millions Sterling.

----------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
|1886|1887|1888|1889|1890|1891|1892|1893|1894|1895
----------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
Imports Gold |12.9|10.0|15.8|17.9|23.6|30.3|21.6|24.8|27.6|36.0
" Silver | 7.5| 7.8| 6.2| 9.2|10.4| 9.3|10.7|11.9|11.0|10.7
Exports Gold |13.8| 9.3|14.9|14.5|14.3|24.2|14.8|19.5|15.6|21.4
" Silver | 7.2| 7.8| 7.6|10.7|10.9|13.1|14.1|13.6|12.2|10.4
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
Total excess or | | | | | | | | | |
deficiency of imports | - | + | - | + | + | + | + | + | + | +
over exports of gold | | | | | | | | | |
and silver together | .6| .6| .5| 2.0| 8.8| 2.3| 2.4| 3.6|10.8|15.0
----------------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----

EXCESS OF IMPORTS OVER EXPORTS.

The movements of gold and silver then, instead of helping to explain the
excess of imports over exports, only increase the need for explanation.
Happily, the explanation that can be given, though it cannot be
statistical, is fully sufficient. It is fourfold. In the first place the
Custom House returns do not include in the tables of exports the large
export which we every year make of ships built to order for foreign
buyers, so that our exports appear smaller than they really are by at
least five millions a year. Secondly, an allowance must be made for the
profit on our foreign trade. If, in return for every pound's worth of
British goods sent out from our ports, only a pound's worth of foreign
goods came back, our merchants would make a better living by selling
penny toys along the Strand. What the average profit is on our foreign
trade there is no means of knowing, but putting it as low as 10 per
cent. on the double transaction, we at once account for some L30,000,000
sterling in the difference between our exports and imports. The third
item in the explanation is the sum earned by British shipowners for
carrying the greater part of the sea-