Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 2.djvu/98

96 estimates, Davenant remarks, in the first place, that, whatever may have been the case as to the trade with France, it is evident, beyond all dispute, that, from the Restoration to the Revolution, our trade with the whole world must have been a most gainful one, even in the sense of those who will admit nothing but an overbalance of gold and silver to be a gain in commerce, seeing that, in that space of time, there was actually coined at the Mint, as appears from the Mint-rolls, above six millions of gold and above four millions of silver. "If England," he proceeds, "had suffered such a drain as the loss of a million per annum by its dealings with one single country, there could not have been such an immense coinage in those years, nor could the bullion we received from Spain, returned as the overbalance of the trade we had with the Spaniards, have answered and made good such a constant issue: from whence follows, that this balance against us of a million yearly, which has been asserted in several books, and in memorials laid before the king and council, and both Houses of Parliament, must have been chimerical, for bye-ends advanced by some, and ignorantly followed by others." He then states various facts which go to show at least that considerable exaggeration had been used in making up the accounts which appeared to prove so great a balance of imports from France; and, on the whole, be comes to the conclusion, that, if the goods sent from England to France, and those brought from France to England, had been fairly valued, there would be found to have been no considerable difference between the money amount of the one and of the other. But, after all, he goes on to remark, the question remains, "how far the excess between the exports and imports may be deemed a certain rule, whereby to judge whether a country gets or loses by its trade?" And upon this point he adduces some startling facts. Both in 1663 and 1669, as we have already seen, the imports very greatly exceeded the exports on our trade with the whole world; yet in both those years it was not to be disputed by any man in his senses that we carried on a thriving traffic on the whole. On the other hand, in five more recent years,