Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/232

204 found, on its well-established modern basis, to make steady progress from one series of s to another. The powers of production had been greatly increased by a brilliant development of  and s. The  had grown into a commercial  of the first rank. The an and settlements were being extended, and assiduously cultivated, and were opening larger and more varied  for s. In 1819 the first  crossed the  from  to, and a similar adventure was accomplished from  to  in 1825—events in themselves the harbingers of a new era in. There began also to be signs, in the general prominence given to the study of, and in the policy of in , of a growing public opinion in favour of greater  of trade; and , after many efforts, was opened under  to an intercourse with foreign s which was soon to attain surprising dimensions. These various causes supported the activity of commerce in the first four decades; but the great movement which has made the century so remarkable was chiefly disclosed in practical results from about 1840. It has been seen above what the amount of the foreign of was in the last  of the 18th century. In 1839 the total value of produce and s exported, then including under the   produce and s, was 53,233,580; and the total value of imports was 62,048,000, of which 12,796,000 was exported to other. The number of s belonging to the in 1839, while the  s were still in force, was 27,745, of an aggregate  of 3,068,433, and 191,283. In 1850 the exports of home produce and s had increased to 71,368,000, and the imports to 100,469,000, of which 21,874,000, was exported. In 1873, which may be taken as the close of the period under review, the declared value of exports of and  produce and s reached the enormous total of 255,073,336, and the imports the still more astonishing total of 370,380,742. In the returns for 1873 the exports of foreign and  are given only in quantities, but in the two succeeding s the value of this branch of export  is given as 10,251,220 in 1874, when the total imports were 370,054,834, and 12,103,732 in 1875, when the total imports were 373,941,125—much less than in 1800, when the official value of re-exports is given as 18,847,735, on a total import of only 30,570,004, indicating, on the one hand, how greatly direct import from the  of origin to the  of use must have increased during the century, and, on the other hand, in how much larger proportion our imports of foreign and   had been entered for home consumption, The  in 1873, not of the  as in 1839, but of the  alone, had increased, under repeal of the  s, to 21,581, 5,748,097, and 202,239. The total value of and exports in 1873, as compared with 1839, shows an increase of 379per cent., and of imports an increase of 496per cent.—an expansion of  within the third of a century wholly without example. In the s from 1800 to 1839 the increase of domestic exports had been only 119per cent., and of imports 102per cent. A larger progressive increase of imports than of exports has been a feature of commerce for the last twenty years, and would seem to bear out the opinion of  that this is the result of all prosperous foreign, though an excess of imports over exports so large as 120,000,000 per annum cannot possibly be due to the cause which they have usually assigned for it, viz., the  accruing from the  of goods less valuable for goods more valuable in the respective, and is probably only accounted for by the large s of   of late s abroad, the  of which has for the most part to be paid in. The difference between official and real value in the returns, over the periods here referred to, vitiates in some measure the figures, not only as regards the old and discarded criterion of &ldquo;the balance of ,&rdquo; but as a means of exact comparison of one period with another; while, at the same time, they hold valid enough as regards the relative value of the several branches of import and export trade. Official valuation, the rates of which were fixed as far back as 1698, was long applied both to imports and exports, till at the close of last century the real or declared value of domestic exports began to be given along with the official value, and the discrepancy of the two—the official value increasing, and the real value declining in proportion to the quantities—gave rise to an opinion that we were always selling more of the products of our for less value in exchange, whereas it was the result of the cheapening of production by s and, and anything but a proof either of  or  loss. The official valuation of imports was much longer adhered to than in the case of exports, till of late s the practice has been to give the real or declared value in both branches of the commerce. It must be admitted, however, to Mr M&lsquo;Culloch and other authorities, that these returns of value, however near the mark, can never show a balance of trade in the sense once supposed. The value given in the cannot exactly correspond with the value realized, since the whole system of  proceeds on the fact that certain goods and produce are of more value in one  than in another. It was remarked as long ago as 1800 that the export of was much over valued in the official returns, and if, one would say , and most other foreign and  produce; but the import of these articles having been valued on the same official scale, this could not affect the proportion either in quantity or value between the re-export and the total import of foreign and. What is shown by the above figures to have been this proportion then, and what has occurred since so greatly to change the relation of imports and exports, is consistent with what might be predicated on grounds of general reason. It was certain that when was supporting a great  on, and paying heavy subsidies to an s, she would have to send large quantities both of her own produce and her foreign and  imports to the  where she was spending her  so freely and continuously. It was equally certain that, when this burden was thrown off, when her great had been consolidated, and its  was being paid out of her own resources, and a surplus  was once more developed, she would use her foreign and   more largely in her own, s, and consumption, and that in any lengthened course of such prosperity her imports would begin to exceed her exports instead of the reverse. The excess of imports over exports, including exports of foreign and , began to appear in the  returns about 1850; and this is coincident with, the period within which we have to date an increasing investment of   in foreign and. An increase of the foreign of the from 115,281,580 to 625,454,078, in the course of thirty-four s, presents a vaster theme than can be easily grasped, and it may be enough here simply to supply some concise information—(1)as to the  which entered into so large a commerce, and (2)as to the distribution of the movement in the various quarters of the. In the Parliamentary Account of Revenue, Population, and Commerce for 1839, a summary is given of the principal articles of and  export, and their respective values; and by placing these in juxtaposition with the same articles of export from the  returns for 1873, as in the following table, a pretty comprehensive view may be obtained of the impulse given to our various  :—

These figures speak largely for themselves. The export of  s in 1839 was so great as to cast into the shade every other export, and, though its increase since that period has been wonderful, yet it is gratifying to observe, in the progress of other branches, the greater breadth and variety which the   of the  has assumed. The export of goods and s in 1839 was nearly a half of our whole export of produce and s. In 1873 they were less than a third. Indeed, if and, and  and  s be put together, they