Balance ofFrancewithEngland.
Of all the balances ofEnglandsummed up by SirCharles Whitworth, that which is most to be wondered at every where but inJapanandChina, where foreign trade is but poorly encouraged, is the balance betweenEnglandandFrance, thesetwo nations being parted, as they are, only by a simple brook.
The wonder cannot but increase, if we consider with what eagerness those two countries are intent upon improving their trade.
The wonder will still increase, when it is observed, that theFrenchcarry to the highest pitch their rage forEnglishmodes, whilst theEnglishexperience the same kind of frenzy forFrenchfashions.
The wonder must increase still further, when it is observed, that the same nations, in possession of the most active and most intelligent industry, are also possessed of all the cash necessary to give an additional activity to thatindustry, which might be required to carry on a branch of trade, as it were, at their door, but which is neglected, out of regard for old and absurd prejudices.
Still must the wonder increase, if it is observed, that a first capital of 200,000l.laid out in that trade by the two nations, would occasion in both, more work in cultivation, as well as in the arts, than 600,000l.which each of them might employ in a trade toChina, if it were possible to lay out such a sum upon it?
The wonder will be still greater, when we consider that,by favouring, with equal care, the imports and exports to and from one country into the other, the two nations would, without the least inconvenience, acquire the means of increasing the revenue of their customs respectively, according to their wants, by agreeing mutually upon a tarif, which would be rated upon the average of those wants; a tarif, which the rest ofEuropemight adapt to its circumstances, if it were the general intention to increase, every where, the revenue of the State and the industry of the people, in a like proportion.
This is certainly what the two nations might have compassed. That which follows, is what they have done.
In the year 1699 the exports ofEnglandtoFranceamounted to 287,050l.and her imports fromFranceto 94,641l:—
In 1773, the period at which SirCharles Whitworthcloses his statements, the exports fromEnglandwere rated at 285,776l.and the imports fromFranceat only 44,484l.—On this the enthusiastic admirers of the Balancein favourbless their stars that their country imports now50,157l.less inFrenchgoods, than it did in 1699, and that, in order to secure this advantage,Englandexperiences no other damage than that theFrenchare fallen in their imports fromEnglandonly 1274l.since the year 1699.