1891.
Imports ..........
£427, 600, 000
248, 900, 000


£420, 900, 000
263,500,000


£435. 700, 000
247, 300, 000


!Exports





It is self-evident that these figures do not signify an equal amount of
loss by passive balance. The reexportation has not been sufficiently
eliminated. Ko account is taken of the great gain from the carrying on
of the marine commerce under the British flag, which during the last
decade rose from 37,000,000 to 61,000,000 tons, and comprises one-half
of the commerce of the United States and of Eussia. England, more-



over, la the creditor of the other nations.
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THE FUTURE OF SILVER. 77

In this last direction, in which the conditions of money matters be-
come still more directly manifest, the year 1891 was not a favorable one.
Theorises of the year 1890 were not yet forgotten; Argeotina and
Brazil, Portugal, Spain, and Greece had shaken confidence. Confidence
in Australia was impaired. As in the merchandise balance, so here,
too, the high figure of 1889 forms a turning point. The total emiseioiiA
were, beginning with 1885: £77,900,000, £101,900,000, £111,200,08»,
£160,300,000, £207,300,000, £142,600,000, and £104,600,000; that is to
say, in 1891 about one-half of 1889. The actual payments, however,
were £77,900,000, £87,500,000, £93,600,000, £137,300,000, £167,800,000,
£141,000,000, and £76,000,000. Only £22,000,000 of the emissions of
£104,600,000 represent foreign loans, and in these £22,000,000 is in-
eluded the Eussian loan of £19,800,000, of which practically nothing
was taken in England. All the leading loans of the colonies and of
foreign countries closed the year with lower quotations, with the ex-
ception of Tiu'kish and Egyptian values and the railway papers of the
United States and Canada.
The position of England as creditor of the other nations has not been
strengthened in 1891.
