| Exports 1845, | L.53,298,026 | |
| Ditto 1846, | 51,279,735 | |
| __________ | ||
| Decrease | L.2,018,291 | |
| __________ | ||
| Duties on Imports, 1845, | L.21,860,353 | |
| Ditto 1846, | 22,498,827 | |
| __________ | ||
| Increase | L.638,474 | |
| __________ |
Thus, while the exports are decreasing, the imports are augmenting; we are selling less and buying more, and the foreigner is reaping the profit.
We are fortunately enabled, from the last official tables, issued after the greater part of this article was sent to press, to show what the results of free trade have been since 1846. Several of our friends, who hold ultra liberal commercial opinions, are, as we full well know, slow to conviction, and will be apt to maintain that our experience of the new system up to that period, has not been large enough to justify our condemnation of its failure. Let us then see what testimony 1847 can bear in favour of free trade.
These tables, according to the Economist, a free trade organ of undoubted ability, "continue to show an enormous comparative importation and consumption of all the chief articles which contribute to the daily sustenance of the people, and a marked falling off of those which form the basis of our manufacturing industry, and consequently of our future trade." In other words, whilst we are buying, and buying largely, our articles of provision and immediate consumpt from the foreigner, the supply of the raw material which we can reproduce in the shape of manufactures is falling off. The foreigner has the benefit of underselling us in the home market, and we are losing the power of competition in the markets abroad. The increase of our consumption is most remarkable, and the agriculturist will probably derive but little comfort from the following comparative statements, which show the amount of certain articles of import during nine months of the last three years.
Agricultural Produce Imported Jan. 5 to Oct. 10.
| 1845. | 1846. | 1847. | |
| Provisions, beef, pork, &c. cwts. | 109,550 | 206,455 | 403,877 |
| Butter, cwts. | 189,056 | 177,165 | 243,140 |
| Cheese, do. | 183,891 | 216,191 | 243,601 |
| Grain of all kinds, qrs. | 1,336,739 | 2,635,218 | 7,905,419 |
| Flour and Meal, cwts. | 394,908 | 2,631,341 | 7,900,880 |
These, we think, are somewhat startling figures. All this has to be paid for by native industry, doubly taxed at present, in order to get back that gold which Sir Robert Peel has practically declared to be the life-blood of the community, and which cannot, under our monetary system, be expended abroad, without depressing credit and prostrating enterprise at home. Let us now see what kind of provision we have laid in for future manufactures—what amount of raw material we have on hand, which, when converted into goods, shall enable us to liquidate this heavy balance, and provide for the future payment of a constantly increasing supply of articles of daily consumpt. We were to be fed by the foreigner, and to work for him, he finding us both the food and materials. Such, we understood, were the terms of the contract, which the free-traders wished the nations of the world to accept. It has been acted upon in so far as regards the food for which we have paid; not so as to the means of payment.
Raw Material Imported Jan. 5. to Oct. 10.
| 1845. | 1846. | 1847. | |
| Flax, cwt., | 1,048,390 | 744,861 | 732,034 |
| Hemp, | 624,866 | 588,034 | 465,220 |
| Silk, raw, lbs., | 2,865,605 | 3,429,260 | 3,051,015 |
| Do., thrown, | 311,413 | 293,402 | 200,719 |
| Do., waste, cwt., | 11,238 | 6,173 | 7,279 |
| Cotton wool, | 5,495,799 | 3,866,089 | 3,423,061 |
| Sheep's wool, lbs., | 57,308,477 | 51,058,209 | 43,348,336 |
The above table affords us the means of estimating our immediate manufacturing prospects, and we need hardly say that these are any thing but cheering. In no one particular have the prophecies of the free traders been fulfilled. They were wrong in their revenue calculations with respect to the tariff; wrong in their anticipations regarding the import of raw materials; and deplorably wrong in their promises of increased exportation. We hope that Sir Robert Peel will shortly favour the House of Commons, and the country with his explanation of the following mercantile phenomena. It will be listened to with more curiosity than his arguments upon the nature of a pound.