Mr. A. Mongredien, the well-known economist, this week again brings
before the public the fact which those who write on the depression of trade habitually forget, that a great harvest must be followed by a decline in our foreign trade. If the country has much grain of its own it imports less, say, as in 1884, to the extent of 215,000,000, and the exports to pay for that corn are equally decreased. In other words, the returns of foreign trade show a falling off of 230,000,000 in all. How that proposition can be denied or questioned by anybody who knows the first principles of economics, is to us inconceivable ; but it is denied every day. It is true the farmers and others who benefit by a full crop may spend its extra produce on foreign goods; but they may not, and, as a matter of fact, they do not, the money going chiefly to pay off previous loans from bankers. There are Tories in the world, we believe, who are honestly sure that the less they import the more they will export, which is like saying that the more furniture they buy, the less money will they have to pay for furniture.
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