d--the temptation of picking out years
peculiarly favourable to my argument--I propose to take the last ten or
the last fifteen years, for which statistics are available, and to give
wherever possible the figures for each year in the whole period. The
figures that will be here quoted are all taken from official records,
except when otherwise stated.

OUR TOTAL TRADE FOR TEN YEARS.

The first point to attack is the question of the total import and export
trade of the United Kingdom. The figures are contained in the following
table:--

TEN YEARS' TRADE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

(Exclusive of Bullion and Specie).

In Millions Sterling.

--------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
|1886|1887|1888|1889|1890|1891|1892|1893|1894|1895
--------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
Total Imports | 350| 362| 388| 428| 421| 435| 423| 405| 408| 417
Total Exports | 269| 281| 299| 316| 328| 309| 292| 277| 274| 286
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----
Excess of | | | | | | | | | |
Imports | | | | | | | | | |
over Exports | 81| 81| 89| 112| 93| 126| 132| 128| 134| 131
--------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----

These figures may be illustrated as follows:--

[Illustration]

These figures hardly bear out the statement that "commercial dry rot,"
to use one of Mr. Williams's favourite phrases, has already laid hold of
us. In spite of the fall in prices, the money value of our trade, both
import and export, has fully maintained its level. It is true that the
year 1886, with which the diagram starts, was a year of depression, but
the point which I wish to bring out by the diagram is not that 1895 was
a better year than 1886, but that the general course for the whole
period of ten years shows no downward tendency. Later on I shall give a
diagram, covering a period of fifteen years, which brings out the same
point even more clearly. It is important, however, at once to point out
that the mere comparison of the money totals of our trade in different
years is necessarily inconclusive, because no account is taken of
prices. To get a true comparison between any two years, say 1895 and
1890, we ought to calculate what the value of our trade in 1895 would
have been if each separate commodity had been sold at the prices of
1890. Were this done, it would probably be foun