The Balance of Trade The reports of British trade are
encouraging but cer- tainly not yet exhilarating. Our men of business are evidently trying to take advantage of the fall of sterling which, for the moment at any rate, acts like the tariff for which some of them have longed, and also as a bounty on export. We hear gladly of a few Lancashire and Yorkshire textile mills being reopened with new orders to fulfil. We hear of tramp steamers leaving the river- mouths, where they have lain idle so long, to carry cargoes of coal. This is all to the good, but it does not yet go far. towards redressing the adverse balance of trade. That is by far the most urgent economic purpose that lies before us now, to which full attention must b;,. given, even-at election times. It is not well understood by many of us, and we hope to publish some articles upon it, including one by Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland next week, and later others by Mr. Lionel Robbins and others.
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