THE GOLD STANDARD, AND UNBALANCED TRADE •
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Everybody will soon have to face the question of the gold standard. It may assist in clarifying the issue, if one asks where a foreign holder of pounds has now to look, in order to find a buyer for them. He has to look to customers of ours. If we remain off the gold standard, the pounds we spend on imports will all have to come back to us to buy goods—not " in the long run," but directly.
This seems to some of us the natural state of affairs. It automatically balances our trade. If we over-import we cheapen our pounds abroad, precisely to the extent that we over-import. The reason we have been able to over-import for so long is that no amount of it ever cheapened our pounds. Their price could only move between the gold points. The exchanges have been pegged.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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