The adverse rate of exchange in America has been causing
anxiety, but the marked fall in the value of the sovereign in America was bound to come. The warning will be useful if we learn our lesson as we ought to do. All through the was the value of the sovereign was kept up by British borrowings in America. This artificial process could not, of course, be con- tinued indefinitely, and four months ago the rate of exchange was left to look after itself, although the export of gold is still prohibited. It is true that what we buy in America costs us progressively more as the exchange continues to fall ; but there are consolations, as in these circumstances British goods can be marketed relatively at a lower price than that of American goods. The tendency, therefore, will be for us to import fewer American goods, and this wholesome corrective process w:11 cease only when we can actually pay for what we want from America.
