THE PAYMENT OF IMPORTS.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Might I point out what seems to me the central doctrine in the theory of international trade ? It is that imports are paid for, and that, as they are not and cannot to any extent be paid for in metallic money, they are paid for in goods. In the Spectator of July 4th Sir Conan Doyle weighs the ordering of motor-cars from France against the ordering of motor-cars from Birmingham, and says that all the wit of the Free-traders will not convince him that he is doing his country as good a turn in the one case as in the other. I should not do Sir Conan Doyle the discourtesy of thinking that he considers that the French motor-car is paid for finally by a cheque, but his argument gives that impression. Surely somewhere in this country Englishmen are making the goods which will be exported—to France or to some other country— to pay for the French motor-car. But if—in the ordinary course of trade, and apart from the cases where imports are payments of debts, interest, or services—every import of foreign goods calls out a corresponding export of English goods, what becomes of all the talk about giving more work and wages to our own people This, of course, is only one of the many points which must be remembered in any fruitful dis- cussion, but it seems to me the one which is oftenest for-
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