Page 419 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

THE PRESENt ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND OUTLOOK 411
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What we find. in fact. on making this examination is
that we obtain from abroad what we want in three
ways: (I) by means of an income from capital invested
and employed abroad. including the salaries and re-
muneration of SUbjects~' f the United Kingdom em-
ployed abroad; (2) by eans of the exports of the net
produce of British capit 1 and labour,-what are com-
monly known as our eXJ>orts,-deducting. however. for
the reasons above given. the raw material contained
in these exports which had been previously imported;
and (3) by means of the earnings of our ships em-
ployed in the foreign trade. less any part of such
earnings'that may be spent abroad; also the earnings of
our merchants and bankers in the large commission
business which is carried on in the City and elsewhere.
In the minute study of the subject various minor
questions as to the balance of trade would have to
be considered. Some of our imports, for instance,
really balance the expenditure of American and other
tourists and settlers in our midst, so that even the
£ 398,000,000 above stated may be in excess of the
r~al figure we have now to deal with. Contrariwise, a
portion of our exports is required to balance the ex-
penditure of Englishmen abroad. There are also
~imes when we are investing abroad, so that part of
our foreign income on balance does not in fact come
home. But any such questions may be put aside for
the present. Substantially what we import from abroad,
as above described. consists of things required by the
community at home, and the amount must be set off
either by our income from property or services
abroad: or by our .. exports"; or by the earnings of
our ships and our commissions as bankers and mer-
. .
chants. In no respect, however, does an examination
of these different ways of setting off our imports sug-
gest any stram.- '
Let us turn first to the income fro~ our foreign in-
vestments as the easiest mode of obtaining our imports
from abroad. Like the wealthy residents of a purely