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ON INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL COMPARISONS 65
denominators are hardly ever the same in any two
countries. The result is, that there are continual mis-
statements by amateurs on such questions as a com-
parison of two countries in respect of the progress of
their foreign trade, or in respect of what is called the
balance of trade. The falling off of the foreign trade
of one country is contrasted with the growth of the
foreign trade of another country at the same time, the
truth being 'that in the one case, owing to the system
of vcilbing by merchants' declarations, the volume of
the foreign trade expressed in money responds instantly .
to variations in market price, while, in ,the other, owing
to the system of official prices fixed at intervals, the
volume of trade does not respond at once to variations
in market price. In one country, again, what is called
an adverse balance of trade appears to be larger in
proportion than it is in another country, largely because
the imports are valued as at the place of arrival, in-
cluding freight and other charges to that place; while
in the country with which comparison is made, the
value is taken at the place of shipment, and does not
include such additions. In the latter case, therefore,
the exports form a total more nearly approximating to
that of the imports than in the former. All this con-
fusion is due simply to the fact that the units of the
imports and exports are not, in fact, the same. The
record is not made in the same way.
Assuming, however, that the record is made in the
same way formally, there remain some essential differ-
ences in the foreign trade of different countries, which
make comparisons between them most difficult, and it
is mainly to one or two of these essential differences I
would now desire to call attention.
First of aU, there are the differences which I dis-
cussed at length in a paper I wrote long ago on .. The
Use of Import and Export Statistics," 1 due to the facts
that a nation may be largely engaged in the business

1 See supra, vol. i., pp. 282 II Sf,/.
II. F