An estimate of the comparative strength of Britain during the present and four preceding reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution ... To which is added an essay on population / by the Lord Chief Justice Hale.

  • George Chalmers
Date:
1782
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An estimate of the comparative strength of Britain during the present and four preceding reigns; and of the losses of her trade from every war since the Revolution ... To which is added an essay on population / by the Lord Chief Justice Hale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/210 (page 17)
    [ ] from the one, or the other, we muft conclude that the interell: of merchants was not much alFedled by the war of 1739. Accurate fadts offer a continual contradiftion to political fpeculation. Who could have fuppofed that the mercantile enterprizes of the laft year Of fo lengthened a courfe of hoftilities, would have gained a fuperiority in their general amount over the conliderable traffic of the preceding period of peace, though a naval war was chiefly di- reded againft the adventures of the traders ? That long trad; of warfare is alfo remarkable for the confiderable balances of trade, which appear to have been paid annually to England; which, on a feven-year s average of the excefs of exports, including the bul- lion fent out, amounted to 4,719,175 a year An examination, indeed, of the tonnage, yields a lefs advan^ tageous dedudion, which is therefore nearer the truth. The foK lowing detail of our fhipping, gives us probably the true balance of trade: 446,666 tofts cleared outwards. y 304,861 tons entered inwards. 141,805 ; which carried out a cargo of about £. ajODOjOOOv In this moft favourable traffic we fee the caiife of that extraor- dinary difference of export between the three years of tranquillity preceding-the war of 1739, a,nd the three years of peace immedi- ately fubfequent to the treaty of Aix-la-Ghapelle. Contrail * It is curious to remark, that the balance of 4,.7I9>I75, which is mentioned in the'text as tfie annual payment made to England on her general commerce, is a much larger fum than the whole gold and filver that was yearly imported from America to Spain during the fame period. We may learn from The Inquiry into thi Caufe of the PFealth of Nations^ [vol. i. p. 261.] that, according to an average of elevenyears, there were imported annually into Spain 3,828,000 only ; Jind into it and I’ortugal no more than f. 5,746,878. 4. fterling. It was the vaft export of corn during the war of 1739, which has been valued at a million and a half, that fwellcd fo greatly the apparent balance of favourable payments. [See the Annual Regifter for 1772, p. 197* j It was in the fame manner the prohibition of the export of corn, with the bounty given to imports, more than any real decline in our manu- fadtures and traffic, which occafioned the-defalcation in the export of our produdls, and confequently in the balance of trade, which may be feen in the Chronological Table of Commerce hereinafter inferted, during the period from 1764 to 1771. Thefe obfervations were made for the fake of thofe who delight in accurate refearch, and ifi logical dedudfions from juft premifes. D