IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. In a general sense. imports and exports are goods which are conveyed across the boundaries of a region which is economically a unit. Thus we read of the im ports and exports of mediaeval cities, and the in tercolonial trade in America before the Revolu tion is classified in imports and exports. Since, however, almost ali of our knowledge of imports and exports is connected with the collection of duties from them, it has become customary to apply the terms to goods carried into or away from regions which are units politically, in \\I'M' no part levies discriminating duties against goods from another part. The trade between different parts of Australia, which formerly fig ured in statistics of imports and exports, bas teased to be so classed since the federation of the Australian colonies. A mere customs union of independent political units, however, would not change the character of the trade among its mem bers.
The formation of extensive empires and federa tions which has taken place in modern times would ill itself have largely diminished imports and exports. So also would the great diversifi cation of industry which has marked the recent economic history of the chief modern States. Agricultural countries are rapidly becoming man ufacturing countries also, and hence have less reason to export raw produce and import manu factures. On the other hand, the great cheapen ing of transportation and the development of a. wider range of wants have had a tendency greatly to increase imports and exports. How greatly the latter set of forces have overbalanced the former may be seen by comparing the statistics of foreign trade of a hundred years ago with those of the present. See COMMERCE.
Since the opening of the modern epoch there has existed a feeling that imports are injurious to a country, while exports are advantageous to it. Early statesmen believed that imports tended to drain a country of its bullion. while exports tended to restore that form of wealth. Hence the regulations of the mercantile period uthich aimed to discourage importation and en courage exportation. The special character of English imports and exports of the time assisted in developing this prejudice against imports. England largely exported wool and corn—com modities of high utility—and imported chiefly fine wares and articles of luxury, which were re garded by statesmen as injurious. The physio cratic school of writers, on the other hand, argued that since exportation of useful articles encour aged their production, it was to the advantage of a country to import its luxuries and devote itself to production of necessaries. But this point of view has never been widely adopted by practical statesmen.
Prejudice against imports still exists; but it is chiefly on the ground that importation tends to diminish the employment of labor and capital within a country. Exports are regarded with favor as encouraging industry. Economists have shown that exports and imports have an irresisti ble tendency to balance each other. An excess of imports, followed by a drain of specie, lowers prices in the importing nation, and so encourages exportation. On the other band, development of export trade must sooner or later result in an inflow of specie, higher prices, and consequent importation. The advantages of foreign trade in its entirety should, therefore, be the subject of study, not the advantages and disadvantages of the correlative phenomena that compose it.
In practical politics much stress is still laid upon the character of imports and exports. it is commonly regarded as highly desirable that a nation should export manufactures, and that its imports should as far as possible be raw mate rials. Manufactuicrs draw less upon the natural resources of a country and more upon the indus try of its people. It is obvious, however, that a country with unique natural resources may at tain a higher standard of well-being if it devotes its labor and capital to the exploitation of those resources, instead of endeavoring to produce manufactures in which it would have no relative advantage over other countries.
It has been said that there is a natural ten deney for imports and exports to balance each other. This is true, however, only with quali fications. The total value of imports of the world must naturally exceed that of exports, since the cost of carriage enhances the value of goods transported from one nation to another. A nation like England, which does a more than proportionate part of the world's carrying trade, can permanently import more than it exports; while the United State;, since it carries only a small part of its imports and exports, must per manently have a balance of exports. Again, a nation may invest the wealth gained by exporta tion in foreign enterprises, and will therefore have no corresponding surplus of imports until the returns from such enterprises begin to come in. Thereafter it may receive a permanent sur plus of imports. So England, having invested heavily in other countries, normally shows a great excess of imports over exports, as does also France, while the countries which are heavily indebted to foreign capitalists export as a rule far more than they import. See COMMERCE; IN TERNATIONAL TRADE; BALANCE OF TRADE.