and exports of the United Kingdom for that year.[1]
Inconclusive reasoning of Board of Trade. The Board of Trade argued, but very inconclusively, with reference to the free supply of foreign tonnage for the requirements of British trade, that if, during the exceptional circumstances of recent years, British commerce had been obliged to depend on British shipping alone to the extent which was necessary before 1850, an artificial stimulus would have been given to the demand for British ships, which could not have been sustained, and that, therefore, the whole weight of the reaction would have fallen upon British shipping, instead of being diffused, as was the case, among the whole tonnage employed in British trade.
Upon this preposterous conclusion no argument can be raised: as well might it be said that a man ought not to be individually prosperous, lest the revulsion of adversity should be too great for him,
- ↑
-+-+
| 1857. | 1858.
-+-+
| £ | £
Imports | 135,051,444 | 115,218,811
Exports | 122,066,107 | 116,614,331
+-+
| 257,117,551 | 231,833,142
| 231,833,012 |
+-+ Decrease per
| | cent. 9 4-5
Decrease, 1858 | 25,284,409 |
-+-+Shipping (total entered and cleared in Cargo and Ballast).
++
Years. | Total. | British.
++
| Tons. | Tons.
1857 | 23,178,792 | 13,694,107
1858 | 22,309,981 | 12,891,405
++
