FARMERS AND FARMING. No. XIX.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2146, 10 April 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

FARMERS AND FARMING. No. XIX.

(Jommercf, international trade, or the interchange of goods between nations. The embodiment of this trade are our imports and exportt. Farmers may occasionally see these words, and statistics bearing upon them in their newspapers ; do they fully comprehend their meaning from an individual and a national point of view ? lam sure they do not, otherwise they would be up and doing and not quietly submitting to a crippled condition, a condition which entails upon this country a large, an enormous annual loss, which it is impossible to compute. On entering upon this series of my letters, I am beset by difficulties. Can I do such an important part of my subject justice ? Can I make it perfectly clear to my readers, without rendering it dry and uninteresting! I crave my reader's indulgence and attention. To start with, I must tell you that I look upon our external commerce at of iufinitely greater importance to us than our internal trade. My reasons for this conclusion are as follows :— The two trades, internal and external, in agricultural produce, may be roughly placed at about £5,000,000 each, taking the value the producer! receive. We might 'estimate our population to iaareaae at the rate of an average of 25,000 people per year ; with thja increase and assuming them to be all conintnera and not pro* ductrs of meat, bread, wool, etc., it would takt years for onr increasing population to outran the productive capacity of the land now in the hands of freeholder!, lessees, homestead, aad deferred payment settlers ; this is without taking into oon■ideration that land U being taken ap by thousands of acres every year ;' therefore, naturally we must look beyond ourselves (for very many years to come) for an outlet, not only for the present productions of our land, but also for the increase of which that land is capable ; " if " prices paid. To many minds, the principles upon which commerce with other nations is conducted appear very complicated, but I can assure our friends that it is not so. To pur modern state of society, necessity gives rise to exchange of commodities in this country, and the same cause also calls it into operation over more extended territories, and the same effects which flow from it in the smaller, flow from it in the larger sphere. There are exactly the same phenomena ,in either case only as trade extends beyond the boundaries of a nation there are greater obstacles to meet, as physical distance between countries, practicable transit of commodities — this latter obstacle in the case of this country and others has been overcome by the freezing process, and may yet be overcome in the case of live stock, — and in guaging the capacity and course of markets, but the first and the last obstacles are overcome by steam and the cablegram, Hence to my mind there should be no greater difficulty in transacting business with England or America than in this country — except— -and here comes the rub— what is interposed by the middlemen. There is one fallacy, which some people conceive in connection with this foreign commerce which it is as well to explain at once. The thought ia that commerce, being an exchange of value for value, can add nothing to the general wealth of a. country, or that the profit of one party fo an exchange is the loss of the other party. Now, what is the fact ? It is that both parties gain, and the vital but often unthought of principle upon which this it based is that goods are of more value in one place than another, as our mutton is worth more in England than here. Not that our producers get more. Ob, no! But that i« not the fault of England, but of shipping, agency, freezing, and other companies. On the other hand, Slaglwh cotton, woollen, Jron, and other good* are worth more in this country than they are at Home.. Therefore there is a mutual advantage in an interchange of goods between the two. Another fallacy into which people get over this subject is the confused idea oon* cerning goods exchanged and money, thinking that no tangible gain is made by a country unless it is in money. This is entirely erroneous. To dispel this notion I quote at length the clearest explanation which I know of the phenomena of international trade. It is by J. S. Mill : "All interchange is in substance and effect * barter.' He who sells his production for money, and with that money buys other goods, really buys those goods with his own produce." , The above sentence I wish oir farmers 1 to impress very particularly upon their minds. Mill go 8 on : " And so of nations ; their trade is a mere exchange of exports for imports, and whether money is employed or .not, things are only in their permanent state' when the exports and imports exactly pay for eaoh other." Further he tells us : "In international, as in ordinary domestic interchange, money is to com* meroe what oil is to machinery, or railways to locomotion, a contrifanoe to diminish friction." This money question has a strange fascination for some people, as being of paramount importance. Fancy a farmer's wife going to a store to make a half-year's purchase of drapery, etc., for a large family. Whether is it easier for her and more I convenient to the storekeeper to make ! and receive payment by cheques, notes or gold, or by having a live bullock or two driven to the store, and saying : I w<int so and so in return for these cattle ? I fancy the poor shopman would disappear pretty rapidly out at the back doot. And yet this example shows what trade is. The bullocks are sold by the farmer, and the proceeds given to his wife whew with to bay her requirements. Therefore, money to my mind is an insignificant thing in the economy of our present day life, with one exception, that by its use time is saved. I firmly believe, with E. Burritt, that "commerce between nations was not an accidental condition, but a vital principle in the constitution of the globe." The future advancement and prosperity of this country must depend upon her foreign trade ; and the backbone of that commerce is agricultural produce, and it ought to be one of the supreme duties of our people and government to foster it in every possible way, and to be unanimous in their efforts toremove every impedient which bars its further development. That there are very serious impediments no one can deny, and they are all, or mostly so, of the monopoly type ; they exist in this coun- I try and in England. Another monster ! which han already appeared amongst us, and under our present discreditable Government, if sanctioned by the country, threatens to enlarge into vaster proportions to the utter ruin of this country. T mean increased Customs duties, or, in Other words, protection to native industrial, a fine phrase invented to deceive people ; or, " one that smiles in your face whilst stealing from your pocket." I think our farmers will agree with Sir Robert Peel, "that the policy of a Legislature should be to leave the people of a country free in every way foe theirinternal and external trading, leaving it to ' their self interest to ascertain where to buy and sell best," or, as it is put, •' find the cheapest market to buy and the dearest market to sell in." Ut Prosim.

A kinsman of one of Lord Randolph Churchill's colleagues in the Ministry called upon him at the India Office, saya a London paper. Tha Secretary of State was at the moment busily oocupied, and just looking up from bis correspondence, said to the visitor, " Take a chair." He then wont on. writing, and apparently had forgotten the pr<3«enc« of his risitor, who, after moVing reutteasly about, at lost eaid, "1 bepr your pardon, my lord, I'm the nephew of Sir ," •• Oh ! Then take two chairs," said Lord Randolpb^contiuuing his writing.