.. "was greatly compensated by a very large balance of commerce in
favor of this kingdom,--greater than was ever known in any preceding
period. The value of the exports of the last year amounted, according to
the valuation on which the accounts of the Inspector-General are
founded, to 30,424,184_l._, which is more than double what it was in any
year of the American war, and one third more than it was on an average
during the last peace, previous to the year 1792; and though the value
of the imports to this country has during the same period greatly
increased, the excess of the value of the exports above that of the
imports, which constitutes the balance of trade, has augmented even in a
greater proportion." These observations might perhaps be branched out
into other points of view, but I shall leave them to your own active and
ingenious mind. There is another and still more important light in
which, the Inspector-General's information may be seen,--and that is, as
affording a comparison of some circumstances in this war with the
commercial history of all our other wars in the present century.
In all former hostilities, our exports gradually declined in value, and
then (with one single exception) ascended again, till they reached and
passed the level of the preceding peace. But this was a work of time,
sometimes more, sometimes less slow. In Queen Anne's war, which began in
1702, it was an interval of ten years before this was effected.
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