What Becomes Of The Money?

[From the Chicago Tribune.] We have ïepeaMlV pnbllBlifed ihó figures showing the friliing off in the import trade of the United States. This, added to the increase in the exporta, eíhibjt a regtilaLty-üiëLea8iiig maJgili öf dllíoronce between oiir exporte and imports, or what is callcd a largo " balance of trade " in our favor. The statements of import and exporta for several years, and for the eight months of the present year ending Feb. 28, thus compaj'e ; Üxctm of Xears. XWiwiiV?. mtport. Baporiê. 1874 !)'J5,S61,248 $704,lfi,120 fl08,801,S72 1875 SoSJOfijlSS 643,094,767 80,188,614 1876 476,677,871 644,95ü,40 168,278,536 Eight mo'ths of .1877... 300,557,531 487,273,786 186,716,255 Totals.. $1,937,002,803 $2,479,788,079 $552,785,276 Here we have the record that in the tliree years and eight months endiug Feb. 28, 1877, we have exported and sold domestic producto to the antountof (S552,785,276 In cXcüsS íif_ the valüe of the gööds We liave purchased. What has been done with tiie money ? In the first eight months of the present fiscal yeai we have sold nearly 200,000,000 more goods than we have purchased. Where does the money go? What are we ceiving for it ? That question is not easily answered in detail ; but generally We rnay nssume that it ír app'ied abroad to taking üp the Vaïiotls foïms of local indebtedno88. During tiie war and following the war, and down to tlie very dayin 1873 on whiöh Jay CoHkc closed his bank, the American people were actively and industriously engaged in the manufacture of debts. The Southern States sucoeeded in issuing nearly $300,000,000 of State bonds ; the cities of the United States issued all the bonds forwhich they could find purchasers. Even little rural villages issued tlieir 10 per cent. bonds, and sold them, or gave them away, or had them stolen and sold. The agricultural distriets of this State sold over $15,000,000 of bundB, beai'ing an average interest of 8} percent. The municipal debts in Illinois alone exceed $10,000,000. It was the same everywhere. The railroads were industrious in the issue of bonds. Cash was discardcd as a means of building railways ; railways were built by construction companies. Stock was subscl'ibed aüd paid foï ín bouds ; the rnilroad companics paid the construction companies in bonds ; the coustruction companies paid for grading, and bridges, and for iron, and for cars, and for coal, and locomotivos, in bonds. Bonds were the universal investment. Every laborer or mechanic on a railway, every man who furnished teams for grading or ties, or stone, or lumber, had his bouds laid away. The bonds were inexhaustible so long as they could bo printed and people would take them. These bonds were dispoBed of as rapidlv as possible. Agents of foreign capitalista picked them up in the inarkct and sent theni abroad. We were piling up debt most recklessly and laboriously. We are 'now buying that debt back, but, unfortuuately, are not paying it. A very large portion of the debt that was held at home has been sponged out of existence. More of it is of dubious or very small valuo. The rest of it was held abroad. The foreign holders of these bonds have been sending them to this country to be sold. At the time of the panic there were probably not less than $1,500,000,000 of European money invested in tliis country in all the forms of American securities. These have been in the process of return to this country iu exchange for our exporta. That will account largely for the " balance of trade " which has set in in our favor. How far it is profitable to this country is a matter of speculation. In the mcantime, these bonds pay no duty, and are consequently no sourco of revenue. The LmportatLon of $100,000,000 more of dutiable mercliandise would yield an average of $55,000,000 of revenue to the Government. It cannot be said that we are paying our debts by this process. The bonds are merely changiug hnnds - passing from foreign to American holders. Persons anxious to know if the nation is not getting rich from its surplus exports may make their own estímate as to the pronta of the exchange of cotton and breadstuffs for railroad, municipal and other bonds and securities.