Essay 8 FOREIGN TRADE; OR, THE WEDDING GOWN.

ONE evening, when John returned from his work, he found his daughter Patty showing off a new silk gown to her mother. It was a present which her lover had just given her, for the approaching wedding day. Patty's eyes, which had seldom beheld any thing so beautiful, shone with delight, as her mother admired it; and her father gave her a hearty kiss, and said she would be as smart a bride as had ever been married in the village. "Ay, and it is a French silk, too, mother," exclaimed Patty.—"Why, as for that," replied her mother, "I don't see the more merit in its being French; and I did not think, Patty, you were such a silly girl as to have all that nonsense in your head. No, indeed, it is bad enough for the great lady-folks to make such a fuss about French finery, so that they can't wear a Edition: current; Page: [149] bit of honest English riband. I don't like your gown a bit the better for being French. No; and I should have thought that your husband, that is to be, might have given you an English silk instead."

Patty was not pleased that her mother should find any fault with her new present, and her future husband; so she said, she thought there was no harm in the gown being French, if Barton could afford to give it to her; "and for my own wedding too," added she, with a blush.—"It is not that he can't afford it, child; but don't you see the shame of an Englishman going to buy French silks, while his own countrymen are working so hard for their bread at the manufactories at home? Why, they can get nobody to buy their English goods now, and the poor workmen will soon have to go to the parish or starve; and all because the fine ladies must be for ever sending over to foreign parts for their lace and silks, and all that."

Poor Patty was sadly put out: but her mother did not perceive it; and she went on abusing the gown, which she had admired so much until she had learned that it was French. "No, no," continued she, "I shall be ashamed if my girl is not married in an English gown, and tell Barton so," she added, pushing aside the smart present. Edition: current; Page: [150]

Patty tried to put in a word, but in vain. "Why, there is our girl Nancy, who works for a riband weaver at Nottingham, your father wrote to ask whether she could get in one of her youngest sisters; but she sent back word that trade was very slack, and that they were more likely to turn off hands than to take any more in: that while so many ribands came from France one could expect no better; and that it was well if we did not see her home again for want of work. It is a crying sin," added the dame, indignantly; "and I should be glad to know whether my Nancy can't make as good a riband as any of the French girls? I'm sure the one she sent me was as pretty as any one need wish to look on." John readily agreed that the English could make these things just as well at home, as others could in foreign countries. "Nay, and even if we did not," said the wife, "I think the great people ought to give a turn to their own country folks, and encourage home manufactures, instead of having all their finery made by foreign hands, and sent to them from foreign parts. Why, I have heard Lady Charlotte's maid, up at the castle, say, there's no end to the loads of silks, and laces, and ribands, and flowers, her Lady-ship gets from beyond seas; and, instead of Edition: current; Page: [151] being ashamed of it, she is proud to wear them, and to show them off to her acquaintances."

Now Tom, who was a good sharp lad, and given to be waggish, said,—"I wish that the French mounseers, instead of sending so much frippery for the rich, would send some good bread and cheese for us poor folks."—"And so they would, if you would pay for it," replied his father; "for they are not such fools as to send us their goods for nothing."—"Well, but how are the goods paid for?" asked Tom; "for uncle Bob, who has been over the sea to foreign lands, tells me, that when he goes to an alehouse in those outlandish parts, and has to pay for a draught of beer, they won't take our English money?" Uncle Bob, although he had not yet joined in the talk, had been in the room all the while; for he had come up from Liverpool on purpose to be present at Patty's wedding. He now pulled off his spectacles, and laying down the newspaper, which he had been quietly reading in a corner, said,—"That is true, but you should not say an alehouse, Tom, for there is little enough of ale or beer to be had there: they give you nothing but wine at their public houses. And, sure enough, they would take neither pence nor shillings, nor pounds either (if I had had them). The French will be paid in their own money, which Edition: current; Page: [152] they call sols and francs; and the Spaniards will have their own dollars."—"And how do you manage to pay for what you buy there?" asked John.—"Why, I get my English money changed into the money of the country where I happen to be. That is easy enough for the little I want; but it would never do to pay for all the goods that come over here from foreign parts."

This puzzled John not a little, when suddenly a wiser thought than usual came across him:—"If they won't take the money," said he, "perhaps they will take the money's worth, and that is all one."—"What do you mean by the money's worth, father?"—"Why, something that's worth as much as the money. They will take goods, for instance, instead of money. Ay, for now I remember, when I went over to Leeds to see your brother that works in the cloth factory, there was such a power of broad cloth piled up, of all sorts and fashions; there were some with mighty fine patterns; and I thought them rather queer for us Englishmen to wear; but Dick said that all those pieces were for foreign parts; and that if they did not please the fancy of foreigners, who liked showy patterns, they would not take our goods. 'You may guess,' added Dick, 'by the piles you see of them yonder, how much they Edition: current; Page: [153] like these.' And he told me they had orders for many more, so that they should be wanting more hands; and that if I sent one of the boys next spring, he thought they could find work for him. Now, don't you see, Tom, this is the way we pay for French goods. We pay them in kind, as it were; goods for goods; and the goods being worth as much as the money we should have paid for them, it is all one, as if we had paid in money."—"Why, it is much like my changing my top again Harry Fair-burn's marbles," said Tom. "And do they send us as much goods as we send them?"

"Why, as for that," replied his father, scratching his head, while he was thinking of an answer, "as broadcloth is much more bulky than laces or silks, we must send over larger cargoes than we receive in return. But, mind you, not more costly. No, no, we are sharper than that comes to. We should never be such fools as to send to foreigners what was worth more than they sent us. We give money's worth for money's worth."

"Then, if they work for us as much as we work for them," said Tom, "methinks it's tit for tat; and there is no one turned out of work, neither here nor there."

"Why, have not you just heard that your sister Nancy is like to be turned off at Nottingham, Edition: current; Page: [154] because they will wear so many French ribands?"

"Ay, but," said Tom archly, who could not help thinking of his own prospect, "but have not you said that I am likely to be taken in at Leeds, because foreigners wear our English cloths. So you see, father, it is as broad as it is long."

The father was puzzled, and he could think of nothing to reply to Tom, who had certainly the best of the argument. While he remained half grumbling at being set down by so young a lad, uncle Bob exclaimed, "The boy is right enough. Where is the sense of crying down French silks? why, it is just crying down our own broad cloth."—Patty's face brightened up, and she thought that Barton was right after all, and that she should wear her gay gown at the wedding. Uncle Bob continued,—"If we won't wear any more foreign merchandise, why foreigners won't wear any more of ours; for we shan't send ours over for nothing, that is quite certain."—"So much the better," muttered John, "let us each wear our own manufactures."

"Better for Nancy, but worse for Dick and Tom too," cried uncle Bob; "for, if there are no French silks and ribands to pay for, there will be no cloth made to pay them with, for Edition: current; Page: [155] look ye, cloth is the money we pay with. I say, and I'll maintain it too, that every piece of silk, and not silk only, but lace, or cambric, or wine, or what not, that comes from France, or Spain, or Germany, or even from as far off as the Indies, East or West (for Bob was fond of talking of the many countries he had seen); I say, every piece of foreign goods that comes over to England employs just as many of our workmen as if they made it themselves. What care our workmen whether they are making ribands and silks for their own countryfolk, or broad cloth for foreigners? What they want is to be employed, and that is all.—Why it is as clear as broad day; though it never struck me before, till the lad hit on it."

John was not much pleased to find his brother take part with Tom; however, he could not but think they seemed to be in the right, and that foreign trade did neither good nor harm. But they had not got at the whole truth yet, as the second part of the story will show.