=193. Encouragement of exports, manufactures, and shipping.=—In the second place, exports were encouraged, for they represented the credit items in a country’s trade, and might bring home a balance in cash. Even imports could be tolerated if they led to a more than corresponding increase in exports. The trade with East India was looked on with suspicion for some time because, as said above, it required the export of considerable bullion; but finally it established itself in public esteem, on the ground that a large part of the eastern wares was transshipped in England and exported to other European countries, so that the bullion was recovered from them. Altogether the best kind of imports, however, was held to be the raw materials of manufacture; if these could be worked up in England and exported, the country cleared not only the sum originally due for the imported material, but also the extra charge for the manufacture. Home industries were given various privileges by the government, because they either spared the importation or increased the exportation of the wares which they produced. Shipping and the fisheries were regarded with special favor, not only because they helped to produce a favorable balance of trade, but also because they were feeders for the national navy, and thus augmented the strength of the country in war. =194. Failure of the mercantile system to affect the distribution of the precious metals.=—Such were, in brief, the characteristics of commercial policy in the time of the mercantile system. The word “system” may give a false impression, for though the main ideas of mercantilism were generally accepted during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they were greatly modified in their practical application, and were seldom carried to their logical conclusions. For example, though statesmen professed a desire to stimulate exports, yet export duties were generally retained in this period for the revenue that they returned, and they hurt in some cases, without question, the sale of wares abroad.