Colonial policy can receive but scant treatment in this book. The student is referred to the bibliography by A. P. C. Griffin, List of books relating to colonization, Washington, second ed., 1900, and to the references there given. CHAPTER XXXV ENGLAND: COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1800-1850 =417. Importance of the commerce of England.=—In returning to the study of the development of commerce in different countries we shall take up first the country which at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and at its end as well, held the leading position, England. An English author has made the statement that “in the eighteenth century foreign trade was of so little importance to the majority of the inhabitants of England, that with one important exception (wheat) the whole of it might have been destroyed without making any appreciable change in the habits or wealth of the people.” This statement is an exaggeration which can hardly be supported, but yet it suggests a truth of great importance; English commerce in 1800 was merely an aid to the development and welfare of the country, while it had become in 1900 absolutely necessary to the mere existence of the people. =418. Statistics of the growth of commerce, 1800-1850.=—The period of most rapid growth was the second half of the nineteenth century, and this period will be reserved for special consideration a little later. The development in the first half of the century is set forth in the accompanying table, which gives the figures for imports retained in the country, and for the exports of home produce, according to the system of valuation in use in this period, with the sum of these items. As the population doubled in this period it is apparent that foreign commerce, which more than doubled in value, was taking a more important place in the national economy than before. In the first quarter of the century, when England was passing through the struggle of the Napoleonic wars and was recovering from their effects, trade was nearly stagnant, but it made up in the twenty-five years that followed for the time that had been lost before. If we measure commerce not by the value of the wares, but by their physical quantity, the increase was far more striking; prices of many articles, especially of the manufactures exported, fell during this period, and consequently the same bulk of trade would be represented by much smaller figures in pounds sterling. If we returned to the old method of measuring trade, which retained “official” values that did not change with the movement of market prices, and which therefore affords a means of measuring an increase in the bulk of trade, we should find, comparing the two years, 1800 and 1849, that exports grew from 24 million to 190 million pounds sterling, giving the enormous increase of 682 per cent. ANNUAL AVERAGE TRADE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. (Millions of Pounds and Dollars)