Thanks to the wide extent of her colonial dominions, England could hope to gain in one part of the world if she lost in another, and the development of the Australian colonies in this period promised to atone for any decline in the West. The British flag was first raised in Australia in 1788. The young colonies were out of the track of the trade of the time, and seemed of such small importance that one was made a penal settlement, but the natural resources, especially the fitness for sheep-raising, induced a steady growth of population, and a considerable trade, even before the gold discoveries in the middle of the century. QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 1. What do we mean when we speak of the “importance” of a country’s commerce? The reader who reflects upon this question will find that at least three different standards are taken to measure importance. (1) Mere bulk or value. The commerce of the British Empire would be called the most important in the world, because it is larger than that of any other state. (2) The needs of the people of the country. A considerable number of Englishmen would starve without commerce. In this sense commerce is even more important to the miners of Alaska, for they would practically all starve without it. (3) The needs of other countries for the exports of a given country. In this sense the United States has perhaps the most important commerce in the world, because it supplies so much of the world’s need for cotton, copper, foodstuffs, etc. Endeavor to find examples, in this book or in others, of the different uses of the word; apply it in different uses to different countries. 2. Treat the statistics in sect. 418 as suggested previously, by graphic representation. How did British commerce compare in growth with world commerce? Did England keep her share in the world’s trade? Try to find in English history reasons for the ups and downs of trade, and for its gains and losses in comparison with the world’s trade. Beware, however, of hasty conclusions; many pitfalls are concealed in commercial statistics. In the table in the text, for example, the early figures are those of total exports and imports of merchandise, including wares simply passing through English hands to foreign customers; the figures for 1816 and the following years show only exports of British produce and manufacture, and imports retained in the country. This change in the method of measurement, rather than the crisis following the Napoleonic wars, explains the drop in the figures. This last method of measurement will be followed in later tables.