It should be remembered also, that it is not so easy for all countries who may have adopted the double standard to exclude one from their monetary code. The example of Holland has proved that gold, having lost its character as legal money, will no longer be used as a token. To demonetize gold is to exclude it from the market. For a great commercial country like Holland, living in the greatest freedom, and carrying on its trade by exchanging and carrying the products of all the countries in the world, to exclude one of its habitual means of exchange, may not be attended with great risks. England, though little disposed to imitate Holland at present, might perhaps do so with less danger, from having the commerce of the whole world in its hands. France, unless under pressing necessity, could not demonetize her gold without exposing herself to a complete disturbance in all her relations, both at home and abroad. Our trade is tied up by a completely protective system, without alluding to those direct prohibitions which disgrace our customs’ tariffs; almost all the duties which affect articles of primary consumption are, in short, disguised prohibitions. In exchange for the products of our own country, which we have to sell to the foreigner, we can hardly purchase in return anything but raw materials. Thus, bar and pig-iron, those articles of primary importance, have been subjected to duties at the rate of 100 per cent. on their value. In those countries enjoying a legislation attentive to the wants of trade, and where the custom-houses are only for the objects of revenue, the imports and the exports will show an even balance. In our country, where we have been desirous of opposing a barrier to the free course of exchange, goods exported have always a preponderance in value over those imported. In 1850, for example, the imports represented a value of [222]790,000,000 francs, and the exports [223]1,068,000,000 francs, showing a difference of [224]278,000,000. England and the United States, together, receive of our products an excess of [225]236,000,000 above the exports we receive from them; and as those countries with which we trade cannot pay us in goods, they must make their return in gold and silver. This was the reason of the import of [226]220,000,000 francs in coin in 1850, as shown in our official returns. So long as the system of protection is the ruling policy of France, so long will it be impossible to deprive gold of its value as money; to attempt it would be to withdraw from trade one of its most useful means of exchange. It would check, if not stop, all intercourse with those countries who can only pay in gold, or who can only sell us those commodities which we endeavour to exclude by our tariffs. Gold flows naturally only to those countries where it is marketable; and it is only so where it is in use as coin as well as in commerce. A profit of half per thousand is sufficient in the present