THE PRELUDE TO THE COLLAPSE OF 1893 53 
in the different colonies. For the four colonies mentioned, the stop- 
page of the supply of capital for the year 1880 marked a swing 
in the aggregate trade from an excess of imports of nearly 8% 
millions, to an excess of exports of nearly 3% millions, or a 
difference of approximately 12 millions. This situation in four 
independent and widely separated communities, which, however, 
drew their capital supplies from the same source, is a very 
pretty illustration, in the coincidence of precisely similar 
changes, of the effects of capital borrowings. 
Tare VI 
Balance of Trade for the British Colonies. 
Victoria ’ 3 
New South Wales . 
New Zealand 
Canada ’ , 
Totals 
1878. 
Excess of 
Imports. 
£ 
2,580,000 
£112,000 
2,631,000 
2 095,000 
8,418.000 
1880. 
Excess of 
Exports. 
L 
1,398,000 
1,575,000 
191,000 
984.000 
3.448,000 
1881. 
Excess of 
Imports. 
466,000 
1,279,000 
1,396,000 
1,708,000 
4,849,000 
The resumption of capital imports in 1881 marked, in 
Australia, an immediate return of the former prosperous con- 
ditions. Much of the new capital introduced both publicly and 
privately was being devoted to pastoral development in the 
Riverina, and to the opening up of sugar-growing country in 
Queensland. Added to this was the effect of a revival of specula- 
tion in mining as evidenced by the formation of many new 
companies. The outcome of this three-cornered competition 
for financial support between banks, land companies, and mining 
ventures was a fierce scramble for capital which led to the land 
companies offering the unusually high rate of 5 per cent. for 
money at call; and to the banks scouring the United Kingdom 
for deposits even at this early day. Business concerns of all 
sorts were paying handsome dividends. The banks for the next 
ten years commonly paid 10-14 per cent., and the land com- 
panies bid even higher. From this time forward small cash 
payments, long and easy terms, and an almost total absence of 
cash sales characterized the land transactions.