18 THE EARLY YEARS AND THE 
the final disaster became inevitable, as the community became 
less and less able to face overseas liabilities. 
Imports and Exports of New South Wales 
(Including Port Phillip) 
IMPORTS T 
i Total. | Per head. I 
TasLE I 
Percentage 
of Exports 
to Imports. 
Year. 
1833 
1834 
1835 
1836 
1837 
1838 
1839 
1840 
1841 
1842 
1843 
(£1,000°s) 
713-9 
991-9 | 
1114-8 
1237-4 
1297-5 
1579-3 
2236-4 
3014-2 
2527-9 
1455-1 
1650-5 
£ 
11-7 
15-0 | 
15-1 
16-056 
15-2 
16:13 
19-55 
23-3 
16:6 
91 
0-38 
(£1,000°8) 
394.8 
587-6 
682-2 
748-6 
760-0 
802-7 
948-7 
1399-7 
1023-4 
1067-4 
1172-3 
£ 
6-5 
8-88 
9-55 
97 
8:9 
8:2 
8:3 
8 
5-8 
6-7 
Te. 
66 
59 
61 
60 
59 
51 
“9 
46 
40 
73 
75 
A careful scrutiny of the figures in this table will provide the 
key for both the crisis of 1843 and the minor crisis of 1836. 
The amazing excess of imports continued year after year for 
such a time could, of course, only be due to the private importa- 
tion of capital, i.e. borrowing in the broad sense, although the 
capital was forced on the colony by the eagerness of British 
investors. It will be noticed how closely all the features of this 
early period of private borrowing correspond with those later 
periods of great public loans. 
Anything like an accurate estimate of the effects of this 
relatively great influx of capital upon the position of the banks, 
and, in particular, upon the movement of gold, becomes a 
matter of the utmost difficulty on account of the paucity and 
of the unreliable character of the statistics of the day. Still less 
possible is it to trace the effects upon prices and wages, the two 
chief indexes of prosperity. An approximate estimate of the 
extent to which credit had been inflated is, however, to be 
obtained by a comparison of the figures for bank and treasury 
reserves and population. This shows very clearly the progressive 
diminution of reserves that took place because of the speculative 
tendencies and buoyant confidence of the ,period. In this