ABSTRACT
Popular and governmental attitudes towards trade, whether in the twentieth century or in the sixteenth, are nearly always concerned with exports; foreign trade is associated with the notion that national power and prosperity come from exporting as much, and importing as little as possible. Of course these are not sophisticated views, but they have always been widespread and influential ones. Following them, writers on the history of different branches of trade are much inclined to confine their discussion to export trade, implicitly adopting the assumption that this is what traders have been concerned with. But of course merchants were never conscious servants of national interest, whether rightly or wrongly conceived; they were guided by their own interest, seeking their profit in both import and export, or, if they found it profitable to do so, concentrating most of their commodity traffic in one direction and remitting money (coin, bullion or bills of exchange) the other way.
