FOREIGN TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES. 625 



THE FOREIGN TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES.* 



By FREDERIC EMORY, 



CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF FOREIGN COMMERCE. 



DURING the calendar year just ended, the inundation of foreign 

 markets by American goods proceeded on the lines indicated in 

 previous issues of the 'Review of the World's Commerce/ with a con- 

 stantly growing volume and force which have surmounted many difficult 

 obstacles and offer a strong temptation to overconfidence in our capa- 

 bilities as an exporting nation. At the present time, the United States 

 may be said to be nearing the top wave of industrial eminence, and 

 there is ample reason for the belief that the next few years will witness 

 a great expansion in the sale of our more highly developed manu- 

 factures. But in the annual reports of our consular officers for the 

 year 1900, there runs, along with a common note of satisfaction, a 

 warning, here and there, of a more strenuous competition which, 

 in the end, may counterbalance our superior advantages to a consider- 

 able extent and check our progress in the world's markets, unless we 

 equip ourselves in the meantime for the ultimate phases of the struggle. 



Nothing could well be more gratifying than the picture of our 

 foreign trade as it is to-day by comparison with the figures of very 

 recent years. It is all the more remarkable because our progress 

 has been achieved with but little effort and by means not directed 

 specifically to the promotion of foreign trade, but largely fortuitous, 

 and springing from our intense absorption, for many years, in do- 

 mestic industry and internal development. In other words, we have 

 reached a surprising eminence in the exportation of manufactured 

 goods, not because we were seeking that goal, but because, in de- 

 veloping our resources, in manufacturing for the home market, we 

 attained an excellence and comparative cheapness of production which, 

 to the astonishment of ourselves as well as of the world at large, has 

 suddenly made us a formidable competitor — perhaps the most formid- 

 able of all — in the great international rivalry for trade. 



The question for the future is whether we can permanently hold 

 the position we seem about to gain, by means of what may be termed 



* From advance proof sheets of the 'Review of the World's Commerce,' in- 

 troductory to 'Commercial Relations of the United States,' 1900. The 'Review' 

 will also be printed as a separate pamphlet. Applications for it, as also for the 

 two bound volumes, 'Commercial Relations,' should be addressed to the Chief 

 of the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, Department of State, Washington, U. S. A. 



VOL. LVIII. — 40 



