I ; 1 2 Tra nsactiom . — Miscellaneous . 



always made mentally for the peculiarity of American returns 

 of imports, which causes an excess of imports to be underrated 

 and sometimes converted into an apparent excess of exports. 

 and an excess of exports to be overrated. 



In past time vast amounts of foreign capital, chiefly English, 

 found their way to the United States, until the interest and profits 

 on these amounted to a greater sum than that finding its way 

 into the United States. We have now reached the time when 

 the amount of foreign capital annually invested in the United 

 States may relatively be ignored, and when the United States, 

 with her great wealth and vast developed resources, will, especially 

 during or after exceptionally prosperous periods, send out capital 

 to pay off loans, buy American investments held by foreigners, 

 and even to make investments abroad. The great drop in the 

 line of the figure occurring from 1897 onwards undoubtedly re- 

 presents a period when this feature was exceptionally prominent. 

 It will no doubt be the general tendency for the excess of exports 

 to increase, but unevenly, and the present great excess will pro- 

 bably be succeeded by a period in which the excess will be very 

 much less before the present record is again exceeded, just as 

 the great corresponding change from an excess of imports of 

 £38,000,000 in 1872 to an excess of exports of £55,000,000 in 

 1879 was succeeded bv a change to an excess of imports again of 

 £6,000,000 in 1888. 



It is interesting to consider how, in the opinion of Mr. C. P. 

 Austin, chief of the Bureau of Statistics, the excess of exports is 

 explained. He went into the matter in May, 1901. He reckons 

 that the United States, unlike the United Kingdom, has to ex- 

 port £10,000,000 in payment for the service of foreign shipping 

 (although estimates differ ttreatlv, and some put it as high as 

 £30,000,000), from £15,000,000 to £20,000,000 in payment of 

 dividends and interest on foreign capital, and from £15.000,000 

 to £20,000,000 as the expenses of American tourists abroad over 

 and above the expenses in America of European tourists. The 



mce for the most part would go abroad in the form of capital 

 in any of the ways specified above. 



The inference would appear to be, if these estimates are 

 reasonably dose, thai from 1898 to 1901. when the United States 

 exports reached the maximum, the annual flow of capital abroad 

 together with the withdrawal of foreign capital from the States 

 varied something like from £70,000,000 to £100,000,000. This 

 appears at first vast, but when we compare her great area, popu- 

 lation, and resources with those of England, and remember 

 that the corresponding average sum for the eleven years 1882-93 

 in the case of the United Kingdom was no less than £75,000,000, 

 we need not lie surprised at something even greater in the future. 



