124 



COMMEECE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



twelve months ending November 30, 1880, 

 amounted to $866,865,844, the reexports to 

 $21,006,243 ; making the total exports $887,- 

 872,087. The imports of foreign merchandise 

 and specie were $784,577,033. Tue total ex- 

 ports of domestic merchandise and specie, dur- 

 ing the same months in 1879, were $759,235,- 

 839; the reexports, $17,622,520; total, $776,- 

 858,359; and the total imports for the same 

 period were $572,364,296. 



The Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, in his 

 statement of the imports and exports of the 

 United States for the month of December, 

 1880, reports that the excess of exports of 

 merchandise stated in specie values was as fol- 

 lows : Month ending December 81, 1880, $51,- 

 483,844; month ending December 31, 1879, 

 $21,277,042 ; twelve months ending December 

 31, 1880, $192,846,407 ; twelve months ending 

 December 31, 1879, $251,557,929. The excess 

 of imports of gold and silver coin and bullion 

 was as follows : Month ending December 31, 

 1880, $15,764,154; month ending December 



81, 1879, $5,877,322; twelve months ending 

 December 31, 1880, $69,229,822; twelve 

 months ending December 81, 1879, $67.371,- 

 960. The excess of the value of exports over 

 imports of merchandise during the first six 

 months of 1880-'81 amounted to the sum of 

 $161,682,913. 



Both in quantity and in value the merchan- 

 dise exported from the United States exceeded 

 those of any previous year ; and the importa- 

 tions were still more in excess of the transac- 

 tions of any other year. The next largest ex- 

 port trade was that of 1879, which was less than 

 that of 1880 by $116,973,671. The highest pre- 

 vious total of imports in any one year was in 

 the year 1873, when the imports for the fiscal 

 year are reported as $642,136,210, the next 

 highest having been those of 1879. 



The merchandise transactions for the month 

 of November and the twelve months ending 

 November 30, 1880, compared with the same 

 periods in the preceding year, are presented in 

 the table below : 



The bullion movement for the same periods was as follows 



The records of the Register of the Treasury 

 show that the total tonnage of vessels of the 

 United States at the close of the fiscal year 

 ending June 30, 1880, was 4,068,034 tons. Of 

 this amount 1,352,810 tons were comprised in 

 2,378 vessels registered for the foreign trade, 

 and 2,715,224 tons in 22,334 vessels enrolled 

 and licensed for the coasting trade and fisher- 

 ies. There has been a decrease of 138,723 tons 

 in vessels employed in the foreign trade, and a 

 decrease of 37,157 tons in such as were engaged 

 in the domestic trade. 



The vessels built during the year 1879-'80, 

 with their tonnage, are exhibited in the follow- 

 ing table: 



The decrease in the tonnage built during the 

 fiscal year, as compared with that of the pre- 

 ceding year, was 35,620 tons. 



The total tonnage of vessels entered at the 

 seaboard ports from foreign countries was 13,- 

 768,137 tons during the year ending June 30, 



1879, and 15,240,534 tons during the fiscal year 



1880, showing an increase of 1,472,397 tons, or 

 about 10|- per cent. The American tonnage 

 entered exhibited an increase of only 78, (531 

 tons, or 2 per cent., while the foreign showed 

 an increase of 1,393,766 tons, or about 13 per 

 cent. The tonnage in these cases is computed 

 on the basis of the number of entries of vessels, 

 and not on the number of vessels, and is re- 

 stricted to the seaboard ports. Of the mer- 

 chandise brought in at seaboard, lake, and river 

 ports during the fiscal year, an amount of the 

 value of $149,317,368 was imported in Ameri- 

 can vessels and $503,494,913 in foreign. Of 

 the exports of merchandise, an amount of the 

 value of $109,028,860 was shipped in Ameri- 

 can and $720,770,521 in foreign vessels. Of 



