COMMERCE, INTERNATIONAL. 



depression in her textile industries and a 

 prostration of her coal and metal trades. Tho 

 docline of French exports has been in the fol- 

 lowing progression: 1878, total exports 8,787 

 million francs; 1874, 8,701 millions; 1875, 

 8,872 millions; 1876, 8,575 millions; 1877, 

 8,486 millions. During the same period her 

 imports have increased, having been 8,554 

 million francs in 1878, 8,507 millions in 1874, 

 8,536 millions in 1875, 8,988 millions in 1876, 

 and 8,669 millions in 1877. In all articles ex- 

 cept the prime necessaries of life, and partic- 

 ularly in all manufactures in which they com- 

 pete with Great Britain, all the countries of 

 Europe complain of a constantly declining ex- 

 port, or, if an increased export is shown for a 

 single year, of the ruinous prices at which it 

 has been achieved. 



While the older settled industrial lands, 

 whose products consist of the luxuries of life 

 or go to satisfy the material requirements of a 

 complex civilization, have been suffering from 

 loss of trade and an industrial stoppage, in 

 certain newer food-producing countries, al- 

 though they also have had to endure the effects 

 of the general financial derangement, the ex- 

 ports have been steadily growing in value, and 

 have increased in a still more remarkable ratio 

 in quantity, during the present period of de- 

 pression. The most conspicuous example of 

 this enlargement of trade is America. The 

 extension of manufacturing operations, which 

 preceded the present season of contraction 

 and distress in Great Britain and other indus- 

 trial lands, was in great measure induced by 

 the demand for extended means of transporta- 

 tion and improved implements of agriculture 

 in the countries which possess a vast area of 

 more fertile and tillable land than Europe ; and 

 now these same countries are enabled, with the 

 improved means of transportation, to pay off, 

 even at the present depressed rates of value, 

 the debts incurred for their completion under 

 the inflated prices of a half dozen years ago, by 

 furnishing cheaper food than can be produced 

 in Europe. The United States has thus been in 

 a position, through an excess of exports of mer- 

 chandise and bullion in the five years from 1874 

 to 1878, to pay more than $130,000,000 a year 

 of interest and principal of foreign debts. In 

 the magnitude of their export of food-products 

 the United States now greatly surpass all other 

 nations. The development and importance of 

 the trade of the United States in cereals and 

 provisions is shown in the following resume of 

 the international trade in the articles which 

 best reveal the present condition of the world's 

 commerce. 



BBEADSTUFFS. In the ante-bellum period 

 the exports of American grain to Europe were 

 for the most part in the form of flour. Since 

 the opening up of railroad communications 

 with the upper Mississippi valley, and the im- 

 mense extension of the export trade, the exports 

 ot wheat-flour have increased but very little, and 

 are principally confined to the supply of the 



West Indies and South America. Even though 

 the grain could be manufactured into Sour 

 more cheaply in the United States than in 

 Europe, the greater facility with which the 

 grain can be handled, stored, and transshipped 

 in its raw state, by the aid of modern machin- 

 ery and appliances, would preclude the ex- 

 portation of the manufactured product. The 

 elevators of Chicago in 1876 had storage-room 

 for 19} million bushels of grain, and those of 

 Milwaukee for 4 million bushels. 



The imports of wheat into Great Britain 

 during the years 1872-'77, according to Mr. 

 Caird, amounted, in consequence of three bad 

 harvests, to 87 million pounds sterling more in 

 value than in the preceding period of the same 

 number of years. Before 1860 the average 

 annual importations of wheat into Great Brit- 

 ain were 4,500,000 quarters; in the last five 

 years they have been 12,400,000 quarters. 

 Before 1868 the average consumption of wheat 

 for sixteen years was 311 Ibs. per capita ; since 

 that date it has increased to 335 Ibs. per cap- 

 ita, of which 158 Ibs. is grown inland and 183 

 Ibs. imported from abroad ; whereas between 

 1852 and 1860, of the same quantity of wheat, 

 252 Ibs. were of domestic growth and 79 Ibs. 

 imported. Besides the growing dependence 

 of England on foreign nations for wheat, the 

 main article of food with her people, the impor- 

 tations of other food-products have increased 

 in a similar ratio. The imports of maize from 

 America have increased from 600,000 to 

 1,300,000 tons; those of potatoes, principally 

 from Germany, from 43,000 to 300,000 tons. 

 The consumption of foreign products in Great 

 Britain has risen in the last twenty years from 

 128 million pounds sterling in 1857 to 285 

 millions in 1877. The consumption of foreign 

 meat has increased within the twenty years 

 860 per cent. ; of cheese, butter, and lard, 

 280 per cent. ; of imported wheat, 157 per 

 cent. ; of other grains, 176 per cent. The 

 consumption of sugar during the same period 

 has increased 84 per cent. ; that of tea, 102 

 per cent., or from 69 to 149 million Ibs., while 

 that of coffee has declined 7 per cent. The 

 consumption of tobacco has grown 41 per 

 cent. Since the conclusion of the commercial 

 treaty with France the use of foreign wines 

 has constantly been increasing, the percentage 

 of the increment during the period under con- 

 sideration being 170 ; while the importation 

 of spirits has also risen 140 per cent. The 

 above statements refer to the average annual 

 imports of 1857 and the two following years, 

 compared with the average imports of the 

 three years preceding 1877. In 1867 the con- 

 sumption of domestic wheat was 40 million 

 cwt., that of foreign wheat 38 million cwt. ; in 

 1876 the consumption of home-grown wheat 

 was 43 and that of imported wheat 50 million 

 cwt. The consumption of domestic meat in 

 the years 1867 and 1877 was about the same, 

 25 million cwt., but the use of foreign meat de- 

 veloped in the ten years from 2 to 6 million cwt. 



