COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



187 



cent, of the total foreign trade for the year, 

 amounting to 98 million dollars. Franco took 

 from the United States 55 million dollars' worth 

 of merchandise, or 7'79 per cent, of the total 

 exports, and furnished 48 million dollars' worth, 

 or 9-92 per cent, of the total imports. The prin- 

 cipal exports to France were: raw cotton, 25'9 

 million dolliirs, or 14'42 per cent, of the total 

 value exported ; provisions, 8'6 millions ; bread- 

 stuffs, 7'6 millions, 4.21 per cent, of the to- 

 tal export ; petroleum, 2'3 ; leaf-tobacco, 2'2 ; 

 tallow, 1-5. The principal imports from France 

 were: silk and manufactures, 11 '6 million dol- 

 lars; woolens, 7 millions; leather and manu- 

 factures, 3-7 ; wines and spirits, 3-2; drugs, 

 etc., 2*2 ; cotton goods, 1*8 ; fancy articles, 1'5 ; 

 precious stones, 1-8; and buttons, 1*1. 



The trade with Germany amounted to 89 

 millions, or 7'81 per cent, of the total volume of 

 commerce. The exports to Germany, 54 mil- 

 lions in value, were 7'73 per cent, of the total 

 exports, and the imports from Germany, 34 

 millions, made 7'96 per cent, of the total im- 

 ports. Germany received 11*9 million dollars' 

 worth of petroleum, or 25'58 per cent, of the 

 total export, nearly double the export to Great 

 Britain, who was the next largest taker of this 

 commodity. Germany is also the largest con- 

 sumer of American lard, receiving after Eng- 

 land the largest shipments of provisions, 

 amounting to 10'6 million dollars, or 8-62 per 

 cent, of the total exports under this head. 

 Her imports of raw cotton are, next to those 

 of England and France, the most considerable, 

 amounting to 13'3 millions, or 7'41 per cent, 

 of the entire export. 



There is an exceedingly heavy balance 

 against the United States in the commerce 

 with the countries which are the sources of 

 the sugar, coffee, and tea supplies, and of cer- 

 tain raw materials, as hides and skins, raw silk, 

 etc. With Cuba and the other Spanish colo- 

 nies, Brazil, China, and British India, there is 

 an aggregate adverse balance of 112 million 

 dollars, the imports from those countries being 

 of nearly five times the value of the total 

 exports of American commodities to them. 

 These same countries are large consumers of 

 manufactures of the classes in which Ameri- 

 can manufacturers expect to compete with the 

 industries of England and the other industrial 

 and commercial nations. Some of them are 

 left as much in debt every year to Great Brit- 

 ain for textiles and metal wares as the United 

 States are to them for their agricultural prod- 

 ucts. There has long been a market in sev- 

 eral of these countries for American cured 

 meats and provisions, and for a number of 

 coarse manufactures in which there is no com- 



Eetition with Europe. The use of mineral oil 

 as lately extended to these nations, and the 

 demand is increasing every year. The condi- 

 tion of the trade with other countries occu- 

 pying a similar position with reference to the 

 United States is not quite so unfavorable as 

 with those mentioned above. The exports to 



Venezuela, which furnished 12-46 per cent, of 

 the coffee imported (68'30 per cent, corning 

 from Brazil), amounted to nearly 8 million 

 dollars, against imports of about two and a 

 half times that value. The imports from Ja- 

 pan were 7*4 millions, against exports of the 

 value of 2-2 millions. The Dutch East Indies 

 exported to the United States something over 

 three times as much as they received in ex- 

 change, or 4*5 millions against 1*4 million.! 

 The exports to the Argentine Republic were 

 2'1 millions, and the imports 4-9 millions. The 

 balance against the United State* in the trade 

 with Central America, with Uruguay, and with 

 the French West Indies was about equal to the 

 exports to those countries ; with Pern it was 

 of about half the amount of the exports ; with 

 British Guiana there was a very slight adverse 

 balance. In the extensive trade with the 

 United States of Colombia the excess of im- 

 ports was little over 25 per cent, of the ex- 

 ports, which amounted to 4 - 4 millions. "With 

 the Hawaiian Islands, with whom a special 

 treaty of reciprocity has lately been concluded, 

 the imports into the United States amounted 

 to 2'6 millions, against l - 7 million exports. To 

 Mexico there were exports of the value of 7'4 

 million dollars, or 2'2 millions in excess of the 

 imports. "With Hayti and San Domingo there 

 was a balance of 1*6 million, or one third of 

 the exports, in favor of the United States; 

 with the British "West Indies and Honduras 

 the export trade, 7'6 millions, exceeded the 

 imports by 1'9 million ; the exports to Chili 

 were of nearly three times the value of the im- 

 ports. With the other West Indian Islands, 

 with Turkey, Egypt, and the other countries of 

 Africa, and the islands of the ocean, the Amer- 

 ican exports largely exceeded the imports. 



The exports of highly finished manufactures, 

 the industrial products in which the materials 

 are in a large measure modified by human labor 

 and skill, and in which American industry, in- 

 genuity, and commercial enterprise come into 

 direct competition with European work, form 

 thus far but a small portion of the exports of 

 the country. Yet the quality of certain of 

 these products, and the ease and rapidity with 

 which they are making their way in contested 

 markets, have already produced serious mis- 

 givings in the minds of the English, who have 

 the most to fear and to lose from American in- 

 dustrial competition. The value of the Amer- 

 ican exports of this class compared with the 

 exports of Great Britain is very insignificant, 

 and out of all proportion to the feeling which 

 this competition has excited in England. Still 

 it has already had an effect upon sales and 

 prices. The character of the American prod- 

 ucts, their superior qualities either of inge- 

 nuity of design, of honest workmanship, or of 

 cheapness, or frequently of all three combined, 

 and the fact that their sales have increased 

 during the late period of depression, while the 

 exports of British products have greatly shrunk 

 in value, in spite of the higher wages paid in 



