122 



COMMERCE AND FINANCE, AMERICAN, IN 1881. 



Value of Imports and Exports of Merchandise from 1861 to 1881, inclusive Specie Values. 



of the Bureau of Statistics to the recent exten- 

 sion of railroads and the great reduction in the 

 cost of railroad carriage from the West to the 

 Atlantic sea-board. Of the total receipts of 

 grain in 1880 at New York, Baltimore, Phila- 

 delphia, Boston, and Portland, amounting to 

 319,696,057 bushels, 76-97 per cent was brought 

 by rail, and only 22 - 24 per cent by the Erie 

 canal. The average freight-rates for trans- 

 porting grain from Chicago to New York for 

 the last three years compared with the aver- 

 age rates for 1870, 1871, and 1872, show a re- 

 duction in this charge of 9 '8 cents on a bushel. 

 The average reduction in the railroad transpor- 

 tation rates amounts to 14 - 4. The mean re- 

 duction in the cost of carriage between the two 

 points is about 13 cents per bushel. This is 

 equivalent to 11 '7 per cent on the export price 

 of wheat and 23'55 per cent on the export 

 price of Indian corn in 1881. According to the 

 researches of Joseph Nimmo, Jr., Chief of the 

 Bureau of Statistics, the tonnage on twelve of 

 the leading railway lines increased between 

 1873 and 1880 from 45,557,002 to 78,150,913 

 tons, or 71 '5 per cent, while the freight re- 

 ceipts increased from $112,004,648 to $143,- 

 388,178, or only about 28 per cent. The aver- 

 age rate per ton per mile was reduced from 

 1-72 cent to 1-07 cent, a decrease of 39-5 

 per cent. The tonnage transported on the 

 New York Central, Erie, and Pennsylvania 

 Railroads was three times as great in 1880 as 

 in 1868, while the average freight charges were 

 60 per cent less. Between 1870 and 1880 



there was a reduction of 39-45 per cent in the 

 freight charges of those roads, and of 32 - 51 per 

 cent on the rates of the New York canals, 

 while the decrease in the average prices of the 

 prime necessaries of life in the same period was 

 only 12 -32 per cent. The wheat exports have 

 increased under these changed conditions from 

 $47,171,229 in 1870 to $167,698,485 in 1881 ; 

 the value of maize exported, from $1,287,575 to 

 $50,702,669 ; of provisions, from $29,175,539 

 to $151,528,268 ; of live animals, from $1.045,- 

 039 to $16,412,398. The value of all the ex- 

 ports of agricultural products in 1881 amount- 

 ed to $729,650,016, an increase of $43,688,925 

 over those of 1880. Their value constituted 

 82 - 55 per cent of the total exports of domestic 

 merchandise. It was seven times the value of 

 this class of exports in 1850, nearly thrice the 

 value of such exports in 1860, and more than 

 twice their value in 1870. The growth of the 

 total export trade has been at about the same 

 rate of progression. The ratio of agricultural 

 products to the whole value of the exports 

 does not deviate, in comparing the years 1830, 

 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1881, more than 3 

 per cent. 



Of the total value of imports in the fiscal 

 year 1881, aggregating $642,664,628, the im- 

 ports of sugar and molasses constituted 14'53 

 per cent, amounting to $93,404,288; the value 

 of the imports of coffee amounted to $56,784,- 

 391, or 8-84 per cent of the total ; of iron and 

 steel and manufactures thereof, to $46,439,747, 

 or 7'23 per cent ; of silk, raw and manufactured, 



