330 EESOUllCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



Adding together the inhabitants of Nevada, Oregon, Wash- 

 ington, the western parts of New Mexico and Arizona, the 

 northwestern part of Mexico, British Cohimbia, Vancouver 

 Island, and the Hawaiian Islands, we have a total of about one 

 million seven hundred thousand people ; and mineral, commer- 

 cial, and industrial resources and advantages that must attract 

 many more inhabitants at no distant day. 



§ 235. Imports. — The imports of California are about |55,- 

 000,000 per year; that is, we import about as much as we 

 export ; and our exports amount, with gold, silver, grain, wool, 

 wine, and sundries, to $55,000,000 annually. We have, how- 

 ever, no exact table of our imports, for most of them come 

 from New York, and, if of foreign production, have paid duty 

 there, and no report of their class and value is made at the 

 custom-house in San Francisco. Therefore, we cannot obtain 

 such tables of the imports into our chief port as are made at 

 New York, wiiere all the foreign goods are received direct. 

 In the absence of accurate statistics, I must make an estimate 

 of the values of the several classes of imported articles, which, 

 while confessedly inexact, may yet serve to convey informa- 

 tion to those who know^ nothing of the subject : 



The clothing and material for clothing imported in a year 

 may cost us $15,000,000; provisions (among which butter is 

 perhaps the most important), coffee, tea, and spices, $3,000,000 ; 

 tobacco, $3,000,000; cutlery, hardware, and metallic articles, 

 $4,000,000 ; articles of wood, such as wagons, agricultural im- 

 plements, &c., $1,000,000 ; drugs, $1,000,000 ; boots and shoes, 

 83,000,000 ; jewelry, $1,000,000 ; coal, $1,000,000 ; liquors, 

 $2,000,000; and sundries, $2,000,000 : total, $36,000,000. For 

 freight on imported goods we pay $4,000,000 ; for insurance to 

 foreign companies, $1,000,000 ; for interest-money on foreign 

 capital, $1,000,000 ; for passenger-fares, $2,000,000— making a 

 total sum of $44,000,000, which is less by several millions than 

 the amount of annual exports. 



§ 236. Exports. — Gold has the first place, but the exact 

 amount exported is not known, for considerable quantities not 



