COMMERCE (FOREIGN) OF THE UNITED STATES. 



121 



gregated commerce since 1790 there is a balance 

 against the United States of 667f millions, ac- 

 cording to the official returns. The extension 

 of railroads has enabled this country to export 

 vast quantities of food-materials, which now 

 rank beside cotton in the external commerce 

 of America; yet the ill-considered haste and 

 rivalry in the development of these highways 

 was one of the principal causes of the commer- 

 cial derangement and exhaustion from which 

 the nation has lately suffered. The sudden 

 arrest of railroad construction affected mate- 

 rially the international balance-sheet, a great 

 portion of the material having been brought 

 from abroad, mostly from England. The fol- 

 lowing two tables show the extent of the en^ 

 tire foreign commerce in dollars for each year, 

 from 1870 to 1877, inclusive : 



Exports (reduced to gold values) from t7te United 

 States. 



Imports into the United Slates. 



It may be seen from the above statements that 

 the entire excess of exports over imports was, 

 in 1877, $166,547,317; in 1876, $120,213,102; 

 in 1875, $50,668,700; in 1874, $57,052,197; 

 before the latter year there was an excess of 

 imports of about 11 , , 116}, and 56i millions 

 in 1870, '71, '72, and ? 73 respectively. There was 

 an adverse balance on the whole account from 

 1864 to 1873 inclusive, save in the one year 1868; 

 and before 1864, a favorable balance since 1855, 

 save one heavy deficit in 1861 of 87 millions, 

 40 millions of which was specie imported. Be- 

 fore!855the balancestood, with few exceptions, 

 against the United Sates. The average vol- 

 ume per annum of the commerce proper of the 

 country, including the net imports and domes- 

 tic exports, with the net exports of specie 

 since 1850, was approximately, in millions of 

 dollars, for the decade ending 1830, 110; 1840, 

 192|; 1850, 222i; 1860, 543; 1870, 601 1; and 

 for the 7 years following, 1,089. During the 

 period of an exclusively paper currency, larger 

 quantities of the precious metals have been 

 exported, of course, than would have been 



under normal conditions ; but the amount 

 taken from the circulation of the country was 

 not great compared with the products of the 

 mines, which have very much increased of late 

 years ; so that the net exports of the last sev- 

 en years have averaged nearly 8 millions more 

 than the ten years from 1861 to 1870, in which 

 the average was about 5 millions more than 

 that of the preceding decade. 



The values for which the different classes of 

 merchandise enter into American commerce 

 can be seen in the tabular statement on pages 

 122 and 123, showing the net imports into 

 the United States during the three years end- 

 ing June 30, 1875, 1876, and 1877. 



Among the unmanufactured exports, the class 

 called "other articles" includes whale and ani- 

 mal oils (over 1 million dollars each year), 

 quicksilver (increased export of from 1 to If 

 million), wool, tan-bark, ice, etc. Among the 

 unspecified manufactured exports are books 

 and paper (over 1 million dollars in 1877), 

 jewelry and watches, paintings and engravings, 

 cordage, and vessels sold out of the country. 

 Among the finished articles imported not enu- 

 merated are clothing (1 million in 1877, and 

 half a million more the first year), paintings 

 and other pictures (1 to 1 million), paper 

 manufactures (over 1 million), furniture and 

 musical instruments, and hemp and cordage, all 

 of them decreasing. 



The superiority of many American manufac- 

 tures is receiving a substantial acknowledgment 

 in the form of orders which have come of late 

 years from all parts of the world. The Centen- 

 nial Exhibition attracted the attention of Euro- 

 peans to the higher productions of American 

 skill and invention. In spite of the difficulties 

 of gaining new depots in foreign countries, 

 which are greatly enhanced by the unfortunate 

 decadence of the maritime industry in America, 

 and by peculiar expenses of production, the 

 American manufactures are winning their way 

 in the contested markets of the world. The 

 fact that American mechanical products are 

 preferred in some of the Spanish-American 

 countries, and still more decidedly in the Brit- 

 ish colonies, and that American makers are 

 winning away customers from the wealthy 

 manufacturers of Birmingham, Sheffield, and 

 Manchester, is regarded with not less alarm in 

 England than gratification in America. On 

 the Continent of Europe, also, certain American 

 manufactures are being introduced, while Brit- 

 ish products are losing ground before the pro- 

 gressive native industries. The exports of met- 

 als and metal goods from the United States 

 during the first 9 months of the calendar year 

 have increased from 14 million dollars in 1876 

 to 21 millions in 1877. The exports of cotton 

 goods have increased nine-fold in 5 years, that 

 is, from 11,704,079 yards in 1872 to 105,831,- 

 694 yards in 1877, and the values from $2,304,- 

 830 to $10,180,984; the proportion of the col- 

 ored goods has remained nearly the same 24 

 per cent, to 76 per cent, white. The propor- 



