106 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



which added to the world's siiipping will neces- 

 sarily facilitate trade with foreign countries. 

 One result of the world war is a wider acquaint- 

 ance and an opportunity for a greater inter- 

 change of business relations. 



Before the war our foreign trade in agricul- 

 tural products was showing a tendency to 

 decline in its relation to exports in general, 

 although the total value of exports was increas- 

 ing slowly. 



For instance, during the period 1852-1881 

 agriculture provided nearly 80 per cent of all 

 exports and in the latter year products of a total 

 value of approximately $500,000,000 were ex- 

 ported. From 1882 to 1910 the percentage of 

 exports which were agricultural declined to 50 

 per cent although the value increased and at 

 times exceeded $1,000,000,000 worth of exports. 

 From 1910 to 1914 exports increased steadily 

 and in 1917 our agricultural exports were valued 

 at nearly $2,000,000,000 though they constituted 

 but 31 per cent of all exports. During the war 

 years our exports doubled, amounting to over 

 $4,000,000,000 worth of farm products in 1919 

 which constituted over half of our exports of all 

 sorts. 



At the same time, from 1881 to 1918 agri- 



