the latter year reported an output of product valued at $72,600.
According to the census data for 1889 and 1902 there was an
Zinc.
increase in value of product of 184.1% in the interval, and
of 109.5% in the quantity of ore produced. The value
of products in 1902 were reported as $340,686 from gold and silver
ores, and $8,665,675 from non-argentiferous lead and zinc ores.
The total product of zinc from domestic ore for the entire country
was 7343 short tons in 1873, passed 100,000 tons in 1898, and
200,000 in 1907, when it amounted to 223,745 tons. From 1904 to
1908 the share of the United States in the world's output averaged
28.2%, and in the world's consumption (disregarding stocks) 27.5%.
Of the product of 1907 above stated no less than 63.4% came
from Missouri alone; Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas and New Jersey
yielding together 30.8% more.
Most of the quicksilver produced in the United States comes from California (86% of the total in 1908), but a considerable quantity Mercury. comes from Texas, and small amounts are produced in Utah, Arizona and Oregon. Veins of cinnabar are known elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada regions but not in workable quantities. The mercurial ores of the Pacific Coast ranges occur in very irregular deposits in the form of strings and bunches, disseminated through a highly metamorphosed siliceous rock. The first locality where the metal was successfully mined was at New Almaden, about 100 m. south of San Francisco. These mines have been productive since 1824. Another old mine, discovered in 1853, is the New Idria located another 100 m. farther south. These two are still among the foremost producers.
From 1850 to 1908 California produced a total of 2,052,000 flasks of metal, of 76.5 ℔ (since June 1, 1904, 75.0 ℔ net) each. The year of greatest yield was 1877, with 79,395 flasks. The production had steadily fallen to 16,984 flasks in 1908, but in the opinion of the United States Geological Survey this reduction is mainly attributable, in recent years at least, to market conditions, and does not truly indicate the exhaustion of the mines, although the ores now available are of low grades, those of New Almaden having shown a decrease in yield from 36.7% in 1850-1851 to 0.74% in 1895-1896, so that only the greatest metallurgical skill and business economy can sustain the mines against a weak market.
Bauxite was produced on a commercial scale in four states in 1908: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee; Arkansas Other Metals. producing—as for years past—more than six-tenths of the total product of the country. This rose from an insignificant amount in 1889 to 97,776 long tons (valued at $480,330) in 1907. The consumption of the United States is, however, much larger than its product, and is rapidly growing. The production of aluminium rose from 83 ℔ in 1883 to 7,500,000 ℔ in 1903, and a consumption (the Geological Survey not reporting the production) of 17,211,000 ℔ in 1907. Antimony, bismuth, selenium, tellurium, chromic iron ore, tin, nickel, cobalt, vanadium, titanium, molybdenum, uranium and tantalum are produced in the United States in small amounts, but such “production” in several cases has amounted to only slight discoveries, and in general they are of little importance in the market. Of tungsten the United States was in 1907 the greatest producer in the world (1640 tons in a total of 6062). Tin ores have been widely discovered, but though much has been hoped for from them, particularly from the deposits in the Black Hills region of South Dakota, there has been no more than a relatively insignificant commercial production.
Commerce, Foreign and Domestic.—The English colonies that became the United States carried on during the colonial period a commerce with the mother country, and also, both so far as the legislative trammels of the British colonial system permitted it and illicitly, a fairly active commerce with the West Indies. This latter became of increasing moment in the successive periods of European colonial wars of the 18th century. With the achievement of independence by the United States the same interest became of still greater importance to the new nation, so as to constitute a leading element in its early diplomacy. Although relatively unsuccessful in securing access to the British islands, the importance of the United States as a supplier of the other West Indies continually grew, and when the communication of the French and Spanish islands with their metropolises was practically cut off by the British during the Napoleonic wars, the dependence of these colonies upon the American carrying trade became absolute. It was the profits of this neutral trade, notwithstanding the losses to which it was exposed by the high-handed measures of the British and the French governments, that caused these insults to be more or less patiently endured by the trading interests. When President Jefferson, and after him President Madison, attempted to secure redress for these injuries by the imposition of an embargo on American vessels, the West Indian trade was temporarily ruined, the war of 1812-15 with Great Britain contributing to the same end. The East Indian trade had been opened from New England ports late in the 18th century. The whaling and cod and mackerel fisheries were of earlier colonial origin. As general carriers American ships gained no importance until the Napoleonic wars; and this interest was greater in the West Indies than in Europe. Such were the main branches of national commerce up to the time of the second war with England. After the war of 1812 new outlets were found in all directions, and the commerce of the country grew apace, until in the years immediately preceding the Civil War the United States was a close second to Great Britain among the trading countries of the world. The Civil War caused enormous losses to the merchant marine, and the worldwide substitution about this time of iron steamers for wooden steamers and sailing vessels contributed to prevent a recovery; because, although ship-building was one of the earliest arts developed in the colonies, and one that was prosecuted with the highest success so long as wooden ships were the dominant type, the United States has never achieved marked success with the iron steamer, and the law has precluded the registry as American of vessels built abroad. The American “clipper” ships that were constructed at Baltimore and elsewhere during the last three decades before the Civil War were doubtless the swiftest sailers that have ever been built.
The total trade of the country by land and sea, the movement inward and outward, is shown in the following table for various years since 1861:—
| Year. | Imports by Land and Sea. |
Exports by Land and Sea. |
Total Commerce. |
| $ | $ | $ | |
| 1861 | 335,650,153 | 249,344,913 | 584,995,066 |
| 1870 | 462,377,587 | 529,519,302 | 991,896,889 |
| 1880 | 667,954,746 | 835,638,658 | 1,503,593,404 |
| 1890 | 789,310,409 | 857,828,684 | 1,647,139,093 |
| 1900 | 849,941,184 | 1,394,483,032 | 2,244,424,266 |
| 1905 | 1,117,513,071 | 1,518,561,666 | 2,636,074,737 |
| 1909 | 1,475,612,580 | 1,728,203,271 | 3,203,815,851 |
The excess of exports over imports in the decade 1899-1908 totalled $5,728,214,844; and in the same period there was an excess of exports of gold and silver, above imports, of $444,908,963. Of the total exports of 1909 $1,700,743,638 represent domestic merchandise. The remainder, or element of foreign exports, has been of similarly small relative magnitude since about 1880, but was of course much larger while the carrying trade was of importance. From 1820 up to 1880 agricultural products made up with remarkable steadiness almost exactly four-fifths of all exports of domestic merchandise. Since then the increase of manufactures, and to a slight degree that of minerals, has lessened much the share of agricultural products, which in 1906 was 56.43%, that of manufactures being 35.11% and of minerals 3.09%. The following table indicates in a general way the increased value, in round millions of dollars, of the leading agricultural exports since 1860:—
| Year. | Raw Cotton. |
Bread Stuffs. |
Leaf Tobacco. |
Meats and Dairy Products. |
Cattle, and other Animals. |
| 1860 | 192.0 | 24.0 | 16.0 | 16.9 | 1.8 |
| 1900 | 242.9 | 262.7 | 29.4 | 184.5 | 43.6 |
| 1905 | 381.4 | 107.7 | 29.8 | 200.0 | 46.7 |
| 1909 | 461.9 | 139.5 | 36.8 | 152.0 | 20.8 |
Classifying imports and domestic exports as of six groups: (1) crude foodstuffs and good animals; (2) foodstuffs partly or wholly prepared; (3) raw materials for use in manufacturing; (4) manufactured articles destined to serve as materials in further processes of manufacture; (5) finished manufactures; (6) miscellaneous products—the table on p. 645 shows the distribution of imports and exports among these six classes since 1820.[1]
It will be seen from the table that the share of the first two classes in both imports and exports has been relatively constant. On the other hand the great increase of imports of class III., and the great decrease of class V.; and of exports the great increase of those of class IV., and decrease of those of classes III. and V., all reflect the great development of manufactures in modern times. The table also shows the great rapidity of this change in recent years.
Europe takes, of course, a large share of the exports of finished manufactures—a little more than a third of the total in the quinquennial period 1903-1908; but North America takes but very slightly less. On the other hand, above 70% of manufactures destined to serve as material in further processes of manufacture went, in the same years, to Europe, and from eight- to nine-tenths of the first three classes of exports. After Europe the largest shares of exports are taken by North America, Asia and Oceania, South America and Africa in order. The share of the five continental divisions in 1909 was as follows, respectively: $1,169,672,326; $344,767,613; $113,129,907; $83,509,047 and $17,124,298. The respective shares of the same divisions in the imports of the country were as follows: $763,704,486; $277,863,210; $223,254,724; $193,202,131 and $17,558,029. It will be seen that the commercial
- ↑ The official statistics are kept current since 1820. For the years 1789-1818 consult Adam Seybert's Statistical Annals (Philadelphia, 1818), which are based upon official documents, a large part of which are no longer in existence.
