our purely domestic advantages of economy of production, greater labor efficiency and cheap raw materials, or whether we shall not have to fight hard against nations now falling behind us with weapons specially fashioned for controlling foreign trade—as, for example, more scientific export methods, better facilities of banking and transportation, more liberal credits, and manufacturing for particular markets with intelligent regard to climatic and race requirements. Many of our consuls still tell us that our commercial activity abroad is almost primitive in the details of trade competition, although of late our exporters have begun to send capable representatives to the more important trade centers; and the past few years have witnessed the creation of important trade organizations in the United States for the study of foreign commerce, the adoption of special courses of commerce at a number of our colleges, and the establishment of sample rooms and agencies for the sale of American goods at a few of the entrepôts of countries which offer a favorable field. Meanwhile, foreign manufacturers are introducing our labor-saving machinery or imitating it, and European economists are urging industrial reforms or legislative enactments to meet our threatening competition.
GROWTH OF MANUFACTURED EXPORTS.
During the year ended December 31, 1900, according to United States Treasury returns,[1] the imports of the United States amounted in round numbers to $830,000,000, an increase of over $30,000,000 compared with 1899, while the exports aggregated $1,478,000,000, an increase of $202,480,000. The exports in 1900 exceeded the imports by $648,900,000. Of the exports, the percentage of manufactured goods rose to 31.54[2] for 1900, against 30.39 in 1899, 24.96 in 1898, and 24.93 in 1895. Of the imports, nearly 45 per cent., it is estimated by the Treasury, were materials, either crude or partly made up, for use in our manufacturing industries, an increase of over 35 per cent, in 1899 and 1900, as compared with the entire period from 1890 to 1898. In other words, our industrial growth continued in 1900 at a rapid pace, enabling us to take less finished goods from other countries and to furnish more.
PREDOMINANCE IN IRON AND STEEL.
The most striking fact in our export development is the remarkable growth of the foreign demand for our iron and steel, our exports amounting to nearly $130,000,000 in 1900, against $32,000,000 in 1895.
- ↑ Preliminary figures from the Bureau of Statistics, December, 1900.
- ↑ Later returns give the percentage as 30.38. This decline is attributed to the increase in the proportion of agricultural exports at the end of the year; also to the decrease in exports of copper ingots and cotton cloths, the latter mainly to the Chinese Empire.
