cxxiv UNITED STATES Commerce [From report of Secretary of Treasury, 1898] The foreign commerce of the fiscal year 1898 in many- respects was phenomenal. The exportations of the products of both field and factory exceeded in value those of any pre- ceding year, and the grand total of exports was the largest ever recorded. For the first time in the history of our for- eign commerce the year's exportations averaged more than $100,000,000 per month, the total being $1,231,482,330, against $1,050,993,556 in 1897 and $1,030,278,148 in 1892, no other years having reached the billion-dollar line. Of our domestic exports the value of agricultural products was $853,683,570, surpassing by $54,355,338 the highest record ever before made, that of 1892. Our manufacturers also made their highest record of exports, those for the year being $290,697,354, against $277,285,391 in the preceding year. For the first time also in the history of our foreign commerce the exports of domestic manufactures were greater than the imports of foreign manufactures, while the total exports of the year were twice as great as the total imports — a condition heretofore unknown, the trade balance in our favor being more than twice as great as that of any former year. Nearly all branches of the great manufacturing industries shared in this increase of the export trade, particularly manufactures of iron and steel, leather, boots and shoes, and mineral oils, the prin- cipal exception being cotton goods, the demand for which was somewhat reduced by the fact that certain countries formerly buying our manufactured goods are now buying our raw cotton for use in their own factories. Nearly all classes of the great agricultural products made their highest record of exports in the past year. The value of the wheat and flour exported was greater than in any preceding year, except 1892 ; the quantity of cotton, corn, and oats surpassed in each case that of any preceding year, and the exports of meat and dairy products, grouped under the general head of provisions, exceeded in value those of any former year. The prices realized on nearly all important articles of export were higher than in the preceding year, the notable exceptions being cotton and mineral oils, in each of which the production in the United States, the world's chief producer of these arti- cles, has been in the past few years phenomenally large, thus affecting the prices abroad as well as at home. In importations the year has shown an equally remarkable record, the value of foreign imports being less than in any
