The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-12-31

.
Interesting Commercial Statistics.
WASHINGTON. December 10.
THE annual report of Joseph Nimmo,
Jr., Chief Of the Bureau of Statistics, on
the foreign commerce Of the United
States, is completed. In regard to our
export trade. Mr.. Nimmo says:
Five leading articles of export during the
year ended June %. 1880. were q follows:
Bread and breadstuns. $ssS. 036. sS0; cotton. UNI
manufactured. $2l2. So. sos; provisions, $l27,-
Olasl2; mineral oils, sas.2ls,6ss: tobacco and
manufactures thereof, SIS. 44S.s7a The United
States. he says, already surpasses every other
country In the magnitude of its exports, both
breadstufs and provisions, and it is main
tanned that the market for American bread
stuffs and provisions in Europe can be still
further extended. The United Kingdom Of
Great Britain and Ireland stand first among
importing countries with respect to the value
of imports both in breadstufYs and provisions"
Tables are presented showing that of the follow
ing commodities imported into Great Britain
and ireland the percentage imported from the
United States was as follows: Wheat, 6 per
cent; Indian corn, 80 per cent: live animals,
A per cent; beef, sailed, 90 per cent; beef,
fresh or slightly sailed, 81 per cent; butter. II
per cent; cheese, 64h per cent; bacon, 81 per
cent; hams, SO per cent; lard, So per cent. |;
meat, preserved otherwise than sailed, Y per
cent; pork, sailed, 81 per cent. The report
says: "During the last ten years the compe-
tition of American breadstuffs and provisions
in British markets has greatly reduced the
r,rico nj those odifiaS and consequently
the profits of producing them in the United
Kingdom. Apprehensions have been awakened
as to the ultimate effect OF this competition
upon the agricultural interests of the latter
country. The question is, in pOliticO-ecOnO-
mic sense, very large one, since it embraces
not only the interests of the British farmers,
but also the rate of wages paid to fafm-labOr-
ers, the value of lands devoted to agricultural
purposes, and the revenue derived therefrOm
by the British landowners. The growth Of the
expectation Of breadstuffs from the United
States has also led to serious apprehensiOns in
competing grain-prOducing countries in which
inferior methods of agriculture prevail and
facilities for handling and transporting grain
and existing methods of commerce are less
advanced than in this country"
Regarding the maritime interest Of the
United States, Mr.. NimmO says: g The deca-
dence of that branch of the American mer-
chant marine which is employed in the foreign
commerce of the country continues to engage
public attention. This decadenee is indicated
by the following facts: The building of ships
and barks employed by or foreign commerce
fell from an annual average Of 2.3 during the
ten years from 1851 to 1850 to an annual aver
age of fifty-six during the ten years from 1871
to 1850. There were only twenty-three ships
and barks built during the year ended June
80, 1880. The iron steamship is now the con-
trolling vehicle of commerce on the ocean.
The tonnage of iron vessels built in this coun-
try the last five years amounted to only l0l, :
S23 tons, almost entirely for our cOastwise or
home trade in which no foreign competition
is allowed under the provisions of our Naviga-
ton laws, whereas the iron ship building of
Great Britain during the last five years re-
ported amounted to 1,S0O,I 1873 tons. 1t is
stated that the iron steamers designed for
Transatlantic trade now in course of constr1c-
ton in the ship yards of Great Britain would,
If placed in line, extend about one mile. The
total tonnage of the United States employed
In the foreign trade fell from 1913, 396 tons in
1850 to 1,3l4,4 G tons during the year ending
June 30, 1880. During the year ending June 30.
1880, the total value Of the commodities trans
ported in American and foreign vessels DIM
pOI - ouu CAPOItSJ dmOuuGCu " tuO Suu VI
81, 5S9, az. 093, Of which the value transported
in American vessels amounted only to $780,
O05. 497. The value transported in. foreign yes
sells amounted to s., 3O9, 466, 498. A marked de-
cline in the proportion of commodities carried
in American vessels has taken place during
the past year, the falling off having been from
q per cent. in 1879 to 17.6 per cent. in $780,
After stating in detail the causes Of the de-
cline in that branch of American merchant
marine employed in foreign commerce, the re-
port continues: 1.-THE fact that capital finds
abundant and more profitable employment In
the home industries and enterprises of this
country of vast and widely varied resources
than in the employment of vessels upon the
ocean has undoubtedly had strong influence
towards diverting attention from ship-building
and ship-Owning enterprises. This is the
main, underlying cause of our maritime de-
clensiOn. in SO far as relates to foreign COM
merce." The branch of American merchant
marine which is employed in the internal and
coasting commerce of the. United States, it is
shown, also exhibits decline, Notwithstanding
the f7ct that under our Navigation laws no
foreign vessel is allowed to engage in this
trade. The tonnage thus employed fell from
1888, 439 tons in 1874 to 2,637.6s5 tons in 1885,
The total tonnage built on the seaboard, en-
bracing the Atlantic Gulf and the Pacific
coasts, including both tonnage built for
coastwise and for foreign trade, but chiefly
for the cOastwise, fell from 1,013,0i0 tons dur
ing the five years from 1865 to 1870, to only
669, 1862 tons during the five years from 1875 to
1850. The American tonnage built on the
great lakes, almost exclusively, for internal
trade, fell from 1888 tons during the five
years from 1866 to 1870, to 74,499 tons during
the five years from 1876 to 1850. The tonnage
employed in the domestic trade of the United
States the ship ton being 100 cubic feet of
space on June 30, 1880, amounted to 2637,6s5
tons. This embraces vessels employed both
I'm the carriage of passengers and freight. But
the capacity of railroad cars OF subscriptions
employed on the railroads of the United States
amounted ooooxiir,o. tn ho lotoa& ox,d meat