Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1882-04-28
DlnY OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES


DAILY POSf-IHfELLlGEHCR.I
err FoRElGx TgADE.
Among the annual official documents
suitable for the guidance Of Congress in
its legislation this winter, that of the
Treasury Bureau Of Statistics on our
commerce with foreign nations during
the last fiscal year is worthy Of prom
insnt place.
Our exports of domestic msrchan-
disc for that year amounted in value 20
3883, 81, 9l7-ths largest ever known.
The two items of breadstuffs and cot
tom and its manufactures, the former
. little exceeding the latter, made up, in
ronnd numbers, about $53l, 10000 of
this total, or fully three-fifths. OF tho
remaining two-fifths the chief compon-
ents were provisions. sl5l, 52s, 26s. and
mineral oils, $40,345, 600. Tobacco, the
fifth in rank of our exports, reaches
about half the value of petroleum, and
then follow successfully wood and its
manufactures, iron and it, manufac-
lures, and live animals. AL tbs other
exports combined make less then ninety
millions. But though the aggregate Of
exports was 20 large, being almost
sixty millions greater than that of the
previous year, the chief item. bread
stuffs, had fallen OF $17 ,704, BIG, and it
will presumably have fallen of still
more at the end of the current fiscal
year. Tho increase, however, of raw
cotton exports, amounting TO over thir-
ty-six million dollars, and.of provisions,
amounting to over twentv-four millions,
with many minor increases, more than
made mp for the falling of in breadstuff
values.
Looking back ten years, We find that
our exports Of domestic merchandise
have, reckoned in specie, more than
doublsd-an enormous increase from
&428 ,33S, 908 during the fiscal year end
ing in 1871 to $ss3, 925,9a7 now. Fur
Their examining, the chief items Of this
vast growth are found to bs breadstuffs,
provisions, tallow, live animals and
leather. These alone, with wood and
its manufactures, increased $374.059, 476
IN the ton years, thus accounting for
moro than four-ffths of the entire
growth in this chief branch of our
foreign commerce. Still further inyes-
tiRating the increase, We find it chiefly
ascribable to the West and Northwest.
and to have been there produced partly
by the growth of the farming popnla-
lions from Eastern and European i'm
migration, but chiefly through tho sx-
tension Of facilities for transportation
BY rail. That this last Is really the
main source Of the growth il clear from
observing that while the earlier and
later years of the decade brought a
large influx of immigration, during
four years it dropped far below the av-
srage. Again, it is noticeable that tho
financial panic year (l872) and the sub
sequsnt ones of depression are included
In the decade, yet the increase in az
ports steadily continued, and even tom.
porary Interruptions Of railroad sxten-
sion were far moro than balanced bv
'ne reduction of freight charges to the
seaboard. The influence of the reduc.
tlon OF the rates from 1870 and 1871 TO
iocO and 1881, upon the increase in e.
ported breadstuffs, is striking and un-
questionable. For the two itsms ~
wheat and corn exports alone have in
creased In round numbers $4,000. 600:
ana to the same source NAV be tracsd
more than fivefold increase in the OF.
port OF provisions, and an increase in
snat OF live animals from million dol.
iars' worth in 1870 to nearly sixteen and
. half millions in the last fiscal wear
Classifying together cotton, brsadstuffs
provisions. and SCION, as products Of aori.
culture they amount to t729, 65O, Ol6 for
the nscal year, or more than four.fifths
OF our aggregate domestic exports
They have trebled in aggregate value
since the year before the war.
Turning to the other branch Of our
commerce, ~ find that the value Of
orr imported merchandise for The f,scal
year was e6l2,6cs,62s. This was sAl..
S6l,SlS lees than the amount Of sxport.
OF domestic merchandise for the same
year. And a. our total merchandise az
ports, including domestic and others
were $50. 81, BAG. the real difference in
value between our exports and import.
q merchandise was geo, 7l2,7ls. This
difference was larger than ever before
known in the history Of tho country:
Tor although the value Of the imports
surpassed that OF the previous fiscal
year, that Of the exports was still more
IN excess. Nine years before, the dit.
Terence had only been on the import
aide. and had reached SIS, Al, 491.
Finally, the total Of merchan ,iiss inn.
ports was $i,546,0al,974 and. adding
the specie. Ne have An aggregats foreign
srads for the year Of $l.675.0a4,sls.
GoLD AND saLvER ii 1854.