The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-02


that international trade is practically
a barter trade in which exports and
imports, where they are not about
equal for various economic reasons,
still bear an approximately stable ra
ito. Let us take the last topic first.
The object of the reciprocity pro-
vision of the Mckinley act was to in
crease our exports and stop what Mr..
Blaine called dropping" forty millions
year into Cuba.
The ratio of imports from Cuba to
our exports to Cuba shows a striking
uniformity and indicates that if our
sales increased our purchases also in
creased proportionally. Thus in 1887
the ratio was $40 of imports to 81 of
EXPORTS in 1883 it was So to 81; in 1889,
$4.45 to 81; in 1890, $4.27 to 81; in 1891,
SIS to 81. Then came the operation Of
the treaty with Spain. In 1892 the
ratio was $4.35 to 81; 1898, $500 to 81.
and in 1894, $50 to 81. The outbreak
of the civil war there showed i'm
port trade, but more in the former.
The average ratio for the period 1871
was $4.76 to 81, and from 1892 to 1894
1915 to 81. This means that the re-
Spain on Cuban imports and by us on
sugar increased the ratio of our eX-
ports there about % per cent. But the
$40,00000O dropped into Cuba" in 1889,
the excess of our imports over exports,
which Mr.. Blaine hoped to stop, rose
to over $50 900, 900 in 1892, and
was $55,O0O,OOO in 1893. AS we
made no reduction in our du-
ties, except on raw sugar, the pro-
vision being merely a club, the only
conclusion deducible from these COM
parsons is that all the gain in eX-
ports came from their lessened cost
to Cuban consumers by the reduction
of their impost
AS the provision in the act of 1890
was professedIy designed to do what
Blaine said the act without it would
not do, open market for a single
barrel of flour or a pound of pork" it
is interesting to note it's effects on
our agricultural exports. These formed
an average percentage of 41.06 in the
five years from 1887 to 1891, and 45.45
per cent from 1892 to 1896, or 44.45 per
cent for the first three years of the
o1,.o
was $4,579,3 300 for the former and 81, 1885,
700 for the latter, and for the term
1924 the average was S9,027, 600. The
value in 1895, after the repeal and fol-
her outrageous tariff, was SIS, 536, 1892 but
little more than that of 1889, which
was $5,1O2,4SS All the various items Of
flour, pork products and corn show a
large increase, nearly doubling, as soon
as the tariff cost was eliminated, il
Illustrating the economic law that con-
sumption increases as the cost de-
creaSeS.
But the manufacturers also gained
by the increased capacity for con-
sumption of the Cubans. Their an
nual exports formed 1894 per cent of
all during the period 1SS7-91, and fell
to 54.55 per cent from 1892 to 1896, they
losing about the average gain of ag-
riculturaI products. But the absolute
| increase was from an average annual
value of $6,572,5 73 in the former to an
average of over 81 100000 from 1892
to 1894. The trade with Cuba under
the reciprocal provls1css of the act
of 1890 made the only creditable show
ing among the several treaties nego-
tiated, and the only sensible conclu-
sion deducible from it is that if this
country would open more markets to
our exports it must let down the bars
to imports. as it did with sugar in the
case of Cuba.