The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-07-23
OUR TRADE WITH Porto RICO
HAS FALLEN OFF DURING RE
CENT YEARS.
In 1878 1t Reached Thirteen Mil
lions, But Last Year It Was But
Four Millions.

Washington, July 22.-The trade be-
Rico is reviewed in a bulletin issued
by the secretary of agriculture, COM
piled under the direction of Frank H.
Hitchcock. chief of the foreign market
section. Special efforts to secure the
most reliable and complete data were
made, owing to the avowed intention
of the administra ton to make the is
land a permanent possession
The official returns show that our
commercial transactions with Porto
Rico during the fiscal year 1897, just
closed, amounted in value to 81, 169, 9l2-
the least since the civil war, except in
1885, when it fell to SS,340,056 The
highest mark was in 1873, when Sm-
ports and exports had combined
value of S13,S70, 1926. Subsequently the
trade declined rapidly, and in less than
4 decade it had fallen off more than
one-half. The average annual trade
fell from se,017, 7S5 for 1882 to 81, $780,,
SIT in 1887.
The reciprocity treaty in force in the
three fiscal years 1924 considerably
augmented the trade, the average an
nually in that period being Sc, 1853, 1874,
against 1885,, 604 for three preceding
years and $685. $40 in three years fol-
Rico increased very little during that
treaty period, there was an important
gain in volume of our exports to the
island. The shrinkaSe in our trade
with Porto Rico is traceable mainly to
the falling off in our imports from the
island. The value of the merchandise
we now send to Porto Rico closely ap-
proaches the value of the goods we
receive in return. Formerly our inn
ports were largely in excess of our ex-
ports While the annual value of the
latter has remained practically sta
tionary, that of imports has been
gradually declining, until the last five
years the average yearly excess of the
latter over the former was only 1894, SOL,
against an excess of $S,7S4, 607 in 1872.
In 1895, for the first time in the history
of the trade. our shipments there ex-
ceeded our importations, the balance
being 1927 ,032. Agricultural products
play the most important part of this
commerce, being over so per cent in
value of merchandise exported and i'm
ported. Our imports are almost entire
ly agricultural. Non-agricultural COM
modities also form less than 40 per
eent of our exports there. Sugar is the
most important of the imports, COM
prising nearly 10 per cent of all i'm
ports, and, combined with molasses,
would form over 80 per cent. Fruits,
nuts and spices are other important
agricultural imports.
The average annual import of coffee
for the last five years was 1874, 769
pounds. worth S32,671. This item has
declined about two-thirds in the last
decade. The leading non-agricultural
imports from there are perfumery and
cosmetics. chemicals, drugs and dyes,
manufactured wood and salt
3readstuffs and meat products in value
-orm nearly IS per cent of our agri- |
cultural exports to Porto Rico. Wheat |
iour. the Leading export, reached a
ralue of $570.619 between 1897 Dur |
ng the last five years the average an |
lual value of the meat exports returned !
1t $662,5l6 was slightly larger than |
hat of exported breadstuffs, the latter
declining and the former increasing |
Turing the last decade.
Wood and its manufactures, and /
of iron and steel con-
-titute over one-half of non-agricul-
ural exports to Porto Rico mineral
II and coal also being most important
TENS.