The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-23
OUR TRADE WITH Porto RICO.
Statistics Compiled by the Depart
ment of AgricuIfure.

ment of Agriculture.
WASHINGTON, July 22.-The trade be-
tween the United States and Porto Rico is
reviewed in a bulletin issued by the secre-
tary of agriculture, compiled under the di-
rection 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 administration to make the island 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 $4169.912, the
least since the civil war, except in 1895,
when it fell to sS34O,056. The highest mark
was in 1872, when imports and exports had a
combined value of ,925 Subsequently
the trade declined rapidly and in less than
a decade it had fallen off more than one
half. The average annual trade fell from
$6Ol7,7s5, for 1SS2-92 to 81, ,S56, ,S17 in 1S9S-97
The reciprocity treaty in force in the
three fiscal years 1924 considerably aug
mented the trade, the average annually in
that period being $6.159,794, against SIS s67, ,604
for the three preceding years, and So, ,969 ,572
in three years following. While our imports
from Porto Rico increased very little dur
ing that treaty period there was an i'm
pcrtant gain in value of our exports to the
island The shrinkage in our trade with
Porto Rico is traceable mainly to the fall
ing off in our imports from the island. The
value of the merchandise we now send to
Porto Rico closely approaches the value of
the goods we receive in return. Formerly
our imports were largely in excess of our
exports. While the annual value of the lat
ter has remained practically stationary. that
of imports has been gradually declining un-
til in the last five years the average yearly
excess of the latter over the former was
only 4,561, against an excess of IS, ,7S4 cor
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 ,0S2. Agricultural products play the most
important part Of this commerce, being over
50 per cent. in value of merchandise inn
ported and exported. Our imports are al
most entirely agricultural Sugar is the
most important of the imports, comprising
nearly rs per cent. of all imports, and COM
bined with molasses would form over 95 per
cent. Fruits, nuts and spices are other i'm
portant agricultural imports. The average
annual import of, coffee for the last five
years was 1914 769 pounds, worth $S2,671 This
item has declined about two-thirds in the
last decade
The leading non-agricultural imports from
there are perfumery and cosmetics, drugs
and dyes, unmanufactured wood and salt
Breadstuffs and most products in value
form nearly 95 per cent. of our agricultural
exports to Porto Rico. Wheat flour, the
leading export, reached value of $57O,619
between 1S93-97. During the last five years
average annual value of the meat exports
returned at $662,575, was slightly larger than
that of exported breadstuffs, the latter de-
clining and the former increasing during
the last decade.
Wood and it's manufactures and manufac-
lures of iron and steel constitute over one
half of the non-agricultural exports to
Porto Rico, mineral oil and coal also being
important items.