The times., 1899-03-15
FEBRUARY EXPORTS
EXCEED THE IMPORTS
The Monthly Increase More
Than 80 Per Cent.
Slight Falling Off From the PreYi-
Gus Year.
Ihe Amount of Gold Brought Into
the United States Within
the Past Year.

The excess OF the exports over the i'm
ports of America, as shown in the Feb
ruary bulletin of the Bureau OF Statistics.
continues to be very large. For the
month it was $50. .624, III, or over 80 per
cent It is noticeable. however that this
excess is now somewhat less than that for
the same period of the previous year.
The bulletin now issued. on Imports and
Exports of the United States-February
1879 contains the statistics of the eX
ports and imports of merchandise for the
month of February in the years 1897. '9s.
and 's9. and for the eight months ended
with February for the fiscal year, in each
OF these years. The exports and imports
OF gold are also given. In addition TO
these figures a full statement Of the
amounts OF exports and imports in each
month In the year ended with February is
given.
The exports of merchandise in the month
OF February were S93, ,sS4. 149 The imports
for the month were $50, go .032. showing an
excess Of exports of S33, 52i, III, or over 80
per cent Last year the excess OF exports
was s4l .SI2, ,S0i. and in 1897 the excess was
$50, ,5S3. 709 There is thus slight falling
off in the figures for February, 1899, as
COMPARED with 1888 but large increase
as compared with 1897.
OF the imports for the month, S32. 49,
s53 were dutiable goods or a little more
than half the total amount. The excess
of dutiable goods in 1888 was larger even
than this. or in the ratio of 30 TO -. In
1897 the goods admitted free were $6OOO,OOV
in excess OF the goods which paid duty.
The imports OF gold continued very large
during the month, the total being S5,lis,-
500 The amount exported was only YEA
$40. leaving a balance in favor OF this coun-
try OF S4,S24, ,O6G. This excess is somewhat
less than Of 1898. which was S5.132. .269.
The excess Of imports OF gold in 1897 was
only si7T023.
The statistics for the eight months end
ing with February, Of the fiscal year. are
of the same encouraging nature. The To-
ial exports for the period were SSi3, 3,iSo, APO.
and the total Imports 1927 .2G3 Alb, showing
an excess OF exports Of $fl6.2I1,O0I, or
nearly 100 per cent. The phenomenal ex-
cess of exports for the same period In 1898
was $ii9. .5s3. .6sl, or only little over three
million dollars greater than that for this
year
The gold imports for this period were
s77 los .20G. and the exports only $l2. .0i9,
O63 showing that the country now has
s65. .059, ,l5S more than at the beginning of
the fiscal year. This showing is much
better than thar for the same period ~
1888, during which the excess Of imports
was only 1851, 4s9.
The country exported 1852 1876 silver in
February and imported 81. .i27.027 giving al
excess of exports of s., 1876. In the
eight months the export OF silver was S39,
1i2 l09 and the import $40. .794 900, an excess
of exports OF slS,247. $50. This excess for
1889 is nearly s2,50O.o00 greater than
that for 1898.
The total imports of the country for the
twelve months ending with February were
Ss49, sol, ,SSs. This is the smallest amount
of imports for the same period since 1893.
The total amount OF exports for the twelve
months was s., ,26l ,677, $50, the largest to-