The Indianapolis journal., 1899-08-14
A SIGNIFICANT TRADE REVOLUTION.

The figures of our foreign trade for classi-
fed merchandise and manufactures. pub
lished in the Journal of Saturday. are sure
to attract attention abroad if they fail to
be noted at home. In ten years the value
of manufactured merchandise imported has
fallen from sS56, Col, $40 in 1850 TO $3.50 9,5lO2 293
in 1899. That is, in the prosperous fiscal
year of 1899 the United States purchased q
per cent, or more than one-fourth, less
goods in foreign markets than in the fairly
prosperous year of 1890. If this fact does
not mean much to us 1t means very much
to outsiders who must see that during the
past ten years they have lost one-fourth of
their market for the products of skilled
labor in the United States. 1t should mean
very much to US that we have gained it
and even more.
Turning to the exports of manufactured
merchandise, the products Of skilled labor
chiefly, We find that during the fiscal year
which ended June 80, $780, we sold $151 .1023 376
to other countries, while during the fiscal
year which ended June 80. 1899, we sold $685.
CO... 794 of such goods. Thus in ten years our
foreign sales of manufactured goods in
creased $1S7, 565. 41s. or 124 per cent.
These figures are unprecedented in the
worlds statistics of trade for ten years,
but other comparisons make the change in
this branch of our foreign trade more strik-
ing. During the fiscal year 1890 we pur-
chased s2O5, ,564 more of manufactured
merchandise than we sold, so that if we
had no other commodities to sell abroad
during that year we should have been
obliged to scrape together the equivalent Of
the 500, ,564 in gold and send it out of the
country to pay the balance due. That We
could not have done in 1890. and we could
not do it now. Again, during the fiscal year
1899 we sold s79.O97. .501 more of manufactures
abroad than we purchased of the same class
in other countries. The past fiscal year is
the first in our history that we have sold
abroad more goods of this class than we
have purchased. This change causes other
nations to settle with us a trade balance
sufficiently large of itself to enable us to
retain our large stock of gold il this lead
could be continued. If the United States
had sold in Europe s75, 600 more of man.
ufactured merchandise in 1893, 1894, 1895 and
gold reserve would not have been put in
jeopardy, and Mr.. Cleveland would not have
been compelled to issue bonds to maintain
it, 1t was because, in 1893, the United
States purchased s11O. 100000 more Of manu-
factured merchandise in Europe than 1t sold
in outside markets. s5s,ooOOOO more in 1894.
$l2l, 100000 more in 1895 and $l05, 900 more
in 1896, that our exports of gold exceeded our
imports of that metal by tens Of millions
year.
1t may be fairly claimed that the crafty
ing change in favor of the United States is
the result of the protective policy of the
country, which has fostered the varied in
dustries. stimulated enterprise and called
forth the skill which has put US at the head
of the manufacturing nations. An intelf-
gent and practical people will so understand
1t. despite the denunciations Of writer's who
consult the textbooks of theorists whose
assumptions have been disproved by an in
vincible array of facts.