The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-04-24
COUNTRIES FOREIGN TRADE
EXPORTS DURING 1898 LARGEST
 EYER RECORDED.

The Imports Exceptionally Small-For Every Dollars Worth of Foreign Merchandise Brought Into tho Coun-
 try Two Dollars Worth of tho Ma tion's Products Found Q Market Abroad.
 Washington, April 23.--The fiscal year of 1898 was the banner year of the for
 ports being the largest ever recorded
 for a like period and our imports ex-
 ceptionally small. According to com
 prehensive report just prepared by Mr.
 Frank Hitchcock, chief of the section
 of foreign markets of the agricultural
 department, the total value of our do-
 mestic exports reached the enormous
 sum of $1,210, ,291, ,913, exceeding the rec
 ord breaking reports of the preceding
 year by s17S,2S4,310. On the other hand
 the imports during 1898 were the small
 est since 1895, their value being $616.-
 O40654, decline of $14s ,6SO, ,75S from the
 figures of 1897. Broadly stated, for ev-
 cry dollars worth of foreign nerchan-
 disc brought into the United States two
 dollars worth of our products found
 market abroad. Our domestic exports
 as compared with our imports showed
 an excess of $549,242, ,259, or more than
 twice the excess for 1897, which was the
 largest previously reported.
 An interesting fact developed by the report of MT. Hitchcock is the increase in the exports of agricultural products
 being 7093 per cent. of the total, or $85S,- 5O7,942, a gain of nearly 25 per cent. over 1897. Exports of this class also show a greater gain proportionately than non-agricultural exports. Our purchases of foreign agricultural prod ucts in 1898 amounted to only $314, ,291,- 796, as compared with $400S S71, ,468 in 1897, x a decrease of $S6,57a,672, or about P per cent. The value of the American farm produce sent abroad during 1888 was much more than double that Of our agricultural imports, the excess of the former over the latter amounting to $544 ,216,146. In 1897 the excess on the side of the agricultural products was only $288, ,8S3,725 and in the years inn. mediately preceding still smaller.
 The total value of the brea dstuffs sent abroad advanced from $197,5 ,219 in 1897 X to $333, 897,119 in 1893. In wheat and flour alone there was gain of nearly 100000000. While these enormous galna resulted in part from the higher prices that prevailed, there was at the same time, an important increase in the quan- tity shipped. The total wheat shipments were 143,23S,261 bushels, nearly double the quantity exported in 1897. Averag- ing the export price at 983 cents per bushel the value was $145, 1884, ,659, gain of $S5, 5,765,4S1 over 1897, when the aver- age price was 753 cents per busheI and the total value $59, 9,920,17S. Although our exports of wheat flour did no increase very much in quantity during 1893, the gain in value as a result of the higher prices mounted to $13,349,371.
 During 1898 the export price averaged as high as $451 per barrel, making the total value of the shipments $69,263,71s, as compared with $55,914347 for 1897, when the average price per barrel was only $3,S4. In the quantity shipped there was an increase from 14564545 barrels to 15,549,545 barrels to 15,349,943 barrels during the two years men, toned. The combined shipments of wheat and wheat flour would amount to 145, ,124,972 bushels for the former year and to 217,3O6,0O5 bushels for the latter. The total value of the exported wheat and wheat flour reached as high as S214 ,948377 in 1898, while in 1897 it was only $115, ,934,525
 Next to wheat, Indian corn showed the largest gain, the total exports being POS, ,244.93 bushels, valued at $74,196, 300 as against 176,916,365 bushels, valued at s54 ,0S7, ,152 in 1897. The average priceNin 1898 was 35.5 cents per bushel as com pared with 30.6 cents per bushel the pre- ,eding year. the difference in price again < in the increased total value of X s2O.109,69S There was also a noticeable increase in exports of corn meal, 827, ,651 barrels being sent abroad In 1898 as against 475,266 barrels in 1S97 There vas an increase in the price of 23 cents per barrel, making the value of the ex- ports $1.766,06s as against sso2,O61 in the preceding year.