The sun., 1900-07-30
OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE.
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OTR HISTORY
IT EXCEEDS TWO BILLIONS.

Oar Exports ExceeA Those Of Any Previous
Year and Are More WILDLY Dtstributed
Large Increase II Imports sf hsnufact
urers' Materials asd in Exports Of Mans
fsrtured dArticles-AnExpand1ng Market fol
! American lsoods Gold Pnoducs1on Through
Sut the world the Greatest In History
WAsA1yoro.y, July 2o.-The annual report o
the Chiet OF tn 9 Treasury Bureau OF Statisoc'
upop the foreign commerce OF the Unneo
States during the year ending June3o, 1900. has
been comuleted and will form a partof the June
summsrv of commerce and finance. which
will make Ns appearance during the coming
week. The ssports show that the total imports
OF merchandi se during the year were ss<sNl<,-
go. and the total exports d .soA, 1881. This
princlpol features OF the report. omituns the
statistical tables. are a. follows;
-Four great facts ohara acterize'the foreign oom-
mercs of the Unit,d States in 1900. the closing
year OF the decade and the century:
Fir,t-The total commerce. OF the yearsur-
Masses bySsis 72e. 350shat OF any preceding year.
and for the first TIME in our history excaeos
1000. .ooo.OW
second-INe erpor ts.e xceed those Of anypre-
cedinr year. and have been more widely dis
tribused throu vhout the world than'ever before
Tbird-Manui'actirers' materials were moro
freely impor ed than ever before and formed
larger share Of the total imports than on any
former occasion.
Fourth-Manufa actured articles were more
freely exported than.ever before and formed
larger share Of the total exports than on any
former occasion.
IMPORTS or NAsrricrURERs' NATERIALs.
Two Of the Ave sreat classes Of imports arc
excl,siysly msnufactnrsrs materials. The
Orst Of these. "artioles in q crude condition
which enter into the various processes OF
domestic industry" includes. and Is chiefly
mads mn OF. manufactured 1bers. raw silk.
wool. crude india rubber. hides and skins. pig
tin and certain chemicals. The second.
..artio,es wholly or par italy manufactured for
use N materials in manufactu ring" includes
wood. leather. fnrs. oemerr. yarns. oils. dyes
and dyewoods and certain chemicals. Tho
other three Glasses OF imports are foodstuf1s.
articles manufactured ready for consumption.
and articles of-voluntary use luxuriea. &o. Or
the two classes designated as manufacturers'
materials, that which includes only articles In
crude condition Is by far the largest. being In
IAN Sso2 2sI lOo against t222 657. .0< In 1899. or
nearly 40 per cent greater than In any preced-
Ing wear. while tho dass which includes articles
wholly or partially manufactured for use In
manufacturing amounts to Sss. .t33.5ts. against
sas 7ta oo3 In 1897, and slos S2s In 1891. The
share which articles In . crude condition for
use In manufacturing form Of the total imports
IA constantly increasing. and in the year just
ended formed by far the largest total and larg-
sst peroentaRe Of the grand total In the history
of our foreign commerce. or the total Imports
Of the year. manufacturer materials, includ-
ina the two classes above named, show an In
crease Of SLOT 37S. COS over those Of tho preced-
ing year: while the other three classes. food
stufYs. manufactures and luXur1es. show an In
crease OF but S4s.io0.+s over the preceding
Near. thus showing that over two-thirds OF the
increased importauons Of the year are In manu-
faotursrs' materials.
oRowrr IN Exports OF MANUFACTURES.
While manufacturer materials show the
largest growth in our imports. Manufactured
articles show the largest growth In our exports.
Tho total exports Of manufactures In 1900
amounted to Sla2, ,2sA soa against S3sS Se7S.6Ss In
the preceding year. n increase OF eo2. .eOs. sos.
while In no earlier year had the increase
amounted 70 % much - $50 900 900. Manufao-
tures formed sik per cent Of the total exporta-
tons In 1900 against % - per cent In 1900. 2os
per cent In 1897. aslA per cont In 1895. 2o2 per
cent IN isss, 10 per cent in 1870. and i27s per
cent. In 1890. Exports Of manufactures in 1850
were Slo slA se1. and in 1900 s&a7.2s4. seo while
the total sxpors in 1850 were e33s.57so67. and
In 1900 d. .SeA lse.s7l. Thus. while the total ex-
ports Of 1900 are four times as great as in 1890.
those Of manufa otures alone are ten times as
much a. In 1890. In that year manufactures
formed but ~ 10 per cent OF our total exports.
while In 1900 they form si.64 per cent. Of our
total exports. Even in the decade which ends
with the year 1870 the growth in exports Of
manufactures has been equally striking. In
1891 the total eI ports amounted TO Sss4 $50 $40.
and those of manufactures alone to Si8s. .s27 .3l5.
the total exports for 1900 thus being but 80 per
cent. in excess OF 1891 while the exports Of
manufactures are $50 per cent. in excess OF that
Thi. rapid growth IN the e1RoI;tation Of Of
heretofore chiefly supplied the worlds markets
In manufactured goods. In 1850. as already
Indicated. our total exports OF manufactres
United Kingdom were sofa. .sSs, ,2s3 BY 1870 our
own exports OF manufactures had increased to
SOS, 17e. 1o4 and those of the United Kingdom
lures from the United States were SiO2.-
SSs.Oi5. and those from the United King
dom ss7S ISL 400 In 1890 % ,o1 3Sr ga exports
ihose from the United Kingdom SOs9. IS. 1871.
In 1900 exports Of manufactures from the
United States had reached A32, ,2A ,368. while
those from the United Kingdom In lsOs the
latest year available. had dropped to so3o, 1885,
s2s Thus our exports OF manufactures are
now ten times a. much as IN 1880, while those OF
the United X ingdom are but one and "a half
times a great ms in 1850.
OUR COMMERCE WITH THE GRAND DIVISIONS.
A study OF our imrorts from the grand
divisions Of IN, world illustrates the grow tn Ia
the proportion OF our imports which is being
supplied by the tropical and subtropical par Is
OF the world In 1870 the imports from Europe
were S4ia 0S7, ,268 and in 1000 $40 5O9,<S0, from
North America the imports In 1890 were Slta-
s6s, 7OS and in 1900 Sle9, ,o3e.TS from South
America, from which our imports are almost
exclusively tropical and suh'ropIcal. the i'm
ports OF 1890 were 500 OO6. ~ and In 1900 S93, :
ass, l34; from Asia. whose supplies sent TO the
United States are chiefly tropical and sub
tropical in character our imports In 1890 were
S87 5O6 s33 and in 1900 ti3a OPS from Oceania,
living almost exclusively IN the tropics, the I'M
ports In 1890 were s?s 358. SOS and in 1900 81,
50s,O42, and from Africa. from which our I'M
ports are almost exclusively tropical and sub
tropical. our imports in 1870 were d. al and
IN 1900 I'll. .?i7.ll6
IMPORTS FROM CrBA. PORTO RICO HAWAII AND
THE PHI IPPlNEs
That a large proportion Of the growing de-
can be supplied by the islands which have re-
Gently came into closer relations with the
United States IA illustrated by the statistics
showing the value Of the imports into the
United States from Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii
and the Philippine Islands in each year from
1890 to 1900 In 1890 the imports from these
islands aggregated over $500 o 900 and reached
the reciprocity treaty with Spain. falling TO
laaa ha N slO Up (OO in sQT nd lsuS and avain