The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1910-11-11
BUSINESS WITH ISLANDS
LAST YEAR


More than one-third of the merchan.
disc entering the United States last
year was of tropical production, states
a report f. ON the department of com
nero and labor With the growing
demsnd Of our manufacturers for trop-
ical products for use in their great in
dustTies and the increasing require
ment of our population for foodstuffs
produced only i'm tropical and subtrop-
ical climates, the dependence of the
United States upon the tropics steadily
and rapidly increases Tropical and
subtropical products brought into CON
tinental United States in the fiscal
year 1910 aggregated 636 million dol
lars in value, against 335 million in
1900, DS million in 1890, and 242 mil
lion in 1880. The share which tropical
and snbtropieal products formed of the
merchandise entering the United States
last year was 40 per cent.
Nearly one hundred million dollars 4
worth of the tropical and subtropcai
merchandise entering continental Uni.
ted States last year came from our
own islands. The total value of mer.
ehandise brought from those islands in
the hsea1 year 1910 was ninety-six mil
lion dollars, practically all of which
was OF course, of tropical production.
leaving about five hundred and forty
million dollars worth of tropical ma.
teria3 drawn from foreign countries. In
1900 the value of merchandise drawn
from tropical islands under the United
States flag was but thirty million
dollars, the contributions of our own
tropleal areas to the tropical require
ments OF the United States having
thus trebled in the last decade. Mean.
time the exports from the United
States TO these tropical islands under
the American flag have grown from
twenty million dollars in 1900. to six
ty-four million in 1910, having thus
also more than trebled in the period
in question.
The principal articles forming this
large importation of tropical products
are sugar, coffee, ndia-rubber, tobacco
silk, fruits and nuts, ibers, cotton. veg
etable oils, gums and tea. In each
of these articles the total exceeds ten
million dollars per annum, ranging from
twelve million dollars in the case of
cocoa and manufactures thereof to one
hundred and seventy-two milan dol
lars IN the ease of sugar. Other arti-
eies Of tropical production whose an
nuai lmpOrtations range from a quarter
million to nearly ten million dollars in
elude cinchona bark, cabinet woods,
cork, dyewood, feather, indigo, ivory,
heOriee root, olive oil, opium, rice, sage
and tapIoca, spices, sponges, vanilla
beans, and vegetable oils. OF tropical
sugar the imports have doubled in value
IN ten years, having increased from
elghty-six million dollars in 1900 to-
-sne hundred and seventy-two million in
1910. lndia-rubber imports increased
from thirty-one and three.fourths mil.
hon dollars in 1900 to one hundred and
enc and onefourth million in the fiscal
year just ended. Imports of coffee havel
grown from ffty-two and one-halfI
million dollars in 1900 to sixty-nine and
one-haIf million in 1910; while other i'm
portant increases during the same
period include fruits and nuts, from
nineteen and quarter million to nearly |
forty'one million dollars; unmanufac-
tured silk, from forty-fve and third
to over sixty-seven million dollars; to-
baec0 and manufactures thereof, from
fifteen and two.thirds million to thirty
nine and quarter million dollars; and
fbers, from twenty-four and a quarter
million dollars to thirty-two and half
million dollars. Tea imports have notI
materially increased during the decade,
having been, in 1900, ten and half
million and in 1910, thirteen and two
thirds million dollars, a sum consider
ably less than the figures of 1880, 1905,
and 1905 Imports of cocoa and choco-
late have meantime doubled. from six