The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-09-27
o1 of Finance finance

 statement just issued by the National City Bank of New York. It shows that the world production of copper, which totaled less than 100, 900. tons in 1850 and 180, 1000 tons in 1860, was 272,OOO totalled less than 100000 tons in 1850 S5o,0oO tons in 1910, 100000 tons in 1913 and 100000 in 1916. The United States output has more than kept pace with this rapid growth of world production, our share of the world total having been 55 per cent in . 1913 and 63 per cent in 1916. World production increased approximately 70 per cent in the Swear period 1913- 1s; that of the United States, agout SO per cent.
 The United States production is nearly ten times as great as that of any other single country and formed in 1s16, 6S per cent. of the world out put, our total for that year having been ;8S1,OO metric tons (of 2,204 lbs.) against S0,000 tons by Japan, 67,000 by Chile, 55,O00 by Mexico, and ~ 53,000 by Canada. Our own produc- ton increased from 556,000 metric tons in 1913 to 516,000 in 1916.
 The United States is of course the worlds largest exporter of copper, { and, curiously, 1t Is also the world S largest importer. The fact that we have. as the result of a very large production, the worlds best facilities for smelling and refining, and are also for the same reason the worlds great i, est copper market, leads other coun- tries to send their copper to the Uni ted States to be smelted and refined As consequence our imports of cop per in ore ranges above 1 00;0eO, 900 lbs per annum, and in pigs, bars and plates more than 200, 100000 lbs; per annum.
 As a result of this large importation, combined with the very large domestic production, the United States has enormous quantities of copper for ex- , portation, the total exports of pigs, ingots and bars, in the fiscal year , 1915. having been 877,000,000 lbs, in 1916 I'll 100000 lbs, and in 1917, l. 022, ,00O, 900. In fact the quantity of !. copper exported totals nearly one-half as much as the domestic product plus imports. The value of the domestic product in the five years ending with 1915 was nearly q, 900, 0,000,000, and of imports $230, 1000, 900, while the ex- ports in that 5-year period aggregated $650, ,0o0, 900 value.
 The price at which our copper has been sexportedbshas greatly advanced since the beginning or the war owing to the demand for large quantities Of copper for use in the manufacture of brass for shells and other purposes. The average export price of coppe. passing out of the United States in form of pigs, bars and ingots was, in the fiscal year 1914, 14.sc, per h., in 1916, 22.4c, January 1917. N.4c and in June 1917, 31.1c per h., or mater ially in excess of the price now fixed by the government for domestic use, or for export to the. allies, of 2S-5c.
 Copper productions in the United States is stated by the Geological Sur vey at 1,3ss ,00o,o00 lbs. in 1915 and ,92S O00, 900 in 191e. Arizona, Mon !. tana, Michigan and Utah are our lar gest producers of copper, the, 1915 H. i gures showing Arizona product 694,- i. 900, ,000 lbs, Montana 352,000,000, Michigan 26e,O00,000, Utah 232, ,000,- 900. Alaska 114,000, 900, Nevada 1o1,- 000, 900 and New Mexico 8o,000,00 lbs. Alaska has greatly increased her i product in recent years, the total {! quantity of copper sent from Alaska to the United States having been, in the fiscal year r1915,t 36,000,000 lbs, 1916, 11V ,000, 900 lbs, and in the fiscal | year 1917, 121, 100000 lbs.
 Chile is Nthe most important source of our imports of copper, the quantity of pig copper received from that coun- . try having geen in the fiscal year 1917, / 13s, 100000 lbs. against 86,000,00 from Peru, 79,000,000 from Canada 78,OOO, 900 from Mexico and 10000 900 lbs. from Japan. Of copper. in !, ore the quantity from Chile was, in the fiscal year 1917, 37,000,000 lbs of copper content. Mexico 37,000, ,00o lbs, Canada 32,000,000 and Cuba 46,- 900, 900 lbs.
 The exports of copper are chiefly to Europe and at the present moment chiefly to the Allies, though before the war there were large exports to Germany, and considerable quantities to Austria Hungary. In the fiscal year 1914 the pig copper exports in- cluded 311 100000 lbs. to Germany, 179,000, 900 lbs. to the Netherlands 173 100000 to France, and 152, ,0O0, ,000 1gs. to Great Britain. In the fiscal year. 1917 there were no exports to Germany; to France the total was s73, 900, 900 lbs, to Great Britain 3o5,- o0O, O,00o, Italy 151, 100000, Russia ir Europe 92,000,0oO and the Neither lands but 5,000,0O against 79,00O,- | 900 lbs. in 1914.
 The. copper imports of the fiscal year 1917 totaled $126,000,000 ir