New-York tribune., 1917-07-31
Year S Foreign
Trade Valued at
$S,9OO,OOO,OO0
Export Balance in Fiscal
Year 1917 Exceeds
$3,6OO,OOO,OO0

Merchandise, coin and bullion to the
aggreqate value of more than SlO,OOO,-
100000 passed through the custom
bouses of the United States in the hscal
wear which ended June 80, 1917. A
compilation b. the National City Bank
of New York, comparing the trade oil
the country in that period with the fiscal
wears 1916, 1915 and 1914, shows that
the total of all in 1917 is in round terms
twice as great as that Of 1914, when
Immediately preceded the war Inc
total of imports and exports OF mer-
cbandise in 1917 is set down at So,SOO'-
100000, against $6,531 100000 in 1916
"a 443, ,0OO.OO in 1915, and s4,259,OOO'-
600 in 1914, the fiscal year which ended
only one month prior to the beginning
OF the war. The gold and silver I'M
ports and exports of the fiscal year 1917
aggregate S1,352 $4,000.
The foreign trade in merchandise
alone in 1917 was double that Of any
war nrior to the war, the 1917 figures
baino official returns for eleven months,
and an estimate for June based upon
tbat of the month Immediately preced-
inc Imports are set down at S2,634,-
0O0 600 in the fiscal year 1917, against
si s94 600, 900 in 1914, Rin of S74O,-
600 600, or 40 per cent, in the three-year
period; the exports are set down at 3d.
$50 100000 in 1917, against S2,365,OOO,-
COO in 1914, a again of s3,9l5,OOO,O 900, or
IDS per cent. and the total trade at So
9l4 1000, 600, against S4,259, 100000,
gain of S4,655, 100000, or 100 per cent.
Trade in War Goods
The fact that the export trade of the
country has increased only loo per cent
in the three years of the war Will
doubtless be a surprise to many VINO
based their estimate of growth IN eX-
ports upon the frequently published
figures showing enormous increases III
certain articles, especially those re-
qured for war purposes. EXPLOSIVES,
for example, show total exports IN 1917
more than 100 times as great as IN
1914; horses and mules twenty times
as great; sugar thirty-hve times as
much in value; firearms thirty times as
great; zinc and brass sixty times as
much in value; commercial automobiles
forty times, and condensed milk twenty
times as much in value as in 1914.
On the other hand, cotton-always
an important factor IN our export
trade-shows an actual decline, having
been in 1915 but $550,OOO,OOO, against
$610, 100000 in 1914. Naval stores, an
important item in our export trade, IN
1917 are much below the figures OF
1914. Agricultural implements exported
in 1917 are about two-thirds as much
in value as in 1914; hides and skins
show falling off of more than one-half
in quantity exported in 1917 when COM
pared with 1914; sewing machines IN
1917 a little over that of 1914, despite
the fact that values of all machinery
made Of iron and steel have necessarily
greatly advanced meantime; illuminat-
ing oil in 1917 materially less than IL
1914 in both quantity and value; cot
tonseed oil in 1917 less in quantity
than in 1914; tobacco slight reduc-
tion in 1917, compared with 1914, and
of lumber in 1917 a reduction Of over
one-half in both quantity and value
when compared with 1914.
Food Exports
The great increases occur in food
and war material. Wheat and -four ex-
ported in 1917 amounted to 1888, S,000.-
900, against $142,000,000 in 1914; corn
in 1917 to 100000, against 81 100000
in 1914; meat and dairy products in
1917 approximately S400, 100000, against
S146, 900, 900 in 1914; condensed milk in
1917 20 S23 100000 against hut a little
over Sl,000000 in 1914; sugar in 1917
S7l 100000 against less than S2,000000
in 1914; leather and manufactures
thereof in 1917 Sl50,000,000, against
thereof in 1917 ssSS, 900 900, against