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Show OUR IMMENSE FOREIGN TRADE. It may be said that the foreign commerce of the United States has only begun to grow to what it ought to be, but it has at least made a lusty beginning. The encouraging report which we had recently to make in regard to the general business condition and outlook is now fittingly supplemented by the official statement of our imports and exports for the fiscal year ending June 30th. This statement discloses a rapid and most gratifying development of our foreign trade. The value of imports and exports last year was $1,503,679,480, this being 81 per cent greater than their value in 1870 and 119 per cent greater than their value in 1860. Not only was the value of the foreign trade last year larger than during any previous year in our history, but it exceeded the value of the foreign trade in the year immediately preceding by the notable sum of $317,000,000, or an increase of 30 per cent. This is certainly a satisfying and promising growth, and the more so that it stands for a legitimate building up and extension of trade, and was not the result of adventurous circumstances. It was not a speculative and uncertain, but a steady and healthy growth. Looking into the details a little further, we find that the exports from this country during the last fiscal year exceeded those of 1870 by 120 per cent, while the increase of the imports was but 53 per cent. This speaks strongly for the development of our home industries, which have both so well kept pace with the increasing demands of the people here, and made in addition a constantly enlarging place for their products in foreign markets, where they meet the competition of the world. In 1860, again, the exports of domestic products were less than the imports by some $20,000,000, and in 1870 by $18,000,000, leaving the balance of trade steadily against us, and draining the country of large quantities of gold which it sorely needed to keep at home. This year our exports exceeded the imports by $187,908,359, making a very comfortable balance in our favor, though not so large by nearly $100,000,000 as in 1870, owing to the fact that, having more money to spend in luxuries, our people have spent so much more of it abroad. The balance of trade in our favor was less than $19,000,000 in 1871, the first year since 1862 in which it was not against us; in 1877 it sprang up to $151,152,901, and in 1878 to $257,814,231. The growth has not been one-sided, moreover. While the increase of our exports since 1880 has been 130 per cent, or more than double the increase in population, the increase of exports has been 89 per cent, also greater than that of the population. We are not committing what the political economists call the fatal error of selling without buying again, but the demand in Europe for the resources in food and mercantile which are practically inexhaustible in this country, has of late years turned the tide of trade to this side of the sea. The exports of coin and bullion during the last year were about $7,800,000 less than during the preceding year, and the imports were $72,700,000 greater. This is not less significant than the figures relating to merchandise. For the first time since 1861 the imports of coin and bullion exceeded the exports, and by the handsome sum of $75,891,391. In 1860 the balance was against us by $57,996,104, and in 1870 by $81,736,487, while in 1871 it reached $77,171,961. These facts show a material advance full of promise. But compared with the almost boundless possibilities of production, the foreign trade of this country is in its infancy. For the development of our resources now markets must be made outside of those in Europe. They are at hand in the great South American countries, and to them our merchants must soon look for an outlet for our surplus products - a surplus which, to quote the language of a shrewd business man, in comparison with what America will produce fifty years hence, is but the chickenfeed of the country. Now, in the extension of the foreign trade, let but the ocean be once more dotted with American ships bearing American cargos to the peoples of the earth in whatever quarter, and this country will be advancing on a sure basis to a permanent prosperity. - N. Y. (New York) Examiner and Chronicle. |