685. Indian corn.—No other cereal compared in value with wheat among the exports of the United States. In his “Indian corn speech,” delivered in 1877, Tilden predicted a great increase in the export of corn, which yields a much larger supply of food from a given area, and hence can be sold more cheaply. The corn crop was one of the most valuable assets of the country; it served not alone for food, but supplied also raw materials for the manufacture of starch, alcohol, glucose, etc. Its most important use, however, was for feeding and fattening stock, and its contribution to the exports of the country was mainly indirect, in the form of animals and animal products.
686. Stock, meat, and dairy products.—Live stock, chiefly beef cattle, were exported in large quantities in this period; the railroads offered every facility for bringing them to the seaboard, and special steamers transported them across the Atlantic in about ten days. Still more important, however, was the export of animal products. The refrigerator car, patented in 1868, enabled the meat of animals slaughtered in the West to be carried to market in all parts of the country, and stimulated the development of an immense packing industry in the regions where stock were raised and fattened. The export of fresh meat, which began about 1875, increased constantly in the last quarter of the century, and formed a considerable item. Of even greater value was the export of bacon and hams, while lard, tallow, pickled and canned meats contributed in varying proportions to the total of animal products exported. The dairy products occupied a less important place in foreign than in internal trade; and before the end of the period the export of these products had declined to insignificance.
687. Relative decline in importance of exports from the South.—The exports which have been considered hitherto come mainly, though by no means exclusively, from the northern and western States. The South contributed still one great item, cotton, but lost the commanding position in the export trade which it held before the Civil War. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that the war was the cause of this change. It did, for a time, nearly annihilate the commerce of the South, and it absorbed so much of the capital as to cripple productive power for a considerable period. It swept away the system of slavery, and forced the people to adjust themselves to this most serious of changes. It left untouched, however, the natural resources of the country, and the New South, which has risen since 1880, devoted itself to the task of developing these resources with energy and success. Meanwhile, however, parts of the country which hardly counted in foreign trade before 1860, had been brought within reach of the seaboard, and had been settled by millions of active producers. The balance of commercial power was thus changed, not by the decline of the South but by the rise of other parts of the country.
688. Cotton.—English manufacturers, who had been in great straits for cotton during the Civil War, and had in vain endeavored to find the raw material in sufficient quantity and of satisfactory quality in other parts of the world, returned gladly to their former source of supply, the southern States. The cotton crop brought high prices, the records of cotton production and export in the years before the war were soon reached and surpassed, and the cotton culture continued to grow down to the end of the century. There have been years since 1890 when the price has fallen so low as to leave little profit for the producers; and it has often been suggested that the South was suffering from an over-production of its staple crop, and would fare better if it grew less cotton and more of other crops. Southern farmers were constantly advised to diversify their products. They seem to have followed this advice to a certain extent, and have begun to furnish the northern States with a considerable supply of food products, especially fruit and vegetables, in direct contrast with the course of trade before the Civil War when most of the food shipments were in the other direction. They seem, however, to have found no substitute for cotton as an export product, and have made that still their single great staple in foreign trade.
689. Export of mineral products: iron.—It has been asserted by an eminent geologist that North America is richer than any other continent in the mineral substances which have most contributed to the development of man. Every metal except tin has been found in quantities of economic importance. We must concern ourselves here chiefly with the one metal, iron, that which has held the chief place in economic progress in recent times, and in the production of which the United States has made surprising advance. Before 1860, as noted above, the United States had merely followed England at a respectful distance, in the methods of iron making. Since 1860 the iron makers of America have outstripped all competitors, in the efficiency of their methods and in the quantity of their output, and have made the United States the leading country of the world in iron production. The American iron industry has shown itself competent not only to meet the immense demands of the home market, but also to produce for export in competition with other countries the large amounts shown by the figures at the opening of this chapter.
690. Recent development of the American iron industry.—The following table shows that the advance of the iron industry was slow for a long time, and that its present power is of very recent growth.
| Production in Millions of Tons | Commerce in Millions of Dollars, Iron, Steel, and Manufactures | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pig Iron | Steel | Imports | Exports | |
| 1860 | 0.8 | —— | 26 | 5 |
| 1870 | 1.7 | 0.07 | 32 | 11 |
| 1880 | 3.8 | 1.2 | 53 | 12 |
| 1890 | 9.2 | 4.3 | 41 | 25 |
| 1900 | 13.7 | 10.2 | 20 | 121 |
| 1910 | 27.3 | 26.1 | 40 | 179 |
| 1913 | 31.0 | 31.3 | 34 | 305 |
Among the causes contributing to this result one of the most important has been the development of the rich ore deposits of the Lake Superior region and Alabama. Economies in handling the ore, by means of steam shovels and carriers, and in transporting it by water and railroad, have enabled it to be brought to the heart of the coal and coke regions at comparatively slight expense. In the reduction of the ore and in the various processes of manufacture the American iron makers in recent times have been quick to introduce improvements discovered in other countries; and have themselves contributed important devices by which the efficiency of the labor employed in iron manufacture has been greatly increased.
691. Machinery.—The least valuable part of the iron export is that which leaves the country in the raw or partly manufactured state. The single item of machinery (electrical, sewing machines, locomotives, typewriters, etc.), makes up nearly half the value of the iron and steel exports; while other items (agricultural implements, cars, bicycles, etc.), made up largely of iron and steel, would swell the importance of the exports of iron manufactures still further, if they were included in the list.
The Americans have recently taken the place of leaders among the machine builders of the world, and no country, however high it may have ranked in the past, can afford now to neglect the contributions offered by American machinists. The cheapness of raw materials, iron and steel, has aided the recent development of the American machine industry, but has not caused it. We must look further, to the ingenuity of inventors encouraged by a liberal patent system, and to the genius of business leaders who have known how to make use of the contributions of technical science to industrial efficiency. We must recognize that the Americans got some positive benefit from the fact that they entered late into this part of the field of production. They were not tied to the past by heavy investments, or by methods sanctified by tradition. Finally, we must note again the stimulus of the American market, the broadest and richest in the world, constantly expanding and offering unparalleled rewards to those who met its demands for improved instruments.