CHAPTER LVIII
THE UNITED STATES, 1914-1920
771. Statistics of American Commerce, 1914-1920.—The course of the commerce of the United States during the war and the few years of peace immediately following appears in the statistics of the accompanying table, in which, for reasons that will appear later, the movement both of merchandise and of specie is indicated.
| Trade of United States, 1914-1920 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Values in millions of dollars; calendar years, ending Dec. 31)[10] | |||||||
| Merchandise | Gold | Silver | Price level | ||||
| Imports | Exports | Excess of exports | Excess of exports | Excess of imports | Excess of exports | ||
| 1914 | 1,789 | 2,114 | 324 | 165 | 26 | 100 | |
| 1915 | 1,779 | 3,555 | 1,776 | 421 | 19 | 101 | |
| 1916 | 2,392 | 5,483 | 3,091 | 530 | 38 | 124 | |
| 1917 | 2,952 | 6,226 | 3,274 | 181 | 31 | 176 | |
| 1918 | 3,031 | 6,149 | 3,118 | 21 | 181 | 196 | |
| 1919 | 3,904 | 7,920 | 4,016 | 292 | 150 | 212 | |
| 1920 | 5,279 | 8,228 | 2,949 | 107 | 26 | 243 | |
| Total | 21,127 | 39,675 | 18,548 | 457 | 1,259 | 471 | |
772. Interpretation of the Statistics.—With the figures of this table should be compared those given in section 663, covering the course of trade from 1860 to 1913. Attending only to the figures giving the value of merchandise the reader will note that the imports in the early years of the war remained about at their former level, that they increased in the latter part of the war, and particularly after its close. The exports, on the other hand, showed the effect of the war almost from its beginning. They had first exceeded 1 milliard dollars in 1896, and had grown steadily with the growth of population and with the rise in prices due to the increase in gold output, passing the mark of 2 milliards in 1911. From that level they now shot up to 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 8, 8 milliards in the individual years; history does not provide another example of such prodigious growth. As a result the excess value of exports over imports, which had in recent years been about half a milliard, grew to 1, 2, 3, even 4 milliard dollars a year.
Part of the increase in the value, both of imports and of exports, was of course due to the rise in prices which accompanied the war. To enable the student to make the necessary correction for this factor a column of the table supplies the “index-number” of the Department of Labor, showing what the average wholesale prices were in any year compared with the years 1913-1914. Evidently if prices in 1918-1919 were double what they had been just before the war, the figures for the value of trade in those years should be divided by 2 to give an idea of the actual quantities of goods exchanged. Applying this process of correction the student will note that the volume of imports actually shrank in the course of the war, but that the exports, in spite of this process of reduction, reached a level which had not before been dreamed of. In fact the figures for exports in 1918 and for parts of 1917 and 1919 do not take account of the great quantities of stores shipped from the country in transports of the government, and therefore not reported to the customs officials; the figures should be raised by perhaps one-third to give a comprehensive idea of the total quantity of goods sent out in that period of greatest national exertion.
773. Increase in value of exports to Europe.—Not only did the thoughts of the whole world center in Europe during the war; the wares of the world flowed thither, in unexampled volume, to be used to destroy and to be destroyed. For reasons already given the European belligerents cut down their exports, and strove so far as they could to increase the volume of their imports. The United States was in the reverse position. While it was still neutral, and likewise after it entered the war (April, 1917), it was the great source from which the European states supplied the needs which they had not time or strength to supply themselves. Although the larger part of central and of eastern Europe was cut off by the blockade and by the difficulties of transportation, the exports of the United States to Europe, which before the war had run a little over 1 milliard, increased to 2, 3 and 4 milliards. In the first full year of peace, 1919, when the larger part of Europe was again open to trade, and the exhausted peoples were endeavoring to restock, the value of exports to Europe exceeded 5 milliard dollars in value.
774. Increase in value of exports to other continents.—The figures of the preceding section give, however, but a partial and misleading idea of the peculiar position which the United States assumed in the economy of the world during the war. In spite of the great increase in value, and increase in quantity, of exports to Europe, the proportion of the total exports which went to Europe rose very little. As shown above (sect. 708), the United States had tended, in the years before the war, to distribute its exports more widely. The proportion which exports to Europe formed of the total dropped from four-fifths in the ‘80’s to three-quarters about 1900, then to two-thirds; in 1913 the proportion was 60 per cent.
The figures for the war period were 71, 69, 69, 63; in 1920 the figures dropped to 54. It is apparent that there was a great expansion of exports in this period, not only to Europe but to other parts of the world as well.
To understand this situation we must remember that the United States had not only to meet the demands of the emergency in Europe, but also had to take the place of the great industrial states of Europe in meeting the demands of the rest of the world. England, Germany, and France were unable to sell goods in their usual markets, and the United States for the time took over their old customers.
775. Statistics of distribution of exports.—Exports from the United States, therefore, increased greatly in value, not only to Europe but also to other continents. The following table indicates the distribution of exports in the period of the war; Oceania and Africa, taking together five per cent or less of American exports, are omitted.