In the next chapter I show the enormous increase in the total trade of the country since the American occupation, and the rapid growth of trade with the United States.
Next to rice, cotton goods form the most important element in the consuming markets of the islands, and the rapidity with which the United States is gaining control of this trade is well illustrated in the following table, showing by years the value of such goods imported since 1904:—
Importations of Cotton Cloth
| Year | United States Hawaii and Porto Rico | All Countries |
| 1904 | $278,106 | $4,919,840 |
| 1905 | 764,990 | 6,346,962 |
| 1906 | 278,796 | 6,642,329 |
| 1907 | 1,056,328 | 8,320,079 |
| 1908 | 604,742 | 7,909,395 |
| 1909 | 508,229 | 6,862,135 |
| 1910 | 2,043,000 | 8,444,453 |
| 1911 | 4,110,837 | 10,305,017 |
| 1912 | 4,143,067 | 9,246,595 |
| 1913 | 6,827,082 | 11,483,638 |
| Total | $20,615,177 | $80,480,443 |
| Annual average | $8,048,044 |
From a proportion of slightly over five per cent of the total trade in manufactures of cotton in 1904, importations of the American product have increased until they supply fifty-nine per cent of the present local demand!
The following table is of especial interest. It shows in the first column the nature and amount of the total exports from the United States and in the second the nature and amount of United States exports to the Philippine Islands.
| To All Countries | To Philippine Islands | |
| Foodstuffs in crude condition, and food animals | 7.48 | 2.25 |
| Foodstuffs partly or wholly manufactured | 13.19 | 14.39 |
| Crude materials for use in manufacturing | 30.10 | .42 |
| Manufactures for further use in manufacturing | 16.84 | 7.19 |
| Manufactures ready for consumption | 32.04 | 75.73 |
| Miscellaneous | .35 | .02 |
| Total | 100.00 | 100.00 |
The most profitable class of exports is manufactures ready for consumption. It forms no less than 75.73 per cent of the United States exports to the Philippines. The least profitable exports are crude materials for use in manufacturing, which make up but forty-two hundredths of one per cent of the total exports to the Philippines.
Tropical and sub-tropical products are constantly increasing in popularity in the United States, which is able to produce them to so small an extent that although the classes included in this table comprise nearly forty per cent of the total United States imports for the year, there are but two on which duty is levied.