| Domestic merchandise | $724,964,852 |
| Foreign merchandise | 15,548,757 |
| ___________ | |
| Total merchandise | 740,513,609 |
| Specie | 67,133,383 |
| ___________ | |
| Total exports of merchandise and specie | 807,646,992 |
The cotton and cotton manufactures included in this statement were valued at $208,900,415; the breadstuffs at $162,544,715; the provisions at $114,416,547, and the mineral oils at $47,103,248.
During the same period the imports were as follows:
| Merchandise | $667,697,693 |
| Gold and silver | 37,426,262 |
| ___________ | |
| Total | 705,123,955 |
More than 63 per cent of the entire value of imported merchandise consisted of the following articles:
| Sugar and molasses | $103,884,274 |
| Wool and woolen manufactures | 53,542,292 |
| Silk and its manufactures | 49,949,128 |
| Coffee | 49,686,705 |
| Iron and steel and manufactures thereof | 41,464,599 |
| Chemicals | 38,464,965 |
| Flax, hemp, jute, and like substances, and manufactures thereof | 33,463,398 |
| Cotton and manufactures of cotton | 30,454,476 |
| Hides and skins other than fur skins | 22,350,906 |
I concur with the Secretary of the Treasury in recommending the immediate suspension of the coinage of silver dollars and of the issuance of silver certificates. This is a matter to which in former communications I have more than once invoked the attention of the National Legislature.
It appears that annually for the past six years there have been coined, in compliance with the requirements of the act of February 28, 1878, more than 27,000,000 silver dollars.
The number now outstanding is reported by the Secretary to be nearly 185,000,000, whereof but little more than 40,000,000, or less than 22 per cent, are in actual circulation. The mere existence of this fact seems to me to furnish of itself a cogent argument for the repeal of the statute which has made such fact possible.
But there are other and graver considerations that tend in the same direction.