[6]A portion of the exportation of breadstuffs made to Hongkong is no doubt intended for consumption in China and Japan.
OUR EXPORT OF PROVISIONS AND ANIMALS
FOOTNOTE:
[7]For the year ended June 30, 1898.
The next most important item in our list of exports is provisions. But, like "breadstuffs," "provisions" also is a composite term, including two main divisions, "meat products" and "dairy products." Practically there are three main divisions, "beef products," "hog products," and "dairy products." We have in these great products of our country an export trade of $165,500,000 per annum, and if we add "animals," a similar item, we have $46,500,000 more, or a total of $212,000,000 per annum. Our export of fresh beef is nearly 300,000,000 pounds a year. Almost the whole of this goes to Great Britain. Our export of canned beef runs from 40,000,000 to 60,000,000 pounds a year. About three fifths of this goes to Great Britain, the remainder going principally to Germany and other parts of Europe and to British Africa. We have about 50,000,000 cattle upon our farms and ranches, and our production of beef is estimated to be the enormous amount of 5,400,000,000 pounds a year, which is between a third and a fourth of the total quantity produced throughout the world. Of course the greater portion of this is retained for our own home consumption, for we eat more meat per inhabitant than any other people in the world except the English. In addition to our beef we export about 400,000 cattle annually, more than seven eighths of which are taken by Great Britain, our other principal customers being the West Indies and Canada. The principal export, however, among our "provisions" is our hog products. We export annually of these products 100,000,000 pounds of pork, 850,000,000 pounds of bacon and hams, and 700,000,000 pounds of lard, with a value greater than $110,000,000. As with our beef products, so with our hog products—by far the greatest share goes to Great Britain. Great Britain, however, does not import largely of our pork or of our lard. And though she purchases from us over four fifths of our total export of bacon and hams, she does not pay for them so much as she does for the bacon and hams of Ireland, Denmark, and Canada. The reason for this is that as a rule our corn-fed bacon and hams are too fat—a fault that could be easily remedied. After Great Britain our next best customers for our hog products are Germany (principally in lard), the Netherlands, Sweden, and the West Indies (the latter principally in pork). We keep on our farms from 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 hogs, and our production reaches nearly to 4,600,000,000 pounds of pork, bacon, hams, lard, etc., per annum. A great drawback to our swine-raising industry is the terrible swine plague which so frequently devastates our swine herds. Were this plague stamped out by thorough preventive measures our swine industry would soon become very much larger and more profitable. The third principal item in our provisions export trade is "dairy produce." Our export of butter now amounts to 30,000,000 pounds a year. Our cheese export, once much greater, is now about 50,000,000 pounds a year. As in our beef products and in our hog products so again in our dairy products Great Britain is our chief customer. But our butter export to Great Britain is only one twelfth of her total importation of butter, and our cheese export to Great Britain is only about one eighth of her total importation of cheese. Our cheese has lost its hold on the English market because of its relative deterioration of quality, and its export is not more than a half or a third of what it once was. Much of our butter also is not suited to the English taste. But both our cheese and our butter are now improving in quality. Our great competitor in the cheese export trade is Canada. Canada's export of cheese to Great Britain is $15,000,000 annually, while ours is only a fifth of that amount. Our great competitor in butter is Denmark. Denmark's export of butter to Great Britain is $32,000,000 while ours is not more than a fourteenth of that sum. Our competitors in the markets of Britain for cattle are Canada and Argentina, but their exports together, however, are less than a third of ours. Our competitors in the British markets for the sale of meats are principally the Australasian colonies and Argentina, but their principal exportation so far is chilled mutton, which they send to Britain to the amount of many million dollars annually (Argentina alone $5,000,000 a year, New Zealand alone $10,000,000 a year), while our exportation of mutton is practically nil. We do, however, export $1,000,000 worth of sheep a year, but in this item we are frequently far exceeded by Canada. Chicago is, of course, the great commercial centre of the continent for "provisions" and "live stock," and New York the great shipping port. Of the entire export trade of the whole country New York does two fifths. Baltimore comes next with about one ninth. Then (in order) come Philadelphia, Boston, and New Orleans. The chief centres of our great provision and live-stock trade, other than Chicago, are Cincinnati, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Buffalo, and Omaha.
OUR FOREIGN CARRYING TRADE
One aspect of our foreign trade is not so well understood as it ought to be. Our foreign commerce is carried on largely in foreign ships. The reason is that no vessel is allowed to be registered as belonging to a United States owner unless she is built in the United States, and it therefore seems as if our ship-builders could not compete (in price) in the building of steel and iron ships with those of Great Britain and Germany. Formerly, when wooden ships were used, our foreign trade was carried on in our own vessels, and our "clipper" sailing vessels beat the world. In 1859 seventy per cent. in value of our foreign trade was carried in American vessels. Since that date the proportion has decreased steadily until in 1896-97 it was only eleven per cent., and for 1897-98 it was even less than this. During the five years 1881-85 it averaged barely twenty per cent. Taking into consideration tonnage only the proportion at present varies from twenty five to thirty per cent., showing that the American vessels are used for carrying the cheaper sorts of goods. The aggregate tonnage burden of vessels belonging to the United States registered as engaged in the foreign trade 1896 was for 792,870 tons. For the same year the aggregate tonnage burden of vessels belonging to Great Britain engaged in the foreign trade was considerably more than ten times that amount. Of our export trade to Europe United States vessels carry only five and one half per cent., and of our export trade to Africa only four and one half per cent. But of our export trade to Asia and Oceanica our own vessels carry twenty six and one half per cent., while of our export trade to other countries on the American continent our own vessels carry nearly forty per cent. But as our Atlantic trade is seventy six per cent. of the whole, and as our trade elsewhere than on the Atlantic is more than one third carried by sailing-vessels, it is evident how largely our steamship ocean carrying trade has been allowed to fall into the hands of foreigners. Seven tenths of our total export trade, and nearly two thirds of our total foreign trade, both export and import, are carried in British vessels. The next greatest carriers of our foreign trade are, first, the Germans, then ourselves, then the Norwegians, then the Dutch, then the French, then the Belgians.
EXAMINATION PAPERS
Note.—The following questions are given for the purpose of indicating to the student the sort of knowledge he ought to be possessed of after he has made a careful study of the papers of the course. The student is recommended to write out carefully the answers to the questions asked. Only such answers need be attempted as can be made from a careful study of the papers.