These figures mean that the United States is still a debtor nation. If the imports of gold brought the imports level with the exports in value, which they do not, but far from it, the figures would indicate that the American people were getting cash for their goods instead of merchandise, as would be the case if merchandise exports and imports were equal. The most considerable factors that annually balance this trade are the payments of interest and principal on American securities held abroad, remittances by American immigrants to foreign lands, money spent abroad by American tourists, and payments made to foreign-owned vessels for freight-charges on goods carried to and from America. There are several other factors in this balance, but the four named are the most considerable. In the case of England and Germany, as well as many other prosperous countries whose foreign-trade sheets show an excess of imports over exports, this excess represents the profit on trading abroad, and the inflow of returns upon capital invested abroad. In other words, these nations are creditor, or money-lending, communities. The imports of all money-lending countries, like France, England, Germany, the Netherlands, and others, considerably exceed the exports, while the exports of all borrowing, developing, or unequally developed countries, like Russia, the United States, Argentina, Rumania, and many others, exceed the imports, as the foreign investor must be paid his interest, and the only source of money for such payment is eventually either the product of the soil or of industry.
One hundred years ago, when the population of the United States was about seven millions, the American people imported annually considerably less than $100,000,000 worth of merchandise, less than ten per cent. of which came in free of duty. In 1912, when the population was more than ninety millions, the importations amounted to nearly $1,700,000,000, of which about fifty-four per cent. entered duty free. The average ad valorem rate of import duty on dutiable goods one hundred years ago was about forty per cent., and on the total imports, dutiable and free, it was about thirty-five per cent. In 1912 the average ad valorem on dutiable goods was about the same as one hundred years before, and on the total imports, both dutiable and free, it was about nineteen per cent. The progress of American foreign trade in one hundred years is recorded as follows:
| Year | Imports | Exports |
Total Foreign Trade |
| 1810 | $85,000,000 | $67,000,000 | $152,000,000 |
| 1830 | 63,000,000 | 72,000,000 | 135,000,000 |
| 1850 | 174,000,000 | 144,000,000 | 318,000,000 |
| 1870 | 436,000,000 | 393,000,000 | 829,000,000 |
| 1890 | 790,000,000 | 858,000,000 | 1,648,000,000 |
| 1912 | 1,818,000,000 | 2,363,000,000 | 4,181,000,000 |
In one hundred years the population has increased more than thirteen times, and the foreign trade more than twenty-five times. In 1810 the per capita foreign trade of America was about $21, and in 1912 it was nearly $40. These latter figures are really much more significant than appears at first glance, for the population of America, as estimated in 1810, was composed of a larger proportion of effective producing units than in 1912. Few but white people were counted, the percentage of women and children was smaller, and virtually every white American was self-supporting. The estimate of to-day includes, therefore, a much larger percentage of human beings who, though counted as units in population, are not so potential in the material activities of the nation. The $40 per capita of 1912 is much more significant of the growth of American foreign interests, therefore, than merely the increase from the $21 of 1810 appears.
Speaking generally, the foreign trade of the United States has doubled every twenty years since 1830, regardless of wars, changes of government, administrative policies, the rise or decline of shipping interests, the increasing power of foreign competition, or the opening and development of competitive territory in other parts of the world. The development of industry in a country is usually written on the character of the imports and exports, and the changes that take place in the proportions of raw material and manufactured goods are most significant. In the case of the United States, these are strikingly shown in the more or less shifting percentages of a long period in the growth of the nation—a period fully covering the time the United States has figured to any marked degree in the economic affairs of the world. In the last eighty-two years American foreign trade has been roughly classified by percentages as follows:
IMPORTS
| 1830 | 1870 | 1912 | |
|
Crude food-stuffs and food animals | 11.77 | 12.41 | 13.93 |
|
Food-stuffs partly or wholly manufactured | 15.39 | 22.03 | 11.86 |
|
Crude manufactured material | 6.72 | 12.76 | 33.63 |
|
Manufactures for use in manufacture | 8.22 | 12.75 | 17.77 |
|
Manufactures ready for consumption | 56.97 | 39.82 | 21.78 |
| Miscellaneous | .93 | .23 | 1.03 |
| 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 |
The most noticeable features of the statement given above are that the importation of crude food-stuffs and food animals remain about the same in their relation to total imports, that the importation of partly manufactured food-stuffs has decreased, that the importation of materials for use in manufacture has enormously increased, and that the importation of manufactured goods ready for consumption has decreased by nearly two thirds. All of these figures, both of imports and exports, are based on values and not on quantities. The latter would be the most accurate measure of progress, as prices have changed materially—either fallen or increased, mostly the latter—on many important staples; but it would be virtually impossible to consider these matters from a point of view other than that of values, where everything is grouped under an inclusive total, and in all probability the change that might follow a quantitative analysis, rather than one based on values, would not materially alter any conclusions that might be drawn. The changes in American exports during the same period were by percentages as follows:
EXPORTS
| 1830 | 1870 | 1912 | |
|
Crude food-stuffs and food animals | 4.65 | 11.12 | 4.60 |
|
Food-stuffs partly or wholly manufactured | 16.32 | 13.53 | 14.69 |
|
Crude manufactured material | 62.34 | 56.64 | 33.31 |
|
Manufactures for use in manufacture | 7.04 | 3.66 | 16.04 |
|
Manufactures ready for consumption | 9.34 | 14.96 | 30.98 |
| Miscellaneous | .31 | .09 | .38 |
| 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 |