Comparison with Pre-War Years.

Far more striking than the recent changes in the geographical distribution of our trade are the changes as compared with pre-war years. The natural result of the European cataclysm has been to reduce materially the importance of that continent as a market for our goods and a source of supply of imports. While in money value the trade with Europe is materially greater than before the war, this increase is very largely if not wholly accounted for by the rise in prices. Meantime our trade, with all the other continents, has increased greatly, even in quantitative terms, and by very high percentages in terms of dollar value. During 1924 exports to Europe in value were 81 per cent greater than on the average for 1910-1914, while exports to the other continents had multiplied from two to more than four fold. Imports from Europe in 1924 were 31 per cent greater in value than before the war, while imports from the other continents had increased by from 126 to 260 per cent.

Before the war Europe took five-eighths of our imports; in 1924 the proportion was not much over half (53.2 per cent). Meantime the proportion from North America had risen from 23.1 per cent to 23.7 per cent; that for South America from 5.6 to 6.9 per cent, and that for Asia from 5.6 to 11.2 per cent. Again, before the war Europe furnished nearly half of our imports, while the proportion in 1924 was less than one-third (30.4 per cent). Against this decline North America had risen from 20.6 to 27.6 per cent of the total imports, and Asia from 15.3 to 25.8 per cent; the proportion for South America remaining substantially unchanged. Our greatly increased demands for raw silk, rubber, tin, and jute, most of which come from Asia, explain the large development of imports from that continent. On the other hand, the growth of our exports to all the world outside of Europe represents increased shipments of a large variety of products, including foodstuffs, raw materials, and manufactured goods.

The decline in the relative importance of Europe as a market for our products and a source for our imports is by no means wholly attributable to the World War. For many years prior to the war there had been a tendency in the same direction. The steady development of the United States as a manufacturing nation, the growth of its population and the advancing standard of living have naturally led to increased importation of raw materials and of tropical and semitropical foodstuffs, largely coming from non-European regions. The development of our manufactures also has reduced, relatively, our requirements of manufactured goods from Europe. These same causes have tended to decrease the relative importance of our exports of foodstuffs and raw materials for which Europe is the principal market, and to increase exports of our manufactures which naturally find less demand in Europe than in other continents. (Table 8 and Chart V.)

Chart V.-GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF FOREIGN TRADE IN THE UNITED STATES BY CALENDAR YEARS

1910 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 1924 1910 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 1924

Table 8.-Foreign Trade by Continents, 1875 to 1924 Beginning with 1915, figures are for calendar years, previously for years ending June 30 [Values in millions of dollars]

1000

500

10

Table 9 shows the balance of trade between the United States and the several continents. Our exports to Europe always exceed our imports from that continent; the ratio of imports to exports in 1924 was 44.8 per cent, considerably lower than in 1923, much higher than during the war years and the immediate postwar years, but

much lower than before the war. Our trade with North America also shows normally an excess of exports, attributable especially to the fact that we send more to Canada than we receive from that country. South America and Asia both send us a very much greater value of goods than we ship to those continents. The ratio of imports to exports in the case of each continent was lower in 1924 than in 1923.

Table 9.-Balance of Trade by Continents

Table 10 shows by quarters our trade with the several continents. There is normally a marked seasonal variation in our export trade to Europe, and this is rather closely parallel with seasonal fluctuations in our exports of foodstuffs and crude materials. Exports of grain and of cotton are decidedly seasonal, and these make up a large share of our total exports to Europe, and also of our total exports of crude materials and of crude foodstuffs. Exports of other classes of commodities and consequently exports to the other continents shows little seasonal variation.

Table 10.-Continent Distribution of Foreign Trade by Quarters

The sharp jump in total exports during the last quarter of 1924 was chiefly in foodstuffs and raw materials. Exports to Europe during that quarter were $869,000,000, larger than in any quarter since the last quarter of 1920; extraordinarily large quantities of wheat

Chart VI.-MONTHLY EXPORTS FROM AND IMPORTS INTO THE UNITED STATES BY GRAND DIVISIONS AND ECONOMIC CLASSES

went to Europe at advancing prices, as well as very large quantities of cotton. The exports to the other three leading continents during the last quarter were somewhat greater than during any other quarter of the year, except that those to Asia were less than during the first quarter.

Seasonal variations in the imports from the several continents are not very marked. The imports from North America tend to be larger during the early months of the year on account of large receipts of sugar from Cuba. The imports from South America tend to be lower during the summer months because of reduced arrivals of coffee. Monthly variations in the imports from other continents are attributable less to seasonal than to cyclical and other causes. During the last quarter of 1924, owing chiefly to increased industrial activity in this country, the imports from all of the continents except North America and Oceania, were larger than during the other quarters

TRADE BY GREAT ECONOMIC CLASSES

Comparisons of Recent Years.

A broad view of the economic character of our trade and its relation to our industrial production and our consumption is obtained from the statistics of exports and imports classified into great groups according to use and degree of manufacture. (Tables 11 and 12 and Charts

VII and VIII.)

Table 11.-Foreign Trade of the United States by Economic Classes

The classification of commodities into groups changes slightly from time to time as the number of commodities shown separately increases. In this table and in Tables 13 and 14 the figures for 1921, 1922, and 1923 are according to the 1923 grouping and are not strictly comparable with the 1910-1914 fiscal year average. The variation, however, is small.