Chart II.-MONTHLY MERCHANDISE EXPORTS FROM AND IMPORTS INTO THE UNITED STATES

No marked seasonal tendency is manifested in imports, though the normal reduction in movements of sugar and coffee in the summer and fall tends to bring down the totals somewhat. The movement of imports month by month during the last four or five years shows, however, some very marked fluctuations due in considerable part to variations in the general business situation in this country, and in the consequent demand for goods, especially raw materials, from abroad.

The severe depression of 1921 is mirrored in a decline of imports to a minimum in July of that year. Subsequent revival of business brought imports up steadily. During the spring of 1923 they reached exceptionally high figures, for two or three months actually exceeding exports. There was a sharp decline during the summer of 1923 followed again by somewhat higher levels. In the summer of 1924 imports again fell off considerably, reaching figures somewhat lower than during the corresponding months of 1923, but for the last four months of the year they rose decidedly and exceeded the corresponding months the year before. The imports for the last quarter of 1924 totaled $941,000,000, or more than in the last quarter of any preceding year since 1919.

Table 5.—Exports, Imports, Per cent Change, and Balance of Trade, by Quarters

Table 5 summarizes the quarterly figures of exports and imports The change in the movement of gold during the course of 1924 is striking. During the first half there was in every month a large excess of imports of gold, the total excess for the period being $222,000,000. The excess of imports was very much less from July to November, while in December for the first time in several years there was a heavy outflow of gold, exports of that metal exceeding imports in that month by more than $29,000,000. This change in the movement of gold during the last half of the year in the face of increased export surpluses in merchandise trade is a striking phenomenon. In a broad sense, the recent heavy excess of merchandise exports has been financed by American credit in one form or another.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF OUR FOREIGN TRADE

Relative Importance of the Several Continents.

Our export trade is much less evenly distributed geographically than our import trade. (See Tables 6 and 7, and Charts III and IV.)

Chart III.-MERCHANDISE EXPORTS FROM AND IMPORTS INTO THE UNITED STATES BY CONTINENTS

Europe on account of dense population of relatively high purchasing power is by far our most important customer, taking both prior to the war and during the war over three-fifths of our exports, and even since the war, in spite of wide-spread depression and exhaustion, over one-half of the total. North America usually absorbs about one-fourth of our exports, while Asia has during recent years taken nearly one-eighth. South America takes a somewhat larger proportion than before the war, amounting to about one-sixteenth during recent years.

Table 6.-Foreign Trade of the United States by Continents

NOTE. In this and following tables the Philippine Islands are included in Asia in all years, although in the original reports prior to 1922 the Philippines were included in Oceania.

Table 7.-Increase or Decrease in Foreign Trade by Continents

Europe also holds first place as a source of our imports, supplying during the last few years a little less than one-third of the total, but is very closely followed by Asia and North America, each account

ing for somewhat more than one-fourth. From 1917 to as late as 1920 the great conflict in Europe resulted in bringing the imports from that continent to a point below those from North America and Asia. Imports from South America constitute about one-eighth of the total.

Chart IV. PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF FOREIGN TRADE BY
CONTINENTS

Changes in 1924 Compared with Recent Years.

The distribution of our foreign trade as among the several continents in 1924 showed no very great divergence from that of the three preceding years. Each continent shared in the increase in our exports as compared with 1923, but the increase in the case of North America and Asia was insignificant, while Europe took 16.8 per cent more and South America 17 per cent more. Europe's proportion of the total imports, however, was smaller than in 1922.

There was a decrease in 1924 as compared with 1923 in the imports from each of the continents. Among the four principal continents the percentage of decrease was greatest in our imports from Asia which fell off by $88,000,000 or 8.7 per cent. Imports from Europe declined by $61,000,000 or 5.2 per cent, while there were only slight decreases in the imports from North and South America.