October 1919 952 FEDERAL RESERVE BULLETIN. October 1,1919. EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES was 4,897,600 short tons, of which more than BEFORE AND AFTER THE OUTBREAK OF 50 per cent undoubtedly belong to the group THE WAR. designated in the export returns as " manu- factures ready for consumption." Navy ship- A comparison of our export trade for the five ments for the period May, 1917, to December, years since the beginning of the European war, 1918, inclusive, are given as 1,090,724 net tons, and particularly the period following our of which only 79,245 short tons are reported entrance into the war, with conditions in the under the caption " provisions," while the five years preceding the breaking out of the remainder constitute undoubtedly manufac- European war, is herewith presented. rured articles. For the fiscal year 1919 the In the attached statement there are given for share of manufactures ready for consumption each fiscal year separately and for each of the in the total exports shows a decline from 37.43 five-year periods combined the amounts and to 33.71 per cent, though the total value of percentages of the large groups of articles of these exports, because of the higher price domestic manufacture exported during the averages, was about $200,000,000 larger than the period 1910 to 1919, together with the total year before, the decline in percentage being due value of all exports. to the great increase in food exports. Our exports of domestic merchandise for the It is seen that the group of crude foodstuffs years 1910 to 1914, inclusive, amounted to shows the largest gain during 1915, the first $10,652,143,000, or an annual average of year of the war, wrhen the share of this group in $2,130,429,000. For the five years 1915 to the total domestic exports jumped from 5.9 to 1919, inclusive, our domestic exports amounted 18.66 per cent. The group of prepared food- to $26,128,184,000 (an annual average of stuffs shows a continuous increase since the $5,225,637,000), of which $19,139,828,000 rep- beginning of the war, though its relative im- resents export of domestic merchandise for the portance in the total domestic exports declined years 1917, 1918, and 1919, and $7,074,012,000 for the fiscal years 1916 and 1917. In 1918 the domestic exports for the last fiscal year 1919. percentage of this group was 19.76 as against Our average annual domestic exports for the five 13.84 for the five-year period preceding the years from the beginning of the war exceeded our war. For 1919 both groups of foodstuffs show average in the earlier period, 1910 to 1914, by further large increases, their aggregate percent- $3,095,208,000, or 145.3 per cent. For the age to total exports exceeding 35 per cent, com- three-year period since we entered the war, pared with about 20 per cent for the five years the amount by which exports exceed those before the war. which were normal before the war, is $4,249,- The only group that showed an absolute loss 514,000, or 199.5 per cent. For the last fiscal in exports for the early years of the war were year 1919, the excess is $4,943,583,000, or crude materials, largely because of the decline 238.2 per cent. in raw cotton exports from 610 in 1914 to about Of equal significance with the increase of the 375 millions in 1915 and 1916. The loss in rela- totals of our export trade in the last five years tive importance of this group in the total export are figures indicating changes in its composition. movement is seen from a comparison of the The largest relative increases in exports are average percentage for the five years preceding shown for the two groups of foodstuffs, pre- the war—33.1 per cent, with the percentage pared and unprepared. Manufactures ready for the war period, 14.89 per cent. for consumption show the largest absolute inc^fease. As regards the latter group the EXPORTS BY COUNTRIES. largest percentages of the total exports are shown for the fiscal years 1916 and 1917, when Additional light upon the changes in the cur- the shipments of arms and munitions for the use rents of our foreign trade is thrown by the of the Allies were at their height. The decline table showing distribution of our total exports during the following year does not disclose the by countries and groups of countries in each true development oi affairs, since these figures year during the 10-year period 1910-1919, and are exclusive of foreign shipments for the use of for the two 5-year periods 1910-1914 and our own Army and Navy. Some% idea of the 1915-1919. volume of the latter shipments may be had from In the table the first group of countries com- the information given on pages 753-754 of the prises those European nations which formed 1918 United States Statistical Abstract. It ap- the alliance against the central powers, i. e., pears that the aggregate weight of the Army ship- Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and Rus- ments for the period June 1917, to October, 1918, sia. For the five years before the war these Digitized for FRASER http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/ Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis October 1919 October 1, 1919. .FEDERAL RESERVE BULLETIN. 953 countries are shown to have taken an average are stated as 3,337,229,000, or slightly below of about 849 millions a year, or about 40 per 50 per cent—or much below the prewar ratio of cent of a total yearly average of 2,165.8 mil- about 70 per cent. The explanation* of the lions exported during these years. During the apparent relative fall in copper exports is to be war years exports to the allied countries of found in the fact that the official figures of Europe show a considerable increase, aver- copper exports are exclusive of the very con- aging for the 1915-1919 war period 3,111.8 siderable amounts used by American manufac- millions, or 58.6 per cent of an average of turers engaged in the production of shells for 5, 307.4 exported to all countries during these the use of the allied armies, the exports of which five years. As against an increase of 267 per are returned under general caption "explo- cent in our exports consigned during the period sives." 1915-1919 to the allied countries in Europe For some items, such as corn and corn meal, over like exports consigned during the preced- wheat and flour, cotton, coal, and coke, the ing live-year period, exports during the war changes in the quantities and relative shares period to the rest of the world increased but exported arc shown in the attached table, but 67 per cent, which is probably less than the it is apparent that the percentages calculated, average rise in the price level, in other words, especially in the case of corn, a large proportion the large increase in exports shown for the war of which is fed to live stock and exported in the period was caused apparently altogether by the form of meat products and lard, are not to any larger exports to the allied countries in Europe; extent indicative of the total percentages of exports to the rest of the world were probably our national output that is sent out of the less in volume than before the war. country. The largo increases in exports to allied Europe are due in the first place to the large . QUANTITIES AND VALUES OF EXPO11TS. shipments of explosives, which in 1917 reached With the view of getting some idea as to a total in excess of §800,000,000, of which about what portion of the large increase in our exports 90 per cent was consigned, to belligerent Europe since the beginning of the great war was due (as against negligible amounts shipped before to increase in quantity and what portion to the war), and the considerable increases in the the increase in value of the articles shipped, the shipments of breadstuffs (mainly oats, wheat, attached table has been compiled from the and wheat flour) and of meat products (largely original tables of foreign commerce for the bacon, hams, and lard for the use of the warring period 1910-1919 issued by the Department of armies). "Under the general head of "Iron and Commerce. steel" greatly increased exports to the allied In the first column are given average 1910- countries are shown principal!}' for steam and 1914 values for certain leading export items, for other engines, metal-working machinery, steel which the Department of Commerce shows both rails, tin plates (of which considerable quan- quantities and values, the aggregate average tities went even to the United Kingdom), tools, value of these exports for the live-year period barbed and other wire, etc., most of which, it- preceding the war constituting 6Q.5 per cent of is safe to say, were used as munitions of war. the average total domestic exports for that period. Unit values for the items were then SHARE OF DOMESTIC PRODUCTS EXPORTED. calculated and these unit values applied to the Comparisons between quantities of different actual yearly quantities of each, of the selected commodities produced in the United States and items exported during each fiscal year 1914 to quantities exported are possible only for a few 1919.