Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/747

 -i9oa] Railways, banks, and exports. 715 147,000,000,000 ton-miles, and gross receipts from $1,171,000,000 to $1,711,000,000. Deposits in all banks reached in 1902 $9,315,193,912, an increase of $4,000,000,000 in five years. Bank clearings were $116,000,000,000, showing a gain of 100 per cent, over 1897. Apart from the extraordinary outburst of business activity as proved by these figures, the period following the depression years 1893-6 is notable for two reasons, viz. the great strides made by the United States in the foreign market, and the rapid growth of industrial consolidations. An analysis of the statistics of foreign trade brings out many interesting points. The total exports of domestic merchandise, exclusive of specie, for the six years ending June 30, 1902, were annually in excess of $1,000,000,000. Until 1897 that total had been reached in only one year, viz. 1892. The culmination, so far as money values are concerned, came in 1901, when the exports reached $1,460,462,806. In 1902 they fell off slightly, the total being $1,355,481,861. For the six years ending in 1902 the average annual exports were about $1,322,000,000, compared with an average of $878,000,000 in the six years previous, showing a gain of over 50 per cent. The gain in the period from 1891 to 1896 was less than 20 per cent, over the six years, 1885-90; while the period 1885-90 showed an actual loss compared with the years 1879-85. Much comment has been occasioned by the relative increase of manufactured exports. According to the classification of the Treasury Department, the ratio of exports of agricultural products and manu- factures respectively to total exports was 83*25 per cent, and 12*48 per cent, in 1880 ; 74*51 per cent, and 17'87 per cent, in 1890 ; 60*98 per cent, and 31*65 per cent, in 1900 ; and in 1902, marking a slight reaction, 62*81 per cent, and 29*80 per cent. The same tendency appears even more strikingly from the fact that, whereas total exports in the last six years have increased by about 50 per cent., the exports of manufactures have more than doubled. Comparing the three years 1900-2 with the years 1890-2 the increase has been nearly threefold, from an average of $470,000,000 in the first period to $1,250,000,000 in the second. By far the most important of the manufactured exports are iron and steel products, with a total of $98,000,000 in 1902, to which should be added $16,000,000 of agri- cultural machinery. The highest figure reached for iron and steel goods was $122,000,000 in 1901, compared with less than $27,000,000 in 1892. Technically the proportion of manufactured exports to total exports is much greater, since the above classification includes flour and provisions, which are indisputably manufactures, under the head of agricultural products. But the classification shows the distinction of chief interest, namely, the proportion of exports which are primarily due to agricultural resources rather than to manufacturing skifl. If the export of refined petroleum (about $70,000,000) were taken from the list of manufactures, CH. XXII.