Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/793

UNITED STATES.  Germany, the second greatest customer of the United States, the balance of trade is growing in favor of the United States. The largest export of the United States to that empire is also cotton, valued in 1903 at $84,824,284. Germany depends upon the United States for its supply of lard, the imports of which in 1903 were valued at $15,448,598. Imports of other varieties of pork products have been greatly limited through adverse legislation. Germany is becoming an important market for American breadstuffs. The manufactured products supplied Germany by the United States increased from less than $10,000,000 in 1882 to $54,000,000 in 1902. The chief imports into the United States from Germany consist of chemicals, drugs, etc., valued in 1902 at $16,166,775; cotton goods, $11,071,974; and iron and steel products, $6,161,651. The French tariffs have thrown the balance of trade against the United States. The principal exports of the United States to France are cotton, copper products, wheat, and petroleum. The United States receives a large part of its silk and elaborately wrought goods from France.

The United States is far in advance of all other nations in the magnitude of its domestic shipping, but in its foreign shipping, when the vastness of its foreign trade is considered, it holds a very low rank. Indeed, American foreign shipping presents a most marked contrast to all other groups of industry in the United States. Whereas, as has been seen above, other industries have had a most remarkable development since the middle of the nineteenth century, American foreign shipping has since that time suffered an extraordinary 