The combined imports and exports of the United States in the year
ended June 30, 1901, were geographically distributed as follows: New
York, 45.73 per cent; other ports east of the Mississippi River, 35.24
per cent; the West (Pacific and Gulf ports), 19.03. Of the seven great
ports in the Union, three are in the West, New Orleans ranking the
third, Galveston sixth, and San Francisco seventh. New Orleans has a
foreign commerce of $173,000,000 a year; Galveston $102,000,000, and
San Francisco $70,000,000. Puget Sound and the Columbia River, which
before many years will be large ports, have between them $40,000,000.
Of the total exports of the United States in 1901, the West reported
$354,682,075, or 23.1 per cent. Imports were $86,275,443, or 10 per
cent. Breadstuffs form a considerable item of the exports of Western
ports. For the ten years ended June 30, 1901, shipments were
240,000,000 bushels of barley, corn, oats, rye, 450,000,000 bushels of
wheat, and 26,000,000 barrels of wheat flour, of a total value of
$521,000,000. San Francisco led in this business, with New Orleans
second, and Portland, Oregon, third.