The significance of these figures descriptive of our export trade will
be better understood from a few comparisons. Our total exportation for
the year 1897-8 was, as said before, in round numbers, $1,250,000,000.
For the year previous it was over $1,000,000,000. The exportation of
Great Britain for the year 1896 was $1,500,000,000. For the year 1897
it was almost the same amount. For the year 1895 it was
$1,450,000,000. But whereas our exportation of breadstuffs,
provisions, animals, fruit, etc., and of raw materials, such as
cotton, lumber, ores, etc., amounts to probably 77 or 78 per cent. of
our total exportation, while our exportation of manufactured goods
amounts to not more than 22 or 23 per cent., the exportation of
breadstuffs, provisions, raw material, etc., which Great Britain makes
is not more than one sixth, or 17 per cent., of her total exportation,
while her exportation of manufactured goods is five sixths, or 83 per
cent., of her total exportation. For example, Great Britain's export
of textiles alone amounts to over $500,000,000 a year (for 1896
$526,647,525), while our total export of textiles, including cottons,
woollens, silks, and fibres, is not more than $19,000,000 a year.
Great Britain's total export of hardware and machinery amounts to over
$250,000,000 a year; our total export of these articles does not
amount to more than a third of this sum. On the other hand, Great
Britain's total export of raw materials of all sorts is not more than
$100,000,000 a year, while ours of cotton alone is almost two and
one-third times that sum. And while Great Britain exports no
breadstuffs or provisions to speak of, our exportation of these
articles (including animals) amounts to the enormous sum of
$855,000,000 a year.