0

MIGRATION AND BUSINESS CYCLES
An examination of Chart 10 reveals that, on the whole, particularly
 after the Civil War, each of the marked swells or troughs in the
import curve 1s accompanied, in the same year or within the succeeding
 year or two, by a somewhat similar fluctuation in immigration.
 This fact may be made more obvious by concentrating
our attention on those periods which are customarily designated as
depression years.
CHART 10
CycLEs IN IMPORTS OF MEN AND OF MERCHANDISE: 1820-1923.
Unit= one standard deviation
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«Numerical data in Table 18.
The discussion of periods of prosperity and depression in the
United States in the following paragraphs, and in European countries
 in subsequent sections of this report, rests chiefly upon the
recently published Business Annals compiled by Dr. Willard 1.
Thorp, of the staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The first period of dullness after 1820 comes in 1826, following
the crisis of 1825. Both immigration and imports declined in 1826,
and imports continued to decline in 1827. The ready interpretation
of the evidence, however, is rendered somewhat difficult by the
fact that in this period neither the immigration nor import data
refer to years ending December 31st.
1See footnote (c) to Table 18.