322 
INTERNATIONAL TRADE 
Partly permanent, partly of a temporary character, were the 
heavy remittances made from the United States to Europe for 
charity. The steady immigrants’ remittances of the pre-war type 
continued, apparently unabated in volume. Large sums were also 
sent out to Central and Eastern Europe for momentary relief. 
The amounts of these payments were quite as difficult to ascertain 
with accuracy as they had been for the year before the war. They 
served, like the shipments of currency and the panic transfers of 
capital, to becloud the situation and make it more difficult to per- 
ceive the more permanent and more important developments. 
The changes of a more enduring sort, which particularly deserve 
attention as regards general problems of interpretation and veri- 
fication, were of three kinds: first, some approach to equality 
between merchandise imports and exports; next, a new situation 
in the international loan account; and finally, a new situation 
as regards the movement of gold in and out of the country. For 
the purpose of considering these, it will be convenient to consider 
in some detail the international balance sheet of the United States 
for the years 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925. 1 give the figures as they 
have been compiled by the Department of Commerce. 
It appears at once that exports and imports no longer showed 
such extraordinary discrepancies as in 1916-21. While exports 
continued to be the greater, the excess was not such as to rouse 
astonishment. In 1922 the “favorable” balance of trade was 
1 The figures of exports and imports in this table are not the same as those given 
for the corresponding items in the table on p. 319. The present figures are derived 
from the special compilation made by the Department of Commerce relating to the 
entire international balance (Trade Information Bulletin No. 399, April, 1926) ; 
whereas the earlier are from the routine statistics of the Department on the Foreign 
Commerce of the United States. The discrepancies arise because of certain adjust- 
ments (for smuggled goods, illicit liquor, and the like) designed to make the inter- 
national balance sheet accurate. The amounts by which the two sets of figures 
differ are small, and quite negligible as regards the comments which follow in the 
text. 
On all phases of this subject we are immensely better informed for the post-war 
than for the pre-war period. Inquiry concerning the amount of the invisible items 
was begun by Professor J. H. Williams almost immediately after the war, the results 
being published in the Review of Economic Statistics. The importance and 
interest of his pioneer work caused the task to be taken over by the Department of 
Commerce. Beginning with 1922 the Department has presented, and presumably 
will continue to present, annual systematic statements on the balance of inter- 
national payments which are as accurate as the nature of the case permits and quite 
accurate enough for the main purposes of economic analvsis.