INFLUENCE OF ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 177
and the extent to which there are similarities in the business cycles
of leading industrial countries. Let us now examine somewhat
more closely the economic conditions in a few of the leading countries
of emigration and the concurrent state of prosperity or depression
in the United States, with the object of ascertaining, if possible,
what influences are primarily responsible for cyclical fluctuations
in migration. The countries to which chief attention is given are
the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy. Also the fluctuations
in emigration to the United States from Russia, Sweden, and
Austria-Hungary are briefly analyzed.
IMMIGRATION FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM
During the early decades of the nineteenth century the United
Kingdom contributed the major part of the immigrant stream to
the United States; and, with the enactment of the quota laws of
1921 and 1924, which allotted relatively large quotas to the northern
European countries, British immigration has again been brought
into a position of relatively large importance.
Degree of Agreement between Business Cycles in the United
States and the United Kingdom.
In several previous studies of business cycles, attention has been
given to the extent to which business cycles move synchronously
in Great Britain and the United States. Professor Alvin H. Hansen,
in his study of cycles in industrial conditions in the years 1902 to
1908, by months, reached the conclusion that the cyclical movements
in the United States and Great Britain are quite closely concurrent.
Also, Professor Warren M. Persons and his associates, in a study of
British economic conditions, demonstrated that, with certain noteworthy
 differences, there was a marked similarity in business cycles
in the United States and Great Britain in the years 1903 to 1914,
but that the British index, however, frequently lagged after that
for the United States; and Miss Dorothy S. Thomas, in a recent
study, finds, for the same period covered by our analysis (1870 to
In this chapter the term “British” is applied to the entire United Kingdom, including
 Great Britain and Ireland, and, unless so specified, references to “Great Britain’
do not necessarily include Ireland.
SAlvin Harvey Hansen, Cycles of Prosperity and Depression in the United States,
Great Britain aud Germany—A Study of Monthly Data 1902-1908, University of Wisconsin
 Studies in the Social Sciences and History, Number 5.
"The Review of Economic Statistics, Supplement, June, 1922, “An Index of British
Sonoma Conditions, 1903-1914,” by W. M. Persons, N. J. Silberling, and W. A. Ber-