204 
et 
Rds 4 4 A 
INTERNATIONAL TRADE 
EXCESS OF EXPORTS OVER IMPORTS, UNITED STATEs, 1880-1914. 
+790 ¢ 
AN 
50) 
tof 
Wow 
ny) 
I 
1A) 
1900 
ire] 
1910 1914 
doubled ; but the relation between the two showed on the whole 
little change. The excess of exports was fairly regular and always 
great. 
The main explanation of this accentuated excess of exports Is to 
be found in the appearance of a new item in the international 
account — new at least in its magnitude. This was the remittance 
of large sums by immigrants who had established themselves 
within the country to relatives and friends in their native 
countries. 
These transactions were connected both as cause and as effect 
with that steady movement of hundreds of thousands of persons 
annually into the United States which is so conspicuous a feature 
of the economic and social history of the country during the period. 
That phenomenon was itself quite extraordinary; and it led to 
extraordinary international payments. The remittances, as was 
just intimated, were not merely the consequences of the immigra- 
tion; they served also in good part to cause it. They were con- 
sequences in so far as the newcomers — often men in their prime, 
coming without families — were able to save a large part of their 
comparatively liberal earnings, and sent large sums home partly to 
support relatives, partly for investment there, in the purchase 
of land. But they operated also as a cause of immigration in 
that the funds were in good part sent for the purpose of enabling