THE UNITED STATES, II. 1900-1914 297 
The series shows in general such trends as might be expected. 
The item of fresh loans made to the United States — capital bor- 
rowings — is large (200 millions) in 1869, and sinks to somewhere 
between 100 and 150 at the end. There is a curious lack of quanti- 
tative data concerning it. Beyond question it fluctuated widely 
from year to year, just as did the capital exports from Great 
Britain, rising to great amounts in the years of expansion, sinking 
to little or nothing in those of depression. In the ominous year 
1894, when there was fear that the United States would go to a sil- 
ver basis, it came to less than nothing. Securities were then sent 
back to the country from abroad (as has already been mentioned) 
and the capital movement served to create a debit instead of a 
credit item — it was as if the United States had paid back money 
to foreign countries, not borrowed from them. The other side of 
the loan account, interest and dividends payable by the United 
States, remains a constant debit item, and, as may be expected in a 
country which borrows steadily even tho irregularly, a growing one. 
In the earliest year here noted (1869) the inflowing capital sums 
still exceeded the interest payable on the preceding loans. As time 
went on, interest payments rose, while new borrowings became 
smaller; considering the loan account as a whole, the debit item 
came to exceed that to the country’s credit. 
The other items — freight payments, tourist expenses, immi- 
grants’ remittances — all indicate growing payments due from the 
United States to other countries. Tourist expenses show a 
remarkable increase; estimated at 25 millions in 1869, they are 
put at ten times that sum in 1912. Freight payments double, 
from 24 to 50 millions. Immigrants’ remittances, which appear 
suddenly in 1909 as if then a fresh item, had undoubtedly played a 
large part in previous years, being simply discovered after having 
grown rapidly since the beginning of the century. 
Compare now the course of the balance of payments, as just 
analyzed, with that of the balance of trade, as described in earlier 
paragraphs. We find nothing which is out of accord with theoreti- 
cal presumptions. The heavy payments called for by the various 
invisible items were met by an excess of commodity exports. That