THE UNITED STATES, III. AFTER 1914 309

If ever a country could be made rich by a “favorable >’ balance of
trade, the United States had its golden opportunity during these
five years.!
And gold the United States did get. Altho during the brief
period of acute depression — the last six months of 1914 — much
gold had gone out, the return movement during the second half of
the fiscal year (January 1 to June 30, 1915) was so great that there
still remained a net excess of imports for that fiscal year as a whole.
In the year 1916 the net imports exceeded 400 millions, and in
1917 rose to nearly 700 millions. Thru causes which will presently
 be noted, the inflow then was stopped, and in the years
immediately following was even replaced by a moderate outflow.
For two years, however, cash flowed into the United States in
extraordinary volume.
Great as was this inflow, obviously it was not large enough to
pay for the much greater exports of merchandise. The absolute
amount of gold that came in was enormous; yet it was still small,
when compared with the payments due for goods exported. Only
in part was the excess of exports paid for by the transmission of
hard cash. Other means of payment had to be provided, and

'T give the figures (in millions of dollars) of merchandise (including silver)
imports and exports for the fiscal years (ending June 30) 1915-19.

TISCAL
‘UBAR

Nyt

6
if
8
1919
T'otal for perioc

EX POR

RG:
£793
5368
5059
7534
27.174

APO

3

2594
2016
S174
2.819

Excess or
Exports

1116
2161
3674
2043
‘259

aI

The net gold movements (excess of imports or exports of gold) during the same
five years were :

FISCAL
YEAR
1915. :
1916. .
1917 . 9
1918 . |
1919. .°."=™ 54.2
[otal for the period 993.8

23.3 excess imports
“28 imports
185.2 imports
a2 exports
exports
imports