STOCK EXCHANGE AN INTERNATIONAL MARKET 509
notion that only physical goods are bought and sold among
nations. To be true, our monthly government reports of the
foreign exports and imports of the United States include only
the physical merchandise and raw materials which are loaded
or unloaded as ship cargoes, and which pass inspection of our
customs officials at our various ports. This part of our total
sales to and purchases from foreign countries is known as our
“visible” trade, and the statistics upon it have long been
collected by our various customs houses and consolidated
in the monthly foreign trade report of United States ex-
ports and imports issued by the Department of Commerce in
\Washineton.
The “Invisible Trade.”—Yet this buying and selling of
physical (and therefore ‘‘visible”’) goods between nations
constitutes only a portion, albeit the largest and most funda-
mental one, of our total international traffic. For as a
nation, we also are buyers and sellers in the “invisible”
trade in what, for want of a better term, are known as ‘“‘ser-
vices.” This elastic term of “services” covers a multitude of
different transactions. If an American exporting firm hires
a British vessel or a Canadian railroad to carry its goods into
Great Britain or Canada, it is importing transportation service.
If either cargo is insured in the course of transit by a foreign
insurance company, this service too constitutes an American
import. When a foreign immigrant here sends money back
to the “old country,” America may likewise be said, in the
economic sense, to be importing the service of his hands and
brains from the country whither his funds are sent. When
furthermore, the American ventures abroad, whether to study
in the Sorbonne, to admire cathedral towns, or simply to enjoy
a vacation in any foreign country, the grim laws of economics
score his expenditures down as another American import—
whether of learning, artistic appreciation, or mere pleasure.
Gold is also, of course, bought and sold between nations, and
is naturally a visible import or export. Because of its special
