CHAPTER IL
CHARACTER AND IMPORTANCE OF AMERICAN FOREIGN
TRADE.

In order to appreciate the part which cooperative action for export
 trade may play in the development of such trade it is necessary
to understand the general character of American export and import
business and to consider briefly its importance.
In summarizing the outstanding facts of the foreign trade of the
United States it is expedient to refer to normal conditions. The
outbreak of the present war caused profound interruption and
change in international commerce. This presentation, therefore, is
based on the data for the years preceding the war.
At the beginning of the century the United States ranked first
among the three great exporting countries in the value of domestic
products exported, the average annual value of such exports for the
respective countries for the years 1901-1903 being, United States,
$1,410,000,000; England, $1,387,000,000; Germany," $1,120,000,000.
A decade later the United States had fallen to second place. The
average values for the years 1911-1913 were, England, $2,379,000,000;
United States, $2,290,000,000; Germany, $2,155,000,000. The progress
 of the other two countries had been greater than that of the
United States, the per cent of increase being, Germany, 92 per cent:
England, 71 per cent; United States, 62 per cent.

SECTION 1. CHARACTER OF AMERICAN FOREIGN TRADE.

This country buys commodities abroad which it can not produce
here or which it finds it to its advantage to purchase elsewhere, and
it sells abroad the surplus product of its farms, mines, and factories.
Imports and exports are here classified in three great groups, viz,
foodstuffs, materials for manufacturing, and manufactures ready for
consumption. In making these broad comparisons it is necessary
in general to use total values rather than quantities, but it is evident
that in many cases the increase or decrease is largely affected by
changes in the value of the unit, and does not indicate, therefore,
the extent of the changes in the total quantities. A few remaining
items are thrown into a small miscellaneous group, not considered
in the details which follow here. The table below gives the principal
statistical facts concerning American imports and exports of these
oreat classes of commodities and of the chief articles in each class,
The data given are average values for the three years 1911-1913
and similar averages for 1v01-1903.

1The figure for Germany is the amount of its “ special commerce,” being that classificalion
 of its exports that most nearly corresponds to the classification “ domestic exports"
ised by the United States and England.
97941° 18-9