Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/486
of manufactures in the year just ended amounted to $543,620,297, as against $452,415,921 in the preceding year, $433,851,756 in 1900, and $183,595,743 in 1895. The growth in exports of manufactures far exceeds the growth of population or the growth in commerce as a whole. This is apparent from an examination of the following table, showing the population, commerce, and exports of manufactures of the United States in 1800, 1875, and 1905, and the percentage of increase in each since 1800 and 1875, the beginning of the greatest era in American development:
Year. Population. Commerce (imports and exports of merchandise). Exports of domestic manufactures.
Dollars. Dollars.
1800 5,308,483 162,224,548 2,493,755
1876 45,137,000 1,001,125,861 100,492,055
1905 83,145,000 2,636,074,349 543,620,297
Per cent of increase:
1800-1876 750 517 3,930
1876-1905 84 63 441
Iron and steel manufactures supply about one-fourth of the manufactured articles exported from the United States, the total in 1905 having been $134,727,921, as against $11 1,948,586 in the preceding year, an increase of nearly 23 million dollars. Steel rails showed an increase of 6 million dollars, chiefly in shipments to Canada, South America, Mexico, the West Indies, Japan, and other oriental countries, in several of which railway development is proceeding at a rapid rate. Machinery also showed an increase in 1905 of more than 6 million dollars over 1904. A conspicuous feature, however, is the large increase in exports of locomotives to Japan, 151 engines having been sent thither in 1905, as against 74 in the previous year. Mexico and Argentina increased their purchases of American sewing machines, while Japan increased her purchases of electrical machinery and builders' hardware, each in a substantial degree.
Copper manufactures, consisting largely of pigs and bars, form the item of second importance in our exports of manufactures, the total being $86,225,291 in 1905, as compared with $57,142,081 in the preceding year. This growth of practically 30 million dollars in a single year is accounted for by an increase of nearly 10 millions in exports to China, 3 millions to the United Kingdom, 1½ millions to France, 3 millions to Germany, 4½ millions to Netherlands, 1¼ millions to Russia, and nearly 2 millions to other countries.
Refined mineral oil ranks third in the exports of manufactures, the total being $71,888,317, as against $71,753,552 in the preceding year. Owing to the fall in price, the value remained practically stationary, despite the fact that the quantity increased from 847 million gallons in 1904 to 951 millions in 1905. The countries to which the largest exportations were made were United Kingdom, 221 million gallons; Germany, 142 millions; Netherlands, 117 millions; China, 90 millions; Belgium, 46 millions; British East Indies and Japan, each about 30 millions; Italy, nearly 29 millions, and France, 273/5 millions. South America, as a whole, took about 55 million gallons.
Cotton manufactures present one of the striking features of the year's export record, having advanced from $22,403,713 in 1904 to $49,666,080 in the year just ended. The growth occurred chiefly in cotton-cloth exports, $14,696,199 being the total in 1904 and $41,320,542 the figure for 1905. To China there was an increase of about 400 million yards over last year's exportation of 76.9 millions, and the value of our cotton-cloth exports to that country increased from 4 million dollars in 1904 to 27¾ millions in 1905. Japan was the only other country to show a considerable increase in takings