5 86

UNITED STATES.

The commercial intercourse of the United States with Great Britain and Ireland is shown in the subjoined tabular statement, which gives the total value of the exports of merchandise — exclusive of bullion and gold and silver specie — from the United States to Great Britain and Ireland, and of the imports of British and Irish produce and manufactures into the United States, in each of the ten years 1860 to 1869 :—

Exports of Merchandise

Imports of British HomV

Years

from the United States

Produce into the United

to Great Britain

States

£

&

1860

44,727,202

21,667,065

1861

49,389,584

9,064,504

1862

27,715,157

14,327,870

1863

19,572,010

15,344,392

1864

17,923,577

16,708,505

1865

21,624,291

21,227,956

1866

46,854,518

28,499,514

1867

41,046,034

21,825,703

1868

43,062,383

21,431,632

1869

42,573,047

24,624,311

The immense fluctuations visible in the preceding table were caused chiefly by the supply of the single article, cotton. In 1854, the United States sent 722,151,346 pounds of cotton to the British market, and in 1860 the amount had risen to 1,115,890,608 pounds. The supply fell as low as 6,394,080 pounds in 1863, but rose to 14,148,064 pounds in 1864, to 135,832,480 pounds in 1865, to 720,057,440 pounds in 1866, to 528,162,096 pounds in 1867, to 574,444,752 pounds in 1868 ; and finally, in 1869, to 644,327,921 pounds, of the computed real value of 23,706,662/. Next to cotton, the most valuable export article of the United States, for the above period, was wheat and wheaten flour, the sup- ply of which, however, was subject to great fluctuations. In 1858, the exports of wheat and wheaten flour from the United States to Great Britain amounted to 4,782,785 cwt., in 1859 to only 430,504 cwt., and in 1860 again to 9,315,125 cwt. In 1861, the exports rose to 15,610,472 cwt., and in 1862 to the unprecedented quantity of 21,765,087 cwt. In 1863 the exports fell to 11,869,179 cwt. in 1864 to 10,077,431 cwt., in 1865 to 1,498,579 cwt., and in 1866 to 986,229 cwt. In 1867, they rose again to 5,091,733 cwt., in 1868 to 6,753,389 cwt., and in 1869 to 15,320,257 cwt., of the computed real value of 8,594,701/.

The values of exports from the United States to Great Britain