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Statement showing the imports and exports of the several countries-imports and exports of gold and silver not included-and the balance of trade for or against each, for the year 1876.

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In column showing imports of all nations, page 49, the total, $7,169,746,000, should be $7,169,476,000.

The merchant marine of all nations-as far as could be ascertainedwas as follows in the year 1875, the latest year for which full returns were obtainable for most countries.

*Estimated.

These exports are for the year 1875-see Commercial Relations for 1876, page 17. There is no certainty, owing to the manner of keeping the customs accounts in Germany, that the returns of imports and exports of that country are correct. They are only approximate at best.

To appreciate the trade proper of the Netherlands see foot-note to page 9.

Gold and silver included.

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Statement showing the number and tonnage of merchant sailing and steam vessels of the several

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*Registered tonnage is that employed in the foreign trade; enrolled and licensed tonnage is that em. ployed in the river, lake, and home trade.

The proportion of home and foreign tonnage in the trade of the several countries was as follows:

Statement showing the proportion of home and foreign tonnage engaged in the foreign trade of the respective countries-entered and cleared with cargoes and in

ballast.

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It will be noted by the foregoing statement that in 1860 the foreign tonnage in the trade of Great Britain was well up to the home tonnage, while in 1875 the home tonnage was more than double the foreign in the same trade.

In 1860 the home tonnage in the trade of the United States was nearly three times the foreign, while in 1875 the foreign tonnage was more than double the home tonnage in the same trade. Thus through all those years of decadence of American shipping, British tonnage increased in proportion to the decrease of our tonnage.

An examination of the trade relations of the several countries, the volume and value of imports and exports, and the degrees of requirement which exist in regard thereto, must satisfactorily prove that the present foreign trade of the United States is the most profitable and permanent, and that the outlook for the same is the most promising of all.

It will be noted that a steady increase in imports, and a decrease or stand-still in exports, are the characteristics of the trade of the principal countries. The increase in consumption is principally in breadstuffs of all kinds. This in an increase which-arguing, as it does, agricultural exhaustion or the insufficiency of the agricultural resources of the several countries to keep pace with the increasing wants of their popu lations must be supplied from abroad, principally from the United States. As more than three-fourths of the export from the United States is composed of breadstuffs, and raw materials necessary to the manufacturers of Europe-exports which cannot be duplicated by any other country-it may be assumed that our actual export trade is at least assured at its present proportions. It may be further safely assumed that it must go on increasing with the increasing consumptive powers of Europe, and our own increasing agricultural capacity and carrying facilities. Any exportation of manufactures-and a few years hence must behold us successfully competing with the great manufac turing countries of Europe in the markets of the commercial worldwill be so much added to our present export trade.

While our export trade has gone on and will go on increasing, our facilities to supply our own wants have also gone on and will continue to go on increasing in like manner. The decrease in our imports of manufactures from Europe has almost reached its extremest limit. Henceforth we shall be felt in the commercial world not only by the inexhaustible exports of natural products, but also by the products of the mechanical ingenuity and genius of our people, directed by practical education, adaptability to circumstances, and indomitable energy.

Thus when the overworked manufacturing and producing countries of Europe, kept to their utmost tension by forced sales, low wages, and ceaseless assiduity, begin to show signs of exhaustion, the United States in the very fullness of her vigor and capacity, exhaustless in material and mechanical skill, comes to the front to honorably compete with the older nations for the world's trade.

There are but a few possibilities which can retard this programme. So keen is the competition in all branches of trade throughout the world that even a three months' halt or disorganization of any special manufacture by strikes or violence of any kind is sure to displace that certain manufacture, seemingly for the time being, on the markets. This leaves a vacancy which is immediately taken advantage of by the manufacturers of other countries. The disorganized mass is pushed aside, so to speak, and the well regulated and organized competitors fill up the place in industry which was forfeited by misunderstanding or strikes.

The country which can count on regular continuity of labor, a thorough identity of the interests of capital and labor, is capable of achieving more lasting results than countries of greater wealth and capacity, but of more uncertain labor.

The principal cause of the decline in the manufactures of the leading commercial nations is the continued trades-union strikes and the disor ganization created thereby. Nothing so full of serious consequences to the manufactures of a country-consequences which may seem at first only to affect capital, but which ultimately impoverish and destroy labor itself can be imagined as the disintegration brought about by periodic strikes.

On entering into competition with the several countries for the world's trade as the way seems now opening for us to do-it is of the first importance that continuity of labor and manufacture be secured. With such assurance, and a careful feeling of our way-overanxiety for immediate results always overreaching itself-there can be no doubt as to the future greatness of our foreign trade.

It should also be borne in mind that the supremacy of the greatest commercial and manufacturing countries in the world is principally due to the able supervision, protection, and direction of their trade by their governments.

On the other hand, the American individual has had to do all for American commerce, the government perhaps abstaining too much from either directing or encouraging. It is only where a national principle permeates a republic that its national requirements, year by year, are attended to.

It would seem, therefore, that the fostering, the developing, and the directing of our commerce by the government should be laid down as a necessity of the first importance. With this protecting supervision, and with the individual energy and ability of our business men concentrated and directed against all opposition, no limit could be set to the extension of our foreign trade.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

Hon. SAMUEL J. RANDALL,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

WM. M. EVARTS.

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