7. COMMERCE. In the year 1915 Ar gentina's imports amounted to V18,951,000 and exports to $539,000,000, while in 1916 the value of imports was $211,310,688 and of exports $453,841,507. In 1914 the total foreign trade, exclusive of coin and bullion, was $602,439,880 (U. S. gold)that being the sum of imports to the value of and exports, $338,776, 517. More nearly normal was the year 1913, the last wholly normal year before the Euro pean War, in which, according to the official report of the statistical office, the total foreign trade of the republic was $877,711,376 • (U. S. Fold, equivalent to 904,857,089 pesos), that be ing the sum of imports valued at $408,711,966 (421,352,542 pesos) and exports W,999,410 (483,504,547 pesos). In 1913 the imports from Great Britain were valued at $126,959,989; from Germany, $69,172,279; from the United States, $60,171,867; from France, $36,933,537. To Great Britain in the same year the exports were, in value, $11,756,777; to Germany, $56, 178,368; to France, $36,586,981; to the United States, $22,207,965. The chief imports are: Food products, textiles and allied products, manufactured articles of iron and steel, rail way supplies, agricultural implements, electric apparatus, glass and chinaware, chemicals, building materials, manufactured articles of hides and skins, oils and beverages. The chief exports are products of agricultural and pas toral industry, of the forests and of the mines.
During the decade 1904-13, commercial prog ress on the part of Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Brazil has been especially noteworthy; and we learn by consultation of the official data that the percentages of increase are as follows: Argentina, slightly more than 108 per cent in crease; Uruguay, 104 per cent increase; Chile, slightly more than 94 per cent increase; Brazil, 54 per cent increase. Argentine exports (with values in gold dollars) in a single year pre ceding the outbreak of the war in Europe are listed as follows: Live-stock, $8,770,045; meat, hides, wool, etc., $136,336,218; manufactured animal products, $18,124,419; by-products, $2, 569,451; agricultural products (in the restricted sense,products of tillage or of the field and garden), including raw material, manufactured and by-products, $301,267,094; woodland prod ucts, $10,617,985; products of the chase, $1, 816,911; mineral products, $194,690; other prod ucts, $3,807,734.
Of the cereals, Argentina exported 592,797 tons of oats in 1915, 74,899 tons of barley, 4,921 tons of rye, 4,330,594 tons of corn, 2,511,514 tons of wheat and 116,049 tons of corn meal. The exports of frozen beef reached a record figure in 1916, while the exports of mutton were less than in any year in the last five-year period. The shipments of chilled and frozen beef in 1916 were 47 per cent more than in the last normal year, 1913.
Argentine imports, value in gold dollars, during the same year were: Live-stock, $1,419, 290; animal foods, $6,572,463; vegetable foods and fruits, $2,583,251; spices and condiments, $8,098,967; vegetables and cereals, $6,727,848; substances for infusions, etc., $9,517,360; flour, macaroni, bread, etc., $1,434,066; tobacco and manufactures of, $7,038,055; wines, $9,866,310; spirits and liquors, $3,022,088; other drinks, $1, 153,760; textiles, raw and manufactured, $89, 560,214 (this includes silk, $7,080,063; wool, 16 ,751,832; cotton, $41,407,338, and sundries, ,320,981); vegetable and mineral oils, $23, 8,916; chemical, medicinal and pharmaceuti cal substances and products, $15,193,658; paints and dyes, $2,535,437; timber in bulk, $4,252,600; timber worked, $6,576,339; paper and paste board, $6,011,345; sundry paper manufactures, $3,890,640; leather and manufactures of, $4, 610,560; iron (raw material), $24,149,251; iron and steel manufactures, V5,891,054; other metals unwrought or manufactured, $14,257, 919; agricultural machinery, sacking seeds, etc., $9,124,632; railway material, vehicles of all classes, etc., $37,223,336; stone, clay, glass, $36,577,913 (including raw material, $31,640, 37, and manufactured, $4,936,994); building material, $35,775,580; electrical supplies, $10,110, 088; sundry articles and manufactures, $14,399, 584. The foreign trade of Argentina in 1916 amounted to 760,755,161 gold pesos ($733,748, 324), of which imports represented 217,409,322 Pesos ($202,940,400) and exports 543,345,839 Pesos ($524,057,350). This gives the country an apparent favorable balance of trade of 325, 936,517 pesos ($314,365,752).