The changed conditions of our trade and trade requirements above noted resulted in a readjustment of the share of the trade with the various sections of the world. In 1890 57 per cent of the imports were drawn from Europe, and 80 per cent of the exports went to that continent. In 1913 only 49 per cent of the greatly increased imports were drawn from Europe and 60 per cent of the exports sent thereto, though of course the great demands of the war have resulted in a temporary in crease which merchandise for Europe forms of the exports. On the other hand Europe had little to sell and our imports from that continent fell off nearly 60 per cent during the wai period.
The tables which follow show the growth of our commerce from 1789 down to 1919, pre senting figures at decennial periods showing the total of imports and exports, and the share thereof with each grand division, also the share which foodstuffs, manufacturing ma terial and manufactures respectively form of the imports and exports.
Prior to the development of the great pro ducing power of the Mississippi Valley imports generally exceeded exports, but when that great area began to pour out its vast production of wheat and corn and meats and livestock and cotton and iron and copper and timber, the ex ports began to exceed imports, and on several occasions the excess of exports over imports was more than $600,000,000 per annum, and in the 17 years from 1897 to the beginning of the great European War the excess of exports over imports aggregated $8,463,000,000, or an average of practically $500,000,000 per annum. During the war period the excess of exports be came much greater, being in 1915 $1,094,000,000, in 1916 $2,136,000,000, in 1917 $3,634,000,000, in 1918 $2,979,000,000 and in 1919 $4,129,000,000. Thus in the period 1900 to 1919 the excess of exports over imports aggregated the enormous sum of $20,741,000,000. As a result there were large imports of gold, especially during the European War, and the excess of gold imports over exports in the fiscal years 1916 and 1917 aggregated more than $1,000,000,000, giving to the United States a stock of gold far in excess of that of any other country of the world.
As to the future of our foreign commerce, it is quite apparent that it will differ materially from that of the past. Manufacturing ma terial and tropical foodstuffs will be our chief requirement from abroad and manufactures the chief material which we can offer in exchange.
Practically all of our coffee,.tea and cacao come from foreign countries and will so continue in definitely, while at present we bring about one half of our sugar from foreign countries and supply the remainder from our own fields and those of our islands. On the export side, we can still supply large quantities of raw cotton, and under pressure of the war we have spared greater quantities of foodstuffs than normal, but it is a startling fact that in the 25 years preceding the present war our exports of manufacturing material and foodstuffs in creased but a little over 100 per cent while those of manufactures were increasing over 500 per cent, while a comparison of the exports of manufactures in 1917 with those of earlier years would give an exaggerated percentage of growth. The mere fact that the total exports of manufactures have grown from $1,000,000,000 in 1914 to $4,136,000,000 in 1917 and continued in 1919, after the close of the war, at the rate of about $3,000,000,000 per annum, at least in dicates the wonderful expansive power of our manufacturing industries, and suggests the pos sibility of their being able to greatly enlarge our exports when manufactures necessarily be come the chief product which we can spare in exchange for our growing requirements of manufacturing material and tropical food-stuffs.
The 10 great articles of manufacturing ma terials for which we now rely on foreign countries are wool, silk, fibres, cotton, rubber, hides, copper, tin, gums and nitrates, and the five great articles of food impqrted are sugar, coffee, tea, cacao anti fruits. Of these 10 great articles imported from abroad for manufactur ing, our imports in 1917 were $1,060,000,000, against $431,000,000 10 years earlier, and the five great articles of food imported from for eign countries in 1917 were $482,000,000, against $234,000,000 10 years earlier, despite the fact that our islands had practically doubled their _ .
contributions of sugar meantime. These 15 absolutely required articles from abroad for use in manufacturing or for food aggregated in round terms $1,500,000,000 in 1917, against $716,000,000 a decade earlier.