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Of the imports of foreign merchandise in 1878, sugar and molasses was the heaviest item, making 18-27 per cent. of the total of $437,051,532; coffee, 11.88; woolens and raw wool, 7.69; silk goods and raw silk, 5·91; chemicals, drugs, dyes, and medicines, 5.66; cottons, 4:47; hides and skins, 3.94; tea, 3.58; linens, 3.57; tin, 2.79; fruits, 2:36; iron and steel and manufactures, 2:07; breadstuffs, 2.02; leather and leather goods, 1.71; tobacco and manufactures, 1-47; wood and manufactures, 1·32; provisions,

COUNTRIES.

1.31; wines and spirits, 1.26; India-rubber, 113; and the remaining 14-86 per cent. was about half composed of manufactures.

The countries which take the largest share in the commerce of the United States, according to the returns for 1877-'78, with the total imports from and the total exports of domestic products to each, in millions of dollars, and the percentage of each in the total commerce of the United States, in the total export trade, and the total import trade, are as follows:

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The proportion in which Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies entered into the total commerce was 10.49 per cent. Intercourse with South America formed 8:03 per cent. of the total trade. The share of British America was 5.55 per cent., making the trade with American countries 24-07 of the total volume. Asia's share, with that of Japan and the East Indian islands, 4.83 per cent.; that of Australasia, 0.70; that of the other islands of the Pacific, 1.08; that of Africa and adjacent islands, 0.57; and that of all other islands and ports, 0.05 per cent. of the total export and import trade.

Of the foreign commerce of 1878, 68-70 per cent. of the total of 1,146 million dollars, or 787 millions, was with the countries of Europe, with all of which there was a heavy balance in favor of the United States. Europe received 583 million dollars' worth, or 82.18 per cent., of the total exports of the United States, and furnished 157 millions worth, or 46.67 per cent., of the total imports into the United States.

Great Britain received 54.57 per cent. of the total exports from the United States, and furnished 24.55 per cent. of the imports. The favorable balance amounted to 280 million dol

lars, or 2 times the total imports from Great Britain. The value of raw cotton exported to Great Britain was 117 million dollars, or 65-23 per cent. of the total export; the value of breadstuffs, 125 millions, or 69-21 per cent. of the exports, to which may be added a considerable portion of the exports to Canada, making perhaps 75 per cent. in all. The value of the exports of provisions to the United Kingdom was 80 million dollars, or 64.91 per cent. of the total export, and with the Canadian imports added 67.12 per cent. The other principal exports to Great Britain were: tobacco, 9.1 millions; petroleum, 6-8, or 13.97 per cent. of the total export; oil-cake, 4·9; leather and manufactures, 47; wood and manufactures, 4.2; live animals and tallow, 31 each. Among the other manufactures England took 1 million worth of iron and steel products and 1.4 million worth of cotton fabrics. The values of the principal imports from the United Kingdom were: woolens, 14 millions; linens, 13.1; cottons, 103, or 54:17 per cent. of the total imports; tin and manufactures, 9.5; iron and steel and manufactures, 6; soda, 44; pottery, 3; hides and skins, 2·9; silk manufactures, 2.7; drugs, etc., 2·7.

The commerce with France formed 8.61 per

cent. of the total foreign trade for the year, ainoanting to 98 million dollars. France took from the United States 55 million dollars' worth of merchandise, or 7.79 per cent. of the total exports, and furnished 43 million dollars' worth, or 9-92 per cent. of the total imports. The principal exports to France were: raw cotton, 25.9 million dollars, or 14:42 per cent. of the total value exported; provisions, 8.6 millions; breadstuffs, 76 millions, 4.21 per cent. of the total export; petroleum, 2:3; leaf-tobacco, 2.2; tallow, 15. The principal imports from France were: silk and manufactures, 11.6 million dollars; woolens, 7 millions; leather and manufactures, 37; wines and spirits, 32; drugs, etc., 2.2; cotton goods, 1.8; fancy articles, 1.5; precious stones, 13; and buttons, 1.1.

The trade with Germany amounted to 89 millions, or 7-81 per cent. of the total volume of commerce. The exports to Germany, 54 millions in value, were 7.73 per cent. of the total exports, and the imports from Germany, 34 millions, made 7.96 per cent. of the total imports. Germany received 11.9 million dollars' worth of petroleum, or 25.58 per cent. of the total export, nearly double the export to Great Britain, who was the next largest taker of this commodity. Germany is also the largest consamer of American lard, receiving after England the largest shipments of provisions, amounting to 10.6 million dollars, or 8.62 per cent. of the total exports under this head. Her imports of raw cotton are, next to those of England and France, the most considerable, amounting to 13.3 millions, or 7-41 per cent. of the entire export.

There is an exceedingly heavy balance against the United States in the commerce with the countries which are the sources of the sugar, coffee, and tea supplies, and of certain raw materials, as hides and skins, raw silk, etc. With Cuba and the other Spanish colonies, Brazil, China, and British India, there is an aggregate adverse balance of 112 million dollars, the imports from those countries being of nearly five times the value of the total exports of American commodities to them. These same countries are large consumers of manufactures of the classes in which American manufacturers expect to compete with the industries of England and the other industrial and commercial nations. Some of them are left as much in debt every year to Great Britain for textiles and metal wares as the United States are to them for their agricultural products. There has long been a market in several of these countries for American cured meats and provisions, and for a number of coarse manufactures in which there is no competition with Europe. The use of mineral oil has lately extended to these nations, and the demand is increasing every year. The condition of the trade with other countries occupying a similar position with reference to the United States is not quite so unfavorable as with those mentioned above. The exports to

Venezuela, which furnished 12.46 per cent. of the coffee imported (68.30 per cent. coming from Brazil), amounted to nearly 3 million dollars, against imports of about two and a half times that value. The imports from Japan were 7.4 millions, against exports of the value of 2.2 millions. The Dutch East Indies exported to the United States something over three times as much as they received in exchange, or 45 millions against 14 million. The exports to the Argentine Republic were 2.1 millions, and the imports 4.9 millions. The balance against the United States in the trade with Central America, with Uruguay, and with the French West Indies was about equal to the exports to those countries; with Peru it was of about half the amount of the exports; with British Guiana there was a very slight adverse balance. In the extensive trade with the United States of Colombia the excess of imports was little over 25 per cent. of the exports, which amounted to 4.4 millions. With the Hawaiian Islands, with whom a special treaty of reciprocity has lately been concluded, the imports into the United States amounted to 2.6 millions, against 1.7 million exports. To Mexico there were exports of the value of 74 million dollars, or 2.2 millions in excess of the imports. With Hayti and San Domingo there was a balance of 16 million, or one third of the exports, in favor of the United States; with the British West Indies and Honduras the export trade, 7.6 millions, exceeded the imports by 1.9 million; the exports to Chili were of nearly three times the value of the imports. With the other West Indian Islands, with Turkey, Egypt, and the other countries of Africa, and the islands of the ocean, the American exports largely exceeded the imports.

The exports of highly finished manufactures, the industrial products in which the materials are in a large measure modified by human labor and skill, and in which American industry, ingenuity, and commercial enterprise come into direct competition with European work, form thus far but a small portion of the exports of the country. Yet the quality of certain of these products, and the ease and rapidity with which they are making their way in contested markets, have already produced serious misgivings in the minds of the English, who have the most to fear and to lose from American industrial competition. The value of the American exports of this class compared with the exports of Great Britain is very insignificant, and out of all proportion to the feeling which this competition has excited in England. Still it has already had an effect upon sales and prices. The character of the American products, their superior qualities either of ingenuity of design, of honest workmanship, or of cheapness, or frequently of all three combined, and the fact that their sales have increased during the late period of depression, while the exports of British products have greatly shrunk in value, in spite of the higher wages paid in

the United States, England's possession of the carrying trade and prestige in the markets, and the power of her accumulated capital, give sufficient cause for fears on one side of the ocean and hopes on the other that the United States will some day share the world's markets with England and become a great industrial nation, receiving substantial rewards from all parts of the earth for the well-directed and energetic application of the acute and laborious practical genius which Americans long ago won the name of possessing. The increase in the exports of the most finished manufactured products has been within the last year or two even greater than in the exports of agricultural produce. This must be looked upon not so much as a vantage actually gained, for a severer struggle with the enormous capital of European manufacturers and labor, compelled to accept lowered wages there while in America it can find other employment, may check for a time the export of staple manufactures; yet it is a certain sign that America will at some not distant date rival the foremost industrial nations in the main branches of mechanical production. The exports of all classes of iron and steel products and of cotton manufactures increased nearly 5 million dollars in 1878. The markets for American manufactures are of two kinds: the old countries whose mechanical arts are of a primitive order, and the new countries whose only products are crude materials, on the one hand (the so-called neutral markets), and the manufacturing countries of Europe on the other. In the neutral markets, owing to the want of direct commercial communications, American manufactures have not gained the footing which they deserve.

The similarity in its natural condition of America to the sparsely populated and undeveloped new countries has led to the invention and manufacture of such implements and other articles as best suit their requirements. In many articles of utility which are adapted to European needs also-especially those in which cheapness, durability, and strength are combined, those in which manual labor has been superseded by mechanical production, and those which embody ingenious mechanical devices- the active spirit of improvement has developed an American product which is superior in form, in the distribution of weight or the selection of material, or in ingenious contrivance. Another important quality for which American wares have thus far been distinguished in foreign markets is their honest genuineness. Even in the style of packing, the wakefulness of the American mind leads to a saving of labor and trouble. When the Sheffield hardware merchants ask the reason of orders which they receive from English and Australian retailers for American small cast ings, they are informed that it is partly due to the paper boxes in which the goods are packed, from which they can be readily taken out and replaced. All American improvements when once

introduced in foreign markets are soon adopted or imitated by European makers. Even the American trade-mark is copied. When inferior imitations are foisted on any public, the fraud is sure to be detected and the genuine article to come out victorious. It is said that there are more American calicoes made in Manchester than there are imported; yet the export of American piece-goods to England is still increasing. The ordinary qualities of cotton goods of American make, though of lighter weight, wear better than the British, and are always free from the clay and size with which the English goods are often adulterated. If it should prove possible to export cottons from the United States more cheaply or as cheaply as the Manchester product can be exported, the vast markets of the Orient and of all the outlying nations are already opened to American manufactures and alienated from the English by their dishonorable practice of adulteration. The inhabitants of Madagascar, it is said, will take American cottons at any price in preference to others. They are already shipped, mostly in small quantities, to all nations. Of the 11.4 millions of exported cotton goods in 1878, 2.5 went to China and Hong Kong, 1.5 to the United Kingdom, 1-3 to Mexico, 12 to British America, 0-8 to Africa and Madagascar, 0.5 each to Chili, Colombia, and Brazil.

The American locomotives and railroad cars are the only kinds adapted to new countries, where railroads must be laid cheaply, with uneven beds and winding curves. The American agricultural machinery goes to all countries where farming on a large scale is practiced, and it has not yet been successfully copied in Europe. The superiority of the simpler tools made in the United States, in material and workmanship, and above all in form and the nice adjustment of weight and parts, is recognized in the British colonies to the consternation of English makers. The form of the American axe is admired as a marvel of ingenious adaptation to the work to be performed; the plow has been subjected to equally impor tant modifications; and in saws, spades, hoes, and mattocks, and all the implements of agriculture and forestry, improvements have been wrought in this country while Europe has contentedly clung to ancient models. In locks and other building hardware, a strong demand has sprung up in England as well as in the colonies, on account of their superiority to the ordinary Birmingham products in strength and finish, and in handy and practical utility of design. All new inventions of remarkable utility are certain to be adopted in Europe, more rapidly usually than European improvements are introduced into America. Thus, the hotel and goods elevators are being introduced in Germany and Holland; and celluloid is already affecting the ivory industry in England and France.

Whether the protective policy has helped or retarded the sound and healthful development

COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.

of American industry, the truth can not be ignored that a genuine development is taking place in many branches. Not alone in cotton goods and hardware are the American manufacturers proving themselves able to sustain the decisive test of an increasing export of the protected articles. The importations of paper in 1878 were only one tenth in value of the imports of 1873, and were principally confined to fine wall-papers, while the exports have doubled since 1870 and 1871. The fineness and finish of American writing-papers have already gained them a market in China and Japan, and in Holland and other countries. In chemicals the same process of a concurrent decline of imports and increase of exports is taking place. Tartaric acid, of which a short time ago half a million pounds was imported, is now supThe opening of the plied entirely at home. borax mines in Nevada has stopped the importation of that article, which England formerly supplied; the price has fallen from 35 to 8 or 9 cents a pound, and England has become a large buyer both of the crude and the refined product. France formerly sent 6 million pounds of cream of tartar to the United States, but now the domestic factories furnish the entire supply. Fruit sirups, which have a large sale in the West Indies and South America, were once supplied by France; but this entire trade is now passing into the hands of American manufacturers, who produce a richer-flavored as well as a cheaper article. Formerly England sent large quantities of doors to Australia and the other colonies poor in forests; now American machine-made joinery-doors, sashes, and Venetian blinds-is being shipped to Australia from California, while in England a demand is arising for the American doors.

There are American industries, it has been
seen, which are already able to hold their own
in outside markets against European competi-
tion. An increasing export at profitable rates
for a series of years is a sufficient proof that
America is able, with the present development
of its natural resources and its existing condi-
tions regarding capital and labor, to enter the
field with the industrial and commercial coun-
tries in competition for the world's market.
That this has taken place in the staple branch-
es of manufacture is an indication that the con-
ditions of production are favorable to that end.
Many manufacturers express themselves will-
ing already to see the protective duties re-
moved in their own branches. When the ex-
port trade is fairly established, the whole pur-
pose of protection has been gained. Every
year new products of American manufacture
find a foreign outlet, and there is every indi-
cation that the United States have fairly en-
tered upon a career of industrial greatness.

The imports into the United States for the
nine months ending September 30, 1879, were:
merchandise, $355,736,388; specie, $46,515,-
595; total imports, $402,251,983.
ports for the same period were: domestic

The ex

produce, $508,900,787; reexports, $7,729,847;
The
total merchandise, $516,630,634; specie, $21,-
033,863; total exports, $537,664,497.
imports for the corresponding nine months of
1878 were: merchandise, $324,611,718; spe-
cie, $22,278,788; total imports, $346,890,506.
The exports for the same period were: do-
mestic produce, $523,458,842; foreign goods,
$10,480,435; total merchandise, $533,639,277;
specie, $21,959,334; total exports, $555,898,-
611. The exports of merchandise for the nine
months of 1879 thus show a decrease of 17.3
millions compared with the exports of the
same part of 1878, and the imports of mer-
chandise show an increase of 31.1 millions.
The favorable balance is decreased from 209.3
to 160.9 million dollars for the three quarters;
and including the specie movement, the reduc-
tion of the commercial balance is increased by
the increased excess in the imports of coin and
bullion over the exports, which amounted to
25.5 millions in 1879, against 0.3 million in the
nine months of 1878: the total surplus of ex-
ports is therefore 1354 millions, against 209
millions for the three quarters in 1878.

CONGREGATIONALISTS. The following is a summary of the statistics of the Congregational churches of the United States, as they are given in the "Congregational Year-Book for 1879:

STATES, ETC.

Alabama..

Colorado..

California..

Dakota..

Georgia.

Iowa......
Kansas.
Kentucky
Louisiana.

Minnesota.
Mississippi..
Missouri..

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Connecticut.

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54,077

52,133

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418

560

District of Columbia..

13

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Florida..

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Illinois

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22,787

29,541

Indian Territory.
Indiana..

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11

90

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15,702

18,982

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5,207 9,052

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472

786

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863

538

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21,101

21,285

2

1

151

275

Massachusetts.

529

672 91,468 100,488

Michigan.

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16,935

21,364

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6,228

10,430

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141

275

71 47

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2,$22

8,491

Nevada..

1

28

40

New York..

New Hampshire
New Jersey

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20,217

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8,323 4,205

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North Carolina..
Ohio
Oregon.

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22,287 28,896

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715

1,285

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5,194

5,413

84

4,574

5,408

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176

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465

7

199

857

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180

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19,851

22,970

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214

405

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221

882

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67

277

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13,866
45

17.586

160

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8,620 3,496 875,654 435,741

66

The whole number of families connected with the churches was 165,842. The baptisms for the year included 10,686 of adults and 5,556 of infants. Of the churches, 2,716 were returned as with pastors and 904 were vacant," or without regularly installed pastors; of the ministers, 2,360 were in pastoral work, and 1,136 were not in pastoral work. Besides, there were 209 licentiates. Of the members, 48,615 were marked" absent," or thus designated as "persons who live at a place other than that of their church relations, and do not worship with their church." Contributions were reported by 2,760 churches to the amount of $951,890 for benevolent purposes, and of $2,313,796 for home expenditures. Of the ministers marked as "not in pastoral service," 134 were connected with educational work in colleges, seminaries, and academies, or as superintendents of schools; 60 were connected with the national or other benevolent societies as secretaries, superintendents, etc.; 34 were in missionary or similar work; 22 were editors; 67 were in secular work; and 152 were retired by age or infirmities. The receipts of the American Home Missionary Society for the year ending May 1, 1879, were $273,691, and the expenditures were $260,330. The indebtedness of the Society was $50,399, against which it had a balance in the treasury of $13,401. Nine hundred and forty-six ministers were employed during the year in 34 States and Territories, 29 of whom had preached in foreign languages.

The thirty-third annual meeting of the American Missionary Association was held at Chicago, Illinois, beginning October 28th. The Hon. E. S. Tobey of Boston, Massachusetts, presided. The Treasurer reported that his receipts for the year had been $314,450, of which $99,019 had been contributed for special institutions. His expenditures had been $213,955, of which $122,665 had been applied to the Southern work (among the freedmen), $6,595 to the work among the Chinese, $347 to that among the Indians, $10,226 to the foreign missions, and $37,390 to the payment of the debt of the Society. The largest work of the Society was among the freedmen in the Southern States, where it had under its care 67 churches, with 4,600 members, and 44 schools, with 190 teachers and 7,207 pupils, classified as follows: primary, 2,739; intermediate, 1,465; grammar, 633; normal, 2,022; collegiate preparatory, 169; collegiate, 63; law, 28; theological, 86. A gift of $150,000 which had been received would be used for the erection of new buildings for the schools at Nashville, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Talladega, Alabama. It was estimated that 150,000 pupils had been taught during the year by present and former students of the higher schools of the Association. The Association had now under its care the Indians of four agencies, numbering 13,000 souls. Nine missionaries, teachers, and assistants were employed

among the Indians. The station at Skokomish included a church of 23 members, with three other preaching stations, 128 families, 200 attendants on worship, and 110 children in the Sunday-schools. Seventy-seven Indian boys and nine Indian girls had spent the year at the Hampton Institute, Virginia, where, it was represented, they had been contented and studious, and had made "marked and steady progress." Resolutions were adopted, declaring that the aim of the Association with reference to the Indians should be, "as far as possible, and as rapidly as possible, to secure for them: a, a legalized standing in the courts of the United States; b, ownership of land in severalty; c, the full rights of American citizenship. These three things, we believe, are essential if the Indian is to be, not Christianized or civilized, but saved from extermination." The Association most heartily approved "the plan of the Indian Bureau to secure to as many Indians as possible the advantages of education offered at such distant schools as that at Hampton and Carlisle, at the same time believing that the system of boarding-schools on the reservations, which for many years have been maintained by the Government and the missionaries, is the chief educational agency that must be relied upon for bettering the condition of the Indian." A resolution was also adopted declaring that the Association, "believing that the treaties existing between the United States and China, so far as they relate to the rights of emigration from one country to the other, and the treatment such immigrants should receive from the people and nation among whom and in which they live, are right, just, wise, and Christian, does heartily record its appreciation of the high services which President Hayes, under God, has by his timely veto of the anti-Chinese bill been enabled to render the republic in preserving inviolate its treaty obligations, and also the cause of Christianity, in removing a threatened formidable barrier to the evangelization of the Chinese, not only in America, but also in their native land; and the Associa tion hereby tenders him its profound thanks for the same." The Secretaries were authorized to notify President Hayes of this resolution. Twelve schools were taught among the Chinese of the Pacific coast, which employed 21 teachers, including five Chinese helpers, and returned a total enrollment of 1,489 pupils, with an average attendance of 252 pupils. Eighty-four Chinese had given evidence of conversion, and 137 had renounced idolatry. The Congregational Association of Christian Chinese had 198 members, of whom 44 had been received during the year. The African mission, in the Mendi country, included six missionaries, with the wives of two, snd five other assistants, two churches, with 85 members and 190 Sundayschool scholars, and three day-schools, the largest of which, at Good-Hope station, had an enrollment of 245 and an average attendance of 156 scholars. Mr. Robert Arthington

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