and clocks and parts thereof (principally nickel cases) increased from $136,000 in 1897 to $215,855 for the first six months of 1898. Bicycles for the same periods increased from $53,000 to $81,297. The principal exports to the United States from this consular district are straw goods, knit goods, and silk ribbons. In the Canton of Aargau there are about 50 firins engaged in the straw-weaving industry, employing during the winter about 25,000 hands, with a total annual product of about $2,000,000, of which over $400,000 was in 1897 exported to the United States. As to what share the district takes of the total imports from the United States, it would not be possible to state, as there are no statistics upon the subject. I have noticed, however, a number of American typewriters in use and also American gas engines and heating stoves. The latter are coming into extensive use, it being found that they give better satisfaction and are more economical, the results considered, than the stone heating apparatus which has hitherto been employed. Carpenters' tools of United States manufacture are also to be seen on sale by all hardware dealers, and they are considered the best in the market. Several attempts have been made to introduce American shoes, but without success, it being pretended that they do not wear as well as the homemade article HENRY H. MORGAN, Consul. AARAU, October 6, 1898. TABLE A.-Imports into Switzerland from all countries during the year ended December 31, 1897. Increase Per cent (+) and deof total. crease (-), 1896, 1897. Germany 29: 71 + $280, 065 18.66 +2,960, 772 14.53 +2,508, 609 1+ 352, 876 912,839 5.24 1+ 467,366 +2, 485, 910 2.38 + 78,344 +1, 220, 147 1.59 + 142,614 1.31 -1,432, 433 - 193, 969 - 486, 886 + 200, 728 + 90,681 40.253 21,958 142,082 60,460 50, 215 80,081 10, 221 68, 716 174, 829 52,977 22,924 10,998 64,935 + 7,579 1,753 13,543 100 +7,472,069 TABLE A.-Exports from Switzerland to all countries during the year ended December 31, 1897. Germany.. Total TABLE B.-Imports from the United States to Switzerland during the years ended December 31, 1896 and 1897, and the increase or decrease over 1896. TABLE B.- Imports from the United States to Switzerland, etc.—Continued. Machines and vehicles-Continued. Agricultural machines...... Bicycles.. Raw iron...... Miscellaneous Asphalt.. Miscellaneous - Lard ... Leaf, waste, etc.-.... Smoking, chewing, and snuff Miscellaneous... Raw cotton .... Cotton waste..... Silk goods .... Linen goods .... Horses ... Miscellaneous Oak staves..... Miscellaneous Fodder... 55,583 237 459 1,333 2,581 89,502 6,598 169, 396 8,406 +1,566, 260 4,221 + 183,577 3,815 38, 733 4,347 8. 015 34,660 2, 462 3, 187 480 TABLE B.- Imports from the United States to Switzerland, etc.--Continued. TABLE C.-Bicycles imported into Switzerland from all countries during the year ended December 31, 1897. TABLE D.-Table showing the commerce of Switzerland during the six months ended June 30, 1898, with all countries, and the amount which the United States participated therein. 807, 194 8316, 277 398, 246 460,547 1,719, 456 31,987 455,563 37,745 796, 405 9,662, 142 3,695, 750 21, 352 570, 407 149, 677 4.813 19, 026 16,490 1,084, 820 357.143 7,815, 191 29,918 233, 186 12,312,956 125, 884 21,585, 016 1,653, 420 171, 529 1, 440, 142 919, 939 1,087,216 1, 102,805 62,850 126, 399 69, 487, 767 a Including the United States. BASEL. IMPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES. No statistics are obtainable touching the imports of merchandise into this particular district. But it follows from the general returns from the whole country, as well as from observation of the business of particular houses, that the importation of American goods is increasing, and that this movement is particularly noticeable for the year 1897 and for the first half of the current year. It is true that Switzerland took from the United States but 5 per cent of its imports, amounting to about $200,000,000, in 1897, and that at the same time more than 10 per cent of its exports ($140,000,000) was sent to America. But the absolute quantity of our products disposed of in Switzerland is much greater than is generally supposed, and enormously greater than is indicated by the figures published by the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department of the United States. No doubt, the Bureau receives its information from the shipping ports, where it is supposed that the destination of goods actually sold to Switzerland is the European country in whose seaports they are landed. How great a deviation from the facts is caused by the inland situation of Switzerland, is shown by the following table, in which the imports from the United States in 1897 and the four preceding years are given, according to the Swiss and United States Bureau of Statistics, respectively: There is reason to believe that even the Swiss figures do not embrace all American goods imported into Switzerland. The origin of cereals, cotton, meats, and petroleum, constituting, it is true, the vastly greater part of our own exports, is not likely to be mistaken by the country receiving them. But it is otherwise with manufactured articles like machinery and bicycles, which are in most cases shipped to firms at seaports, and there first receive an indication of their final destination. There is no means of determining how large this trade, which is indirect only in appearance, really is; but it may be assumed that it was large enough last year to reduce the adverse balance of trade with the Swiss Confederation to one-fourth; that is, we sell $3 worth of goods for every $4 worth we buy. So that our exchange of merchandise with the busy little republic is more important in proportion than with the vast Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary, Portugal, Sweden, and Norway, or European Turkey. It is hardly necessary to point out that the divergence in the statistical tables above referred to is not even partly accounted for by the fact that the figures do not cover exactly the same ground in the two cases. There is a displacement of perhaps a month at the beginning and end of each year on account of the lapse of time between the export of goods from one country and their import into the other. In reply to circular of August 5, 1898. |