In addition to securities, the invisible balance of trade is composed of other items such as charges of foreign shipowners carrying freight; payments to foreign companies issuing insurance policies; remittances of immigrants aiding relatives abroad; disbursements of tourists traveling for pleasure. Another factor which to-day extensively influences rates of foreign exchanges is speculation. It is applied especially to depreciated currencies, which are bought and sold not for the purposes mentioned above, but solely for obtaining profits from a rise or fall in rates. Thus at the present time the value of many foreign exchanges is not fixed by normal factors, but by unaccountable speculative influences.

The relative significance of the items which enter into the international balances of the United States is indicated in the table on page 258.