Insurance [page 190]. A large amount of fire insurance is written each year in the United States by English and other offices and the sums payable to those officers in respect of insurance reaches a considerable figure. On the other hand, the fire losses of foreign officers in the United States are heavy and the profit which alone accrues to other countries is not a large item, at any rate it has not been a large item in the recent past. On the other hand, American life assurance offices transact a fairly large business in foreign countries. . . . On balance, if all kinds of insurance and assurance are combined, America probably has to pay very little to other lands and the factor of insurance in calculating the trade balance may consequently be ignored.

Summary of remittances for interest; tourist expenditures, gifts to friends, and freight charges. Thus I arrive at the conclusion that the United States have on balance to pay other countries a net sum ... of about $595,000,000 for purposes other than for the purchase of goods from other countries. In other words, the exports of merchandise, gold, and silver from the United States must exceed the aggregate value of the merchandise gold and silver imported by nearly $600,-000,000 in order that payment may be made for interest, tourist expenditures, etc. That is to say, America requires an excess of exports over imports of nearly $600,000,000 per annum in order to settle her trade balance. If she has a larger balance of exports over imports than this figure, she is repaying a portion of her obligations to other lands. If she has less than this sum, she is borrowing additional capital from other lands. It should, however, be clearly understood that this amount is subject to wide fluctuations, and is by no means a hard and fast obligation. . . . Taking all these circumstances into account, I calculate that in a year of depression the obligation of the United States to other countries for interest, tourist expenditures, remittances to friends, freight, etc., is about $500,000,-000 and that in years of normal trade activity it is about $600,000,000.

Perhaps the situation will be more clearly realized if I set it out in tabular form:

Foreign Trade Of The United States, 1908-9. Merchandise: Exports :

1 [A discrepancy appears here ; for above the interest payable abroad is put at $300,000,000 and that coming from abroad at $75,000,000, leaving a balance of $225,000,000 payable. Ed.]

2 [The writer does not set forth the debits and credits entering to produce this balance, but implies that these items are about in proportion to the value of goods carried, $2,521,000,000 by foreign and $272,-000,000 by American vessels, or about 90.3 per cent and 9.7 per cent of the total. Proportional freights would be $28,000,000 to foreigners, and $3,000,000 to American shipowners, to give a balance of $25,000,000. Ed.]

Remittances for interest, etc.: