Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1875 — Our Import Trade—lnteresting Statistics. [ARTICLE]

Our Import Trade—lnteresting Statistics.

Washington, April 14. The annual report of the Bureau of Statistics and Commerce contains some very interesting information. The following summary relates to our imports, Which, in the aggregate, amounted to nearly >600,000,000 for the fiscal year 1874: WHAT WB PAY POB PBRSONAt DRXSS. For hats, bonnets and hoods, and for trimmings for these articles, we paid in the last fiscal year $1,574,800, and on the same articles was paid $528,696 for duties, which will swell their first cost to over $2,000,000. But that la not all we paid for adorning and protecting our heads. Feathers and artificial flowers cost us 18,315,098. For human hair and articles manufactured from it. such as wigs, curls and ringlets, we paid $1,117,945, and for hair-pins, with which to give it pose and effect, $96,480. Adding these items together we have $6,683,018, which represents the original cost of merchandise purchased by the people of the United States during the twelve months ending June 80, 1874, for adorning the head alone, and in that sum is not included-the value of ribbons, which form a conspicuous part of toe head-gear of our fashionable ladies. To cover our hands with gloves, mitts and mittens cost us $4,972,068, and for the privilege of carrying fans we paid $464,430, which does not include the refreshing palm-leaf, of which we imported 70,181 dozens, at an expense of $8,029. For our handkerchiefs, hemmed and hemstitched, we paid $393,072, and for perfumery, cosmetics and dentifrices $251,132. Our combs cost us $327,223. The cost of umbrellas, parasols and sunshades ran up to $287,975, and $1,513,836 was paid for our pocket-knives. Many ladies will be surprised to learn that 165,971 dozen corsets, valued at few additional dozens would be equal to one corset for every woman in the State of New York, according to the census of 1870. Itra-

sne's&s amount nald tor horieivand that does not Liu. L-txt af‘jrij*Arg*rhta hosiery is Classmen ns 101*0 « x/vvwn, . t wool, 218,924 ponnds, valued at silk, 6109,687. Considering tbe. quantities of enamel to be seen on sale in our fancy stores, adorned with labels certifying their foreign origin, we get that article very cheap, as 820? was a sum sufficient to pay for all the enamel imported in 1874. Whether the.enamel thus returned as Imported was for purposes of personal adornment or for use in the mechanic arts the report does not state. For the ready-made clothing imported we expended 81,990,029, which does not, of course,embrace the clothing smuggled in by tourists returning home. Our appreciation for buttons is illustrated by the fact that we expended for those little articles 82,281,590. Our cottem laces, trimmings, and gimps cost-83,468thread laces and insertings, 638,868; epaulets, laces, tassels, and other articles made of gold and sliver, 8102,444; embroideries of cotton, wool, linen, and silk, 83,337,539; velvet, velveteens and braidings, 81,758,977; furs dressed and undressed, 83,139,100. For braid, laces, fringes and galloons, made of silk, we expended 62,678,274, and for silk ribbons we were required to pay 86,695,218, of which sum the United States received for duties the sum of 82,321,015, being about 60 per cent of the importers’ valua- ’ tion of the ribbons. ths cost or deem oooqs. We paid for dress and piece goods made of silk 816,494,554, which is about equal to the sum paid for importations of wines and spirits; for silk velvets we paid 61,705,583; silk goods and goods mixed with silk, not otherwise specified, 810,491,078; silk and india-rubber g00d5,>273,787. The total value of our silk importations was 839,496,985, and that, it must be remembered, merely represents the cost of the merchandise Delivered on our docks with the freight unpaid. In piece-goods made of wool we received 70,581,408 square yards, for which we paid, including duties. 835,372,764, an average cost of fifty cents in gold per square yard. Of piece-goods manufactured of cotton we imported 49,107,047 square yards, worth 6,939,864, to which add 84,457,325 paid for duties and the list is swelled to 811,397,189. The quantity of piece-goods imported manufactured of wool and cotton, joined together, would cover a surface of thirty-nine square toiles. For cotton goods not otherwise specified we paid 88,299,%Aand for 13,006 pounds of wool Balmorals, 816,483. SHAWLS, DIAMONDS AND HWELRT. For 682,525 pounds of wool shawls we paid 83,380,978, and 364 silk shawls cost us 814,290, or about S4O for each shawL Webbing, belting, binding, braids and buttons manufactured of wool were valued at $1,668,289, and goods manufactured from flax, jute or hemp foot up $14,405,873. To cover our floors with foreign carpets cost $6,172,564, while our beds were supplied with foreign blankets for the sum of $9,256. In the way of watches and Jewelry we encouraged the foreign manufacturers to the extent of $2,883,875; imitations of jet, $379,041; bogus jewelry, $886,868, and coral, $36,596. To adorn ourselves with diamonds, eameos, mosaics and other precious stones we paid $3,887,539. All the values here given include the amounts paid the United States for customs duties, save in a few instances in which the amount paid for duties is separately stated. Freight and other expenses incidental to sea transportation are not included. orann articles. A few other articles may be mentioned which will prove of interest. While not articles of dress or ornament, most of them are nearly allied to such articles. Some of them are for our amusement, a few are articles of utility, and several arc medicines and drugs. Beginning with small articles, we find that to import quill toothpicks wc have to pay $18,630, and for musical instruments $1,123,814. The 81,291 packs of playing-cards imported were invoiced at $5,733, and for the privilege of shuffling and dealing them we had to pay the United States $7,889 duties, thus requiring an ante of $13,122 before we “ cut” our cards of foreign manufacture. The first cost of our imported doll-babies was $555,409, that of our Christmas toys $016,057, while our Bologna sausage only cost $167,678, and our sauerkraut only 88,875. For empty skins, into which we stuffed our own Bologna before consuming ft, we had to pay 892,709. We brdke 7,519,808 dozen of for-eign-lald eggs, for which we had to pay $747,860. For fireworks we expended $4,149, and for 155,285 boxes of Chinese fire-crackers we paid the heathen manufacturers $125,788, and to the United States the suns of $155,996 in duties, thus making the original coat of annually celebrating our natal day in that class of pyrotechnics foot up $281,179. For every pack of fire-crackers exploded by Young America the Government of the United States exacts 2J< cents. For bladders we paid $10,600; skeletons and other preparations of anatomy, $3,543; and for sinews and herves, $5,820. Of metallic pens, we received 804,394 gross, $166,971, and Wood leadpencila, 61,450 gross, for which we paid 8167,812. There was imported 2,729,483 pounds of Castile soap, at an expense of $234,194, and 200,167 pounds of perfumed toilet-soap at a cost of $166,688. For green fruits from the tropics and for nuts we paid $4,800,350, and for olive and salad oils $448,314. For 1422,632 pounds of indigo we paid $967,954, and for 4,644 ounces of musk and civet $33,145. For the benefit of apothecaries we sent abroad for the following quantities and values of physic: Arsenic, 1,636,335 pounds, costing us $167,693; camphor, 789,787 pounds, value $150,576; ja1ap,116,053 pounds, worth $19,476; ipecac, 26,202 pounds, worth $19,516; nux-vomica, 297,213 pounds, worth $7,652; vaccine virus, $899,399. Our foreign cheese cost ns $639,468; starch, $38,191; jellies, $17,724. For leather and articles manufactured therefrom, not including gloves, mitts and mittens, we paid $8,688,705. j THK BWAt COST OV rORBIOH IMPORTATIONS. The articles enumerated in this synopsis will serve to show the character and extent of our annual expenditures for luxuries of foreign .growth and manufacture. Liquor and tobacco should be included in order to give completeness to the statement For Imported wines and spirits we paid $16,552,126, and for tobacco and manufactures of tobacco $14,521,819. The figures given in this statement represent only the valuation B laced on the goods by the importers with le amount of customs duties added. When it is stated that our imports for the last year reached $600,000,000 the figures are simply a factor by which wo determine the extent of that class of our commerce and by which we may make comparisons with former years. The figures do not represent the value paid by the consumer for that class of merchandise. If we add $160,522,285 (that being the amount collected by the Government for customs duties) to $595,861,248 (that being the value of the merchandise we have, as the first cost to the tradesmen of our importations, the sum of $756,383,582. To cover the- cost of freight, Insurance and expense incidental to transportation, Including profits of importers and merchants, at least 25 per cent, of the cost of the merchandise is added before it reaches the consumer. Add 25 per cent to the original cost, and it will be seen that the American people paid for foreign mer chandlse of every description during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1874, the sum of $945,485,047, a sum nearly equal to one-half of the.entirc national debt. Computing our imports for 1873 by the same system of calculation, we paid ihatyear for foreign merchandise $1,099,463,478. . tion to a strangely complicated family. The wife who eloped was twenty-one years old, having been married seven years, and the husband whom she left was sixty-seven. The husband’s two sons by a previous wife are married to his recreant wife’s two older sisters, and her brother is the husband of her husband’s daughter.