The value of our foreign commerce was larger during the first quarter of the current fiscal year than during the corresponding quarter of the fiscal year 1884, and $39,625,075 greater than during the first quarter of the fiscal year 1885. COMPARATIVE DECREASE OF THE QUANTITIES AND VALUES OF EXPORTS AND THE DECLINE OF PRICES. The foregoing comments are based upon a comparison of values, but when we compare the quantities of the leading articles exported during the period of decline, the ratio of decrease in the quantities of the exports is much less than of the decline in values, indicating that the decrease in the total value of our foreign commerce has been caused more by falling prices than by a decline in the volume of business and the non-employment of labor. This is shown by the following statement of the quantities and values of domestic merchandise exported during the years ending June 30, 1886 and 1881, respectively, which presents a comparison of the percentages of decrease or increase in the quantities with the percentages of decrease or increase in the values of the same articles: The decline in the prices of our staple commodities is shown in the following table of average annual export prices in currency of the domestic products named, since 1855: 1867. 35.8 08.5 10.4 10.6 1868. 1869 1870. 1871 1872 1873. 1874 1875. 1876. 1877 1878. 1879 1880. 1881 1882. 1883 1884 1885. 1886. 1 00.01 27.2 9 84.9 30.5 34.6 35.8 12.8 14.5 13. 1 12. 2 24.1 15, 1 The decline in the annual average currency price of some of the leading commodities in the New York market during the period from 1847 to 1885 is shown in the following table: [Prepared by Mr. Joshua Reece, jr., of the New York Journal of Commerce.] Referring to the prices of raw cotton shown in the two preceding tables, the former are computed from the actual quantities and values exported, and the latter from the market quotations. There should therefore be differences in the prices as shown by the two statements, but their uniformity is remarkable when it is considered that they are derived from two different sources. THE FOREIGN COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES COMPARED WITH THAT OF OTHER COUNTRIES. When we compare the values of the foreign commerce of the leading commercial nations of the world, we find that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland stands first, Germany second, France third, and the United States fourth; also, that the value of the commerce of the United States increased since 1860 to a much larger extent than that of either the United Kingdom or of France, as will be seen by the following table: *The commercial year of Great Britain and France is the calendar year. ends June 30. That of the United States That we are not alone in this shrinkage of foreign commerce is shown by the above table, from which it appears that the commerce of the United Kingdom was $437,775,740 less in 1885 than in 1883, and that of France $372,944,294 less in 1885 than in 1882, and $110,318,800 less than |