2. Foreign trade (value)-Continued. Imports-Continued. Articles wholly or mainly manufactured. Total imports. Exports Food, drink, and tobacco. Raw materials and articles mainly unmanufactured. Articles wholly or mainly manufactured. Miscellaneous, including parcel post. Total exports. Reexports. Total exports and reexports. 3. Banking and finance: Deposit and note accounts, Bank of England and Treasury- · Bank notes. Currency notes and certificates outstanding. Deposits, public and other. Coin and bullion. Government floating debt- Temporary advances. Total floating debt. Nine London clearing banks Money at call and short notice. Discounts and advances. Investments. Deposits. London bankers' clearing house return. Capital issues of United Kingdom. Discount rates Three months' Treasury bills. Three months' bank bills. Six months' trade bills. Statist (London) index number of foreign exchange value of the pound sterling. Net profits of industrial companies. RETAIL TRADE STATISTICS. Each Federal Reserve agent secures from representative department stores in his district monthly figures relative to net sales, stocks on hand, and outstanding orders, together with figures for the corresponding month of the previous year. The agents make up tables showing for their districts the percentage of increase of the net sales of all stores reporting compared with the sales for corresponding periods in the present and preceding year. The total stocks on hand at the close of each month are expressed as a percentage of the stocks on hand at the close of the preceding month and at the corresponding date of the preceding year. Turnover is measured by dividing average stocks over a period by average sales. The outstanding orders at the end of each month are expressed as a percentage of the total purchases during the preceding calendar year. These tables are forwarded to the Federal Reserve Board and are there consolidated into a general table for publication in the Federal Reserve Bulletin, showing the above data for each district and together with weighted indexes for all districts. An index of the sales of 158 department stores is also compiled regularly by the Federal Reserve Board. In addition, the sales of 4 mail-order houses, 16 grocery chains, 4 five-and-ten-cent chains, 7 drug chains, 3 cigar chains, and 4 music chains are received regularly, and relatives are calculated on a uniform base for these several lines of retail business. WHOLESALE TRADE STATISTICS. The several Federal Reserve banks also secure monthly sales data from a large number of wholesale firms. The agents each make up two tables showing the changes in the value of wholesale trade for the several lines reported, as compared with the same month in the preceding year and as compared with the preceding month. The Federal Reserve Board publishes in the Bulletin these consolidated business reports which indicate the condition of the following lines of wholesale business: Groceries, dry goods, hardware, boots and shoes, furniture, drugs, automobile supplies, stationery, farm implements, and automobile tires. FOREIGN TRADE INDEX. Since July, 1920, the Board has prepared and published in the Federal Reserve Bulletin, monthly figures calculated to show the trend in the relative quantities of selected commodities entering into the foreign trade of the United States. The figures show exports and imports separately. The commodities chosen are the same as those grouped under the respective export and import classifications in the Board's International Price Index, discussed above; 29 commodities are included in the export group, and 27 in the import group. Each of these groups ís subdivided into raw materials, producers' goods, and consumers' goods.1 INDEX OF OCEAN FREIGHT RATES. In connection with studies of foreign trade and the balance of international payments, the Board has constructed an index showing The manner in which the actual figures of imports and exports (quantities and values are obtained from the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce) are converted into the relative figures published by the Board is outlined in the July, 1920, issue of the Federal Reserve Bulletin. the monthly fluctuations in ocean freight rates prevailing between United States Atlantic ports and the following European trade regions: (1) United Kingdom, (2) French-Atlantic, (3) Netherlands and Belgium, (4) Scandinavia, and (5) the Mediterranean. Index numbers for these five regions are also combined into a single index number for all Europe. The figures are derived from the actual rates quoted on grain, provisions, cotton, cottonseed oil, and sack flour. The level of rates in January, 1920, is taken as 100, and monthly index numbers have been computed from that month to date. PHYSICAL VOLUME OF TRADE. Statistics of actual quantities of various articles produced, or received and shipped at important centers, are compiled from such sources as give the figures for monthly periods, and published in each issue of the Federal Reserve Bulletin. The purpose and scope of these statistics are set forth in the following statement taken from the January, 1919, issue of the Bulletin. The aim has been to select such data as are available to illustrate conditions in the leading industries, in the belief that a composite of conditions in these industries will afford an accurate picture of general business conditions. The data presented thus differ in purpose from those often presented in connection with indices of business conditions, where the aim is rather to select a small number of items believed to possess peculiar significance * * As far as practicable, relatives are shown expressing current figures as percentages of the averages of figures for the corresponding month of the years 1919, 1920, and 1921. For example, an average has been struck of the amount of pig iron produced during November in the years 1919, 1920, and 1921, and the output during November, 1922, expressed as a percentage thereof. By this means, the seasonal variations will be shown. . These statistics when printed occupy several pages in each issue of the Bulletin. The subjects included are outlined in the following list: Automobiles, production; shipments. Brick, production; shipments; stocks of clay fire, silica, and face brick. Canal traffic, total cargo at Panama; east and west bound at Sault Ste. Marie. Cement, production; shipments; stocks. Coal, production bituminous coal, beehive and by-product coke; production and shipments anthracite coal. Copper, production. Cotton, sight and port receipts; overland movement; American spinners' tak ings; stocks at mills, warehouses; visible supply; consumption by mills; spindles active. Cotton seed, received at mills; crushed; on hand close of month. Cottonseed oil, production; stocks. Dairy products, receipts at 5 markets of butter, cheese, eggs; cold-storage holdings of creamery butter, American cheese, eggs. Electric power, produced by fuel; by water. Flour, receipts at 17 and shipments at 14 interior centers; receipts at 9 seaboard centers and total production. Fruit, shipments of oranges and lemons (California), apples, and strawberries; cold-storage holdings of apples. Grain, receipts at 17 and shipments at 14 interior centers; stocks at 11 interior centers, receipts at 9 and stocks at 8 seaboard centers of wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley, and total visible supply of wheat, corn, and oats. Hides and leather, sales and stocks of raw hides and skins; production of sole leather, skivers, oak and union harness, and boots and shoes. Iron and steel, pig iron and steel ingot production; unfilled orders, United States Steel Corporation; fabricated structural steel contracted for. Live stock, receipts at 59 and shipments at 54 principal markets of cattle; receipts and shipments at 15 western markets of cattle and calves, hogs, sheep, horses, and mules; shipments of stockers and feeders from 34 markets, and slaughter under Federal inspection of cattle and calves, hogs and sheep. Locomotives, domestic shipped and foreign orders completed. Lumber, production; shipments, stocks; receipts and shipments Chicago and Naval stores, receipts and stocks of turpentine and rosin. Paper, production of newsprint, book, paper board, wrapping, and fine. Railroad statistics, net tons per train and per loaded car, car loadings, freightcar surplus and shortage. Rubber, imports and consumption. Rubber tires and tubes, production; shipments; stocks of inner tubes, solid and pneumatic tires. Silk (raw), imports; consumption; stocks. Silver, production. Sugar, receipts, meltings; stocks. Tin, imports; deliveries; stocks. Tobacco, sales at loose-leaf warehouses; sales of revenue stamps. Vessels built, number; tonnage. Vessels cleared in foreign trade. Wood pulp, production; consumption; shipments; stocks. Wool, percentage idle machinery and idle hours. Zinc, production; stocks. The Federal Reserve Board has developed from this data indexes of agricultural movements, mineral production, and production of manufactured goods which are published each month. These indexes are obtained by combining the relatives on a 1919 base of the more important series of trade and production data. These relatives are weighted by the importance of the respective data in the year 1919. BUILDING STATISTICS. Each of the Federal Reserve agents secures from a group of cities in his district the monthly number and value of building permits. The Federal Reserve Bulletin publishes these statistics and the combined totals for the 166 cities which regularly report them. The Federal Reserve Board also secures from the F. W. Dodge Co. monthly statistics of the value of contracts awarded for residential buildings and for all classes of buildings for 27 States. These State figures are rearranged by Federal Reserve districts and the district totals are published in the Bulletin. KNIT GOODS STATISTICS. Statistical reports received monthly by the Association of Knit Goods Manufacturers of America from their member manufacturers relative to production, shipments, unfilled orders, and cancellations in the knit-underwear industry are forwarded to the Federal Reserve Board and are there combined for publication in the Bulletin. FINISHED COTTON FABRICS. At the request of the Federal Reserve Board, the National Association of Finishers of Cotton Fabrics have recently arranged for a monthly survey within the industry. Statistics are collected regarding the production, shipments, orders, and stocks of white goods, dyed goods, and printed goods. These figures are presented monthly in the Bulletin, grouped by Federal Reserve districts. The figures given for the various classes of work cover approximately the following percentages of the entire industry: White goods, 72 per cent; dyed goods, 62 per cent; printed goods, 30 per cent. SAVINGS STATISTICS. Reports are being obtained through the Federal Reserve agents which show the total savings deposits at about the first of each month for certain important savings banks and commercial banks. The Federal Reserve Bulletin publishes these savings statistics grouped by districts, together with the total for all reporting banks in the United States. CROP STATISTICS. Forecasts of production of corn, wheat, cotton, oats, and hay, made and published monthly during the growing season by the bureaus of Markets1 and Crop Estimates of the Department of Agriculture, are furnished to the Federal Reserve Board for inclusion in the Federal Reserve Bulletin. In this publication the figures are arranged 1 See note on page 24. |