Of the export trade of the United States, 60 per cent. goes to Europe, 23 per cent. to North America, 6 per cent. to South America, 5 per cent. to Asia, 4 per cent. to Oceanica, and 2 per cent. to Africa. American producers send more than 90 per cent. of their entire foreign shipments, or more than $2,000,000,000 worth of goods, to nineteen countries, and the remaining ten per cent. covers the trade with all the rest of the world. England buys about 26 per cent. of the total American export; Canada 15 per cent.; Germany 13 per cent.; France 7 per cent.; the Netherlands 4 per cent.; Italy, Cuba, and Belgium, each 3 per cent.; Mexico, Japan, Argentina, Australia, Russia, and Brazil, each 2 per cent.; and Spain, Austria-Hungary, Panama, China, and the Philippines, each about 1 per cent. Official figures of imports and exports are useful as indications from which deductions may safely be drawn, but they are not an accurate record of the trade relations of any two countries. In some cases the indirect trade of the United States with certain countries is much larger than custom-house figures would indicate, in that American goods are purchased by other nations, who act as distributors or intermediaries in conducting the foreign trade of the world. This is very largely so in American trade with England. That country is credited with purchases of American goods far in excess of the needs of the British people. These goods are bought by English firms whose dealings are largely with other foreign countries, and by them sold to their customers on the Continent of Europe, in Asia, Oceanica, or elsewhere. A striking example of this is the American trade with Russia. It is impossible to state exactly the value of American goods which in time find their way to the Russian consumer, but it is vastly in excess of the amount of trade between the United States and Russia, or $52,380,000, as given in government statistics. In the official statement of exports of American cotton, Russia is credited by the Department of Commerce figures as receiving 64,590 bales, valued at $3,796,867.