(c) information as to the newest mill practice, which it is ready to provide for its clients and others. (d) readiness to assist customers in the expansion of their business either by financing new mill construction or by providing sales representatives in other countries. (e) maintenance offices abroad, either for the buying or selling of textiles or equipment, or raw materials, or for the complete and direct financing of such transactions. CHAPTER VI American Cloth in Foreign Markets We have seen that the American cotton grower supplies more than half of the world's demand for raw cotton. The cotton manufacturer in the United States is in no such position. This is not to say that American cotton goods are not exported in very considerable amounts. From the inception of the industry in this country varying percentages of the total product have been sent abroad. The following table, taken from the United States Statistical Abstract (1910) shows the average annual exports of cotton goods for the five year periods named, expressed in millions of dollars: _Uncolored _Colored _Total_ Cloth_ Cloth_ _Other_ 1856-60 $7.5 $2.4 $2.3 $2.8 1861-65 3.7 .4 .9 2.4 1866-70 4.1 .9 .3 2.8 1871-75 3.1 1.7 .6 .7 1876-80 10.0 6.1 2.6 1.2 1881-85 13.0 8.0 2.9 2.1 1886-90 12.4 7.4 3.2 1.6 1891-95 13.3 7.7 3.0 2.5 1896-1900 20.4 11.6 4.4 4.3 1901-05 31.3 17.2 7.0 7.0 1906-10 35.1 16.8 7.2 11.0 The irregularity of the export trade, as shown by these figures, has been explained on several grounds, the chief factors being, apparently, the fluctuations in the prosperity and consequently in the buying power of the home market, and the pressure upon the home market exerted by the rapid growth of cotton manufacturing in the South. The normal position of the United States as an exporter of cotton goods is shown by the following table, which gives the exports of the chief manufacturing countries in the year before the war (the figures for 1915 are also given because they show the changes which had already begun): 1913 1915