iscal
year was $369,757,470 and the value of free goods imported $409,967,470,
being an increase of $6,523,675 in the value of dutiable goods and
$41,231,034 in the value of free goods over the preceding year. Our
exports of merchandise, foreign and domestic, amounted in value to
$882,606,938, being an increase over the preceding year of $75,068,773.
The average _ad valorem_ duty paid on dutiable goods imported
during the year was 39.94 per cent and on free and dutiable goods taken
together 20.55 per cent.

The cost of collecting our internal revenue was 2.78 percent, as
against 2.81 per cent for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895. The
total production of distilled spirits, exclusive of fruit brandies, was
86,588,703 taxable gallons, being an increase of 6,639,108 gallons over
the preceding year. There was also an increase of 1,443,676 gallons of
spirits produced from fruit as compared with the preceding year. The
number of barrels of beer produced was 35,859,250, as against 33,589,784
produced in the preceding fiscal year, being an increase of 2,269,466
barrels.

The total amount of gold exported during the last fiscal year was
$112,409,947 and of silver $60,541,670, being an increase of $45,941,466
of gold and $13,246,384 of silver over the exportations of the preceding
fiscal year. The imports of gold were $33,525,065 and of silver
$28,777,186, being $2,859,695 less of gold and $8,566,007 more of silver
than during the preceding year.

The total stock of metallic money in the United States at the close
of the last fiscal year, ended on the 30th day of June, 1896, was
$1,228,326,035, of which $599,597,964 was in gold and $628,728,071
in silver.

On the 1st day of November, 1896, the total stock of money of all kinds
in the country was $2,285,410,590, and the amount in circulation, not
including that in the Treasury holdings, was $1,627,055,641, being
$22.63 Per capita upon an estimated population of 71,902,000.

The production of the precious metals in the United States during the
calendar year 1895 is estimated to have been 2,254,760 fine ounces of
gold, of the value of $46,610,000, and 55,727,000 fine ounces of silver,
of the commercial value of $36,445,000 and the coinage value of
$72,051,000. The estimated production of these metals throughout the
world during the same period was 9,688,821 fine ounces of gold,
amounting to $200,285,700 in value, and 169,189,249 fine ounces of
silver, of the commercial val