the competition of Montreal and
Portland; the Canadian roads being untrammelled in the matter of freight
differentials. Boston is the second import port of the United States,
but its exports in 1907 were less than those of Philadelphia, of
Galveston, or of New Orleans. The total tonnage in foreign trade
entering and leaving in 1907 was 5,148,429 tons; and in the same year
9616 coasting vessels (tonnage, 10,261,474) arrived in Boston. The value
of imports and exports for 1907 were respectively $123,414,168 and
$104,610,908. Fibres and vegetable grasses, wool, hides and skins,
cotton, sugar, iron and steel and their manufactures, chemicals, coal,
and leather and its manufactures are the leading imports; provisions,
leather and its manufactures, cotton and its manufactures, breadstuffs,
iron and steel and their manufactures are the leading exports. In the
exportation of cattle, and of the various meat and dairy products
classed as provisions, Boston is easily second to New York. It is the
largest wool and the largest fish market of the United States, being in
each second in the world to London only.

Manufacturing is to-day the most distinctive industry, as was commerce
in colonial times. The value of all manufactured products from
establishments under the "factory system" in 1900 was $162,764,523; in
1905 it was $184,351,163. Among the leading and more distinctive items
were printing and publishing ($21,023,855 in 1905); sugar and molasses
refining ($15,746,547 in 1900; figures not published in 1905 because of
the industry being in the hands of a single owner); men's clothing (in
1900, $8,609,475, in 1905, $11,246,004); women's clothing (in 1900,
$3,258,483, in 1905, $5,705,470); boots and shoes (in 1900, $3,882,655,
in 1905, $5,575,927); boot and shoe cut stock (in 1905, $5,211,445);
malt liquors (in 1900, $7,518,668, in 1905, $6,715,215); confectionery
(in 1900, $4,455,184, in 1905, $6,210,023); tobacco products (in 1900,
$3,504,603, in 1905, $4,592,698); pianos and organs ($3,670,771 in
1905); other musical instruments and materials (in 1905, $231,780);
rubber and elastic goods (in 1900, $3,139,783, in 1905, $2,887,323);
steam fittings and heating apparatus (in 1900, $2,876,327, in 1905,
$3,354,020); bottling, furniture, &c. Art tiles and pottery are
manufactured in Chelsea. Shipbuilding and allied industries early became
of great importance. The Waltham watch and the Singer sewing-machine had
their beginning in Boston