When a country is shipping more goods in the form of commodities than she is receiving, it is said that the balance of trade is favorable. The term “balance of trade” is apt to be misleading. It is a convenient phrase relating to commodity shipments alone as they appear on the record of outgoing and incoming ships, which are always subject to Government inspection and from which a definite and accurate compilation can be made and is made. If such “balance of trade” runs against a country the actual balance of commodity indebtedness must be made up by shipments of gold, securities or transfer of credits. Outside of commodities which appear in making up the balance of trade there are a number of invisible factors, not of statistical public record, which go to determine the extent to which the citizens of one country may be indebted to those of another, and by which the international debts are actually settled. These elements are not absolutely available in the form of statistics and can be only roughly estimated. Taking the United States as an example, there are certain factors not tabulated by the Bureau of Statistics at Washington because their proportions are unknown to the officials. These are the elements which comprise the invisible factors in determining the settlement of international debts. The transfer of money or credit from the United States to other countries (outside of commodities) is accomplished in the following ways: