be still more astonishing. The fact that our domestic exchanges amount, by sale and resale and by the additional value gained by the labor bestowed in transportation, sale, &c., annually to over five thousand million dollars, as the sum upon which one commission or profit is paid, and that in this trade is employed actively and profitably over two million tons of shipping, which cost not less than one hundred and twenty million dollars, three thousand miles of canal, thirteen thousand miles of railway, and twenty thousand miles of telegraph, costing about four hundred and fifty million dollars, is one calculated not only to astonish, but to excite admiration of the energy, industry, and enterprise which, in so short a period, have achieved this high position.

CHAPTER XIII

FOREIGN COMMERCE, 1800-1860

I. FOREIGN COMMERCE PRIOR TO 1860

A. Character and Extent of Foreign Commerce, 1800-18601 During the sixty years from 1800 to 1860 the value of the export trade of the United States increased more than sixfold, from less than $50,000,000 to almost $300,000,000 annually. During the same period the value of the imports increased from less than $60,000,000 to more than $300,000,000 annually. The most important articles of export were cotton, tobacco, rice, flour and provisions. Of these exports, Great Britain took more than any other country. A view of the commerce of this period is given by Mr. Kettell as follows:

The imports rose steadily to over $300,000,000 in 1854, under the first Australian and Californian excitement, and took larger dimensions as the railroad operations progressed. Railroad iron figures largely in the amount in exchange for bonds. The imports of silks rose from $13,731,000, in 1850, to $30,636,000. The most remarkable rise in the importation was, however, in sugar, which, from $11,000,000, rose to nearly $55,000,000, in 1857, in consequence of the failure of the Louisiana crop, at a moment of very active demand. So high a figure to be paid for sugar at a critical moment went far to disturb the exchanges, and aid the panic of 1857. We find that the whole amount of importations for the ten years reached $3,004,591,285, exceeding, by $1,736,807,503, the importations of the previous ten years. This excess of expenditure corresponds with the estimated amount of capital expended for extraordinary purposes, since a considerable portion of the expenditures was applied to domestic manufactures. The operation of the treaty with Canada produced a somewhat larger receipt of foreign goods. These also swelled proportionately the aggregate imports. The excitement manifest in the United States in regard to gold and railroads, was also present in England and Europe. The production of manufactured wares to send to the gold countries, and to avail of the local demand for goods, required more raw material, at a moment when the short harvests and war enterprise enhanced general wants. The effect of these was 1 Eighty Years' Progress. By Thomas P. Kettell (Hartford, 1869), 156-9

equivalent to a large transfer of capital to the west, not only from Europe, but also from those eastern states that are usually buyers of food. Thus the wheat crop of the United States in 1850, by census, was equal to 22,000,000 bbls. of flour. The average export price in that year was $5, giving to the crop a value of $110,000,000. In 1855, the average price was $10, giving a value of $110,000,000 greater. This sum was taken out of the pockets of the food buyers, to the profit of the food sellers, at the moment when the latter were enjoying so large an expenditure for other purposes. The export value of agriculture rose from $24,309,210, in 1850, to $77,686,455, in 1856. The great activity of the years ending with 1857 was, then, due to heavy expenditure of capital at the west simultaneously with profitable sales of its crops.

If we bring together by recapitulation the aggregate of the seven decades since the formation of the government, we shall have a very interesting synopsis of the national progress in respect of commerce, as follows:

This table, mostly official, gives the extraordinary results of a nation's industry and commerce in a period of seventy years. The growth has such an accumulative force, as to be very surprising. In the item of re-exports of foreign goods, the trade never recovered the figures they touched at the period when American vessels did the carrying trade for fighting Europe. Latterly, however, under the warehouse system of the United States, and the reciprocity treaty with the British provinces, some increase in that respect has taken place, the more so that steam and extended relations are opening to the United States a larger share of the South American trade, tending ultimately to give the United States the preponderating influence. The exports of domestic goods grow rapidly under the more extended demand for cotton throughout the world, and of which the United States is the only source of supply. All other cotton countries, India particularly, require more cotton in the shape of goods than they supply in the raw state. The demand for cotton clothing increases in the double ratio of greater numbers and greater wealth throughout the world. Cotton is, however, not the only article which increases in export value. The tables show us that gold has figured in ten years for $507,000,000 as an article of export, and will probably never be less. The agricultural resources of this country have just begun to be developed. Up to 1842 there was, under the restrictive systems of Europe, comparatively no market for American farm produce. In that year the statesmen of England recognized the fact that the demands of English work people for food had outgrown the ability of the British islands to supply it on terms as low as it could be bought elsewhere. They therefore removed the prohibition upon the import of cattle and provisions, and reduced the duty on grain. This opened a market for American produce, which grew rapidly. The circumstances of the famine of 1846 justified the wisdom of the English government, and led to the entire removal of the corn duties in 1849. That example was followed by France and her neighbors. France, however, restored the duties in 1859. The liberal legislation of England, the famine, the wars, and speculations of Europe, have gradually extended the demand for American produce, at the time when a very broad field had been opened to supply that demand. This we may illustrate. The area of Great Britain's industry — hills, lakes, vales, and valleys - is 53,760,000 acres; and the population in 1812, when she made war on us, was 11,991,107. Now we find from the table of land sales, elsewhere given, that the federal government has sold in the last twenty years selected farm lands to the extent of 68,655,203

acres, and has given to railroads 42,000,000 acres more of selected lands, making 110,000,000 acres that have mostly passed into the hands of settlers. This is a surface double the whole area of Great Britain; and the population on that area has increased, in the same time, 11,374,595, or a number nearly as large as that of Great Britain in 1812. There have been built on that area in the last ten years, and are now in operation, 20,000 miles of railroads, crossing every part of it, and bringing every farm within reach of a market. The speculators and road builders, who ate up the produce of that area, during the process of road construction, have vanished, and the whole is now offered by a hundred channels to the best bidders of Europe. We have said that corn is the settler's capital, and that corn, in the shape of grain, pork, and whiskey, is the staple export of a new country. The corn product of 1855, per state reports, was 600,000,000 bushels. The number of hogs packed that year was 2,489,050, averaging 200 lbs. each, and giving a total weight of 497,900,000 lbs. of pork. In that year the weight of pork exported was 164,374,681 lbs. Of this amount, 58,526,683 lbs. went to England, or 12 per cent. of the whole production, as the result of her more liberal policy of 1842.

QUANTITIES OF CORN AND PORK EXPORTED TO GREAT BRITAIN

1842.

444,305 3,430,732

12,548 119,854 208,984

123,665 143,300

208,024

1847.

1848..

1849..

1855..

1858..

6,900 160,274 73,940 14,367,105 17,798,770 15,526,525 4,399,951 2,457,076 87,760 29,218,462 27,283,741 5,062,220 2,034,704 958,744 111,385 53,150,465 21,388,265 12,392,242 608,661 953,815 64,663 30,240,161 15,349,922 5,935,284 8,036,665 2,026,121 13,578 15,365,524 10,288,474 3,215,198 8,926,196| 3,512,169

The cotton, tobacco, and rice of the south, the farm produce of the west, and the gold of California, each contributed an increasing proportion to the general exports; but manufacturers have also come to figure largely in the general aggregate.

The following table gives the proportions in which the general heads of exports have contributed from time to time to the result, since the formation of the government; and also the total exports, including all articles.