MILES
Puget Sound to mouth of Amoor River 3,900
" " " Vladivostock 4,700
" " " Shanghai 5,750
" " " Canton 6,500
" " " Singapore 8,100
" " " S. W. point of Australia 9,550
San Francisco to Vladivostock 5,200
" " " Shanghai 6,100
" " " Canton 6,800
" " " Singapore 8,400
" " " S. W. point of Australia 9,500
" " " St. Petersburg via Vladivostock 9,700
St. Petersburg to Vladivostock 4,500
San Francisco to Calcutta 10,200
Liverpool to mouth of Amoor River 13,550
" " Vladivostock 12,700
" " Shanghai 11,750
" " Canton 10,900
" " S. W. point of Australia 10,750
" " Singapore 9,300
" " Calcutta 8,700
Liverpool and Puget Sound are about equally distant from west coast of
the Malay Peninsula.
MILES
New York to Canton, via Puget Sound 9,500
" " Shanghai " " " 7,800 to 8,000
By this it will be seen that New York, by way of Puget Sound, is 1,400
miles nearer to Canton than Liverpool is, and nearly 4,000 miles nearer
to Shanghai. Mr. Swan makes the distance from the Pacific coast less
than I have given. It should also be noted that Puget Sound has the
advantage of distance over San Francisco also.
[Sidenote: Advantage in productions.]
Puget Sound has also the advantage over all competitors of being able
to produce a large bulk of the materials for commerce in its own
vicinity. In this report there will be a large array of facts concerning
the present and future productions of Washington Territory, which will
amply confirm and illustrate the above statement. The only real
competitor of Puget Sound on the American coast is British Columbia, but
British Columbia cannot vie with Washington Territory in the production
of the materials of commerce, and Canada at large furnishes no such
background as the United States.
[Sidenote: Coastwise trade.]
It will, of course, not be overlooked, that in the great coastwise trade
which the Pacific States have and must always have with each other, they
will minister to each other's prosperity. And here it will be shown that
Puget Sound will have the advantage in supplying the wants of others.
[Sidenote: South American trade.]
In addition to these is the foreign trade along the coast of British
Columbia, Mexico, Central America, and all the Pacific States of South
America. Chili is a prosperous State. She has nearly doubled the volume
of her trade in ten years. From 1874 to 1883 her exports went up from
$32,000,000 to $73,000,000, and her imports from $35,000,000 to
$50,000,000. The United States imports over $4,000,000 of goods from
the Pacific side of South America, and exports about $8,000,000 to these
states. England, however, gets the most of the West South American
trade, so that here again we must enter the lists with Britannia.
Already the contest has begun, and our Pacific States must bear off the
palm sooner or later.
[Sidenote: Large existing trade.]
Thus it is evident that a vast field of commercial enterprise is wide
open to the people of Washington Territory as well as to Oregon and
California. And our commercial statistics show what handsome progress
has already been made. Taking both exports and imports, there is already
a business of $80,000,000 done by the seven Pacific ports of entry. San
Francisco is now far ahead of the others, and this city has nothing to
fear from any other port except Puget Sound, which will gain upon her
rapidly and ultimately surpass her. Washington Territory has all that
California has on which to trade, and a great deal besides; and has the
advantage of position. When our commercial statistics were made up,
Puget Sound had no direct railroad communication with her own back
country east, much less a transcontinental line. A very different story
will be told a few years hence. I here insert a table of summaries
which show that the commercial revolution is now in operation.
-------------------+-------------------------+-------------------------
| TOTAL VALUE OF | TOTAL VALUE OF
| EXPORTS OF DOMESTIC | IMPORTS OF
PORTS | MERCHANDISE | MERCHANDISE
OF THE PACIFIC. | FOR YEAR ENDING | FOR YEAR ENDING
+------------+------------+------------+------------
| JUNE 30, | JUNE 30, | JUNE 30, | JUNE 30,
| 1885. | 1887. | 1885. | 1887.
-------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
Humboldt, Cal. | $ 201,500 | | $ 1,731 |
Oregon | 1,928,829 | | 161,170 |
Puget Sound, W. T. | 1,877,485 | | 238,036 |
San Diego, Cal. | 65,654 | | 71,106 |
San Francisco, Cal.| 37,082,520 |$32,027,995 | 35,040,350 |$40,707,708
Willamette, Oregon | 4,142,156 | | 277,386 |
Wilmington, Cal. | 252,673 | | 187,348 |
-------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
|$45,550,817 | |$35,977,127 |
-------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
In the latest report to which I have access, San Francisco is the only
one of the Pacific ports mentioned separately.
Much of the exports above reported to the credit of Oregon really came
down the Columbia River from the eastern part of Washington Territory;
and the great bulk of the exports from San Francisco consists of wheat,
flour, and other breadstuffs, an item in which Washington Territory can
surpass all competitors. The following table shows the principal items
of export from the Pacific ports.
Let it be noted that in respect to the production of the larger items,
to wit, wheat and flour, wood and its manufactures, animals, iron and
steel and their manufactures, machinery of all sorts, fish, etc.,
Washington Territory can surpass all competitors.