many other instruments of technical progress, was not the invention of
a single man, but was developed by contributions from several different
sources. Before the adoption of the Federal Constitution (1789) Fitch
and Rumsey had constructed steamboats which maintained a speed of
four to seven miles an hour against the current of the Potomac and
Delaware rivers; and these successful experiments were followed by
many others in this country and in Europe. Robert Fulton, therefore,
scarcely deserves the credit commonly accorded him for invention, but
his service was not the less important. He combined the ideas and
inventions of others, and transferred the steamboat from the sphere
of technical experiment to that of practical business operation. The
Clermont, which started from New York August 7, 1807, and arrived in
Albany, 150 miles distant, in 32 hours, was the first steamboat in the
world which maintained a regular and continuous traffic in the public
service.
[Illustration:
RIVER
TRANSPORTATION
IN 1860
]
=621. Development of river transportation.=—Within a few years of
Fulton’s success steamboats were introduced on the western rivers,
and after an interval of trial proved their capacity for meeting the
conditions. In ten years (1817) a steamboat made the trip from New
Orleans to Louisville in 25 days instead of the three months consumed
by barges; after another ten years (1827) a steamboat made the trip
in little over a week. The steamboats did more at first to reduce the
time of voyages than to reduce the rates of transportation, but the
cost of carriage declined gradually as the means of transportation
were improved. The following figures, giving the number of steamboats
employed on the rivers of the West, show how rapidly steam navigation
increased in importance: 1818, 20; 1829, 200; 1842, 450; 1848, 1,200.
Size and carrying capacity were growing also, and it is said that in
1847 the steam tonnage of the Mississippi Valley exceeded that of the
whole British Empire. “Pittsburg city, the Pennsylvania great western
emporium,” as it was styled in a book published in 1830, grew great by
steamer traffic, and other cities, as Cincinnati, Louisville, and St.
Louis, flourished under the same influence. The most obvious effect of
the extension of steam navigation was the growth of internal trade,
especially that between North and South. This trade, however, was
indirectly of great importance to our foreign commerce, for it enabled
the people of the South to apply themselves almost exclusively to the
growth of export products, like cotton, relying on other parts of the
country for food and manufactures.
=622. Demand for canals in this period.=—While the river system
offered great opportunities for developing the resources of the
West, it was necessarily incomplete in the connections it afforded
with other parts of the country. It left gaps, to be filled by other
means of transportation, between three important sections of country,
drained respectively by the Mississippi and its tributaries, by the
Great Lakes, and by the rivers flowing into the Atlantic. The need of
bridging these gaps in the transportation system was felt acutely in
the second quarter of the century, as population spread in the interior
of the country, and was first met, with some degree of adequacy, by the
construction of canals.
There had been many projects for canals in the colonial period, and
some short stretches were constructed before 1800. People contented
themselves in general, however, with the natural waterways, and sought
merely to regulate their channels and to regulate the flow of water by
means of dams. The era of activity in canal construction began after
the close of the second war with England, in 1815.
=623. The Erie Canal (1825), and others.=—The easiest route by which
a canal might be carried through the Appalachian mountain ridge lay
in the State of New York, along the valley of the Mohawk River. The
advantages of this route were recognized in the colonial period, and
the advisability of utilizing them was felt especially during and after
the war of 1812, when the political danger of leaving the country
without means of intercommunication became apparent. The construction
of a canal along this route was begun in 1817, and in 1825 the first
boat passed from Lake Erie to the Hudson River. Other canals were
constructed to connect Lake Champlain and Lake Ontario with the Erie
Canal, and further south, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania especially,
the people entered actively into the work of canal building.
Further west, canals were constructed to unite Lake Erie with the Ohio
River, and Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River (1848), and just
before the close of the period which we are studying the St. Mary’s
Falls Canal (1855) opened the passage from Lake Superior to the other
lakes to boats with a draft of twelve feet.
=624. Commercial benefit of the canals.=—The canals effected a
reduction in transportation charges which placed trade on an entirely
new footing along the lines that they covered. In contrast with the
cost of ten cents per ton-mile, on the turnpikes, we find a cost of
movement of about one cent, and tolls which brought the total charge
to about three cents. The tolls varied on different articles and were
not the same on different canals, but the total charges represented a
great saving in transportation even in the early days of the canals,
and tended to grow less with the passage of time. The crops which grew
in abundance on the fertile lands of western New York had gone begging
before the construction of the Erie Canal, and the inhabitants had
been able to purchase few manufactured or foreign articles. A letter
from the Genesee country (east of Buffalo), written in 1799, said that
grain was so low in price as to be scarcely worth the raising, while
European goods were very dear; it took the produce of one acre to buy
a pair of breeches. Conditions had improved somewhat before 1825, with
the extension of turnpikes and with the increase in the navigation of
the Susquehanna River, but the Erie Canal brought nevertheless a new
era of prosperity to this district, and first made its rich resources
available for consumption in the New York market and for extensive
export.
=625. Canals less important than rivers for distant
shipments.=—Important as were the canals, their influence in this
period was local rather than national. Managers were slow to adopt
the practice of reducing rates on a long haul, to stimulate distant
traffic, and the canals served mainly local needs. We read, it is true,
of cotton being carried from Alabama to Philadelphia by canal, and of
wheat reaching New York over the Erie route from Ohio and Indiana. It
is noteworthy, however, that even in 1840 only one seventh of the
freight carried on New York canals came from outside the State. The
river system of the Mississippi proved still to be the most valuable
outlet for the products of the great interior valley, and about 1850
the value of the wares which it carried to the coast was double that
reaching the seaboard by the Hudson River and its canals. A line
drawn east and west through the center of Ohio marked the commercial
watershed between the competing routes; north of that line practically
all goods were shipped by lake and canal, while south of it only
articles like tobacco, wool, and manufactured wares were sent by that
route, and most products were shipped by way of the Mississippi.
Indiana and Illinois showed a still more decided tendency to the river
route. In the reverse direction, however, the northern route, by canal
and lake, had the advantage, and the movement to the interior by this
route was double that ascending the Mississippi.
[Illustration:
CANALS
OF THE
UNITED STATES
]
=626. Demand for further improvement met by railroads.=—Reviewing
the substance of preceding sections, we find that of the new means
of transportation adopted to develop the resources of the country
and to make them available in internal trade and foreign commerce,
none had yet proved adequate to meet the conditions. Transportation
on the turnpikes was too expensive to permit the carriage of bulky
freight over great distances. River navigation, valuable as it was
in opening the interior to commerce, still was tied fast to channels
cut by nature; the rivers must at least be supplemented by feeders
and by connections across the country. Canals were of great service
as supplements to the rivers, but they too, were restricted in their
course by the conditions set by nature, and, like the rivers, could
be used in northern districts during only part of the year. What the
country needed was a means of transportation available throughout the
year, free to follow the paths toward which the interests of merchants
most inclined, and cheap enough to encourage the exchange of common
articles between points widely separated. The need was met, in the
course of time, by the development of railroads.
=627. Early American railroads little used for freight traffic.=—The
operation of steam railroads began in this country and in England at
almost the same time; the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was in course
of construction in 1830, when the Liverpool and Manchester line was
opened. In this early period, however, the railroad was a much more
valuable instrument in the Old World than in the New. In England
and other European countries the railroad found great manufacturing
and shipping centers already established, with large volumes of
valuable freight to be carried short distances; the task before it
was comparatively easy. Conditions were somewhat similar along our
eastern seaboard, but in the United States in general the railroad was
wanted to develop agricultural districts with a comparatively sparse
population, separated from industrial and shipping centers by hundreds
of miles. The traffic offered by these districts could not bear the
high charges imposed by railroads in their early period; these charges
greatly exceeded those paid for canal transportation and seem in some
cases to have equaled those paid for carriage on turnpikes. Aside from
coal and cotton the early American railroads carried comparatively
little freight; and they played but a slight part in the development of
commerce.
=628. Extension of the railroad system in the West after 1850.=—In 1850
there were still few railroads west of the Allegheny Mountains. In
contrast with nearly seven thousand miles of line in the States along
the eastern coast the States of the upper Mississippi Valley could show
little over one thousand. Not a mile of railroad had been built in
Iowa and Minnesota, and there was no railroad connection with the East
in all the country west of the Mississippi and north of the State of
Missouri.
Conditions were ready at last for the extension of the railroad system
through the interior of the country and the West saw many thousand
miles of line constructed in its territory in the decade ending in
1860. The New York Central, the Erie, the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore
and Ohio, and other lines united the roads of the interior with the
East; many roads were built from Lakes Erie and Michigan to the Ohio
and Mississippi rivers; while another set of roads extended north from
the Gulf of Mexico, aiming to attract the traffic of the great valley
southwards.
=629. Effect of the improvements in transportation, especially
marked in the following period.=—The commerce of the country got the
full benefit of the railroad system only after 1860, when various
improvements led to a great reduction in freight rates, and stimulated
an immense increase of traffic. The period before the Civil War must be
regarded as one of preparation for the great commercial expansion in
the period following; the lines were laid, in large part, but men had
not learned to make the best use of them. Even before 1860, however,
the railroad had become an indispensable instrument to the commerce of
the country. While it did not displace other means of transportation,
it forced them to improvement, and gave service in forms which they
could not supply. There will be little space in the two following
chapters to refer to the development of the means of transportation
described here, but the student must bear in mind this factor, as
contributing always and in very important measure to the growth of the
country’s commerce. We may close this summary of the subject by giving
an illustration of the effect of transportation on the value of the
resources of Ohio; the price of farm produce in that State rose 50 per
cent after the completion of the canals, while the railroads appear
to have doubled the price of flour, trebled the price of pork, and
quadrupled the price of corn.
=630. Prosperity of the American merchant marine.=—The period from
1815 to 1860, in which the country first grappled successfully with
the problem of internal transportation, was also the period in which
the American merchant marine reached the pitch of its prosperity.
Even after the conclusion of peace in Europe in 1815, which subjected
our ships again to the competition of foreign carriers and to the
restrictions of other countries, American ship-builders and sailors
were able to hold their own; and the period is marked by a great
increase in our merchant tonnage. Down to about 1850 the wooden sailing
ship was still supreme in its control of the ocean carrying trade.
American builders developed the ship to its highest type, the clipper,
and led the world in the art of naval construction. Their skill, and
the cheapness of good ship timber, more than offset the higher prices
which the tariff forced them to pay for materials and equipment such
as iron, copper, cordage, and sail-cloth. The officers and crews
of American vessels enjoyed an international reputation for their
efficiency.
[Illustration:
RAILROADS
1850
]
[Illustration:
RAILROADS
1860
]
=631. Position and prospects of the merchant marine in 1860.=—In 1855
the tonnage built in the United States was greater than ever before
or since; the California gold discoveries had caused a great increase
in the demand for transportation to the Pacific Coast, from which
the government excluded foreign vessels, and the Crimean War forced
European governments to charter many American vessels for transport
service. At the close of the period (1861) the tonnage of the United
States, including that engaged in domestic trade, was not far from
one third of the total tonnage of the world; the British Empire had
slightly over one third; and the tonnage of all other countries grouped
together was but little more than our own. Our merchant fleet exceeded
by half the amount necessary for the carriage of all our exports and
imports, and earned a large revenue from the foreign countries which
sought its service.
In one important point, however, the prospects of the American merchant
marine were not bright. We were not keeping pace with the peoples of
Europe in the construction of steamers for ocean service, and of iron
vessels in general. American steamers were not able to win a place
of any importance in the foreign carrying trade; and before 1860 a
slackening of activity in the building of wooden sailing ships was
noticeable.
=632. Navigation policy: reforms and restrictions.=—The period
was marked by the removal of many of the restrictions on foreign
shipping which had been a regular feature of government policy in
previous centuries. Our ships were burdened at first by heavy dues
or by prohibitions in foreign ports, and it was but natural that our
government retaliated by taxing foreign ships entering our ports.
The disadvantages of this system became apparent as commerce grew in
the nineteenth century, and a series of reciprocity treaties removed
the former discrimination, and put the ships of all nations on
substantially the same footing. The United States held fast, however,
to certain features of the old navigation policy. The coastwise trade,
which was interpreted to include the trade to the Pacific coast by way
of the Isthmus of Panama or around Cape Horn, was reserved absolutely
to American vessels; and no vessel could secure American registry
unless it had been built in this country. Ships built abroad could not
sail under the American flag even though they had been purchased and
were owned by citizens of the United States.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
1. Prepare a chart, sect. 612. [Figures of commerce for the
intervening years, showing fluctuations, will be found in the U. S.
Statistical Abstract.]
2. Review, in previous chapters, the accounts of the commercial policy
of European states during this period.
3. The westward movement of population. [Manuals of U. S. history;
maps in Atlas of the Census.]
4. The population of the country was as follows, in round millions
(counting half a million or over as one): 1790, 4; 1800, 5; 1810,
7; 1820, 10; 1830, 13; 1840, 17; 1850, 23; 1860, 31. Determine the
average commerce per capita, and indicate it on the chart.
5. The commercial history of a western town. [Select a town in one of
the States of the Mississippi Valley, admitted during this period, and
determine, from local histories and biographies, the extent of its
trade with other parts of the country and with foreign countries.]
6. What towns of the colonial period were situated at a distance from
the sea? What towns grew to considerable size in the interior of the
country in this period, and what were their means of land or water
transportation? [Consult historical maps, as those in Hart’s Epochs of
American History.]
7. (_a_) Write a report on the history of turnpikes in the State in
which you live. [Consult State and local histories, making full use
of table of contents and index.]
(_b_) Development of roads in the U. S. [Hulbert, vol. 11, chap. 1.]
(_c_) The Pennsylvania State Road in 1796. [Hulbert, vol. 11, chap. 2.]
(_d_) The Catskill turnpike. [Hulbert, vol. 12, chap. 6.]
8. The Cumberland Road. [Hulbert, vol. 10; see especially chap. 4,
stages and freight traffic.]
9. What are the chief river systems of the country; what gaps exist
between them? How do the facilities for river transportation in
different countries of Europe compare with those of the United States?
10. Development of the boats used for river traffic. [Hulbert, vol. 9,
chap. 4.]
11. Character and life of the western river men. [Same, chap. 5.]
12. The invention of the steamboat. [Encyclopedias; U. S. histories;
Thurston’s Fulton, N. Y., 1891; S. Bullock in Conn. Magazine, 1905, 9:
440-455, an excellent article with illustrations.]
13. Write a report on the influence of the steamboat in building up
one of the cities named. [Local histories.]
14. Early canal projects. [Hulbert, vol. 13, chaps. 2, 3.]
15. The Mohawk River route. [Hulbert, vol. 14, chap. 1.]
16. Early projects for a canal in the Mohawk Valley. [Same, chap. 2.]
17. The Erie Canal. [Same, chap. 4.]
18. Economic effects of the Erie Canal. [Hulbert, vol. 14, chap. 5.]
19. Origin of American railroads. [Johnson, chap. 2.]
20. Did any European country present conditions like those of the U.
S., in respect to railroad development? What has been the history of
railroads in Russia? [See chap. 44.]
21. Growth of the American railroad system. [Johnson, chap. 3; Hadley,
chap. 2; Coman, 234-242.]
22. Because the Ohio farmer received more for his products, does it
follow that railroads have raised the price of articles and forced
consumers to pay more for them?
23. Development of the merchant marine, 1815-1860. [Marvin, chaps. 9,
11, 12; Abbot, chaps. 1, 2.]
24. American whalers. [Marvin, chap. 8.]
25. Navigation laws of the U. S.: history and criticism. [Wells,
Merch. marine; Carnegie History, chap. 39.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See chapter xlv for general works.
Special Accounts.—Worthy P. Sterns, **Foreign trade of U. S. from 1820
to 1840, Jour. Pol. Econ., Chicago, Dec., 1899, 8: 34-57, 452-490;
J. McGregor, *Commercial statistics; J. S. Homans, *Cyclopedia; J. D.
B. DeBow, *Industrial resources.
SPECIAL TOPICS.—Hulbert, Historic highways, and more briefly in The
paths of inland commerce, New Haven, 1920; E. R. Johnson, Amer.
railway, (with references); A. T. Hadley, Railroad trans.; C. F.
Adams, Jr., Railroads; U. B. Phillips, History of transportation in
the eastern cotton belt to 1860, N. Y., 1908. Shipping: Samuel E.
Morison, **Maritime history of Massachusetts, 1783-1860, Boston, 1921;
R. D. Paine, *The old merchant marine, New Haven, 1920; A. H. Clark,
The clipper ship era, 1843-1869, N. Y., 1910; A. T. Verrill, The real
story of the whaler, N. Y., 1916; John H. Morison, History of American
steam navigation, N. Y., 1903. River navigation: H. W. Dickinson,
Robert Fulton, London, 1913; D. L. Buckman, Old steamboat days, N. Y.,
1907; W. E. Verplanck and M. W. Collyer, The sloops of the Hudson, N.
Y., 1908; H. M. Chittenden, History of early steamboat navigation on
the Missouri River, N. Y., 1903. Canals: H. W. Hill, Historical review
of waterways and canal construction in New York State, Buffalo, 1908,
(Buffalo Hist. Soc., vol. 12); N. E. Whitford, History of the canal
system of the State of New York, Albany, 1906, 2 vol., (Supplement to
Rep. of State Engineer for 1904-05); E. J. Benton, The Wabash trade
route in the development of the Old Northwest, Baltimore, 1903. The
West: K. Coman, ** Economic beginnings of the Far West, 2 vol., N. Y.,
1912; R. G. Thwaites, The fur trade in Wisconsin, 1812-1825, Madison,
Wisc., 1912; I. Lippincott, History of manufactures in the Ohio valley
to 1860, N. Y., 1914.
CHAPTER XLIX
EXPORTS, 1815-1860
=633. Chief exports in 1860.=—The following table gives the chief items
among the exports of the country in 1860, and corresponding items made
up from the annual average of the years 1802-1804, as a basis from
which to appreciate the changes.
EXPORTS OF U. S., MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
=================================================+=======+========
|1802-4 | 1860
-------------------------------------------------+-------+--------
Vegetable foods | 13 | 27
Cotton | 6 | 191
Tobacco | 6 | 15
Animal products | 3 | 20
Fish products | 2 | 4
Forest products | 4 | 13
Manufactures | 2 | 37
| -- | ---
Total of these items, omitting decimals | 36 | 307
Total domestic exports including items omitted 39 316
Total foreign exports 28 26
Exports of precious metals 56
==================================================================
=634. Changes since 1800.=—It will be noted, as said above, that the
foreign exports of the country did not increase during the period,
and were actually less in 1860 than they were about 1800. Comparing
the figures for the total exports of domestic merchandise we find
that this, the most important branch of our commerce, increased about
eightfold in value between the years chosen for comparison. All of the
separate classes of wares contributed to the growth of our export
trade, but in very different measure, as is apparent when the figures
are compared. The export industries which were most prominent in the
colonial and early national periods had not kept their place in the
movement of progress, and their output for export had merely doubled,
roughly, in this period. There is apparent, on the other hand, a great
growth in the export of manufactured wares; and the export of cotton,
which in 1789 was practically nothing, and about 1800 was less than
seven million, had risen to the enormous sum of one hundred and ninety
million, considerably more than half in value of the total exports of
the country. The history of commerce presents no parallel to the rapid
rise of cotton in the commerce of the United States at this period, and
the subject demands careful consideration.
=635. Cotton before 1800.=—The word cotton, now applied exclusively
to the fibers attached to the seed of a shrub of the mallow family,
was formerly a general term used for vegetable fibers coming from
several different sources. The fibers acquired from the present cotton
shrub, or from a vine or tree, had been used for textile fabrics from
ancient times. The manufacture of cotton goods, however, was neglected
in Europe until the eighteenth century, and at the beginning of our
national existence much of the supply of raw cotton still came from the
ancient seat of the cotton industry in Asia. From almost the beginning
of the colonial period in American history experiments had been made
with cotton culture, but the colonists found no incentive to devote
themselves to cotton cultivation on a large scale. The separation of
the fiber from the seeds was a tedious process, there was no market
for raw cotton in the colonies, and other crops were found to return
larger profits to the cultivator. Cotton was grown successfully on some
of the islands of semi-tropical America, but the territory now forming
the United States counted for nothing as a source of cotton when the
national government was established in 1789. So weak, in fact, was the
cotton industry at this time, that it was protected by a duty of three
cents a pound on imported cotton, included in the first national tariff.
=636. Growth in importance of cotton.=—Various influences, however,
combined about 1789 to bring into prominence the possibilities of
cotton as a regular crop. The great improvements in textile machinery
caused at this time an increased demand for the raw material. The
other crops which were then raised in the territory now occupied by
cotton were not flourishing. The indigo culture, for reasons which have
been noted above, was unpopular; rice culture had declined during the
Revolution, as the war had broken up the organization of slave labor in
the rice districts; tobacco was giving smaller returns, as the land was
exhausted by continuous cropping. A new variety of cotton, moreover,
had recently been introduced from the Bahamas, known as sea-island or
long-staple; the fibers were long and silky, suited to the manufacture
of fine threads and fabrics, and they were more readily separated from
the seeds than were the fibers of the ordinary short-staple or upland
variety. The cultivation of this variety was an assured success in
the narrow strip along the coast where it could be grown; and further
inland, where sea-island cotton could not be raised, people began to
strive persistently to overcome the difficulties of the cultivation of
the upland variety.
=637. Demand for efficient means of cleaning cotton.=—The chief
obstacle to the cultivation of upland cotton was now the difficulty
of separating the fibers from the seeds. To perform the process by
hand-picking was out of the question, as a man in this way could clean
only one pound of cotton in a day. Various simple machines had been
devised to effect the separation of the seeds, and these were fairly
successful when applied to sea-island cotton, enabling a man to clean
fifty or sixty pounds. None of them, however, was a success when
applied to upland cotton, whose short fibers adhered very tenaciously
to the seeds.
The problem was solved by a native of New England, Eli Whitney,
who had gone south as a teacher, and who invented the cotton gin
(engine) which proved capable of cleaning upland cotton, and so made
the cultivation of that crop a commercial possibility. The conditions
may be described in Whitney’s own words, used in a memorial to the
government, asking for an extension of his patent. He showed “That,
being in the state of Georgia in the year 1793, he was informed by
the planters that the agriculture of that State was unproductive,
especially in the interior, where it produced little or nothing for
exportation. That attempts had been made to cultivate cotton, but that
the prospect of success was not flattering. That of the various kinds
which had been tried in the interior none of them were productive,
except the _green seed cotton_, which was so extremely difficult to
clean as to discourage all further attempts to raise it. That it was
generally believed this species of cotton might be cultivated with
great advantage, if any cheap and expeditious method of separating it
from its seeds could be discovered, and that such a discovery would be
highly beneficial both to the public and the inventor.”
=638. Invention of the saw gin by Whitney, 1793.=—Encouraged by the
terms of the national patent law, on which he relied for a monopoly of
his invention, Whitney set to work, and in a short time had devised a
form of cotton-gin which, with minor alterations, has remained in use
ever since. The raw cotton was fed through a wire grating to a cylinder
on the surface of which were wires or saw teeth, that caught the fibers
and pulled them through, the seeds being retained by the grating. The
gin was a complete success, enabling a man to clean several hundred
pounds of cotton in a day. Whitney himself reaped comparatively little
benefit from his invention, as he found it impossible to prevent
infringements; he said in 1812, with slight exaggeration, that the
total amount which he had realized was less than the saving in cost
effected in one hour by his machines then in operation. The country,
however, was an immense gainer, for the last obstacle to the successful
cultivation of cotton was removed.
=639. Extension of cotton cultivation, and increase of exports.=—The
exports of cotton, which in 1793, the year of Whitney’s invention,
had been only two thousand bales, rose by leaps and bounds. In 1802
they passed one hundred thousand bales, in 1822 five hundred thousand,
in 1834 one million, in 1843 two million, in 1858 three million. The
States along the Atlantic coast, in which cotton culture first sprang
up, continued for many years to be the main seat of the industry.
After the war of 1812, however, the cultivation of cotton spread in
the Southwest, where rich river bottoms and prairie lands offered soil
of exceptional fertility, and where the numerous rivers facilitated
transportation. The exports of cotton from New Orleans increased
tenfold in the years 1816 to 1830, and at this later date the western
States produced the larger part of the cotton supply. At the close of
the period which we are studying (1860) over half of the total crop was
raised in the three States Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
=640. King cotton.=—The success of the cotton culture in this country
was attended by far-reaching results in economic and political history.
We must restrict ourselves here to the commercial aspects of the cotton
industry, without discussing such topics as its relations to slavery
and its influence in bringing on the Civil War.
Never in the world’s history have producers enjoyed such an exalted
position in commerce as that which was held by the planters of the
cotton States. The larger part of the world’s supply of an article
regarded as of the first necessity came from a comparatively restricted
area in the South. The people of Europe and other continents had become
used to cotton textiles, great factories had grown up to manufacture
them, but it seemed as though people must go unclad and factories must
stop work, if the United States should refuse to deliver raw cotton.
For years before the Civil War fear of a cotton famine had haunted the
minds of European manufacturers.
Cotton took a position in national commerce equal in importance
to that which it occupied in international trade. Not only did it
furnish directly more than half of the total exports of the United
States; it shared its prosperity with other industries, and influenced
the development of every part of the country. Northern merchants
made fortunes in handling and transporting southern cotton; the
manufacturers of every district found in the South a market where
people had plenty of money to buy goods which they were too busy to
make; the farmers of the Northwest supplied in considerable part the
needs of the South for food. The people of the South were not blind to
these facts, and tended, indeed, to exaggerate their importance. As a
sample of their attitude this extract from a speech by Senator Hammond
in 1858 may be taken: “Without firing a gun, without drawing a sword,
should they make war on us, we could bring the whole world to our feet.
What would happen if no cotton was furnished for three years? I will
not stop to depict what every one can imagine, but this is certain,
England would topple headlong, and carry the whole civilized world with
her. No, you dare not make war on cotton. No Power on the earth dares
to make war on it—cotton is king.”
=641. Slight contributions of the South to exports, aside from
cotton.=—In the period before the Civil War, when southern plantations
were worked by slaves, it was considered to be the best policy to
plant cotton continuously, without alternation or diversification of
crops, though this policy led necessarily to exhaustion of the soil
and required frequent removals to fresh land. Cotton was, therefore,
the single product which the South contributed in great quantities
to the internal and foreign trade of the country. The rice culture
was maintained on the eastern coast and was extended along the Gulf,
but there was little increase in the export of rice, as the crop was
consumed largely at home. Indigo disappeared from the list of American
products. Tobacco production spread in the States of the Ohio valley,
and the exports of this ware rose after the middle of the century to
double the value which they had about 1800, but a comparison of the
figures given at the opening of the chapter shows that tobacco declined
still further from the position it had held in colonial times.
=642. Trade between the North, the South, and Europe.=—In 1860 only one
third, approximately, of the total exports of the country came from the
North. Conditions in this period resembled closely those of colonial
times, with the substitution of the southern States for the West Indies
in the triangle of trade. The North imported from Europe far more than
it could export in return; it shipped South, however, large quantities
of foodstuffs and manufactures; and the South gave in exchange bills
on Europe which were drawn against the great quantities of cotton sent
thither. Cotton from the South to Europe, manufactures from Europe to
the North, manufactures and foodstuffs from the North to the South:
such were the three sides of the triangle.
=643. Chief exports from the North.=—The North could no longer look
to colonial industries, like fisheries and forestry, to provide the
means of purchasing the foreign wares which it required. The exports
from those industries had increased, it is true, but were still so
small that they had become items of slight importance in the total. The
exports of manufactures, on the other hand, had grown very rapidly, and
formed now a considerable item in our trade. The South contributed to
this class some wares (manufactured tobacco, turpentine, cottonseed oil
cake), but the products of developed manufacture came almost entirely
from the North; manufactures of cotton and of iron were the leading
items. The rise of these manufactures will be treated in the next
chapter. At the North, however, as at the South, agricultural products
held the first place among the exports. Foodstuffs and animal products
were exported to the value of about fifty million dollars, and these
wares came chiefly from the North. The total is small in comparison
with that of the cotton export (one hundred and ninety million), and
gave little promise of the remarkable expansion which was to follow
after the Civil War; still, foodstuffs and animal products were the
mainstay of the Northern export trade.
=644. Gradual increase in the exports of foodstuffs.=—The increase
in the exports of northern agriculture was rather less than would be
expected from a people rapidly increasing in numbers and provided with
an abundance of fertile land. For many years after the close of the war
of 1812 commerce in wheat and flour languished, and even toward 1840
the export of those articles was less than it had been at the opening
of the century. There was talk, even, of imposing a duty on wheat, to
protect the farmers of the Atlantic seaboard from imports. As late as
1835 Ohio was the only grain-exporting district of the West, and the
first grain shipment on the Great Lakes, of which there is record, was
made about that time. Chicago became of importance as a center of grain
shipments only about 1850. In the decade from 1850 to 1860, however,
the Chicago shipments increased (roughly) from two to twenty million
bushels, and the total exports rose rapidly; canals and railways were
at last bringing the cheap grain from the West to the people of Europe,
who at last were ready to welcome it. The export of animal products was
growing also. Lard and pickled pork were the chief items under this
head, for the lack of modern appliances prevented the export of fresh
meat; but the price of hogs at Cincinnati doubled in the fifteen years
preceding 1860, and western farmers were encouraged to give increased
attention to the supply of animal products.
=645. Exports of precious metals; result of the California gold
discoveries.=—The last item in the list of exports given at the
beginning of the chapter is that of precious metals, which we shipped
abroad to the value of more than fifty million dollars. Ordinarily the
exports and imports of precious metals are not included in the figures
of a country’s trade. Coin and bullion are used to make up the balance
of accounts between different countries; they may leave a country
one year and may return to it the next year; and they represent,
therefore, no contribution to commerce like that of the shipment of
merchandise. An exception must be made, however, in the case of the
few countries which produce such quantities of gold and silver that
they can regularly export a surplus. The mines of precious metals are
to these countries as much a commercial resource as are the coal or
iron mines to countries like England and Germany. The United States
was not at first among these favored countries: it produced little
gold and less silver, and needed to import most of the precious metals
which it required for use as currency and in the arts. These conditions
were suddenly reversed by the discovery of gold in California in 1848.
The gold production of the country, which had been formerly less than
a million dollars a year, had risen by 1850 to fifty million, and
provided the country with a handsome surplus which it could afford to
exchange abroad for merchandise.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
1. Prepare a graphic chart of the figures, sect. 633, for comparison
with earlier and later conditions.
2. Review the distinction between domestic and foreign exports. The
principal foreign wares exported from the U. S. in 1860 were as
follows, in millions of dollars: coffee 2.2, sugar 2.1, tea 1.9, hides
1.6, tobacco 0.7. From what countries do you think these wares came?
3. Write a report on one of the following topics:
(_a_) The cotton plant and cotton fibre.
(_b_) Different varieties of cotton.
(_c_) History of cotton, outside America, before 1800.
(_d_) History of cotton in America before 1800.
[Encyclopedias; commercial geographies; Hammond, pp. 3-33, references
in bibliography.]
4. Invention of the cotton gin by Whitney, [Hammond; Amer. Hist.
Review, Oct., 1897, 3: 90-127.]
5. What changes have been made in the cotton gin since its invention?
[Encyclopedia.]
6. How long do you think the world would have had to wait for an
efficient gin if Whitney had not supplied the need?
7. Importance of cotton in southern agriculture before the Civil War.
[Hammond, 67-119; J. A. B. Scherer, Cotton as a World power, N. Y.,
1916.]
8. What other wares have held the position of “king” in the commercial
countries. In what period and in what country were the following wares
especially important among the exports: tin, silk, wool, spices, silver?
9. Connection of cotton and slavery. [Hammond, 34-66.]
10. The cotton trade, 1815-1860. [Hammond, 243-277.]
11. Rice culture before the Civil War. [Depew, chap. 38 by Talmage;
DeBow, vol. 2.]
12. Later history of American fisheries, and international questions to
which they have given rise. [Census; McMaster and Moore in Cambridge
Mod. hist., vol. 7, 363 ff., 657 ff.; Carnegie History, vol. 2, part 2.]
13. Trade in turpentine and rosin. [Census, 1900, 9: 1001-1012.]
14. The development of the American lumber industry. [Depew, chap. 30,
by Fernow.]
15. Development of Cincinnati or Chicago as a market for meat and
breadstuffs. [Local histories.]
16. What countries were the chief sources of supply of gold and silver
before 1850? [Encyclopedias.]
17. The California gold discovery. [Narrative histories of U. S.]
18. Commerce of California before the discovery of gold. [Read the
interesting narrative of a sailor’s life by R. H. Dana, Two years
before the mast, Boston, Houghton.]
19. The overland route to California. [Henry Inman, The old Santa Fe
trail, N. Y., Macmillan, 1899. Salt Lake trail, N. Y., 1898.]
20. Development of gold and silver mining. [C. H. Shinn, Story of the
mine, N. Y., Appleton, 1896.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See chapter xlviii.
CHAPTER L
IMPORTS, POLICY, DIRECTION OF COMMERCE, 1815-1860
=646. Chief imports in 1860.=—The imports of the United States have
been so varied in character that it is impossible to classify them
with any exactness. An attempt will be made in this section, however,
to indicate the leading items in our imports in 1860, giving values in
round millions of dollars. Of the total of the year, 354, the largest
share fell to manufactures. Under this head the chief place was taken
by the textiles (wool 38, silk 33, cotton 32, linen 10); nearly one
third of the total imports of the country was derived from these
four leading branches of the textile manufacture. Most of the other
manufactures imported fell below the mark of 5 millions; a noteworthy
exception is the item of iron and steel in various forms, amounting to
21 millions. In comparison with the amount of manufactures imported,
the class of raw materials, to be used for manufacture in this country,
was still small; we purchased abroad considerable amounts of hides and
skins, wool, etc., but in general we either manufactured our wares out
of materials procured at home or sent abroad for the finished product.
The colonial wares had gained both in value and in the proportion
which they formed of the total imports; the chief items in this class
were sugar 31, coffee 21, tea 8, cigars and tobacco 6, molasses 5,
altogether amounting to about one fifth of the imports of the year.
=647. Significance of the import trade at this time.=—The general
character of our import trade, evidently, had not changed greatly in
the seventy years since the establishment of the national government.
The attractions of farming were so great, when fertile land was to be
had in abundance and when there was an eager demand for such products
as cotton and foodstuffs, that the American people still gave most of
its energy to raising raw materials; and found it profitable still to
look to other countries for much of its supply of manufactured wares.
The policy of protection, which was established in the period under
consideration, had not as yet succeeded in building up manufactures
capable of supplying the wants of the home market. The comparatively
small amount of materials imported for our factories showed that our
manufactures were still local in character, without the strength, or
else denied the opportunity, to reach out and draw from distant sources
the raw materials which they could work up and return to the currents
of the world’s trade.
The growth in the imports of colonial products represented the increase
of general prosperity, enabling the people to consume luxuries in
greater quantity. Dividing the amount of these wares imported by the
population of the country, and so securing a rough idea of the share
falling to each individual, we find that the per capita consumption
rose as follows from 1790 to 1860: coffee from about 1 pound in 1790 to
over 5 pounds in 1860, sugar from less than 5 pounds to over 30.
=648. Growth of domestic manufactures.=—Though the imports of
manufactured wares increased greatly in the course of this period, it
must not be assumed that the United States was as wholly dependent
on foreign manufactures in 1860 as it had been in 1790. A population
growing rapidly both in numbers and in welfare caused a demand for
manufactures which stimulated some producers to choose manufacturing
instead of farming for their livelihood, and the government aided
these individuals by taxing imported wares, and so giving the domestic
producer an advantage in the home market. In the following sections we
shall survey the chief branches of manufacture which grew up in the
United States at this time, and consider the bearing of the protective
tariff on their development.
=649. Increase in the use of coal.=—Some idea of the development
of modern forms of manufacture in the United States can be gained
by tracing the history of coal, the great source of power for the
developed system of factory industry. The demand for coal was still
very small in the first quarter of the century; in 1830 the total
production was less than half a million tons, and the United States was
surpassed in coal output by four of the states of Europe. The second
quarter of the century was marked by a great extension in the use of
steam power, and the successful application of coal to iron making; by
1850 the United States had reached the second place among the countries
of the world in coal production, with an output of over six million
tons. Small as this seems in comparison with the output of Great
Britain at that time (54 million), or the output of the United States
in 1913 (over 500), it marked a tremendous advance over conditions as
they were about 1800, and showed that at least the country had passed
through the preparatory stage of industrial development.
=650. Sluggish development of the iron industry.=—While the use of coal
is perhaps the best index of a country’s development in the modern
forms of manufacturing and transportation, the use of iron is also
certainly of great significance; iron is the fulcrum through which the
power of steam is applied, to repeat Jevons’ figure of speech. Great
importance attached, therefore, as has been noted in previous chapters,
to the improvements introduced in the English iron manufacture
towards 1800, by which it was freed from dependence on charcoal, and
was enabled to turn out increased quantities of pig and bar iron at
reasonable prices. American iron makers showed a slackness which
we find it hard now to forgive in adopting the improved processes.
Coal and coke were not used in the American iron manufacture until
about 1840, and the new methods of puddling and rolling, which had
transformed the English iron industry, were applied in this country
only shortly before that date, about half a century after their
introduction in England. Some excuse can be found for our delay in
the lack of transportation facilities for bringing the iron ore and
coke together. The result, at any rate, was unfortunate. A heavy duty
was laid on imported iron, to protect the home producer, but did not
make up for his inefficiency. It was necessary, therefore, throughout
the period, to import a considerable part of the necessary pig and bar
iron and steel, paying the higher prices caused by the tariff; and the
machine industries could not but suffer from the added expense. Down to
1860 our iron industry was not strong enough to export crude iron in
any quantity, though American ingenuity succeeded in finding a market
for considerable quantities of iron manufactures.
=651. Success of the cotton manufacture.=—With one of the branches of
textile manufacture, that of cotton, the Americans had more success.
Thanks to the alertness of the cotton manufacturers in introducing
improved machinery, and to the advantages they enjoyed in their supply
of raw material, they had soon outgrown the need of protection. The
higher wages which they paid to American laborers were more than offset
by the quantity of work turned out, and in the manufacture of the
common sorts of piece goods they did not fear the competition of any
other country. Large manufacturing towns grew up in New England to meet
the demand for cloth which formerly had been made in the household of
the consumer, and by 1850 there were as many cotton spindles at work
in New England as there were inhabitants. American cottons were sold
so readily in South America and other foreign markets that English
manufacturers condescended to imitate them, and our exports of cotton
manufactures in 1860 amounted to over ten million dollars, more than
double the export of fish products, and not far below the export of
forest products. The strength of the American cotton manufacture lay
in the production of plain cloth; the bulk of the imports consisted of
finer and fancy products.
=652. Failure to establish a strong woolen manufacture.=—The United
States was, of course, peculiarly fortunate in its supply of raw
material for the cotton manufacture. It enjoyed no such advantage with
respect to wool. The wool fibers from American sheep were comparatively
short, and unsuited to the manufacture of the finer woolens and
worsteds. Manufacturers were hampered in their use of other wools by a
tariff designed to protect the sheep growers, and paid for other raw
materials higher prices than their competitors in England, while they
could not, as in the cotton industry, make up for the higher wages
in this country by the skilful application of machinery. Under these
conditions the duties designed to check the importation of woolen
manufactures from abroad were only a partial protection to the American
producer; and the woolen manufacture did not flourish in this country.
We could in large part supply the demand of the home market for coarser
fabrics (flannels, blankets, etc.), but we manufactured no wool for
export, and we continued to import the finer fabrics.
=653. Other manufactures.=—In the manufacture of other textile products
which were imported in considerable amounts, silk and linen, the United
States made no important progress during this period. Sewing silk and
silk trimmings were made in the country, but the great bulk of silk
manufactures were bought in France and England, while there were only
the beginnings of a linen manufacture in this country before the Civil
War.
Other manufactures existed besides those named, but the most important
of them were devoted chiefly to the first processes in working up raw
materials, and scarcely correspond to our ideas of manufacturing at
the present time. This point is illustrated by the list of domestic
manufactures exported from the country in 1860, as given by the
government. Of the total of 37 millions, the items cotton 10.9 and
iron 5.7 were the product of developed manufacture, and the same may
be said, perhaps, of the item copper and brass and their manufactures,
1.6. Among the other items, however, the leading products were of a
different character, and showed strength in raw materials rather than
in manufacture (manufactured tobacco 3.3, spirits of turpentine 1.9,
oil cake 1.6, household furniture 1.0).
=654. Dependence of the South on the North for manufactured wares.=—It
is noteworthy that most of the manufactures which grew up in the United
States in this period were established in the North. The prevalence of
slavery in the South and the attractions of agriculture in that section
prevented the rise of any considerable manufacturing industry; and the
South manufactured even of its staple product, cotton, less than one
fifth as much as the mills of the North. Conditions were thus adapted
to the triangular trade, as it has been termed above, by which surplus
shipments from the North to the South balanced surplus shipments from
the South to Europe. The results were set forth in the following
extract from a book published by a Southerner in 1857:
“In one way or another we are more or less subservient to the North
every day of our lives. In infancy we are swaddled in Northern muslin;
in childhood we are humored with Northern gewgaws; in youth we are
instructed out of Northern books; at the age of maturity we sow our
‘wild oats’ on Northern soil; ... in the decline of life we remedy
our eyesight with Northern spectacles; in old age we are drugged with
Northern physic; and, finally, when we die, our inanimate bodies,
shrouded in Northern cambric, are stretched upon the bier, borne to
the grave in a Northern carriage, entombed with a Northern spade, and
memorized with a Northern slab!”
We shall see in the following sections, reviewing the course of
tariff policy, that the North and the South took opposite sides with
respect to the protective tariff. The South, which had practically no
manufactures, desired free trade, that it might make its purchases in
the cheapest market, while the North desired protection for its growing
manufactures.
=655. Beginning of the system of protective tariffs, 1816.=—In previous
sections (609-611) attention was directed to the fact that the
earliest tariffs were but slightly protective. The establishment of
manufactures was stimulated much more by the interruption of commerce
at the time of the embargo and of the war with England than by any
deliberate policy of protection. At the close of the war of 1812,
however, the time seemed to have come for the legislators to intervene
in favor of American manufacturing industries. The privations of the
war period awakened people to the dependence of the United States on
Europe, which seemed unworthy of a free state and which seemed unsafe
from the military standpoint. The manufactures which had grown up
during the war were exposed, at the return of peace, to a flood of
imports which threatened to reconquer the American market for the
foreign manufacturer. The tariff of 1816, therefore, included a number
of duties designed to restrict imports for the benefit of the American
producer; the scale of duties was moderate, the highest permanent duty
being 20 per cent.
=656. Course of tariff policy, 1816-1860.=—The conflict of interests
between different sections of the country led to many changes in the
tariff schedules, and occasioned some bitter political contests.
Without attempting to recount the details, it may be said in summary
that the course of the tendency was toward higher duties till about
1830, when some of the duties amounted to 40 per cent and 50 per cent
or more.
The high duties were particularly obnoxious to Southerners, who
considered them a tax taken from their pockets for the benefit of
the North, and who fought persistently for a reduction. They finally
secured a hearing; and duties were steadily reduced in the period from
1833 to 1842 until they stood, at the later date, at a general level
of 20 per cent. The tariff remained at this low level only two months,
when it gave place to another tariff with higher duties; the average
of the duties levied _ad valorem_ was 33 per cent, while some duties
rose far above this rate. Finally, from 1846 until the Civil War, the
country was under a low tariff; duties were reduced until the maximum
protective duty was 24 per cent, while the general level was about 20
per cent.
=657. Effect of the tariff on industrial development.=—What effect
did the tariff policy have upon the industries and the commerce of
the country? To this question the only safe answer is that the effect
of the tariff was much less, for good or for bad, than has commonly
been stated by writers on either side of the controversy between
protection and free trade. The country has grown rich from the wealth
of its natural resources and the character of its people. The tariff
diverted into manufacturing more people than would otherwise have
chosen that branch of production, but it did not succeed in making
them all prosperous. Manufactures which were suited to the conditions
of the time, as the cotton manufacture, grew strong under the tariff,
and would have grown strong without it; other manufactures, such as
those of iron and wool, were still feeble after years of protection.
Commerce must have felt the effect of the tariff, for protection could
be effective only as it restricted the exchange of wares with foreign
countries. We are tempted to ascribe the rapid increase in imports and
exports after 1846 to the reduction in duties. Yet, even here, many
other influences favored the growth of our foreign trade, and it is
impossible to determine which of them all was most effective.
=658. Changes in the relative importance of shipping ports; southern
ports and the export trade.=—In the course of this period the
development of new land in the West and Southwest, and the rise in
importance of the cotton crop, effected some notable changes in the
relative rank of the ports of the country. Measuring importance by the
value of the domestic exports, we find that New York now held the first
place; this port was in 1860 the shipping point for nearly one third
of the total export values of the country. A considerable part of the
value of exports from New York, however, was formed of precious metals,
attracted there by the banks and the facilities for rapid voyages on
passenger vessels. If we confine ourselves to the shipment of ordinary
merchandise, we find that New York, in spite of the western connections
afforded by the railroads and the Erie Canal, took second place,
showing but two thirds of the export values leaving the country by way
of New Orleans. This port was the natural outlet for the cotton-growing
country of the lower Mississippi valley, and its export of the one
ware, cotton, exceeded in value all the merchandise shipped from New
York. It was cotton, again, that gave standing to the ports next in
rank, Mobile, Charleston, and Savannah; the exports from these cities,
aside from that single staple, were insignificant. Old ports like
Boston and Baltimore had sunk to the sixth and seventh place, while
Philadelphia, once the leader, was still lower on the list, and was
outranked by San Francisco, if the gold shipments from that port be
counted.
=659. Northern ports and the import trade.=—The reader who remembers
what has been said above about the triangular course of trade in this
period will not be surprised to learn that the figures of imports tell
a very different story. New York enjoyed an import trade nearly double
that of all the other ports of the country together; it was the great
distributing point for European manufactures, from which the various
ports of the country secured most of their supply. Second in rank, but
separated by an immense interval, was another northern port, Boston;
while New Orleans was but a poor third, and Philadelphia and Baltimore
followed in the order named. Other southern ports, ranking high in the
value of their exports, had only an inconsiderable import trade.
=660. Changes in the direction of trade. New character of the trade
with England.=—There had been changes also in the direction of our
trade abroad. The following brief table gives figures in round
millions, for 1860, which may be compared with the figures for 1790
given in section 586.
It will be noted that our trade with English-speaking people formed
still the most important part of our total commerce. A noteworthy
change had taken place, however, in our trade with the British
possessions. At any earlier period we imported from them far more than
we could sell to them in return; the balance of trade was against
us, as men said. This condition had been reversed by the rise of the
cotton trade, and was to be still further affected by our export of
foodstuffs. Great Britain was now dependent on us for the raw material
of her most important manufacture, and was seeking from us also
increasing supply of food, for her factory population.
=====================================+=========+========
| Exports | Imports
-------------------------------------+---------+--------
Great Britain and her dominions | 228 | 177
Including Canada | 11 | 18
British West Indies | 5 | 1
France and her dominions | 57 | 43
Spain and her dominions | 20 | 44
Including Cuba | 11 | 34
=====================================+=========+========
=661. Trade with Canada and the West Indies.=—Our trade with Canada was
of comparatively recent growth. Restrictive duties had formerly checked
exchange with our northern neighbor, but as population and industries
developed on either side of the frontier a demand for greater freedom
of exchange made itself felt; duties were reduced, a reciprocity treaty
was negotiated (1854), and under it many articles were exchanged free
of all duties.
It will be noted that trade with the British West Indies had not
developed to a similar degree; and it would be apparent, if other
figures were included in the table, that our West India trade in
general was far less important than it had been in the earlier period
of our history. Trade with the French and the Dutch West Indies was, in
fact, less in 1860 than in 1790. Among all the West India islands Cuba
alone was a prominent exception to this tendency to decline. Slavery
was still maintained in that island; and the sugar industry, which had
felt severely in other islands the abolition of slavery, continued to
flourish there.
=662. Expansion of American commerce in Europe, South American, and the
Far East.=—It may be said, in general, that our commerce had broken
through the rather narrow bounds which had formerly directed so much
of it to England and to the West Indies. We were building up our trade
with the continent of Europe. Our trade with France had increased
greatly under the liberal commercial policy of Napoleon III, and we
were establishing profitable connections with other European states, as
is shown by the following figures for our total trade with them in 1860
(millions of dollars): German states 33, the Netherlands 10, Italian
states 9.
Still more noteworthy is the extension of our commerce to the South and
to the Far East. During the period under review the states of Central
and South America had won their independence from Europe, and were now
free to establish such trade relations as they chose. With Mexico and
various states of South America (especially Brazil and the Argentine
Republic) we had in 1860 a commerce amounting to about sixty million
dollars. Our trade with China amounted to about twenty million; and
while our trade with Japan (about $150,000) gave no immediate reward
for the American enterprise which had opened the ports of that country,
it was at least a promise for the future.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
1. See sect. 695 for figures of imports which may be charted for
comparison with later development.
2. How did the import trade of the U. S. compare with that of England
at about this time?
3. Why was it cheaper for the Americans to buy manufactures abroad
than to make them at home?
4. What is the effect of a protective tariff, (_a_) on commerce, (_b_)
on production, (_c_) on the price of the product?
5. Industrial development, 1790-1860. [Wright, 132-142.]
6. American coal fields. [Nicolls, part 1; commercial geographies.]
7. Early transportations of coal by rivers and canals. [Nicolls,
chaps. 17, 18.]
8. Assuming that the protective duty on iron raised its price to
purchasers, what must have been the effect on manufactures and
transportation? [Compare the sections on Russia, above.]
9. Development of the American iron industry before 1860. [Taussig;
Depew, chap. 46 by Huston; Swank.]
10. Difficulties of the woolen manufacturer. [Taussig; North in Depew,
p. 482.]
11. Contributions of the U. S. to improvements in machine tools.
[Depew, chap. 49 by Sellers.]
12. Cotton manufactures in the South before the war. [DeBow, 1: 233,
2: 101 ff., 3: 24 ff.].
13. Industrial conditions at the close of the War of 1812. [Histories
of U. S. by McMaster and Henry Adams.]
14. Tariff of 1816. [Taussig.]
15. Why was the South opposed to protection in this period? [Review
the description of the industries and commerce of North and South, and
try to see what effect a protective duty on manufactured wares would
have on Southerners.]
16. Study in detail the influences, economic and political,
determining the character of _one_ of the following tariff acts: 1824,
1828, 1832, 1833, 1842, 1846, 1857. [Tariff histories by Taussig and
others; narrative histories of the U. S.]
17. Study the commercial history of one of the ports named, sects.
645-6. [Local histories; Encyclopedias.]
18. Commerce of the South before the War. [Maury in DeBow, vol. 3, 1
ff.]
19. Reviewing the list of ports, which of the following factors seems
to have been most important in determining their relative rank in the
import trade: nearness to Europe, excellence of harbor, facilities
for distributing goods by waterways, railroad facilities? Can you add
other factors of importance to the list?
20. Make a chart of the figures, sect. 660, and compare it with the
chart for the earlier period.
21. Effect on commerce with Canada of the reciprocity treaty of 1854.
[Haynes, Robinson.]
22. History of the commerce between the United States and South
America. [Rutter; Curtis in Senate Exec. doc., first session, 51st
Cong., vol. 8; check list 2685.]
23. Development of American commerce in the Pacific. [Callahan.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See chapter xlviii.
CHAPTER LI
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1860-1914
=663. Survey of commercial development, 1860-1914.=—In the chapters
introductory to the history of commerce in the nineteenth century,
attention was directed to the increasing rapidity of movement, which
makes the second half of the century a period by itself, distinguished
above all others by its wonderful commercial development. That the
United States enjoyed a full measure of the world’s progress in
commerce is shown by the following table, which gives the figures of
imports and exports in millions of dollars.
==========+=======+========+=======+=======
| |Domestic|Foreign| Total
|Imports| exports|exports|general
----------+-------+--------+-------+-------
1860 | 534 | 316 | 17 | 687
1870 | 436 | 377 | 16 | 829
1880 | 668 | 824 | 12 | 1,504
1890 | 789 | 845 | 13 | 1,647
1900 | 850 | 1,371 | 24 | 2,244
1910 | 1,557 | 1,710 | 35 | 3,302
1913 | 1,813 | 2,429 | 37 | 4,279
==========+=======+========+=======+=======
Prices were falling in the last quarter of the century, so that the
figures in the text, giving the value of imports and exports, do not
do justice to the growth in the physical volume of trade. On the other
hand prices began to rise just before 1900 and, therefore, the figures
exaggerate the increase of trade in the most recent period. Prices of
1913 were, however, only about one-third higher than in the decade
1890-99 so that after allowance is made for their rise the growth of
American commerce in this period remains extraordinary.
=664. Internal development of the country.=—During this period the
natural growth of population was augmented by a steady stream of
immigration, which has increased with time and has made to appear small
in comparison all previous movements of people to the country. In
spite, however, of this growth, the increase in the value of foreign
trade has been even more rapid, and the share contributed by the
average person to the commerce of the country was greater at the close
of the century than at any previous period. The average inhabitant had
in 1913 a share of about $18 in the imports, and of about $25 in the
exports.
While the preceding period was called the period of national expansion,
the period lasting from the Civil War to the close of the century may
fitly be termed that of national development. The population continued,
it is true, to spread out within the national frontiers. It occupied
the great plains leading up to the Rocky Mountains region, and the
strip of fertile land along the Pacific Coast, and penetrated the
mountains and semi-arid region in all parts where mineral wealth and
agricultural possibilities promised returns to the laborer. The most
striking feature, however, in the progress of the last forty years
has been not so much the breaking-in of new territory as the improved
means adopted for making the most of all resources, in old and new
territory alike. Improvements of a technical character have transformed
the methods of transportation and manufacture, and new methods of
cooperation have changed the aspects of business life completely.
The first subject requiring attention is the development of the
transportation system.
=665. Extension of railroads.=—In the recent history of the
transportation system of the United States the most noteworthy feature
has been, of course, the development of railroads. The railroad mileage
of the country in 1860 was divided almost equally between the North,
the South, and the West, each section having roughly 10,000 miles.
The section which felt most keenly the need of increased railroad
facilities was the agricultural West, where the products of rich farm
lands were wasted and where corn was not infrequently used for fuel,
for lack of means to reach a market. After 1860 the railroads were
rapidly extended through the upper Mississippi Valley, and in 1869 the
first transcontinental route was completed (Union and Central Pacific).
Railroads reaching out like feelers into new regions attracted
population and stimulated traffic not only in the new country but also
in the older settled districts, where the opportunities for profitable
business were multiplied by the increased supply of raw materials and
by the widened market for finished products. Old lines were extended
and new lines were built until, in 1913, the mileage of the country had
risen from about 30,000 as it was in 1860, to over 250,000, showing an
average gain of about 40,000 miles in a decade, a greater amount than
the total of 1860.
=666. Improvements in the operation of railroads.=—Equal in
practical importance to the extension of the railroad system were
the improvements effected during the period in the construction and
operation of the lines. This was the time in which steel rails and
bridges were introduced, which permitted the use of more efficient
locomotives, drawing heavier trains, and so reducing the expense of
carriage. Lines which had been constructed in short sections under the
control of different companies were now merged in great corporations,
operating thousands of miles of track. The railroads had previously
been so independent of each other that there was not even a standard
gage for the track; some lines set the rails 6 or even 7 feet apart,
a California law fixed the gage in that State at 5 feet, while the
Missouri Pacific had a gage of 5 feet 6 inches. A difference in
gage necessitated, of course, the unloading and reloading of wares
in passage from one line to another, and prohibited distant freight
movements. Soon after 1860 a movement toward the present standard,
4 feet 8-1/2 inches, brought a uniform gage into use, and when the
consolidation of railroads was under way there was no longer a thought
of varying from the standard. The first consolidation of a through line
from Chicago to the sea was effected in 1869 under the management of
Cornelius Vanderbilt (Lake Shore and Michigan Southern and New York
Central and Hudson River); and the movement soon spread to other lines
(Pennsylvania, etc.). The benefits were greater than the reader may
be inclined to suppose. The management of railroads was made at the
same time more efficient and less expensive; uniformity of policy was
established in such matters as the track gage; and, most important, a
new policy of freight rates, designed to stimulate distant shipments,
became practicable.
=667. Reduction of railroad rates.=—The charges for freight movements
before 1860 rarely fell below 2 cents per ton-mile. Railroad managers
believed that the lowest rates which they could profitably make were,
roughly, 2 cents for heavy agricultural produce, 3 for groceries,
4 for dry goods. The improvements effected in road-bed and rolling
stock after 1860 suggested the possibility of reducing rates, and the
reorganization of small railroads in large systems made it possible
to institute reductions to stimulate distant freight movements. The
results exceeded all expectations. The railroads found that a reduction
brought such an increase of traffic that the lower rates were not only
an advantage to the shippers, but also a benefit to themselves; and
rates have fallen almost constantly in the course of the period. In
1914 the average freight rate was only three quarters of a cent per
ton-mile, and some of the lines between Chicago and the Atlantic coast
had reduced their charges very close to half a cent.
=668. Contribution of the railroads to recent national
development.=—The importance of this change in a country of great
distances can scarcely be exaggerated. It has transformed the railroad
from a luxury for the use of passengers and high-class freight
to a necessity for the producers and consumers of the commonest
articles. In 1860 even a ware like wheat could not pay the expense
of transportation over a distance exceeding many hundred miles, and
distant freight traffic was restricted to manufactures and the most
valuable of farm products, such as live stock. The reduction in
charges has opened a profitable market for the commonest agricultural
products of distant western States, and has made accessible the natural
resources of all kinds, which otherwise would count for nothing among
the economic assets of the country. In 1913 more than half of the
tonnage carried on the railways of the United States consisted of
ores, coal, and other products of mines, which could scarcely have
been carried at all in 1860. The railroads now carry a tonnage far
exceeding that transported through other channels (rivers, lakes,
canals, and coasting trade); and it may be said in sober earnest that
a considerable proportion of the people in the country would starve,
without the means of earning a livelihood, if the railroad improvements
that have come since 1860 were suddenly swept away.
Some idea of the growth of railroad service in the United States in
recent years can be gained from the accompanying brief table, which
pictures the contribution of the railroads in their two important
activities, the carriage of freight and the carriage of passengers.
RAILROAD SERVICE IN THE U.S., 1890-1910
(_Figures in milliards: 000,000,000 omitted_)
==============================+======+======+======+======+======
| 1890 | 1895 | 1900 | 1905 | 1910
------------------------------+------+------+------+------+------
Tons carried one mile. | 77 | 85 | 141 | 186 | 255
Passengers carried one mile. | 11 | 12 | 16 | 23 | 32
==============================+======+======+======+======+======
=669. Relative decline in transportation by canals and rivers.=—The
development of the railroad system has not entirely done away with
the previous systems of internal transportation, but it has reduced
them to subordinate importance. The decline is especially noticeable
in the case of canals. Even in 1880 nearly half of the total canal
mileage had been abandoned and a large number of the canals remaining
in operation were not paying expenses. The cost of transportation on
the canals has been reduced by deepening them to take in larger boats;
tolls have been entirely abolished, as in the case of the Erie Canal;
and still the superior speed and certainty of transportation by rail
have robbed the canals of the bulk of the traffic. Some of the river
routes have fared better. The Mississippi River system, notably, is
still an important channel of trade, but even in the territory it
serves the railroads far outrank it in importance, and most of the
inland waterways have lost their previous significance.
=670. Importance of the Great Lakes; St. Mary’s Canal.=—While the
country could now renounce, without very serious loss, the rivers and
canals which were formerly so important as means of transportation, it
could ill afford to dispense with the Great Lakes along its northern
boundary. In the first half of the century Lake Erie was a useful
means of communication with the growing States of the West, and gained
greatly in importance with the construction of canals after 1825. It
was not until the second half of the century, however, that the three
western lakes showed their possibilities as channels through which the
national resources might be conducted to districts where they could be
best utilized. Between 1860 and 1900 the tonnage on the Great Lakes
grew sixfold, and increased even more in carrying capacity as wooden
sailing vessels gave place to large steel steamers. Freight rates have
fallen below one tenth of a cent per ton-mile, and immense amounts of
ore, coal, grain, and lumber have thus found a cheap means of access to
market.
In 1855 a canal was completed to avoid the rapids in St. Mary’s River
at the outlet of Lake Superior, and this canal, since deepened and
improved, has become one of the great commercial channels of the world.
The Lake Superior region has proved to be wonderfully rich in iron,
copper, timber, and other products essential to modern industry. In
1913 the tonnage of vessels passing through the St. Mary’s Canal was
greater than the tonnage entering the seaports of the United States
from all foreign countries, and was more than double the tonnage
passing through the Suez Canal.
=671. Decline of American shipping.=—In contrast with the great
development of the means of internal transportation we have to note,
in this period, a decided decline in the American shipping engaged in
foreign trade. The total tonnage of the country was in 1913 nearly
double what it had been in 1860, and entitled the United States to
a position high up among trading countries. About one third of this
total, however, was employed on the Great Lakes, and most of the
remainder was engaged in the coasting trade. Both of these branches of
navigation could be, and were, protected by law against the competition
of foreign ship-owners. The trade of this country with other countries,
however, could not be restricted to American vessels without danger of
retaliation; and the attempts of the United States to favor its own
vessels in foreign trade, by taxing foreign vessels at the port of
entry, had been given up before 1860. Now in this branch of shipping,
in which the vessels of all countries of the world compete on equal
terms, the tonnage of the United States declined from 2.5 million in
1860 to 1.0 in 1913.
=672. Effect of the Civil War on the merchant marine.=—Of this great
loss in tonnage the larger part fell in the years immediately following
1860, the period of the Civil War. The southern States, unable to break
the blockade which closed their ports and prevented the sale of their
cotton, sought to retaliate by loosing swift cruisers to prey on the
ships which sailed under the United States flag. The most celebrated
of these cruisers, the _Alabama_, was fitted out in England, and for
two years, until its destruction by the _Kearsarge_ in 1864, haunted
the chief routes of trade, and captured no less than 69 vessels. Other
cruisers were less successful, but altogether 261 Northern vessels were
taken. The fear of capture caused a decline in tonnage far greater
than the actual losses at sea; American ship-owners found their
profits eaten up by heavy insurance charges, and sold their vessels to
foreigners, who could navigate them in safety under a neutral flag.
Altogether the country came out of the war with about a million tons of
shipping less than it had owned at the beginning.
=673. Other causes of decline.=—The American merchant marine would have
recovered from the losses of the war but for other difficulties which
it faced. This was the period in which steamers began to gain rapidly
on sailing ships, and in which iron began to be extensively used in
ship-building. The Americans had at this time neither the resources
nor the experience to compete with the English in the new forms of
naval construction, and even before the war it was apparent that the
English were drawing ahead. Moreover, the war had, indirectly, a great
influence on the fortunes of American shipping, for it led to a great
increase in the tariff and to heavy taxes of all kinds. It cost more
both to build and to navigate an American ship than it had cost before
the war or than it cost an English owner. Add to these influences the
fact that the country was just entering the period of great railroad
extension, and that the West now offered wonderful opportunities for
the investment both of labor and capital; and it is not surprising that
the American people turned from the sea to the land, and resigned the
high position which they had formerly held in foreign carrying-trade.
=674. Recent position of the merchant marine.=—Since 1860, therefore,
the United States has relied mainly upon foreigners to carry its
freight across the seas. Of the tonnage that cleared from ports of the
United States for foreign countries in 1913 about one quarter sailed
under the American flag. The effective service of American ships
did not, however, correspond to this proportion; they carried only
about one-tenth in value of the exports that went out by sea. Various
attempts have been made to stimulate the construction and navigation of
American ships by the grant of subsidies from the national government,
but the success has been very moderate, and the people have been in
general unwilling to levy taxes for the support of this particular
industry. In one respect legislation has become more liberal; the
Panama Canal Act of 1912 made it at last possible, under somewhat
severe restrictions, to register under the American flag foreign built
vessels engaged in foreign trade.
=675. Development of national manufactures.=—Part of the energy
diverted from the sea found a fruitful field of labor in the developing
manufactures of the country. The period from 1860 to 1914 marked the
advance beyond the age of trial and experiment in the history of
American manufactures; at the close of this period the United States
was the greatest manufacturing country of the world, supplying most
of its own requirements for manufactured wares, and producing a
large surplus for export to other countries. The development of the
transportation system was the indispensable condition of this progress.
The railroads have brought all parts of our great national domain so
closely together, in a commercial sense, that the choicest natural
resources of the continent have been made available at the centers
of production. Abundant labor has been supplied both by the growth
of the native population and by the increasing flow of immigrants.
Leaders have arisen from the people, stimulated to energy by the rapid
promotion which has been granted on proof of signal ability; and the
necessary capital has been contributed by investors in all parts of
the world, who have sought eagerly the opportunity to share in our
industrial gains. Finally, our factories have enjoyed an advantage
beyond those of any country, in the great market which has stood
waiting to receive their products. Within boundaries, each of which
measures thousands of miles, lay an area absolutely free to trade,
provided with the most efficient instruments of transportation and
communication, and settled by a people numbering nearly a hundred
million, of prosperous producers and educated consumers.
=676. Coal production and the use of steam power.=—Not until this
period did the country realize the full value of its hidden mineral
wealth. The coal deposits of the United States are thought to be richer
than those of any other whole continent, and the Ohio Valley has coal
mines together with iron deposits and rich agricultural resources in
a combination which is unmatched. The coal production of 1860 (13
million tons) was considerably larger than in previous decades, but
it seems insignificant in comparison with 240 million of 1900, or
the 509 million of 1913. Bituminous coal, the kind chiefly used in
manufactures, formed only one third of the total output in 1850 and
only one half even in 1870, while in 1913 it comprised four fifths of
the whole. In coal production the United States now led the world.
The vast increase in the coal product was used in innumerable ways,
but it found its chief employment in furnishing motive power to the
transportation system, and to the factories of the country. In studying
the history of coal production one is inclined to say that the country
did not really enter the age of steam until after the Civil War. The
total horse-power employed in manufactures in 1869 (2.3 million), was
derived from steam and water in almost equal proportion. In the period
closing in 1914 the power employed increased about ten-fold (to 22.5
million), and of the increase steam supplied nearly three-quarters.
=677. Machinery.=—That the Civil War really marks a dividing line in
our industrial progress is shown by the history of the Patent Office;
within a few years after the close of the war the number of patents
granted increased greatly, and the new level thus established was
steadily maintained. American machine manufacturers made in this
period their great contributions to mechanical progress: the system
of interchangeable parts, automatic and specialized machines, the
utilization of by-products, etc. Brass screws at one time could
be produced only at great expense; it is characteristic that some
manufacturers would now make them absolutely free of charge, if the
customer would furnish the brass rod and would allow them to keep the
chips of brass which were cut off in the process.
It is impossible here to trace the history of manufactures in
detail, but a single manufacture, that of carpets, may be taken for
illustration. In the carpet industry about 1835 modern factory methods
were unknown; weavers worked at home with old-fashioned hand looms,
producing 7 or 8 yards of inferior carpet per day. Power looms were
invented, and were introduced little by little, but even after the
Civil War nearly half the carpets were still woven on hand looms.
Since that time has come the great advance in the industry, by the
introduction of improved power machinery, which has reduced the price
of fine tapestries and Brussels to that formerly paid for the rudest
ingrain, and which has stimulated an immense increase in consumption.
The rapid development of the national manufactures in this period may
be shown by brief statistics, in thousand millions of dollars; the
capital invested grew from 1.0 to 22.8 while the value of the product
grew from 1.9 to 24.2.
=678. Extension of manufactures in the West and South.=—There had been,
moreover, a noteworthy change in the distribution of manufactures
throughout the country. The northeastern States had greatly extended
their manufacturing plants, and relatively to population no European
state rivalled New England in output: but American manufactures had
extended also into the West and the South. The southern States, instead
of sending their raw cotton to the North or to Europe, began to
manufacture it in increasing quantities, and now competed with northern
mills for the markets of the Mississippi Valley. The development of
iron production in the South was phenomenally rapid. The rich coal
and iron fields of the Southern Appalachian range were opened, and
contributed now an important share of the total output, while large
industrial centers were growing up in Chattanooga, Birmingham, and
other Southern cities.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
1. Chart the figures as before; if the same scale is used the chart
may be pasted to that previously made.
2. Industrial aspects of the Civil War. [Wright, 143-158.]
3. The population of the country was as follows, in round millions:
1860, 31; 1870, 39; 1880, 50; 1890, 63; 1900, 76; 1910, 92. Calculate
the commerce per capita, and insert the line on the chart.
4. What has been the gain in population of your own State in this
period, compared with earlier periods? [Abstract of the Census.]
5. Write a report on the history of one of the western railroads. [Cy
Warman, Story of the railroad, N. Y., Appleton, 1898, $1.50.]
6. Technical improvements in railroads. [See references in chap. xxx,
and Johnson, chap. 4.]
7. Development of railroad organization. [Hadley, chap. 5.]
8. Contributions of railroads to industrial development. [Hatfield,
Lectures, 81 ff.]
9. Freight service of the modern American railroad. [Johnson, chap. 9.]
10. Present and future of the Erie Canal. [Encyclopedia; Poole’s
Index.]
11. Possible future of ship canals in the United States. [Report of
the Deep Waterways Commission, House Doc. 192, 54th Cong., 2d. sess.]
12. River transportation in the Mississippi Valley. [Abbot, chap. 8;
Census, 1890, Transportation by water, pp. 393-465; Report of Indust.
Comm., 1900, 9: clxxxiv-clxxxviii.]
13. Place of the Great Lakes in our modern transportation system.
[Tunnell; Marvin, chap. 17; Abbot, chap. 7.]
The St Mary Canal. [Tunnell; Fairlie, Ship canals, p. 67 ff.]
14. What would be the effect on lake traffic of commercial union with
Canada?
15. The coasting trade of the United States. [Marvin, chap. 15; Van
Metre in Carnegie History, vol. 1, chap. 20, 21.]
16. Effect of the Civil War on shipping. [Marvin, chap. 14; Cambridge
Mod. Hist., vol. 7, chap. 17, by Wilson; Rhodes, Hist.]
17. Decline of American shipping since the War. [Marvin, chaps. 16,
18; Wells.]
18. The question of subsidies. [Ringwalt, Briefs.]
19. Ship building in the United States. [Depew, chap. 18 by Cramp;
B. Taylor in Fortnightly Rev., 1899, 71: 284-299; John H. Morrison,
History of New York ship yards, N. Y., 1909.]
20. Taking the heads suggested (natural resources, labor, capital,
means of transportation, market), how would the following countries,
in your opinion, compare with the United States as a field for the
development of manufactures: Belgium, China, Germany, Russia, France?
21. Industrial development, 1860-1890. [Wright, 159-188.]
22. Transportation of coal by railroads. [Nicolls, chaps. 19, 20, 21.]
23. Geography and organization of the coasting trade in coal.
[Nicolls, chap. 22.]
24. Methods employed in American coal mines. [Nicolls, part 2.]
25. Power employed in manufactures. [U. S. Census, Manufactures,
General report, Abstract of the census of manufactures.]
26. The New South. [Coman, 292-298.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—See chap. xlv and add: Poole’s Index and its
continuations, Annual library index and Readers’ guide to periodical
literature; debaters’ handbooks, ed. R. C. Ringwalt, E. R. Nichols,
and Debaters’ handbook series.
GENERAL.—Wells, **Rec. econ. changes; Edward Atkinson, *Industrial
progress, N. Y., 1890, *Distribution of products., N. Y., 1892; H. R.
Hatfield, ed., *Lectures on commerce, Chicago, 1904; J. F. Rhodes.
*History of U. S., N. Y., 1893 ff.; R. Mayo-Smith and E. R. A.
Seligman, **Commercial policy, 1860-1890, Leipzig, 1892.
SPECIAL.—Railroads: J. Moody, **The railroad builders, New Haven,
1920; Cy Warman, *The story of the railroad, N. Y., 1898; C. F.
Adams, Jr., and Henry Adams, Chapters of Erie, Boston, 1871. Lake
trade: J. C. Mills, **Our inland seas, Chicago, 1910; G. Tunnell,
*Transportation on the Great Lakes, Jour. of Pol. Econ., June, 1896,
4: 332-351; Charles Moore, editor, The Saint Marys Falls canal,
Detroit, 1907, S. V. E. Harvey, Jubilee annals of the Lake Superior
ship canal, Cleveland, 1906. Industrial: H. Thompson, **The age of
invention, New Haven, 1921; J. W. Roe, *English and American tool
builders, New Haven, 1916; B. E. Hazard, Organization of the boot
and shoe industry before 1875, Cambridge, Harvard Press, 1921; M. T.
Copeland, The cotton manufacturing industry, Cambridge, 1912.
SOURCES.—Material in government documents becomes in this period much
richer and more varied. Beside the reports on Commerce and Navigation
(including many special reports on Internal Commerce) and Commercial
Relations, see the Statistical Abstract, Monthly Summary of Commerce
and Finance (including current statistics and useful monographs),
the Census, Reports and Statistics of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, Report of the Industrial Commission, 1900-02, Reports of
the Tariff Board and Tariff Commission (including noteworthy reports
on cotton and wool manufactures, 1912.) The Bureau of Manufactures,
later termed Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, issued in its
Miscellaneous series, a number of reports useful for a survey of
commercial conditions just before the outbreak of the World War; no.
11., American manufactures in foreign markets; no. 14, Annual review
of the foreign commerce of the U. S., 1913; no. 15, Trade of U. S.
with the world, 1912-13; no. 38, do. for 1914-15; no. 23, Trade of the
U. S. with other American countries, 1913-14; no. 33, Ports of the U.
S. (terminal facilities, commerce, port charges, etc., at 68 selected
ports).
CHAPTER LII
EXPORTS, 1860-1914
=679. Chief exports in 1913.=—The principal items of the export trade
of the United States in 1913 are given in the following table, with
which should be compared the table in section 633.
EXPORTS OF U.S., 1913, MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
Cotton 547
Iron and steel and manufactures 305
Breadstuffs 211
Provisions, including dairy 154
Copper and manufactures 140
Mineral oils 137
Wood and manufactures 116
-----
Total of these items, omitting decimals 1,610
Total exports of domestic merchandise,
including items omitted 2,429
Total foreign exports 37
Exports of precious metals 149
=680. Noteworthy changes since 1860.=—The table shows that in one
general respect the export trade of the country remained unchanged;
seven items made up nearly two thirds of the immense total of the
exports. While the country continued to rely upon a few great staples
for the means of purchasing foreign wares, there had been since 1860
some noteworthy changes in the relative rank of the chief items and
in the general character of the export trade. Cotton continued to be
a leading item, and was still at the head of the list in 1913. In
intervening years it had for a time yielded first place to breadstuffs;
and another item associated with the agriculture of the northern
and western states, provisions, had risen to prominence. This item
includes dairy products as well as various kinds of meat, but does
not include live animals. In general, however, the agriculture of the
country no longer occupied the commanding position which it had once
held in our export trade. In 1860 American agriculture supplied more
than four fifths of the value of domestic exports of the country;
in 1913 it supplied less than half. American industry had become
diversified. While the country still depended largely on the raw
products of its natural resources for the means of exchange in its
foreign trade, it had broadened the field of its activities to include
its mineral as well as its agricultural wealth, and had begun to sell
an increasing share of its products in the form of manufactured or
partly manufactured wares.
=681. Change in character of the export trade.=—The change in the
general character of American export trade through this period can
be best illustrated by comparing the whole group of foodstuffs,
both raw and manufactured, with the group of industrial products
(manufactures for further use in manufacturing, and manufactures ready
for consumption). The table of figures shows that in the generation
from 1880 to 1910 these two groups practically changed places in the
part that they played in American export trade. The value of the total
product of agriculture at home did not cease to grow, and indeed rose
rapidly and steadily. The home market, however, grew so fast that the
surplus available for export remained nearly stationary, and formed a
constantly smaller part of the expanding total. The country began to
look to its industrial resources to buy what it wanted from foreign
lands.
===============+=========================+=========================
Exports of U.S.| Foodstuffs | Manufactures
---------------+--------------+----------+--------------+----------
Fiscal year |Value millions| Per cent |Value millions| Per cent
| of dollars | of total | of dollars | of total
---------------+--------------+----------+--------------+----------
1880 | 459 | 55 | 121 | 14
1885 | 325 | 44 | 150 | 20
1890 | 356 | 42 | 178 | 21
1895 | 318 | 40 | 205 | 25
1900 | 545 | 39 | 484 | 35
1905 | 401 | 26 | 611 | 40
1910 | 369 | 21 | 766 | 44
1912 | 418 | 19 | 1,020 | 47
===============+==============+==========+==============+==========
[Illustration: Products of the United States.]
=682. Reasons for the increase of agricultural exports.=—The great
growth in the exports of northern agricultural products was due to the
improvements in transportation, which opened the markets of the Old
World to the food supplies produced so abundantly in the New. There is
general agreement that no other part of the earth’s surface presents
an area that can compare in quantity and quality of agricultural land
with the Mississippi Valley. The larger part of this area still awaited
cultivation at the close of the Civil War, and was brought under the
plow in the period following it. Good land could be had free of charge
by settlement under the homestead laws, or could be bought for prices
little above what European farmers had to pay as rent or interest.
=683. Improvement of agricultural implements.=—The productiveness of
American agriculture was furthered in this period by still another
factor, the improvement of farm implements and machinery. American
ingenuity, always proverbial, applied itself to the problem of getting
the largest crops with the least labor, and devised means which were
peculiarly suited to the conditions of the country and the times. The
automatic reaper, on which inventors had long been working, had become
a practical success by the middle of the century, and spread rapidly
after its merits had been advertised at the Crystal Palace in 1851. An
agricultural writer expressed himself as follows in 1866: “The reaper
and mower have become ‘institutions’—a necessity, and no farmer of any
standing ignores their use. The machinery for raking and loading hay in
the field, and the unloading in the barn and on the stack, the potato
digger, the corn cutter, the bean puller, the cultivator, the corn
and bean planter and seed sower, threshing machines, corn shellers,
fanning mills, straw and root cutters, hay rakes, tile ditchers, &c.,
&c., though not all of recent introduction, have all been greatly
simplified and improved; in short every implement of farm husbandry,
from the hoe to the reaper, has undergone various transformations for
the better since the late change of the times....”
Every step in advance led to another. The reaper was displaced by the
harvester, which accomplished the same results with less labor; and
this in turn gave place to the twine binder, which showed still greater
efficiency.
=684. Wheat and flour.=—The leading place among the breadstuffs
exported fell to wheat. A large part of the American wheat crop had
found its market in the southern States, before the Civil War. The
closing of this market by war threw the whole surplus on Europe, and
the wheat exports increased actually ninefold from 1860 to 1863. They
declined for a time, when the South was opened to trade, but rose
again as the soldiers from the disbanded armies and other colonists
settled on the western prairies; and about 1880 grew to very large
figures. The method of transportation was improved by building great
elevators and introducing machinery to handle the grain at all points
of transshipment; a system of grading and classification enabled the
wheat to be carried in bulk, without regard to small specific lots;
and the charges for storage and movement fell greatly. The instruments
of modern transportation carried a ton of wheat from Minneapolis to
Liverpool for less than it cost a farmer, thirty years before, to haul
it by wagon a hundred miles.
For many years after 1860 most of the wheat was exported as grain, and
was milled abroad. The introduction of European improvements, producing
flour not by the old millstones but by gradual reduction between
rollers, established again the reputation of American flour; and about
half in value of the wheat export left the country in the manufactured
form.
=685. Indian corn.=—No other cereal compared in value with wheat
among the exports of the United States. In his “Indian corn speech,”
delivered in 1877, Tilden predicted a great increase in the export of
corn, which yields a much larger supply of food from a given area,
and hence can be sold more cheaply. The corn crop was one of the most
valuable assets of the country; it served not alone for food, but
supplied also raw materials for the manufacture of starch, alcohol,
glucose, etc. Its most important use, however, was for feeding and
fattening stock, and its contribution to the exports of the country was
mainly indirect, in the form of animals and animal products.
=686. Stock, meat, and dairy products.=—Live stock, chiefly beef
cattle, were exported in large quantities in this period; the railroads
offered every facility for bringing them to the seaboard, and special
steamers transported them across the Atlantic in about ten days.
Still more important, however, was the export of animal products.
The refrigerator car, patented in 1868, enabled the meat of animals
slaughtered in the West to be carried to market in all parts of the
country, and stimulated the development of an immense packing industry
in the regions where stock were raised and fattened. The export of
fresh meat, which began about 1875, increased constantly in the last
quarter of the century, and formed a considerable item. Of even greater
value was the export of bacon and hams, while lard, tallow, pickled and
canned meats contributed in varying proportions to the total of animal
products exported. The dairy products occupied a less important place
in foreign than in internal trade; and before the end of the period the
export of these products had declined to insignificance.
=687. Relative decline in importance of exports from the South.=—The
exports which have been considered hitherto come mainly, though by no
means exclusively, from the northern and western States. The South
contributed still one great item, cotton, but lost the commanding
position in the export trade which it held before the Civil War. It
would be a mistake, however, to suppose that the war was the cause
of this change. It did, for a time, nearly annihilate the commerce
of the South, and it absorbed so much of the capital as to cripple
productive power for a considerable period. It swept away the system
of slavery, and forced the people to adjust themselves to this most
serious of changes. It left untouched, however, the natural resources
of the country, and the New South, which has risen since 1880, devoted
itself to the task of developing these resources with energy and
success. Meanwhile, however, parts of the country which hardly counted
in foreign trade before 1860, had been brought within reach of the
seaboard, and had been settled by millions of active producers. The
balance of commercial power was thus changed, not by the decline of the
South but by the rise of other parts of the country.
=688. Cotton.=—English manufacturers, who had been in great straits for
cotton during the Civil War, and had in vain endeavored to find the raw
material in sufficient quantity and of satisfactory quality in other
parts of the world, returned gladly to their former source of supply,
the southern States. The cotton crop brought high prices, the records
of cotton production and export in the years before the war were soon
reached and surpassed, and the cotton culture continued to grow down
to the end of the century. There have been years since 1890 when the
price has fallen so low as to leave little profit for the producers;
and it has often been suggested that the South was suffering from an
over-production of its staple crop, and would fare better if it grew
less cotton and more of other crops. Southern farmers were constantly
advised to diversify their products. They seem to have followed this
advice to a certain extent, and have begun to furnish the northern
States with a considerable supply of food products, especially fruit
and vegetables, in direct contrast with the course of trade before the
Civil War when most of the food shipments were in the other direction.
They seem, however, to have found no substitute for cotton as an export
product, and have made that still their single great staple in foreign
trade.
=689. Export of mineral products: iron.=—It has been asserted by
an eminent geologist that North America is richer than any other
continent in the mineral substances which have most contributed to
the development of man. Every metal except tin has been found in
quantities of economic importance. We must concern ourselves here
chiefly with the one metal, iron, that which has held the chief place
in economic progress in recent times, and in the production of which
the United States has made surprising advance. Before 1860, as noted
above, the United States had merely followed England at a respectful
distance, in the methods of iron making. Since 1860 the iron makers
of America have outstripped all competitors, in the efficiency of
their methods and in the quantity of their output, and have made the
United States the leading country of the world in iron production. The
American iron industry has shown itself competent not only to meet the
immense demands of the home market, but also to produce for export in
competition with other countries the large amounts shown by the figures
at the opening of this chapter.
=690. Recent development of the American iron industry.=—The following
table shows that the advance of the iron industry was slow for a long
time, and that its present power is of very recent growth.
=====+======================+=========================
| | COMMERCE IN MILLIONS
|PRODUCTION IN MILLIONS| OF DOLLARS, IRON, STEEL,
| OF TONS | AND MANUFACTURES
+-----------+----------+-----------+-------------
| Pig Iron | Steel | Imports | Exports
-----+-----------+----------+-----------+-------------
1860 | 0.8 | | 26 | 5
1870 | 1.7 | 0.07 | 32 | 11
1880 | 3.8 | 1.2 | 53 | 12
1890 | 9.2 | 4.3 | 41 | 25
1900 | 13.7 | 10.2 | 20 | 121
1910 | 27.3 | 26.1 | 40 | 179
1913 | 31.0 | 31.3 | 34 | 305
=====+===========+==========+===========+=============
Among the causes contributing to this result one of the most important
has been the development of the rich ore deposits of the Lake Superior
region and Alabama. Economies in handling the ore, by means of steam
shovels and carriers, and in transporting it by water and railroad,
have enabled it to be brought to the heart of the coal and coke regions
at comparatively slight expense. In the reduction of the ore and in the
various processes of manufacture the American iron makers in recent
times have been quick to introduce improvements discovered in other
countries; and have themselves contributed important devices by which
the efficiency of the labor employed in iron manufacture has been
greatly increased.
=691. Machinery=.—The least valuable part of the iron export is that
which leaves the country in the raw or partly manufactured state. The
single item of machinery (electrical, sewing machines, locomotives,
typewriters, etc.), makes up nearly half the value of the iron and
steel exports; while other items (agricultural implements, cars,
bicycles, etc.), made up largely of iron and steel, would swell the
importance of the exports of iron manufactures still further, if they
were included in the list.
The Americans have recently taken the place of leaders among the
machine builders of the world, and no country, however high it may
have ranked in the past, can afford now to neglect the contributions
offered by American machinists. The cheapness of raw materials, iron
and steel, has aided the recent development of the American machine
industry, but has not caused it. We must look further, to the ingenuity
of inventors encouraged by a liberal patent system, and to the genius
of business leaders who have known how to make use of the contributions
of technical science to industrial efficiency. We must recognize
that the Americans got some positive benefit from the fact that they
entered late into this part of the field of production. They were not
tied to the past by heavy investments, or by methods sanctified by
tradition. Finally, we must note again the stimulus of the American
market, the broadest and richest in the world, constantly expanding and
offering unparalleled rewards to those who met its demands for improved
instruments.
=692. Copper.=—Copper is a metal which has long been prized as one of
the components of brass, and which has been still more highly valued
since the development of electrical industry has increased the field
of its use. Until after the middle of the century, however, the United
States had to rely upon foreign countries, chiefly Chile, for most
of its supply, and the importance of copper as an article of export
dates from recent times. The opening of the mines of the Lake Superior
region, the richest copper mines of the world, enabled the country
by 1860 to supply the demand for this metal from native sources, and
the later development, including new sources of supply in Arizona and
Montana, has furnished since 1880 a large surplus for sale abroad. The
copper mines of Michigan, which reach a depth of nearly a mile, are
said to be the best examples in the world of skilful and economical
mining, and improved processes of reduction have made available copper
ores which formerly would not pay the working.
=693. Petroleum.=—Even in colonial times the presence of mineral oil
in the country was known by the film which collected on the surface
of certain springs, and which took fire when a light was applied to
it. A well of oil which spouted fifty feet was discovered on the bank
of the Cumberland River in 1830, but, as stated in a book published
in 1853, “it was found to be useful only medicinally, and is bottled
and exported for that purpose.” The interest in this new product,
which seemed to offer possibilities beyond its use as a proprietary
medicine, led to the organization in 1854 of a “Rock Oil Company”; and
the first oil well was driven near Titusville, Pa., four years later.
Soon after 1860 the export of oil to foreign countries began, with
little idea that the trade thus started was to become one of the great
features of American foreign commerce. Mineral oil was in 1913 one of
the leading exports of the country, and would take a still larger place
in the exports as given at the beginning of this chapter if various
by-products, such as paraffin, were included in the figures.
=694. Development of the oil industry.=—The chief obstacle to the
development of the oil trade in its early years was the difficulty
of transportation. The extension of the railroad system after 1860
furnished the means of bringing the oil to market with profit, and in
recent times the transportation and manufacture of oil products have
been developed to wonderfully high efficiency. Tank cars have given
place to pipe lines; refineries have been extended and perfected, that
the reduction of the crude oil might be carried on with the greatest
economy and with full utilization of all by-products; and the market
for oil products at home and abroad has been enlarged by a great
reduction of prices.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
1. Chart the figures, as previously suggested, for comparison with
earlier conditions.
2. What other parts of the world come nearest to the Mississippi
Valley in quality and quantity of agricultural land? How do they
compare in the character of the people, and the facilities for
transportation?
3. History of farm machinery. [Quaintance in Pub. Amer. Econ. Assoc.,
1904, vol. 5, pp. 799-809; Census, 1900, 10: 341-377; Depew, chap. 50
by Fowler.]
4. Effect of improved farm machinery on production. [Quaintance, pp.
810-826.]
5. Agricultural progress, 1850-1900. [U. S. Census, 1900, 5: xvi-xxxv.]
6. Cultivation of wheat in the U.S. [Edgar, Story, chaps. 7, 8.]
7. The grain trade of the U.S. [Monthly Summary, Jan., 1900.]
8. Grain elevators and warehouses. [Rep. Ind. Comm., 1900, 10:
cccxvii-cccxxxix; Monthly Summary, Oct., 1903.]
9. The flour milling industry. [Edgar, Story, chaps. 10, 11; Depew,
chap. 39 by Pillsbury; U.S. Census.]
10. What are the various products obtained from maize? [Encyc.;
commercial geographies.]
11. The packing industry. [Depew, chap. 55 by Armour; Census, 1900, 9:
385-429, 1910, 10: 333-353.]
12. The dairy industry. [Census, 1900, 5: clxv-clxxxvi; Rep. Ind.
Comm., 1900, 6: 268-296.]
13. Economic effect of the Civil War on the South [Cambridge Mod.
hist., vol. 7, chap. 19 by Schwab; Rhodes, Hist. U. S.]
14. The cultivation of cotton since 1860. [Hammond, pp. 120-228.]
15. Recent development of the cotton trade. [Hammond, pp. 324-350; U.
S. Mo. Summary, March, 1900; Depew, chap. 34 by Edmonds.]
16. By-products of the cotton industry. [Depew, chap. 67 by Chaney;
Census, 1900, 9: 585-594.]
17. Recent history of the Virginia tobacco industry. [B. W. Arnold,
History, Baltimore, 1897, $. 50.]
18. Recent development of the American iron industry. [Depew, chap. 46
by Huston; Crowell in International Monthly, 1901, 4: 211-250; Census,
1900, 7: cxlix, 10: 1-77; Monthly Summary, Aug., 1900.]
19. The steel industry. [Hatfield, Lectures, 131 ff.; Thurston in
Century Magazine, 1900-1901, 61: 562-568.]
20. The mining of iron ore. [Fawcett in Century Magazine, 1900-1901,
61: 712-725; Census, Mines, 1902, pp. 393-431.]
21. The transportation of iron. [Fawcett in Century Magazine,
1900-1901, 61: 851-863.]
22. Write a report on one of the following topics, using volumes of
the U. S. Census, Manufactures, Reports for principal industries.
(_a_) Manufacture of machine tools.
(_b_) Sewing machines.
(_c_) Typewriters.
(_d_) Watches.
23. Development of the American copper industry. [Depew, chap. 47 by
Cowles; chap. 27, p. 182, by Rothwell; Census, Mines, 1902, 467-506.]
24. The uses and production of petroleum. [Census, 1880, vol. 10,
first monograph; Mines, 1902, pp. 710-764; Encyc.]
25. Development of the American oil industry. [Depew, chap. 31 by
Folger; G. H. Montague, The Standard Oil Company, N. Y., Harper, 1903.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See chapter li.
CHAPTER LIII
IMPORTS, POLICY, DIRECTION OF COMMERCE, 1860-1914
=695. Survey of the import trade, 1860-1914.=—The development of the
import trade of the United States since 1860 is shown in the following
table, which gives the values in millions of dollars of merchandise
imported:
===================================+================++================
| 1860 || 1913
+--—---+--—--—++--—---+--—--—
| Value |Per cent|| Value |Per cent
-----------------------------------+-------+--------++-------+--------
Foodstuffs, crude | 36 | 10 || 212 | 12
Foodstuffs, manufactured | 54 | 15 || 194 | 11
Raw materials for manufacture | 37 | 10 || 635 | 35
Manufactures for further use in | | || |
manufacture | 24 | 7 || 349 | 19
Manufactures ready for consumption | 200 | 57 || 408 | 23
+-------+ ++-------+
Total, incl. miscellaneous | 534 | ||1,813 |
===================================+=======+========++=======+========
=696. Changes in the character of imports.=—The percentages of the
table furnish a ready means of comparing the relative importance of
different classes of imports at the beginning and end of the period.
The most striking change is the decline in importance of the class of
manufactured articles ready for consumption, which amounted to over
one half of the total value of imports in 1860, and sank to less than
one quarter in 1913. The indication here given that the country was
learning to supply its need for manufactured wares, without depending
so much as previously on foreign producers, is confirmed by another
item in the table, giving the imports of raw materials for domestic
industries. This item increased greatly in importance in the course of
the period, and took now the place which was formerly held by the item
of finished manufactures. We now imported raw materials and made the
goods at home, instead of sending abroad for the finished product.