Bacon and hams 13,000 cwt.
Bagging 2,579 pieces
Beef 2,459 bbls.
Beer 439 bbls.
Butter 509 bbls.
Candles 358 boxes
Cheese 30 cwt.
Ginseng 957 bbls.
Hay 356 bundles
Hemp yarn 1,095 reels.
Hides 5,000
Hogs 500
Horses 375
Lead 3,500 cwt.
White lead 188 bbls.
Linens, coarse 2,500 pieces
Lard 2,458 bbls.
Oats 4,065 bu.
Paper 750 reams.
Cider 646 bbls.
Cordage 400 cwt.
Cordage baling 4,798 coils
Corn 13,775 bu.
Corn Meal 1,075 bbls.
Cotton 37,371 bales
Flaxseed Oil 85 bbls.
Flour 97,419 bbls.
Pork 9,725 bbls.
Potatoes 3750bu.
Powder, gun 294 bbls.
Saltpetre 175 cwt.
Soap 1,538 boxes.
Tallow 160 cwt.
Tobacco 7,282 hhds.
" Mfgd. 711 bbls.
Carrots 8,200
Whiskey 320,000 gal.
Bear Skins 2,000
Peltries 2,450 packs.
"Besides a quantity of horned cattle, castings, grind stones, indigo,
muskets, merchandise, paoan nuts, peas, beans, etc.[410]"
Beer, porter, and ale were made in Cincinnati, in great quantities,
as well for exportation, as for home consumption. The exports of
the city consisted of flour, corn, beef, pork, butter, lard, bacon,
whiskey, peach brandy, beer, porter, pot and pearl ashes, cheese,
soap, candles, hats, hemp, spun yarn, saddles, rifles, cherry and
black ash boards, staves and scantling, cabinet furniture and
chairs.[411] Boats were, in 1817, sent from Cincinnati to Boston with
cargoes.[412]
East Indian and European goods were imported from Baltimore and
Philadelphia by way of Pittsburg.[413] A journey, undertaken for
the purpose of purchasing goods at Philadelphia, occupied about
three months.[414] A house at Pittsburg advanced money in payment of
the carriage, and attended to the receipt of the goods by wagon,
and their shipment by boats, receiving 5 per cent commission
in payment.[415] Coal, of which vast quantities were consumed at
Cincinnati, was brought down the Ohio from Pittsburg and Wheeling
in flat bottomed boats. White pine boards, and shingles were
brought in rafts from Hamilton on the Allegheny.[416] Lead was
procured from St. Louis; and rum, sugar, molasses, and some dry
goods were received from New Orleans in keels and steamboats.[417]
Salt was easily obtained from the Kenhaway salt works.[418] Thus
the town of Cincinnati, which was, before 1811, but a small and
unimportant village, was destined to become a greater commercial
center than Pittsburg.
Three fourths of the surplus produce of Kentucky found their way to
New Orleans,[419] the farmers usually being able to command a ready
cash sale for their produce.[420] Fearon says, "Indian corn is raised
here in vast abundance, and also stock of various kinds for the
New Orleans, Southern and Atlantic markets, 30,000 hogsheads of
tobacco were shipped from this State last season, and 8,000 barrels
of flour, the price of which latter experienced great fluctuations,
varying from 4 to 8 dollars per barrel, at present it is 6 to 7.
Pork ... the present price is 3 to 4 dollars per cwt. Beef is also
of good quality. Whiskey ... the export of last season was one
million gallons. Cordage, yarn, and bagging have been important
businesses, but European competition has materially decreased their
consumption.[421] The exports for one season were as follows:
_Dollars_.
Flour and Wheat $1,000,000.
Pork, bacon, lard 350,000
Whiskey 500,000
Tobacco 1,900,000
Wool, and fabrics of wool, and cotton 100,000
Cordage, hemp, and fabrics of hemp 500,000
Cattle 200,000
Horses, and mules 100,000
Saltpetre, and gunpowder 60,000
White, and Red Lead 45,000
Soap, and Candles 27,000
---------
4,782,000[1]
[1] Fearon, H. B., Journey, 238.
In 1817-1818 the wealthy farmers of Ohio raised live stock for the
home, and Atlantic city markets, and sent beef, pork, cheese, lard,
and butter to New Orleans.[422] Pork was exported from Illinois.[423]
Fearon says, "there is a class of men throughout the western
country called 'merchants', who, in the summer and autumn months,
collect flour, butter, cheese, pork, beef, whiskey, and every
species of farming produce which they send in flats and keel boats
to the New Orleans market. The demand created by this trade,
added to a large domestic consumption, insures the most remote
farmer a certain market. Some of these speculators have made large
fortunes."[424]
It may be interesting to note the estimates, on the prices of
freight, given by Fearon and Fordham who traveled through the
West in the years 1817-1818. Fearon says, "The price of boating
goods from New Orleans to Louisville (1412 miles) is from 18 s. to
22 s. 6 d. per hundred. The freight to New Orleans from hence
is 3 s. 4½ d. to 4 s. 6 d. per hundred. The average period of
time which boats take to go to New Orleans is about 28 days;
that from New Orleans 90 days. Steam vessels effect the same
route in an average of 12 days down, and 36 days up." "Freight
from this place (Illinois) to Louisville (307 miles) is 5 s. per
cwt.; from Louisville is 1 s. 8 d.; from hence to New Orleans
(1130 miles) 4 s. 6 d.; from New Orleans, 20 s. 3 d.; hence to
Pittsburg (1013 miles) 15 s. 9 d.; from Pittsburg, 4 s. 6 d. This
vast disproportion in the charge of freight is produced by the
difference in time in navigating _up_ and _down_ the streams of the
Ohio and Mississippi."[425]
Fordham's figures are as follows: "From Shawnee, Illinois, to New
Orleans, $1 per hundred pounds, back $4½; to Pittsburg #3.50,
from Pittsburg, $1; from Louisville 37½ cents; from Shawnee, or
the mouth of the Wabash to Carmi, on the Little Wabash, 20 miles
below us, 37½ cents ... to the nearest point of the Wabash to our
settlement, 50 cents; down the stream to Shawnee, 5 cents per
hundred pounds."[426] "Freighting down to New Orleans will pay the
expense of going, and leave one or two hundred dollars surplus. But
if, besides $700, the price of a new boat completely rigged, the
owner has a capital of $1500 or $2000, he may make the voyage pay
him from $500 to $1500. The whole trip is completed in two or three
months."[427] "Trade from the general want of capital, and other
causes with which I am unacquainted, is exceedingly profitable. 75
to 100 per cent is reckoned a good profit; 50 per cent is a living
profit; 25 per cent will not keep a man to his business, he will
look out for something else. I had the following account from a
River Trader"
A boat of 30 tons burden from Orleans to Louisville.
_Dr._
14 men at $75 $ 1,050.
Board for 75 days 525.
Extra pay to steersman 75.
Wear of boat 100.
--------
$ 1,750.
_Cr._
Freight of 36 tons at $90 $ 3,240.
Deduct expenses 1,750.
--------
Clear profit $ 1,490.[1]
[1]Fordham, E. P., Travels, 121.
Groceries for Illinois had been received from Philadelphia or
Baltimore, but in 1818 they came from New Orleans: coffee at 40
cents a pound; sugar from 22 to 50 cents; and tea at $2.50.[428] The
steamboats coming up stream carried dry goods, pottery, cotton,
sugar, wines, liquors, salted fish, and other articles; downwards
their loading consisted of grain, flour, tobacco, bacon, etc.[429]
At Harmony, Indiana, in 1818, a boat was being built, as a regular
trader, to carry off the surplus produce, and bring back coffee,
sugar, and groceries, as well as European manufactures.[430] Lead was
received from Louisiana, and copper from South America.[431]
Horses, hogs, and cattle were raised, in Illinois, for
exportation.[432] Flour, and fish were exported from Cincinnati to
New Orleans, in the year 1818.[433] Birckbeck, in 1818, writes as
follows, "The demand for grain will probably equal the produce
for some years, owing to the influx of new settlers; and the
Southern States, down the Mississippi to New Orleans, will be an
increasing and sure market for our surplus of every kind; vast
quantities of pork, and beef are shipped for New Orleans from
Kentucky and Indiana."[434] "500 persons every summer pass down
the Ohio from Cincinnati to New Orleans as traders or boatmen,
and return on foot. By water, the distance is 1700 miles, and
the walk back 1000. Many go down to New Orleans from Pittsburg,
which adds 500 miles to the distance by water, and 300 by land.
The storekeepers of these western towns, visit the eastern ports
of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, once a year, to lay
in their stock of goods. The great variety of articles, and the
risk attending their carriage to so great a distance, by land and
water, renders it necessary that the storekeepers should attend
both to their purchase and conveyance. I think the time is at hand
when these periodical transmontane journeys are to give place to
expeditions down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. The vast
and increasing produce of these states, in grain, flour, cotton,
sugar, tobacco, peltry, timber, etc., which finds a ready vent
at New Orleans, will be returned through the same channel in the
manufactures of Europe, and the luxuries of the East to supply the
growing demands of this western world."[435]
Faux, while traveling in America, was told by Eastern farmers that
transportation per barrel for 80 miles cost half a dollar, while
the farmers of the West could send it 2000 miles for $6;[436] and
that the western people could afford to sell at half price, better
than the eastern could at whole price, because they grew double
the quantity per acre, and because the popula tion was rapidly
increasing.[437]
Great supplies of lumber from the extensive pine forests about
the sources of the Allegheny, supplied the country below as far
as New Orleans.[438] A yankee speculation to New Orleans sometimes
consisted "of iron coffins, or nests of coffins filled with shoes,
so accomodating both the living and the dead."[439]
Wheat in Ohio, in 1819-1820, even at 50 cents, found no market,
as New Orleans was then supplied by countries more conveniently
situated.[440] Boats carrying from 100 to 500 barrels, sold for
only $16.[441] Cincinnati continued to send flour and pork to New
Orleans.[442] Flint says, "On shore the utmost bustle prevails, with
drays carrying imported goods, salt, iron, and timber, up to the
town, and in bringing down pork, flour, etc., to be put aboard
boats for New Orleans."[443]
Produce was floated down the Wabash, and the boats returned laden
with goods for their market at an enormous profit.[444] Indian corn
was purchased of the farmer on the Wabash at 25 cents per bushel,
soon after harvest; in the spring it was sent to New Orleans under
a freight of 25 cents per bushel, and sold at 75 cents to one
dollar a bushel; wheat was bought at six pence or seven pence the
bushel dearer than corn, and sold proportionally higher.[445] Produce
from the English settlement in Illinois, (corn, etc,), was hauled
to Bon Pas, which was on a tributary of the Wabash, and sent from
thence to New Orleans, there to be shipped either for Europe or the
eastern ports of America.[446]
For a return lading salt was purchased at half a dollar per bushel,
and sold at Vincennes from $2 to $2¼ per bushel. Loaf sugar sold at
50 cents per pound; brown sugar at 37½ cents per pound; coffee at
75 cents per pound; tea from $2½ to $3½; and many other groceries,
which like the above were bought for considerably less than one
half their selling price.[447] Welby says, "... of iron and drugs
I could not obtain the price at New Orleans; but of the profit on
the iron the reader may judge by the price I paid to a blacksmith
for eight new horse shoes, steel tacs, and eight removes, the bill
for which was about $10."[448] Faux, speaking of a man who had come
to Princeton, says, "If he had money he could buy bacon at $4 and
sell it at $16; and sugar from New Orleans would pay 50 per cent;
costing 10 cents, and selling at 25 cents, 2½ cents being deducted
per pound for carriage. Store goods, bought at Washington, which he
is selling cheaper than his neighbors, pay 25 per cent profit."[449]
Cincinnati received cotton from northern Alabama.[450]
The 'Register' of June 9, 1821, says, "The whole number of boats
which passed the Falls of Ohio last year, is estimated to be
2400, wafting the rich produce of the western world to the markets
on the seaboard, the principal part of which consisted of 1,804,810
pounds of bacon, 200,000 barrels of flour, 20,000 barrels of pork,
62,000 bushels of oats, 100,000 bushels of corn, 10,000 barrels of
cheese, 160,000 pounds of butter, 11,207,333 fowls, and 466,412
pounds of lard."[451]
Stove coal was carried in boats down the river in 1821-1823 to
supply the great number of steam mills in making flour.[452] These
boats were also engaged in freighting salt to the various parts
of the count ry.[453] The following is an "estimate of the amount
of products which descended the Falls of Ohio at Louisville, the
growth of the year 1822 ... the produce of the whole of the State
of Ohio, (except the part bordering on the lake), two-thirds of
Kentucky, one half of the State of Indiana, and a small part of the
States of Pennsylvania and Virginia."[454]
Notice the vast increase since 1820.
_Est. Tons._ _Est. Cost._
12000 hhds. Tobacco. 7,500 $ 500,000
10000 hhds. hams and shoulders, green 4,464 350,000
12000 hhds. and boxes bacon 2,700 210,000
4000 hhds. corn meal, kiln dried 1,700 24,000
50000 bbls. pork. 7,000 350,000
4000 bbls. beef. 535 24,000
300,000 bbls. flour 27,000 900,000
75,000 bbls. Whiskey 10,800 500,000
5000 bbls. Beans 450 7,500
3000 bbls. Cider 430 9,000
100,000 kegs of lard 2,250 250,000
25,000 firkins butter 550 125,000
2,000 bales hay 350 2,000
2,000 casks flax seed, 7 bu. to Cask. 360 4,000
3,000 bbls. linseed oil 400 57,000
5,000 boxes window glass 200 25,000
25,000 boxes soap. 560 75,000
10,000 boxes candles 225 50,000
3,000 bbls. porter 400 15,000
60,000 bbls. ginseng 27 15,000
50,000 bbls. beeswax 22 12,500
10,000 kegs tobacco 580 60,000
65,000 lbs. feathers 29 16,000
------ ---------
$ 68,932 $ 3,590,000
"There are many articles of export not included in the above
schedule, such as iron, iron castings, salt, gunpowder, white
lead, and other manufactured articles, of various descriptions,
the amount of which could not be correctly estimated, for want
of adequate data. It is estimated, that produce and manufactured
articles, to the amount of upwards of one million of dollars,
have been shipped from Cincinnati and its immediate vicinity,
during the year ending in April, 1823--principally the production
of what is termed the "Miami Country". Among the articles from
Cincinnati are "types and printing materials $10,000, paper$15,000
cabinet furniture $20,000, chairs $6,000, hats $6,500." Within
the last year every store and warehouse has become reoccupied by
business men--generally by those who were unconnected with the late
embarrassments. All purchases are now made for cash, and at no
period, within the last ten years, have we witnessed so numerous
and active a population, or so great a number of new buildings in a
state of progress."
Corn and wheat were sent to New Orleans from Illinois in 1823.[455]
Albion, Illinois, exported produce, for the first time, in this
year. They loaded the flat boats with corn, flour, pork, beef,
sausages, and other articles, and floated them down the Wabash
into the Ohio, and from thence to New Orleans.[456] Harmony was,
annually, sending boats laden with produce to New Orleans.[457]
Tranchepain journeyed part of the way down the Ohio in a boat
loaded with horses, fowls, iron castings, apples, and whiskey for
New Orleans.[458]
From St. Louis, a central point on the Mississippi, to New York
by way of New Orleans, the price of transportation was about $45
per ton, for a return cargo not less than $80.[459] Beck says, "The
export trade must then be divided between New Orleans and New
York. She (New Orleans) commands the greatest interior; she is
the key to the richest and most extensive inland region of any
mercantile capital in the world. Besides the produce required for
her own consumption, and that of Louisiana and Mississippi, she
will be the entrepot of the produce destined for the West Indies
and the provinces of South America. The capital of New Orleans
is disproportionate to the quantity of produce landed there. The
warmth and unhealthiness of the climate prevents the farmer from
sending his produce to that place at a time when he may be most in
need of the articles for which he would barter. During this time,
he is at present completely deprived of a market for his produce,
and is moreover obliged to pay the merchant an exorbitant price
for his necessaries. It frequently happens, that in the Western
States during the summer and fall, the price of those articles for
which they depend upon New Orleans is raised 50 and sometimes 100%.
But New Orleans is at all times a very uncertain market. It not
unfrequently happens that a few boat loads of produce completely
supply the demand.[460] If another cargo then arrives the owner is
obliged either to sacrifice it, or leave it in store; in the latter
case, if it consists of flour of bacon, it suffers much from the
heat and humidity of the climate, and its value is not unfrequently
diminished one half or three fourths. This is also the case with
furs and several other articles which cannot be transported by New
Orleans to a foreign market, without a considerable depreciation in
their value. These considerations clearly prove the importance of
opening a communication with New York, by which means the States
bordering on the Mississippi will be enabled to find a market
for their produce during those seasons when they are completely
excluded from New Orleans. Even at this time merchants at St.
Louis, and in different parts of Illinois and Missouri purchase
their goods in the eastern cities, and transport them across the
mountains in preference to sending them by New Orleans."[461] For
several years all articles of life in Illinois and Missouri, were
below what the planters could afford to raise them for, with
any view beyond domestic consumption. Grain boats from Missouri
scarcely paid the expense of their building and transport to New
Orleans.[462]
In 1825 extensive arrivals of cotton came into New Orleans from
the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.[463] It was estimated that the
goods sent to New Orleans from Louisville during this year weighed
27 or 28,000 tons;--42 steamboats made 140 trips during the same
period.[464] The southern interior counties of Illinois began in
1824-1825 to cultivate tobacco and the castor bean, and to make
these articles of considerable exportation.[465] Tobacco was raised,
with great success, in Ohio, at the rate of 700 lbs. to the acre,
and of a quality to bring $12 to $15 per hundred in the Baltimore
market.[466] From the extensive glass works of Pittsburg about
$100,000 worth was exported yearly.[467]
Niles Register, July 8, 1826, says, "152 boats descending the
Wabash passed Vincennes during the late freshets.[468] They were all
well laden. The following is an estimate of some of the chief items
of their cargoes.
250,000 bu. corn.
100,000 lbs. pork.
10,000 hams
4,000 bbls. pork.
800 bbls. corn meal.
2,000 live cattle.
250 live hogs.
10,000 lbs. beeswax.
3,600 venison hams and
many small articles.[1]
[1]Niles, Weekly Register, XXX., 338.
Salt from the Kenawha works was sent up the highest boatable waters
of the Allegheny to regions formerly supplied from the Salines
of New York.[469] Flint describes the boats stopping at New Madrid
on the Mississippi, as follows. "You can name no point from the
numerous rivers of the Ohio and Mississippi from which some of
these boats have not come. In one place there are boats loaded
with planks, from the pine forests of the Southwest of New York.
In another quarter there are the Yankee nations of Ohio. From
Kentucky, pork, flour, whiskey, hemp, tobacco, bagging, and bale
rope. From Tennessee there are the same articles, together with
great quantities of cotton. From Missouri and Illinois, cattle and
horses, the same articles generally as from Ohio, together with
peltry and lead from Missouri. Some boats are loaded with corn in
the ear and in bulk; others with barrels of apples and potatoes.
Some have loads of cider, and what they call "cider royal," or
cider that has been strengthened by boiling or freezing. There are
dried fruits, every kind of spirits manufactured in these regions,
and in short, the products of the ingenuity and agriculture of the
whole upper country of the West. The fleet unites once more at
Natchez or New Orleans."[470]
The "Fame" from Pittsburg, arrived in Cincinnati, in 1827 with a
cargo, part of which consisted of 102 pieces of cannon, and and
about 80 tons of grape shot, for the United States Navy. Her deck
was entirely filled with empty hogsheads and casks, belonging to a
house in Pittsburg, sent to New Orleans to be filled with a return
cargo of Molasses, as it was found to be much cheaper to have the
casks made at Pittsburg and pay their freight to New Orleans, than
to purchase them at the latter place.[471] In 1828, 5504 bales of
Kentucky cotton bagging, 15,526 coils of bale rope, and 4,918,494
lbs. of lard, were received in New Orleans, as against 2,308 bales,
1 0,459 coils, and 2,426,299 lbs. of the preceding year.[472]
New Orleans had drawn away considerable of the trade of the western
country with Philadelphia and Baltimore. Basil Hall says, "There
are projects afloat, however, for restoring this lost balance to
Philadelphia and Baltimore, and of regaining some portion of the
profits derived from supplying the western country with goods, and
of drawing off its produce.... If the mouth of the Mississippi
could be damned up, or the harbor of New York demolished, there
might be some chance for the resuscitation of the intermediate
seaports."[473] Grain, salted meats, spirits, tobacco, hemp, skins,
and the fruits of the regions bordering on the Missouri, Ohio,
and Mississippi were sent to New Orleans;[474] return cargoes of
manufactured goods from foreign countries, together with fish,
salt, sugar, steel, iron, and other articles were sent back by
steamboat.[475] Slaves were sent from Maryland, Virginia, and
Kentucky to the southern states bordering on the Mississippi and
the Gulf of Mexico. Basil Hall says, "During certain seasons of the
year, I am informed, all the roads, steamboats, and packets are
crowded with negroes on their way to the great slave markets of the
South."[476]
During the year 1828, 4100 hogsheads of sugar, and 3500 barrels or
bags of coffee were received at Louisville, worth together about
$600,000. In 1825-1826, 2050 hogsheads of tobacco were deposited at
Louisville; 4354 in 1826-1827; and 4075 in 1827-1828. Freight was
so reduced by competition, that sugar, coffee, tea, and groceries
in general, had only a small advance over their prices in New
Orleans, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Good sugar of the new crop
sold in Louisville at 7¼ to 7½ cents per pound, by the single
barrel.[477]
The 'Register' quotes from the 'Commercial Daily Advertiser'
1830, as follows: "The manufacture of chair and cabinet wares at
Cincinnati, for articles _sent out_ of the city, had a value last
year, in the great sum of $150,000. The chief part of this value
was in the _labor_ bestowed by inhabitants of the city. There was
a _creation_ of not less than $125,000.... The canal is also doing
great things for this city.[478] We see by the 'Gazette' that in the
first ten days of March, there arrived 8,105 barrels of flour, 2116
of whiskey, 2,823 of pork, and 4,167 of lard, bulk pork and bacon,
100 tons, with a great variety and quantity of other articles such
as corn, corn meal, butter, eggs, etc. This canal extends only 60
miles into the interior. The total received in these ten days,
amounted to $2,028.22."[479]
Kentucky exported all the grains, pulses, fruits, wheat, and corn.
Hemp and tobacco were the staples of the State. In addition to
these articles Kentucky exported immense quantities of flour, lard,
butter, cheese, pork, beef, Indian corn and meal, whiskey, cider,
cider royal, fruit, fresh and dried, horses, and manufactures.
Exports were chiefly to New Orleans, but a considerable amount
ascended the Ohio to Pittsburg. The growers of this State often
shipped from New Orleans, on their own account, to the Atlantic
States, Vera Cruz, or the West Indies.[480] The exports for the
greater part of the state, amounted in 1829, to $2,780,000.[481]