from a month to six weeks to cross the Atlantic,—their speed being
about one third that of the freight steamers of to-day,—we realize
the great difference in the efficiency of the merchant marine of the
present as compared with that by which commerce was served in 1800.
The efficiency of the ships, however, does not depend alone upon their
size and speed. The commercial auxiliaries which enable vessels to
enter and clear harbors without delay, and to load and unload cargoes
quickly,—lighthouses, beacons, buoys, spacious wharves and docks
equipped with mechanical appliances for handling freight,—make it
possible for vessels to spend a greater portion of the time at sea. A
merchant marine to-day has fully five times the efficiency that one
with an equal tonnage had a century ago. We shall better see how this
has been brought about, by briefly reviewing the technical revolution
which has taken place in ocean navigation during the past seventy
years.
II. THE CENTURY’S TECHNICAL REVOLUTION IN COMMERCE.
During the first four decades of this century the wooden sailing
vessel was the sole carrier of ocean traffic, and in the construction
and operation of such ships the Americans had special advantages and
manifested peculiar ingenuity. For forty years the American sailing
clipper, whose fine lines made it stanch and speedy, had been “the type
and model of excellence in ship-building;” but before the middle of the
century the supremacy of the wooden clipper-ship had been destroyed,
and the technical superiority of steam and iron had been demonstrated.
[Illustration: A CLIPPER SHIP.]
There are six distinct steps in the technical evolution of the ocean
liner of the present day,—six changes which mark the epochs in the
history of the substitution of steam and steel for sail and wood. The
first step in the evolution was taken when the steam engine and the
paddle-wheel took the place of wind and sails. Like most epoch-making
changes, this one was made slowly; indeed, it was preceded by thirty
years of hesitation and conservative experimentation. Robert Fulton,
taking advantage of ideas and plans which he had obtained in Europe,
produced his Clermont in 1807, and demonstrated the practicability
of the steamship for river traffic. Five years later, Henry Bell of
Scotland constructed the Comet, the first passenger steamboat built in
Europe, a vessel only forty feet long, ten and one half feet in width,
and of four horse-power. The Clermont was somewhat larger, having a
length of 130 feet, a beam of eighteen feet, and a hold six feet in
depth. She succeeded in making five miles an hour against stream.
These little vessels attracted great attention, and the problem of
constructing ships that could cross the ocean by steam power began to
be studied. In 1819, the Savannah was fitted with engines and crossed
the Atlantic, using both steam power and sails, but the vessel did not
prove a success, and her engines were taken out the following year.
Indeed, it was not until 1833 that a vessel steamed all the way across
the Atlantic; and this ship, the Royal William, a Canadian craft of
four or five hundred tons, was able to make the trip from Quebec to
Gravesend on the Thames only by stopping for coal at Picton, Nova
Scotia, and Cowes near Portsmouth, England.
[Illustration: ROBERT FULTON.]
The first steamships to cross the ocean without recoaling were the
Sirius and Great Western, which arrived in New York the same day, April
23, 1838, the former vessel having sailed from London and the latter
from Liverpool. This achievement on the part of these two wooden craft,
neither one capable of carrying more than seven hundred tons, created
a great impression. The New York “Courier and Enquirer” said, in its
issue of April 24, 1838:—
“What may be the ultimate fate of this excitement—whether or not the
expense of equipment and fuel will admit of the employment of these
vessels in the ordinary packet service—we cannot pretend to form an
opinion; but of the entire feasibility of the passage of the Atlantic
by steam, as far as regards safety, comfort, and dispatch, even in the
roughest and most boisterous weather, the most skeptical man must now
cease to doubt.”
The employment of steamships in the regular packet service was assured
in 1839, when Samuel Cunard founded the famous English line that still
bears his name, and ordered four steamers of moderate size that cost
between four and five hundred thousand dollars each. These, however,
were wooden vessels, and it was not until 1856 that the conservative
Cunards constructed any iron ships.
The construction of iron ships for ocean navigation marks the second
important phase of the technical evolution of the past century’s
commerce. It began on a small scale about 1830, and in 1837 an iron
vessel, The Rainbow, of six hundred tons was built; but the first
large iron steamer was ordered in 1840, and was the famous Great
Britain before referred to, constructed by Brunel, the engineer who
subsequently built the unfortunate naval monstrosity, the Great
Eastern. The completion of the Great Britain, in 1843, was an important
event in the progress of ocean navigation, not only because she was
five times the size of her largest iron predecessor, but also because
of the fact that Brunel decided, while building the vessel, to adopt
the screw for propelling the ship.
The substitution of the screw instead of paddle-wheels represents
a third phase of the technical evolution of ocean navigation. John
Ericsson, who subsequently built the famous Monitor, had demonstrated
the practicability of the screw as a propeller in 1836, and, three
years later, the Archimedes, of two hundred and thirty-seven tons, was
fitted with a screw. It was the success of the Archimedes that led
Brunel to adopt the screw on the Great Britain.
[Illustration: THE CLERMONT. FULTON’S FIRST STEAMBOAT.]
The superiority of the screw over paddle-wheels, and the greater merits
of iron ships compared with wooden vessels, have long been accepted;
but the adoption of iron as a material and of the screw for a propeller
came about slowly. Indeed, iron ship-building made little progress in
Great Britain before 1850, and in this country wood was adhered to till
much later. One reason why the English did not change to the screw
and iron more quickly was probably the great influence exerted by the
powerful Cunard line, whose conservatism caused it to hold to wooden
ships until 1856. The Great Eastern, finished as late as 1859, was an
iron ship, but was fitted with both screw and paddle-wheels. Of the
total tonnage built in the United Kingdom in 1853, about twenty-five
per cent was steam tonnage and a little more than twenty-five per cent
was of iron. At the present time three fourths of all British-built
vessels are steamers, and no wooden ships are built in the United
Kingdom.
America was slow in changing from wood to iron, because the cost of
iron was so high. We had wood in abundance, numerous yards for the
construction of wooden vessels, and were the builders of the best
type of wooden ships. In 1853, the year just referred to for Great
Britain, twenty-two per cent of the tonnage of the vessels built in
this country was in steamships, but only an inappreciable portion was
in iron vessels. The adherence of American ship-builders and owners
to wood is well illustrated by the action taken by the owners of the
famous but unfortunate American Collins line, established in 1847. The
company began, in 1850, to run four palatial steamers, built without
regard to cost, and supplied with luxurious appointments, some of which
are retained in vessels of the present day; but the company built the
ships of wood and propelled them with paddle-wheels. The great American
ship-building firm, William Cramp & Sons, founded in 1850, did not
begin constructing iron ships till 1870. Even in 1898, the tonnage of
wooden vessels constructed was one and a half times the steel and iron
tonnage. About twenty-six per cent of our merchant marine, foreign and
domestic, is now made up of iron and steel vessels.
The next important step in maritime progress, following the adoption
of iron and the screw, was taken about 1870, when the compound engine
came into general use. Though the compound engine had been used on
a small vessel in France as early as 1829, it was first extensively
adopted as the result of the rapid development in steam navigation
which took place in the seventies. In the compound engine the steam,
instead of being used in only one cylinder in passing from the boiler
to the condenser, exerts its force in two or three cylinders, and even
in four, in the quadruple expansion engines. This results in a great
economy in the amount of fuel used. In the earlier marine engines the
pressure of steam in the boilers was thirteen pounds to the square
inch, and the consumption of coal per horse-power per hour was five
and one half pounds; whereas, at the present time, a pressure of two
hundred pounds per square inch is maintained, and the fuel used has
been reduced to less than one and a half pounds per hour for each
indicated horse-power.
Ten years after the compound engine came into general use, the
cheapened cost of steel made it possible to adopt steel in the place
of iron in the construction of hulls. This may be regarded as marking
a fifth epoch-making step in the progress of commerce; because the
steel ship was stronger, lighter, and able to carry more cargo than
iron vessels of the same size. The substitution of steel for iron in
the British yards was made rapidly. In 1879, only ten and a quarter per
cent of the tonnage constructed on the Clyde was of steel; but in 1889
the per cent had risen to ninety-seven.
During the past twenty years there have been many improvements made
in the construction and appointments of ships; but the more important
changes have consisted in dividing vessels, by means of bulkheads,
into several water-tight compartments, and in substituting twin screws
for the single screw. The Inmans placed twin screws on the City of New
York in 1888, and since then their use has become general on the larger
ocean liners. The twin screws add somewhat, though not greatly, to the
speed of vessels; but they render ships much safer and less liable
to be disabled. An ocean steamer with twin screws and water-tight
compartments can suffer any one of the common accidents—such as
breaking of one of its shafts, losing one of its screws, having its
rudder damaged, or one of its engines give out, or having its side
punctured by collision—without being disabled. Although ocean travel
still has its dangers, the risks at the present time are far less than
they were a half or a quarter of a century ago.
[Illustration]
The technical progress of commerce during the nineteenth century is
well summarized by Mr. Henry Fry in his book on the History of North
Atlantic Steam Navigation, written in 1895. He says:—
“The Comet of 1812 has multiplied into twelve thousand steamships,
measuring over sixteen million tons.... Her twenty tons have been
multiplied into a ship of eighteen thousand; her forty feet to six
hundred and ninety-two feet; and her four horse-power to thirty
thousand in a single ship. Symington’s four-inch cylinder has grown
to one hundred and twenty inches; the pressure of steam in the boiler
has increased from thirteen pounds to two hundred pounds on the square
inch; the two hundred and forty-three knots, the maximum of the Great
Western in 1838, to five hundred and sixty; and the average speed
from 8.2 to 22.01 knots, while the consumption of coal has decreased
from about five and one half to one and one half pounds per indicated
horse-power per hour.”
The century’s naval technical progress is epitomized in the White
Star liner, the Oceanic. The length of this mammoth vessel is over an
eighth of a mile, being 705 feet, 6 inches. 13½ feet longer than the
Great Eastern was. When loaded, the Oceanic draws 32 feet, 6 inches of
water, and on that draft her displacement is 28,500 tons. The figures
for the Great Eastern were 25 feet, 6 inches, and 27,000 tons. The
capacity of her engines is 28,000 horse-power, or two and one third
times the capacity of those in the Great Eastern. The pressure in her
boilers is 192 pounds to the square inch, or ten or twelve times that
in the boilers of her famous predecessor. Though not built for speed,
the Oceanic can average 500 miles a day, or sixty per cent more than
the Great Eastern did. The Oceanic will accommodate 400 first-class
passengers, 300 second-class, 1000 third-class, and a ship’s company
of 394, making a total of 2104 persons. In this regard, however, her
figures are fortunately less than those of the Great Eastern, for that
vessel was designed to carry 4000 persons, besides crew. These figures
regarding passenger accommodations indicate in a forceful way the great
advancement that has been made in the comforts of ocean travel during
the past forty years.
III. IMPROVEMENTS IN COMMERCIAL AUXILIARIES.
The progress of commerce during the nineteenth century has been
promoted not only by the evolution of ships of great speed and
capacity, but also by the improvements made in numerous other
auxiliaries of commerce. Chief among these aids to commercial activity
have been the betterment of natural waterways and the construction of
ship-canals, the improvements of harbors, the laying of cables, and the
extension of international banking facilities.
The improvements of such rivers as the Rhine, Danube, Hudson, and
Mississippi, and of such natural waterways as the chain of Great Lakes
in the northern part of the United States, are conspicuous instances
of the manner in which the canalization of natural waterways has been
undertaken for the promotion of traffic. That part of the Rhine River
traffic which passes Emmerich and Mannheim amounted to 2,800,000 tons
a year from 1872 to 1875, but by 1895 it had increased to 10,300,000
tons. The traffic on the rivers of the Mississippi Valley, according
to census statistics, increased from 18,946,522 tons, in 1880, to
29,485,046 tons, in 1889; and since that year the increase must have
been considerable. The effect of the improvement of waterways upon
commerce is most strikingly shown in the case of our Great Lakes. In
the seventies, the demands of traffic were for channels and harbors
12 feet in depth. During the next decade it was necessary for the
United States to increase the depth to 16 feet; and in the nineties the
channels had to be made deep enough to accommodate vessels of 20 feet
draft. At the present time the traffic on the Lakes is probably over
70,000,000 tons annually. During the year 1898 the freight that passed
the locks at the Sault St. Marie equaled 21,000,000 tons, two and a
half times the tonnage passing the Suez Canal.
During the last third of the nineteenth century six important ocean
ship-canals have been opened; the Suez, opened in 1869; the Rotterdam
Canal, in 1872; the canal connecting Amsterdam directly with the
North Sea, 1877; the canal across the Isthmus of Corinth, 1893; the
Manchester Canal, 1894; and the Baltic or Kiel Canal, finished in
1895. The Panama Canal was begun in 1882, and the construction of the
Nicaragua Canal was commenced in 1889; but the date of the completion
of these most important works is still problematical.
In the improvement of its harbors every government has been active.
Thirty years ago a depth of 23 feet was considered ample, but after
1880 it became necessary to adopt 27 feet as the standard. During the
past five years the larger seaports have required harbors with 30 feet
of water in order to accommodate the largest ocean vessels, and the
limit has by no means been reached. The United States Government has
just recently, 1899, authorized the deepening of New York harbor to 35
feet. As noted before, the Oceanic can be loaded to a draft of 32½ feet.
[Illustration: THE OCEANIC, 1899. LARGEST SHIP AFLOAT.
(Tonnage, 17,000: length, 705 ft. 6 in.; breadth, 68 ft. 4 in.)]
The docks of the great seaports have been improved at a cost of many
millions of dollars. As an illustration of this Liverpool may be cited.
The city’s position gave it great commercial possibilities, but a
troublesome bar at the mouth of the Mersey, and a tide with a rise and
fall of thirty feet made the construction of its harbor and docks a
difficult matter. The problem was solved by the construction, under
public control, of a large number of commodious wet docks with gates
which are opened only a few hours a day, during high tide. These harbor
improvements have made possible Liverpool’s phenomenal expansion in
commerce during the past quarter of a century, an increase that has
given the city third place among the seaports of the world, with an
annual tonnage of vessels entered and cleared of 16,000,000 tons.
The achievements of Manchester during the past decade are even more
notable than those of Liverpool. Manchester is situated on a small
stream thirty-five miles from the ocean; but she has become a seaport
for the largest ocean vessels, and has docks and wharves equipped with
the most improved appliances. Her dock-sheds, for instance, are twin
structures, three stories in height, and the arrangements for handling
freight are such that goods are taken directly from the ships to any
one of the three stories of the sheds.
In the United States, the government and private corporations are
rapidly improving the harbor facilities of our ports. During the past
decade the Gulf ports have received especial attention, with the
result that a large part of our export trade is now moving through the
Gulf harbors. As an instance of what private corporations are doing,
mention may be made of the fact that a railway corporation has recently
completed a wharf in New Orleans that cost $2,000,000.
Besides these harbor improvements, the erection of more and better
lighthouses and signals has made the approach of vessels safer. The
United States Weather Bureau has also done much to lessen the dangers
of navigation by its weather forecasts and its warnings of approaching
storms. Although the Bureau was established only twenty-nine years
ago, and in a small way, its services have so increased and in such a
practical manner as to have come to be regarded as indispensable by the
commercial interests.
The first successful trans-Atlantic cable was laid in 1866; at the
present time there are 170,000 miles of submarine telegraphs in
use. The cables now used for commercial purposes number 320 and
include about 150,000 miles of lines, the other 20,000 miles being
short government lines connecting forts, batteries, signal-stations,
and lighthouses. The total cost of these cables has been about
$250,000,000. The influence of the cable upon commerce has been so
great as to revolutionize the methods of international trade that
prevailed a century ago; indeed, ocean telegraphy has made it no more
difficult to effect international sales and purchases than it is to
make domestic exchanges. With thirteen cables in successful operation
between the United States and Europe, we have had no difficulty
in building up an immense trade across the Atlantic; but, with no
trans-Pacific line, we are experiencing much difficulty in securing a
large place in the trade of the Orient. Of course the development of
our commerce with the East is conditioned by numerous other factors;
but no one doubts that the construction of the proposed Pacific cable
will be of assistance to our commercial progress in the Orient.
Among the other agencies that have promoted the progress of
commerce, mention should be made of the extension and improvement of
international credit systems and banking facilities. In this regard
the United Kingdom leads the nations of the world, London being the
clearing-house for a large part of the world’s trade. Germany,
France, and the Netherlands have also developed good facilities for
international banking; but the United States has not yet done so. Our
merchants are still obliged to settle most accounts through foreign
banks, but it is probable that our recent acquisition of foreign
possessions will cause us to establish some system of international
banks.
IV. EXPANSION OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE DURING THE CENTURY.
In the introductory paragraph of this paper it was stated that the
commercial progress of the past hundred years is one of the salient
features of the history of the century; and, in contrasting the
commerce of a hundred years ago with that of the present, a few figures
were cited that indicated in a general way the growth that the foreign
trade of Great Britain and the United States has enjoyed. The expansion
of international trade during the century merits fuller presentation
and analysis.
Accurate figures for the whole world’s trade are not obtainable for
the earlier years; and if it were possible to present comparative
statistics of the international trade of the world, as a whole, the
comparisons would not be so instructive as those which present the
progress of the commerce of those countries which rank highest among
trading nations. Accordingly it will be most profitable to confine
our statistics and analytical study to the commerce of Great Britain,
Germany, France, and the United States.
The progress which the commerce of the United Kingdom has made during
the century is shown by the following table, giving the imports,
exports, and total trade for the years 1800, 1839, 1897, and the annual
average for alternate quinquennial periods between 1855 and 1890.
TABLE SHOWING GROWTH OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.
--------+---------------+---------------+--------------
Years. | Imports. | Exports. | Total Trade.
--------+---------------+---------------+--------------
1800 | $148,876,000 | $210,240,000 | $359,116,000
1839 | 300,474,000 | 321,564,000 | 622,038,000
1856–60 | 890,723,000 | 604,854,000 | 1,495,577,000
1866–70 | 1,425,936,000 | 914,586,000 | 2,340,522,000
1876–80 | 1,862,775,000 | 980,818,000 | 2,843,593,000
1886–90 | 1,897,352,000 | 1,453,695,000 | 3,351,047,000
1897 | 2,194,932,524 | 1,431,598,345 | 3,626,530,869
--------+---------------+---------------+--------------
During the first four decades of the century, the growth of the
commerce of the United Kingdom, though considerable, was not
rapid,—the figures for 1839 showing an increase of 73 per cent over
those for 1800,—but during the fifth, sixth, and seventh decades the
progress was phenomenal. The value of the exports in 1873, as compared
with 1839, shows a gain of 379 per cent, and the total foreign trade
increased nearly 450 per cent; that is, it was five and a half times
as much in 1873 as it was thirty-four years previous. Since 1880, the
quantities of imports and exports have largely increased, but the fall
in prices has been such as to make the increase in the total value
comparatively small.
The commerce of the German States during the nineteenth century did
not grow very rapidly until after 1850. During the early part of the
century the great Continental wars rendered commerce nearly impossible.
Peace was restored in 1815, but the German States had neither political
nor commercial unity. Each State had a tariff which applied against all
other States. Gradually a Zollverein, or customs union, grew up, which,
by 1854, had come to include all the German States except Austria,
Holstein, Mecklenburg, Lauenburg, and the three Hanse towns, Hamburg,
Lübeck, and Bremen. In 1866, the North German Federation was organized,
and this paved the way for the formation of the German Empire in 1871.
The Zollverein made commercial progress possible, and political unity
gave it a great impulse.