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    Outline of the development of the internal commerce of the United States 1789-1900
    Outline of the development of the internal commerce of the United States 1789-1900
    Outline of the development of the internal commerce of the United States 1789-1900
    Ebook69 pages56 minutes

    Outline of the development of the internal commerce of the United States 1789-1900

    By Thurman William Van Metre

    ()

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    Outline of the development of the internal commerce of the United States 1789-1900

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      Book preview

      Outline of the development of the internal commerce of the United States 1789-1900 - Thurman William Van Metre

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Outline of the development of the internal

      commerce of the United States, by T.W. van Mettre

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: Outline of the development of the internal commerce of the United States

      1789-1900

      Author: T.W. van Mettre

      Release Date: May 24, 2008 [EBook #25588]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTLINE--INTERNAL COMMERCE--U.S. ***

      Produced by Frank van Drogen and the Online Distributed

      Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was

      produced from scanned images of public domain material

      from the Google Print project.)

      An Outline of the Development

      OF THE

      Internal Commerce of the United States

      1789-1900

      By

      T. W. VAN METRE

      Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School

      of the University of Pennsylvania in partial

      fulfilment of the requirements for

      the degree of Ph.D.

      BALTIMORE

      WILLIAMS & WILKINS CO.

      1913

      AN OUTLINE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE

      INTERNAL COMMERCE OF THE

      UNITED STATES, 1789-1900

      ¹

      I

      1789-1830

      At the beginning of the national era the internal commerce of the United States gave small promise of the tremendous development it was to undergo during the ensuing century. There was as yet too little differentiation of occupation to give rise to a large interstate trade in native products, and the proximity of the greater part of the population to the seacoast made it cheaper and more convenient to carry on the small interstate trade that did exist by means of small sailing vessels plying along the coast. Practically all the internal trade was devoted to bringing the surplus agricultural produce of the interior to the seaport towns where it was exchanged for imported wares that could not be produced by the inhabitants of the inland region.

      As is usual in a new country, the settlers who had first pushed into the interior had founded their new homes close to the rivers, and these natural highways had always been and still were the most important means of transportation to and from the seacoast. At the mouths of the larger streams flowing into the Atlantic Ocean were to be found large and wealthy cities, where enterprising men were laying the foundations of large fortunes in a rapidly growing trade in the agricultural and forest products floated down from the interior.

      Living close along the ocean where numerous excellent harbors and long stretches of sheltered water gave ample facilities for the little inter-colonial trade that existed, and where rivers afforded natural means of transportation from the interior to towns on the coast, the people of early colonial days had not found it necessary to give much time to the construction of roads. The gradual inland movement of the population had finally compelled them, however, to give some attention to the means of land transportation and many rude earth roads were built to replace the old Indian trails. These roads were unspeakably poor, sloughs of mire during the thaws of winter and spring and thick with dust in the summer, but bad as they were they carried considerable traffic and their use was constantly growing. Inland towns were beginning to grow up at the focusing points of the country roads, and the owners of general stores at such places derived large profits out of their position as middlemen between the farmers of the interior and the merchants at the nearest seaports. Three great roads had been built into the western country, one up the Mohawk Valley into western New York, and two across the Alleghany Mountains, the Pennsylvania Road from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and the Wilderness Road over which the early settlers of Kentucky had threaded their way up the Shenandoah Valley and through Cumberland Gap to the southern banks of the Ohio River.

      The transportation facilities of the times were, however, entirely inadequate to the needs of the country, and the lack of better means of getting products to market was a serious impediment to internal development. Tench Coxe wrote in 1792: "To a nation inhabiting a great continent not yet traversed by artificial roads and canals, the rivers of which above their natural navigation have hitherto been very little improved, many of whose people are at this moment closely settled upon lands, which actually sink from one-fifth to one-half of the value of their crops in the mere charges of transporting them to seaport towns, and others, of whose inhabitants cannot at present send their produce to a seaport for its whole value, a thorough

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