POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL 57 



debt, were ruined by the embargo. In North 

 and South Carolina the price of produce 

 fell one half, and the merchants and plant- 

 ers were threatened by debts and execu- 

 tions. Rice, which before the embargo sold 

 freely at $3.50, fell to $1.75, cotton from 

 thirty-four to twenty-two cents a pound. 1 

 Owing to the difficulty of shipping pro- 

 visions, the price varied greatly in different 

 sections of the country. While flour in 

 Fredericksburg sold at two dollars a bar- 

 rel, in Massachusetts it brought six to eight. 2 

 Hay fell from fifteen to seven dollars a ton. 3 

 Along the frontier and on the seaboard, 

 cotton and provisions were higher because 

 of the enormous amount smuggled, and 



1 Ramsey, History of South Carolina, p. 39. Charles- 

 ton Courier, Feb. 1808. 



Washington, North Carolina, "Effects of the Em- 

 bargo." "In a neighboring county were sold 1000 acres 

 of land for twelve dollars. Four grown negroes, three 

 horses and three beds brought nine dollars.'* New York 

 Evening Post, Dec. 8, 1808. 



2 New York Herald, July 19, 1808. 



3 History of Newcastle. 



