CHAPTER III. 



COMMERICAL RELATIONS OF SOUTHERN NeW ENGLAND WITH THE 



Southern States and the West Indies. 



In our reconstruction of the economic environment of the inland 

 farmer, we must not neglect to consider the possibility of his exporting 

 some of the produce of his land to regions outside of New England. 

 A market in a foreign country or in some of the other states of the 

 Union would have been, to some extent at least, a compensation for 

 the lack of a market in commercial and industrial towns at home, and 

 would have modified to that extent the farmer's economic position. 



Markets Outside New England: (a) New York City. 



Outside New England there were three districts whose inhabitants 

 purchased food-stuffs from the farmers in the towns of Massachu- 

 setts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. These were: (1) the city of 

 New York; (2) the Southern states, and (3) the West India Islands. 

 In the nearest of these markets, the city of New York, there was a 

 population of nearly 100,000, concentrated on the island of Man- 

 hattan and a few smaller islands. This population, supported 

 largely by commerce, offered a market larger than any in New Eng- 

 land. It was easily accessible to the coast towns of Connecticut 

 and Rhode Island and, to a less degree, to the towns of Berkshire 

 County in Massachusetts and Litchfield County in Connecticut, by 

 way of the Hudson River. However, in this case the New England 

 fanners had to meet the competition of the energetic and progressive 

 Dutch settlers on Long Island,^ as well as of the nearer situated towns 

 of eastern New Jersey and of those in New York state along the Hud- 

 son River. 



We have seen that almost every town along the Sound as far east 

 as Providence sent out small sloops to carry firewood and agricultural 

 produce to New York.' In Fairfield County, the nearest county in 

 Connecticut, the coast towns had a fleet of 20 or 30 such vessels 

 regularly employed in transporting grain, flour, beef, pork, and potatoes 



' See Weld, Isaac, Jun., Travels through the States of North America, . . . 

 during the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797. 4ed. 2 vols. London. 1807. II. 372-373. 

 * Supra, p. 283. 



294 



