Rural Economy in New England 295 



to the city.^ New Haven seems to have traded with New York more 

 extensively than any other port on the Sound. In his Statistical 

 Account of the former city, President Dwight included a statement 

 of this coasting trade for the year 1801, compiled from the shipping 

 books of merchants. The largest items were: Cheese, 220,000 lbs.; 

 pork and beef hams, 24,000 lbs.; pork, 1,900 bbls.; beef, 1,700 bbls.; 

 butter, 800 firkins; lard, 600 firkins; corn meal, 1,000 hhds., and 

 1,200 bbls.; rye flour, 230 bbls.; barley, 1,500 bu.; Indian corn, 300 

 bu.; rye, 200 bu.; oats, 530 bu. The only vegetables shipped were 

 beans, 280 bu.; and potatoes, 160 bu.- 



Although these figures do not indicate any great amount of trade, 

 yet it would be a mistake to judge the importance of the New York 

 market by figures such as these, for the bulk of these products were 

 not consumed in the city but trans-shipped to the West Indies.' 



{b) Regions oj Specialized Agriculture. 



In order that a population supported by agriculture alone may 

 furnish a market for the farmers in another region, it is necessary that 

 the former shall be raising a staple product which they can sell to 

 a wide market. To the cultivation of this staple they will then find 

 it profitable to devote all their labor and capital. In order to secure 

 the greatest profit from the comparative advantage which they have 

 in the cultivation of a peculiar product, they will neglect general 

 agriculture and rely for their food supply upon their ability to pur- 

 chase from farmers in regions where such specialization has not been 

 found profitable. Thus one of the first forms of the geographical 

 division of labor arises. 



Such a specialization was to be found in 1810 in three areas to the 

 southward of New England. There were: (1) the tobacco plan- 

 tations of the Chesapeake lowlands in Virginia and Maryland, (2) the 

 rice and cotton plantations of the coastal plains of South Carolina 

 and Georgia, and (3) the sugar plantations of the West India Islands. 



(7) The Chesapeake Lowlands. 



Cheap water transportation made these three areas almost equally 

 accessible to the New England farmer, but their importance to him 

 varied widely in proportion to the competition which he must face 

 from the back-country districts of general agriculture. The size of 



1 Pease and Niles, Gazetteer, art. Fairfield. 



2 Op. cit., pp. 67-68. 



' Kendall, Travels, I. 9. 



