Rural Economy in New England 305 



the market, for in supplying this as well as the market in the Southern 

 states they had to meet the competition of the Middle states. 



The importance to the inland towns of these markets, in the South- 

 ern states, and in the West Indies, as well as in the coast towns of 

 southern New England, depended chiefly on two circumstances: (1) 

 upon the size of the markets, i.e., the quantity of produce which 

 they would absorb, and (2) upon their accessibility. The determining 

 factor in the latter case was, of course, the cost of transportation. We 

 have seen that the total amount of agricultural produce demanded 

 by these various regions was not large. In order to estimate accu- 

 rately what these markets meant to the inland farmers, we must go a 

 step farther and determine, if possible, how the trade in farm prod- 

 ucts was distributed through the inland country. If equally dis- 

 tributed among the inland towns, this trade would have meant very 

 little to any one of them; if carried on by the towns in only a few 

 favored regions, it might have altered their economic situation con- 

 siderably, but for the inland towns as a whole it would have had 

 little significance. 



In order to answer these questions fully, it is necessary to investi- 

 gate the general conditions of internal trade in southern New England 

 and especially the state of the transportation system. These matters 

 will be taken up in the following chapter. 



