DEVELOPMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 1 75 



mestic trade and foreign commerce. It was a port of entry to 

 which large consignments of British goods were made, consist- 

 ing mainly of hardware, drygoods, and wines, in exchange 

 for tobacco, furs, and Indian goods. Its exports in 1794 amounted 

 to nearly $129,000. Large quantities of sugar, molasses, and 

 rum were also imported from the West Indies. These im- 

 ports were exchanged in trade with the farmers of Maryland, 

 Virginia, and Pennsylvania, carried on by means of the river 

 craft and wagon transports, which came heavily laden with the 

 farm products and returned along their routes to the near and 

 distant country freighted with dry goods, groceries and farm 

 products, salt and fresh shad and herring during their sea- 

 son, for barter with the farming people. It is but natural 

 that a population numbering between 4000 and 5000, actively 

 engaged in trade and commerce by land and water, with one 

 or more good hotels, should have supplied accommodations for 

 statesmen and officials who could find no suitable residence in 

 the new territory designated as the Federal capital.^ 



Georgetown remained under its own form of city government 

 until the establishment of the territory of the District of Colum- 

 bia by the act approved February 21, 187 1. Washington itself 

 remained under the local jurisdiction of the commissioners 

 created by Congress for the proper planning and laying out of 

 the new city, till the first city charter was granted in 1802, 'and 

 from that time until the territorial government established in 

 187 1 the local government was under the city form, although 

 there were various modifications and changes in the charters. 

 There was a mayor, sometimes elected by the people and some- 

 times appointed by the President, with a board of aldermen and 

 a council. 



During all this period, that prior to 187 1, there had been no 

 very extensive improvements in the city. Georgetown, as indi- 

 cated, offered the opportunity for residence for persons con- 

 nected with the government and for others in the beginning, but 

 gradually, of course, the streets and squares of Washington 

 were developed and residences were erected. The population 

 had grown, as already stated, to 131,700 in 1870. The spas- 



1 Cf. ' Pictures of the City of Washington in the Past,' S. C. Busey, M.D. 



