106 A History of the American Whale Fishery. 
again rose to the point of returning reasonable profits. 
With renewed prosperity in the country the home con- 
sumption of oil and sperm candles was increasing. During 
the Revolution necessity had prompted a return to tallow 
candles, but experience had shown clearly enough that 
the whale and sperm oil were preferable as illuminants,— 
giving both a cheaper and a better light. Light-houses 
were also increasing in number, creating a greater de- 
mand for oil and tending to raise its price. Whale oil 
was being secured in greater quantities and the fact that 
it commanded only about one-half the price of sperm oil, 
favored its more general use. Whale oil, it is true, did 
not give sucha brilliant light as sperm oil, but since it 
was cheaper and would last about twice as long, it had 
an increasing demand for common lights. Both sperm 
candles and whale oil found growing markets in most of 
the important seaports on the coast, and from them it 
was shipped to various parts of the world, the West In- 
dian trade being especially important.” 
While the war lasted (1812-1815) the imports of oil 
and bone fell to the merest fraction of what they had 
been during the years just previous to the outbreak of 
hostilities. The decreased supply was far below the de- 
mand of the home markets, and this fact, coupled with 
the prohibitive embargoes, resulted in the complete sus- 
pension of the export trade. In the years 1813 to 1815 
inclusive there were no shipments of sperm oil or bone to 
foreign markets, while of whale oil the exports were 
practically nil in 1814 and none at all in 1815. During 
the fifteen years since the opening of the century the an- 
nual exports had gone as high as 136,000 gallons of sperm 
oil, 932,000 gallons of whale oil, and 134,000 pounds of 
bone. The current prices were ranging near one dollar 
a gallon for sperm and fifty cents per gallon for whale 
oil, while bone was not worth over ten cents per pound. 
But at a time when the total export trade of the United 
2 Macy, p. 139. 
