INFLUENCE OF THE GULF STREAM UPON COMMERCE. 



67 



the Stream, wliicli causes them to outrun their common reckon- 

 ing. Every year produces new proofs of these facts, and of the 

 calamities incident thereto." 



105. Though Dr. Franklin's discovery was made in 1775, yet, 

 for political reasons, it was not generally made known till 1790. 

 Its immediate effect in navigation was to make the ports of the 

 North as accessible in winter as in summer. What agency this 

 circumstance had in the decline of the direct trade of the South, 

 which followed this discovery, would be, at least to the political 

 economist, a subject for much curious and interesting speculation. 

 I have referred to the commercial tables of the time, and have 

 compared the trade of Charleston with that of the northern cities 

 for several years, both before and after the discovery of Dr. Frank- 

 lin became generally known to navigators. The comparison shows 

 an immediate decline in the Southern trade and a wonderful in- 

 crease in that of the North. But whether this discovery in nav- 

 igation and this revolution in trade stand in the relation of cause 

 and effect, or be merely a coincidence, let others judge. 



106. In 1769, the commerce of the two Carolinas equaled that 

 of all the New England States together ; it was more than double 

 that of New York, and exceeded that of Pennsylvania by one 

 third.* In 1792, the exports from New York amounted in value 

 to two millions and a half; from Pennsylvania, to $3,820,000; 

 and from Charleston alone, to $3,834,000. 



107. But in 1795 — by which time the Gulf Stream began to be 

 as well understood by navigators as it now is, and the average 

 passages from Europe to the North were shortened nearly one 

 half, while those to the South remained about the same — the cus- 



From M'Pherson's Annals of Commerce. — Exports and Imports in 1769, vahied in 

 Sterling-^ Money. 



EXPORTS. 



