THE PIONEERS OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY 17 



agricultural community of nearly two million people, an aver- 

 age of only about $2.70 per head of population. The number 

 and size of towns in the west at this time is another convin- 

 cing proof of the slight development of trade which had taken 

 place. The only town of any considerable size in the whole 

 west was New Orleans, through which passed the bulk of the 

 exports and a considerable part of the imports. This town 

 had 24,562 inhabitants in 1810. Pittsburg, from which was 

 distributed the larger part of the imports, and which con- 

 tained the most important manufactories in the west, had 

 only 4,768 inhabitants; Lexington, which carried on nearly 

 all the commerce of Kentucky and Tennessee, had only 4,326 

 inhabitants; and Cincinnati had only 2,540. The other com- 

 mercial places like Louisville, Nashville, Natchez, and St. 

 Louis, were little more than mere villages, with about one 

 thousand inhabitants each. The significance of these figures 

 will appear more striking if we compare them with similar 

 ones for some new communities of later times. In 1891 the 

 two colonies of Victoria and New South Wales, whose industry 

 was almost entirely agricultural and pastoral, had an average 

 export of $20 per inhabitant. Washington and Oregon, with 

 a population of 663,198 in 1890, had commerce enough to 

 build up four cities with an aggregate population of 145,150, 

 besides several smaller towns of from 1,000 to 4,000 inhab- 

 itants. Kentucky and Tennessee had in 1810 almost exactly 

 the same population — namely, 668,238; and the town which 

 is said to have carried on the larger part of their commerce 

 had but 4,326 inhabitants. 



With regard to manufactories there were, as we should 

 expect, a great number of small, local ones, producing articles 

 of prime necessity. Almost every community had one or 

 more grist and sawmills; and very many had forges, tanneries, 

 and salt works, fulling and carding mills, and paper mills. In 

 Pittsburg, Lexington, and Cincinnati there were a number of 

 industries that were not purely local in character. But the 

 size of these towns, which were more largely commercial than 

 manufacturing centers, show how small were these industries ; 

 and travellers did not fail to note the obstacles which retarded 



their further growth. Michaux comments on the hisrh price 



vol. 3— a 



