THE PIONEERS OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY 33 



she was in reality investing her capital in the same great in- 

 dustry which was the basis of her manufacturing system. 

 Moreover, banking in America had proven very profitable. 

 Englishmen had invested heavily in the stock of the first and 

 second United States bank, had received large dividends, and 

 suffered no losses. More and more, therefore, her capitalists 

 after 1815 turned to this country; and by 1830 they seemed 

 ready to supply us with all the capital necessary to complete 

 our system of canals and railways, as well as to assist in the 

 development of our agriculture. 



It is impossible to ascertain with accuracy the amount of 

 English capital which found its way to this country during this 

 period. Webster thought there might be $50,000,000 of state 

 stock owned abroad in 1836. Two years later Mr. Garland 

 submitted to the house of representatives a list of our stocks 

 owned abroad which put the total at $110,000,000. President 

 Van Buren in his message of 1840 placed the amount at $200,- 

 000,000, and the annual interest charged at not less than 

 $12,000,000. A committee of the house of representatives a 

 few years later estimated the amount of state securities pur- 

 chased by foreigners at nearly $150,000,000. Besides this 

 amount $28,000,000 of the stock of the United States bank 

 and $9,000,000 of the stock of the Farmers' Loan and Trust 

 company, the Camden & Amboy railroad, and the Com- 

 mercial bank of Vicksburg, was owned abroad. Mr. Gar- 

 land's estimate shows a further sum of about $19,000,000 of 

 the stock of various corporations, chiefly banks, owned abroad. 

 These estimates cannot be verified, but they show that the 

 movement of foreign capital to this country for the purchase 

 of our securities was large. 



Not only did foreigners purchase a large amount of our 

 securities, but foreign capital came to us also through the me- 

 dium of commercial credit. We have seen that during the 

 twenty years prior to 1815 Americans had come to own their 

 own trading capital. In the later twenties, however, we again 

 began to make use of foreign capital in our commerce. Before 

 this it had been the practice for English merchants to execute 

 orders for America, and transmit the invoices and bills of lad- 

 ing to their agents in America, who then delivered the goods 



Vol. 3—3 



