COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



107 



having aided in more than doubling the export 

 of Western produce in one year, thus developing 

 an active capital that would soon restore the 

 capital absorbed in their construction. The 

 Southern produce, cut off by the blockade, 

 made necessary by the war, although that 

 blockade did not take place until late in the fiscal 

 year, was very large, and for the present fiscal 

 year will have ceased altogether. The exports 

 of goods and produce will then have barely 

 reached 140 millions, even if the Western prod- 

 uce continues to find so large a market abroad, 

 and by this amount the sum of the importations 

 must be measured, since the country buys no 

 more than its surplus produce pays for. Of 

 the importations certain articles are necessaries : 

 tea. coffee, sugar, and molasses. These in the 

 aggregate reach 80 millions, and in 1860 $20,- 

 446,586 worth of merchandise were imported 

 free from Canada under the reciprocity treaty. 

 These items alone absorb 100 millions of the 

 proceeds of exports, and leave little for the man- 

 ufactured goods that have been so largely im- 

 ported. The Northern States have doubtless 

 consumed the largest proportion of the import- 

 ed goods ; but it has been because they have 

 been larger sellers of their own manufactures 

 to those who furnished the produce exported 

 to pay for their imports. The Western section 

 has produced an aggregate of $200,000,000 of 

 exchangeable values per annum, which they 

 have sold to the East and South in exchange for 

 imported and manufactured goods. The South- 

 ern States have produced 400 millions per 

 annum, which they have sold, and taken in pay 

 Northern and imported goods. The outbreak 

 of the secession caused that trade at once to 

 cease. The South could no longer sell, and the 

 North lost a customer for $400,000,000 of 

 * goods per annum. Such an event could not 

 take place without producing immense changes 

 not only in the foreign trade, but in internal 

 industry. Those who no longer sold goods to 

 the South had no longer profits with which to 

 buy foreign goods. At the same time the ne- 

 cessities of the Government required the tax 

 on the foreign goods to be increased. The 

 shipping, which had been so largely employed 

 in the transportation of cotton, lost much of its 

 employment. The mills that had been ac- 

 customed to work up 700,000 bales of cotton 

 per annum, were obliged to close, and the long 

 list of dye stuffs and other manufacturing 

 materials were no longer in request. At the 

 West, where in the last four years settlement 

 has progressed with great rapidity, the harvests 

 were very abundant, and at the same time the 

 Southern outlets for it being closed bythe events 

 of the war, it was forced upon the lakes, causing 

 a great rise in freights, and at the same time low 

 prices to the farmer. Thus the traffic towards 

 the East has been very active, without however 

 a corresponding increase in the return traffic. 



Chicago, which stands at the head of the lake 

 navigation, and from which the Illinois Canal,100 

 miles, connects with the Illinois River, and from 



which also a number of railroads radiate through 

 a fertile region, supplies a large proportion of the 

 food exported. The rapidity with which that re- 

 gion has developed produce under the action of 

 the railroads is apparent in the following table : 

 Receipt* of grain at Chicago. 



This great increase for the year 1861 grew 

 principally out of the large crops. These crops 

 could not go South, and being turned on the 

 lakes, caused a great demand for tonnage, and 

 a rise in freights, which almost absorbed the 

 value of the grain, leaving little to the farmer. 

 The Illinois Central Railroad took corn from 

 its land debtors in payment of instalments to 

 the extent of 1,800,000 bushels, and altogether 

 the road delivered 15,000,000 bushels, or five 

 times as much as it delivered in 1855. That was 

 the product of land which the Government had 

 vainly offered for sale more than 10 or 15 years, 

 until it gave 2,500,000 acres to the road to aid its 

 construction. That being done, the land was rap- 

 idly settled, and the result is the large annual ad- 

 dition to the exchangeable values of the country. 



Milwaukee has also, through the agency of 

 railroads, added largely to the lake trade. 

 The two ports of Chicago and Milwaukee 

 have thus in 1861 delivered 41,412,000 bushels 

 of wheat, or equal to one-half the whole wheat 

 crop of the United States in 1840. So vast 

 has been the progress of production in that 

 region. The annual export of wheat has been, 

 including the year 1861, as follows : 



Export of grains from Milwaukee for II years. 



Aggregate value of Exports for the years I860 and 1861. 



