298 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



methods of transportation are partly the cause and partly the 

 effect of the spread of cotton culture. The early settlers in the 

 back part of the Carolinas and Georgia were for the most part of 

 Pennsylvania and Virginia stock. Between these people and the 

 colonists of the low country " there were no ties of consanguinity, 

 no identity of history, traditions or experience, no religious affin- 

 ities, no personal acquaintance, no commercial relations." Be- 

 tween the two sections there was very little intercourse previous to 

 the Revolution. The middle region lay between them, a wilder- 

 ness through which there were no roads practicable for wagons. 

 The trade of the colonists in the back country was, therefore, 

 carried on almost entirely with Northern cities, Philadelphia, 

 Baltimore and Richmond. It is not improbable that the impor- 

 tance of Philadelphia as a cotton market previous to 1790, as is 

 evidenced by the establishment of roller gins there, even before 

 the Revolution, is due to the carriage thither of small quantities 

 of cotton produced by these early settlers in the back portions of 

 the Carolinas. But the spread of cotton culture after 1793 made 

 these old routes of trade impracticable and rendered necessary 

 the establishment of means of communication and transportation 

 between the back country and the coast region. Facilities for 

 water transportation were first developed, and this was the usual 

 method of sending cotton to market during the first half of the 

 present century. River towns, such as Columbia, Cheraw, Cam- 

 den, Hamburg, Augusta, Montgomery, Vicksburg, Natchez and 

 Shreveport, were the chief markets for the inland cotton trade 

 and the centers from which cotton was transported to the coast 

 cities Charleston, Savannah, Mobile and New Orleans. Even 

 the sending of cotton direct from the plantations to market was 

 often by boat. Many of the large plantations were along the 

 rivers, thus affording them an easy access to market. " Besides 

 these ordinary conveyances, several novel methods were employed 

 of moving produce to market. It is said that cotton was sent to 

 Hamburg from the country near the upper Savannah by throwing 

 the bales into the stream and letting them float with the current." 

 In 1826 there were ten steamboats engaged in the cotton 

 trade between Charleston and the towns of Savannah, Augusta, 



