AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST 305 



granary for Great Britain and to a small extent for the Conti- 

 nent, from which countries the Confederate States were en- 

 deavoring to win recognition by pointing with pride to the fact 

 that they were the largest source of the world's cotton supply. 

 From 1850 to i86o the production of American cotton had 

 increased 120 per cent, from 2,450,000 bales to not quite 

 5,400,000 bales, that of wheat by less than 75 per cent, 

 i.e., from 100,000,000 bushels to 170,000,000 bushels. Further- 

 more, while the export of wheat was practically stationary in the 

 period, that of cotton rapidly increased. (In 1850 we exported 

 635,381,604 pounds of cotton; in i860, 1,767,686,338 pounds, 

 the increase being gradual. The largest exportation of wheat 

 and wheat flour, 18 50-1 860, was (in 1857) 31,000,000 bushels. 

 The average for the decade was about 20,000,000 bushels a year. 

 In i860 it was 16,000,000 bushels.) 



The cotton-consuming countries of the world were so far de- 

 pendent on the Southern staple that over 80 per cent of the 

 cotton consumed in Great Britain from 185 1 to i860 came from 

 the United States ; in 1 860, 7 5 per cent of that consumed on the 

 Continent also came from America. But in the same period 

 the dependence on American grain was very much less, since we 

 shipped almost none at all to the Continent, and in almost every 

 year were outstripped by Russia in shipments to Great Britain. 



What would be the effects of the war on these relations at once 

 became a leading question in Europe, and it was generally as- 

 sumed that there would be a great decrease in the receipts of both 

 American staples, of grain as well as of cotton. 



With the declaration of the blockade of the Southern ports by 

 the United States one part of the expectation was fulfilled. The 

 foreign factories could get little or no American cotton, and began 

 to shut down or run but part time. The 2,580,700 bales received 

 in Great Britain from America in i860 fell to 1,841,600 bales in 

 1 861, 72,000 bales in 1862, 132,000 bales in 1863, 198,000 

 bales in 1864, and 462,000 bales in 1865 ; but, on account of the 

 enlarged importations from other fields, Brazil, Egypt, West 

 India, East India, China, Japan, Turkey, and Asia Minor, the 

 yearly consumption did' not fall off as much as did the American 



