BULLETIN 



OF THE 



VOL. 2. SALEM, MASS., OCTOBER, 1870. No. 10. 



One Dollar a Year in Advance. 10 Cents a Single Copy. 



OLD CHANNELS OF TRADE. 



FROM A PAPER READ BEFORE THE ESSEX INSTITUTE FEB. 4, 186t, 



BY EOBEKT S. BANTOUL. 



POLITICAL Economy tells us that cost of transportation 

 is as legitimate an element of value, as is labor expended 

 in the production of merchandise, or fixed capital in- 

 vested. Facilities for transportation, therefore, affect 

 directly and sensibly the cost of all that we use and the 

 value of all that we have. Thus the coal of Pennsylva- 

 nia has 'but little worth to the limited population near 

 enough to reach it without public facilities for transporta-' 

 tion, while a very large fraction of what we pay for the 

 fuel in our grates is paid to the carriers of this- exhaust- 

 less treasure. In 1817 coal could be had at Pittsburg at 

 six cents per bushel. Again, wheat is worth about one 

 dollar and a half per bushel or fifty dollars per ton. To 

 move a ton of it on common roads costs fifteen cents per 

 mile. Three hundred and thirty miles of transportation, 

 then, will cost as much as the wheat will sell for. But 

 transportation by rail is computed at one and one-half 

 cents per ton, and now wheat may be moved thirty-three 



ESSEX INST. BULLETIN. n 19 



