at the Mississippi ports. The proceeds were frequently 

 used to purchase slaves, livestock and household goods. 

 Louisville was the only port on western rivers in 1789 

 and for ten years thereafter. Yet it remained for some 

 time a minor concentration point compared with Frank- 

 fort and Lexington. The latter town, by 1791, had its own 

 tobacco factories, as reported in the Kentucky Gazette 

 of that year. Tobacco hogsheads were making rolling 

 roads from central Kentucky to the Ohio. A few years 

 after Wilkinson's first barges negotiated the difficult 

 passage on the Kentucky, therefore, commercial traffic 

 up the river was all but abandoned. The boom in tobacco 

 had caused Kentucky farmers to petition the Virginia 

 General Assembly at Williamsburg, on various occasions 

 between 1787 and 1790, for more river warehouses. 



s 



hipping Leaf 



The efficiency of Wilkinson's operations in delivering 

 shipments was generally conceded. ( Yet, despite his best 

 efforts, the final results proved to be unprofitable for 

 him.) Because of his exorbitant charges, a number of 

 planter-merchants organized river transportations of 

 their own. Among the independent traders was John 

 Halley, who had opened a merchandise store near 

 Boonesboro. It was he who, according to tradition, first 

 shipped Kentucky tobacco directly to England, via the 

 Mississippi. Exports of tobacco grown in the United 

 States in the 1790-1791 period were high. More than 

 half of the 118,000 hogsheads shipped out in 1790 went 

 to England. The value of the total was over $4.3 million. 

 Flour exceeded tobacco very slightly in export value. 

 Tobacco was again the export leader in the following 

 year— a place it was not to resume again until 1840. 



33 



