122 INTRODUCTION. 
the state had increased from $2,973,617 to $22,157,742, or, after deducting the 
then existing state debt, to $17,624,986; that the annual revenue had increased 
from $419,907 to $1,413,846: that during the same period, $500,000 had been 
expended upon public buildings, the school and literature funds had been 
doubled, the state tax discontinued, and the people relieved from burthen or 
expense in supporting the government: that after applying $400,000 of the canal 
tolls annually to the support of the government, there would remain, applicable 
to purposes of internal improvement, an annual nett revenue of $787,103 ; that 
that sum alone would pay the annual interest on $15,643,000: that any augmen- 
tation in the revenue of the canals would increase the financial ability of the 
state: that every $500,000 of revenue would serve as a basis of finance to sustain 
$10,000,000 of debt: and that, assuming the opinions of the canal commissioners 
expressed in their report of that year, that the canals soon after the completion 
of the enlargement would yield tolls to the amount of $3,000,000 per annum, 
the sum of thirty millions of dollars might be borrowed, expended, and finally 
reimbursed within twenty years; or the sum of forty millions might be so bor- 
rowed, expended, and reimbursed within twenty-eight years. This view of the 
financial ability of the state was illustrated by estimates of the tolls and nett re- 
venue of the canals during a series of years, based upon the experience of the 
increase since their completion. In this table it was assumed that the nett reve- 
nues from the canals for 1838 would be $800,000; that it would increase at the 
rate of $100,000 per annum, until 1842; that after that time, owing to the com- 
pletion of the enlargement, and other works of internal improvement, and the 
increase of commerce, until 1845, it would increase at the rate of $200,000 per 
annum; and from 1845, until 1849, at the rate of $300,000 per annum; at which 
time the nett revenue would reach the sum of $3,000,000. 
The sources from which this large accession of revenue was to be anticipated, 
were pointed out as existing in the extensive and rapidly increasing communities 
growing up around the western lakes. The surprising progress already made 
by that interior group of states, in population, wealth and productive power, was 
