Part 6

During the year 1812, 100 loaded boats left Chilicothe for Natchez, New Orleans, and other ports. In the same year a vessel of 400 tons was built at the mouth of the Scioto (owned in Chilicothe) and sent off loaded for a foreign port.[394] The flour, whiskey, tobacco, bacon, hemp, and coarse linens that Kentucky was capable of exporting in 1814 was immense.[395] Much coarse linen and yarn was exported from Ohio at this time.[396]

From New Orleans barges were sent to Louisville with freight in the years 1812-1814, the Louisville 'Western Courier' in the latter year noticing the arrival, in three months, of twelve barges, and seven keel boats.[397] Illinois, in 1812 received her freight from New Orleans in barges.[398] In 1814, sugar and coffee were shipped to Cincinnati;[399] cotton and sugar to Louisville;[400] and sugar, cotton, and indigo to Pittsburg.[401] In September or October of the preceding year a Pittsburg merchant advertised 99,385 lbs. of New Orleans sugar for sale; and considerable quantitites were received by others, with supplies of cotton, and other articles[402] Many tons of red lead were received during the year from St. Louis. In 1813, 350 boat loads containing 3750 tons of salt petre, salt, lead, peltry, sugar and other articles, 1250 tons of hemp, and 3750 tons of hempen yarn were received at Pittsburg.[403]

New Orleans, in 1815, received shipments of Kentucky and Tennessee flour. Cincinnati also carried on quite an extensive trade with this city, having sent to New Orleans, in this year, one large barge of 170 tons carrying 1600 barrels of flour, weighing 342,400 pounds, besides sundry other articles;[404] and receiving in return, sugar, cotton, and coffee.[405] New Orleans, in 1816, exported to Cincinnati, sugar, molasses, copperas, shad, mackerel, codfish, queensware, logwood, and Swedish iron;[406] receiving flour and pork from Cincinnati.[407] Orleans cotton was selling in Pittsburg from 33 to 34 cents, and sugar at 25 cents wholesale prices.[408] A writer in the "Register" says, "I venture to say, that when the official papers shall be published, the fact will appear, that a much greater value of goods will be exported from New Orleans in the first year after the proclamation of peace, than from all the "Nation of New England...." meaning of native products. 112 vessels were at one time working up the river."[409]

The following is an estimate of the products received at New Orleans, independent of what was furnished by Louisiana. The amount given was carried in 594 flat bottomed boats and 300 barges from the Western States and Territories.

Apples 4,253 bbls. Bacon and hams 13,000 cwt. Bagging 2,579 pieces Beef 2,459 bbls. Beer 439 bbls. Butter 509 bbls. Candles 358 boxes Cheese 30 cwt. Ginseng 957 bbls. Hay 356 bundles Hemp yarn 1,095 reels. Hides 5,000 Hogs 500 Horses 375 Lead 3,500 cwt. White lead 188 bbls. Linens, coarse 2,500 pieces Lard 2,458 bbls. Oats 4,065 bu. Paper 750 reams. Cider 646 bbls. Cordage 400 cwt. Cordage baling 4,798 coils Corn 13,775 bu. Corn Meal 1,075 bbls. Cotton 37,371 bales Flaxseed Oil 85 bbls. Flour 97,419 bbls. Pork 9,725 bbls. Potatoes 3750bu. Powder, gun 294 bbls. Saltpetre 175 cwt. Soap 1,538 boxes. Tallow 160 cwt. Tobacco 7,282 hhds. " Mfgd. 711 bbls. Carrots 8,200 Whiskey 320,000 gal. Bear Skins 2,000 Peltries 2,450 packs.

"Besides a quantity of horned cattle, castings, grind stones, indigo, muskets, merchandise, paoan nuts, peas, beans, etc.[410]"

Beer, porter, and ale were made in Cincinnati, in great quantities, as well for exportation, as for home consumption. The exports of the city consisted of flour, corn, beef, pork, butter, lard, bacon, whiskey, peach brandy, beer, porter, pot and pearl ashes, cheese, soap, candles, hats, hemp, spun yarn, saddles, rifles, cherry and black ash boards, staves and scantling, cabinet furniture and chairs.[411] Boats were, in 1817, sent from Cincinnati to Boston with cargoes.[412]

East Indian and European goods were imported from Baltimore and Philadelphia by way of Pittsburg.[413] A journey, undertaken for the purpose of purchasing goods at Philadelphia, occupied about three months.[414] A house at Pittsburg advanced money in payment of the carriage, and attended to the receipt of the goods by wagon, and their shipment by boats, receiving 5 per cent commission in payment.[415] Coal, of which vast quantities were consumed at Cincinnati, was brought down the Ohio from Pittsburg and Wheeling in flat bottomed boats. White pine boards, and shingles were brought in rafts from Hamilton on the Allegheny.[416] Lead was procured from St. Louis; and rum, sugar, molasses, and some dry goods were received from New Orleans in keels and steamboats.[417] Salt was easily obtained from the Kenhaway salt works.[418] Thus the town of Cincinnati, which was, before 1811, but a small and unimportant village, was destined to become a greater commercial center than Pittsburg.

Three fourths of the surplus produce of Kentucky found their way to New Orleans,[419] the farmers usually being able to command a ready cash sale for their produce.[420] Fearon says, "Indian corn is raised here in vast abundance, and also stock of various kinds for the New Orleans, Southern and Atlantic markets, 30,000 hogsheads of tobacco were shipped from this State last season, and 8,000 barrels of flour, the price of which latter experienced great fluctuations, varying from 4 to 8 dollars per barrel, at present it is 6 to 7. Pork ... the present price is 3 to 4 dollars per cwt. Beef is also of good quality. Whiskey ... the export of last season was one million gallons. Cordage, yarn, and bagging have been important businesses, but European competition has materially decreased their consumption.[421] The exports for one season were as follows:

_Dollars_.

Flour and Wheat $1,000,000. Pork, bacon, lard 350,000 Whiskey 500,000 Tobacco 1,900,000 Wool, and fabrics of wool, and cotton 100,000 Cordage, hemp, and fabrics of hemp 500,000 Cattle 200,000 Horses, and mules 100,000 Saltpetre, and gunpowder 60,000 White, and Red Lead 45,000 Soap, and Candles 27,000 --------- 4,782,000[1]

[1] Fearon, H. B., Journey, 238.

In 1817-1818 the wealthy farmers of Ohio raised live stock for the home, and Atlantic city markets, and sent beef, pork, cheese, lard, and butter to New Orleans.[422] Pork was exported from Illinois.[423]

Fearon says, "there is a class of men throughout the western country called 'merchants', who, in the summer and autumn months, collect flour, butter, cheese, pork, beef, whiskey, and every species of farming produce which they send in flats and keel boats to the New Orleans market. The demand created by this trade, added to a large domestic consumption, insures the most remote farmer a certain market. Some of these speculators have made large fortunes."[424]

It may be interesting to note the estimates, on the prices of freight, given by Fearon and Fordham who traveled through the West in the years 1817-1818. Fearon says, "The price of boating goods from New Orleans to Louisville (1412 miles) is from 18 s. to 22 s. 6 d. per hundred. The freight to New Orleans from hence is 3 s. 4½ d. to 4 s. 6 d. per hundred. The average period of time which boats take to go to New Orleans is about 28 days; that from New Orleans 90 days. Steam vessels effect the same route in an average of 12 days down, and 36 days up." "Freight from this place (Illinois) to Louisville (307 miles) is 5 s. per cwt.; from Louisville is 1 s. 8 d.; from hence to New Orleans (1130 miles) 4 s. 6 d.; from New Orleans, 20 s. 3 d.; hence to Pittsburg (1013 miles) 15 s. 9 d.; from Pittsburg, 4 s. 6 d. This vast disproportion in the charge of freight is produced by the difference in time in navigating _up_ and _down_ the streams of the Ohio and Mississippi."[425]

Fordham's figures are as follows: "From Shawnee, Illinois, to New Orleans, $1 per hundred pounds, back $4½; to Pittsburg #3.50, from Pittsburg, $1; from Louisville 37½ cents; from Shawnee, or the mouth of the Wabash to Carmi, on the Little Wabash, 20 miles below us, 37½ cents ... to the nearest point of the Wabash to our settlement, 50 cents; down the stream to Shawnee, 5 cents per hundred pounds."[426] "Freighting down to New Orleans will pay the expense of going, and leave one or two hundred dollars surplus. But if, besides $700, the price of a new boat completely rigged, the owner has a capital of $1500 or $2000, he may make the voyage pay him from $500 to $1500. The whole trip is completed in two or three months."[427] "Trade from the general want of capital, and other causes with which I am unacquainted, is exceedingly profitable. 75 to 100 per cent is reckoned a good profit; 50 per cent is a living profit; 25 per cent will not keep a man to his business, he will look out for something else. I had the following account from a River Trader"

A boat of 30 tons burden from Orleans to Louisville.

_Dr._

14 men at $75 $ 1,050. Board for 75 days 525. Extra pay to steersman 75. Wear of boat 100. -------- $ 1,750.

_Cr._

Freight of 36 tons at $90 $ 3,240. Deduct expenses 1,750. -------- Clear profit $ 1,490.[1]

[1]Fordham, E. P., Travels, 121.

Groceries for Illinois had been received from Philadelphia or Baltimore, but in 1818 they came from New Orleans: coffee at 40 cents a pound; sugar from 22 to 50 cents; and tea at $2.50.[428] The steamboats coming up stream carried dry goods, pottery, cotton, sugar, wines, liquors, salted fish, and other articles; downwards their loading consisted of grain, flour, tobacco, bacon, etc.[429] At Harmony, Indiana, in 1818, a boat was being built, as a regular trader, to carry off the surplus produce, and bring back coffee, sugar, and groceries, as well as European manufactures.[430] Lead was received from Louisiana, and copper from South America.[431]

Horses, hogs, and cattle were raised, in Illinois, for exportation.[432] Flour, and fish were exported from Cincinnati to New Orleans, in the year 1818.[433] Birckbeck, in 1818, writes as follows, "The demand for grain will probably equal the produce for some years, owing to the influx of new settlers; and the Southern States, down the Mississippi to New Orleans, will be an increasing and sure market for our surplus of every kind; vast quantities of pork, and beef are shipped for New Orleans from Kentucky and Indiana."[434] "500 persons every summer pass down the Ohio from Cincinnati to New Orleans as traders or boatmen, and return on foot. By water, the distance is 1700 miles, and the walk back 1000. Many go down to New Orleans from Pittsburg, which adds 500 miles to the distance by water, and 300 by land. The storekeepers of these western towns, visit the eastern ports of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, once a year, to lay in their stock of goods. The great variety of articles, and the risk attending their carriage to so great a distance, by land and water, renders it necessary that the storekeepers should attend both to their purchase and conveyance. I think the time is at hand when these periodical transmontane journeys are to give place to expeditions down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. The vast and increasing produce of these states, in grain, flour, cotton, sugar, tobacco, peltry, timber, etc., which finds a ready vent at New Orleans, will be returned through the same channel in the manufactures of Europe, and the luxuries of the East to supply the growing demands of this western world."[435]

Faux, while traveling in America, was told by Eastern farmers that transportation per barrel for 80 miles cost half a dollar, while the farmers of the West could send it 2000 miles for $6;[436] and that the western people could afford to sell at half price, better than the eastern could at whole price, because they grew double the quantity per acre, and because the popula tion was rapidly increasing.[437]

Great supplies of lumber from the extensive pine forests about the sources of the Allegheny, supplied the country below as far as New Orleans.[438] A yankee speculation to New Orleans sometimes consisted "of iron coffins, or nests of coffins filled with shoes, so accomodating both the living and the dead."[439]

Wheat in Ohio, in 1819-1820, even at 50 cents, found no market, as New Orleans was then supplied by countries more conveniently situated.[440] Boats carrying from 100 to 500 barrels, sold for only $16.[441] Cincinnati continued to send flour and pork to New Orleans.[442] Flint says, "On shore the utmost bustle prevails, with drays carrying imported goods, salt, iron, and timber, up to the town, and in bringing down pork, flour, etc., to be put aboard boats for New Orleans."[443]

Produce was floated down the Wabash, and the boats returned laden with goods for their market at an enormous profit.[444] Indian corn was purchased of the farmer on the Wabash at 25 cents per bushel, soon after harvest; in the spring it was sent to New Orleans under a freight of 25 cents per bushel, and sold at 75 cents to one dollar a bushel; wheat was bought at six pence or seven pence the bushel dearer than corn, and sold proportionally higher.[445] Produce from the English settlement in Illinois, (corn, etc,), was hauled to Bon Pas, which was on a tributary of the Wabash, and sent from thence to New Orleans, there to be shipped either for Europe or the eastern ports of America.[446]

For a return lading salt was purchased at half a dollar per bushel, and sold at Vincennes from $2 to $2¼ per bushel. Loaf sugar sold at 50 cents per pound; brown sugar at 37½ cents per pound; coffee at 75 cents per pound; tea from $2½ to $3½; and many other groceries, which like the above were bought for considerably less than one half their selling price.[447] Welby says, "... of iron and drugs I could not obtain the price at New Orleans; but of the profit on the iron the reader may judge by the price I paid to a blacksmith for eight new horse shoes, steel tacs, and eight removes, the bill for which was about $10."[448] Faux, speaking of a man who had come to Princeton, says, "If he had money he could buy bacon at $4 and sell it at $16; and sugar from New Orleans would pay 50 per cent; costing 10 cents, and selling at 25 cents, 2½ cents being deducted per pound for carriage. Store goods, bought at Washington, which he is selling cheaper than his neighbors, pay 25 per cent profit."[449] Cincinnati received cotton from northern Alabama.[450]

The 'Register' of June 9, 1821, says, "The whole number of boats which passed the Falls of Ohio last year, is estimated to be 2400, wafting the rich produce of the western world to the markets on the seaboard, the principal part of which consisted of 1,804,810 pounds of bacon, 200,000 barrels of flour, 20,000 barrels of pork, 62,000 bushels of oats, 100,000 bushels of corn, 10,000 barrels of cheese, 160,000 pounds of butter, 11,207,333 fowls, and 466,412 pounds of lard."[451]

Stove coal was carried in boats down the river in 1821-1823 to supply the great number of steam mills in making flour.[452] These boats were also engaged in freighting salt to the various parts of the count ry.[453] The following is an "estimate of the amount of products which descended the Falls of Ohio at Louisville, the growth of the year 1822 ... the produce of the whole of the State of Ohio, (except the part bordering on the lake), two-thirds of Kentucky, one half of the State of Indiana, and a small part of the States of Pennsylvania and Virginia."[454]

Notice the vast increase since 1820.

_Est. Tons._ _Est. Cost._

12000 hhds. Tobacco. 7,500 $ 500,000 10000 hhds. hams and shoulders, green 4,464 350,000 12000 hhds. and boxes bacon 2,700 210,000 4000 hhds. corn meal, kiln dried 1,700 24,000 50000 bbls. pork. 7,000 350,000 4000 bbls. beef. 535 24,000 300,000 bbls. flour 27,000 900,000 75,000 bbls. Whiskey 10,800 500,000 5000 bbls. Beans 450 7,500 3000 bbls. Cider 430 9,000 100,000 kegs of lard 2,250 250,000 25,000 firkins butter 550 125,000 2,000 bales hay 350 2,000 2,000 casks flax seed, 7 bu. to Cask. 360 4,000 3,000 bbls. linseed oil 400 57,000 5,000 boxes window glass 200 25,000 25,000 boxes soap. 560 75,000 10,000 boxes candles 225 50,000 3,000 bbls. porter 400 15,000 60,000 bbls. ginseng 27 15,000 50,000 bbls. beeswax 22 12,500 10,000 kegs tobacco 580 60,000 65,000 lbs. feathers 29 16,000 ------ --------- $ 68,932 $ 3,590,000

"There are many articles of export not included in the above schedule, such as iron, iron castings, salt, gunpowder, white lead, and other manufactured articles, of various descriptions, the amount of which could not be correctly estimated, for want of adequate data. It is estimated, that produce and manufactured articles, to the amount of upwards of one million of dollars, have been shipped from Cincinnati and its immediate vicinity, during the year ending in April, 1823--principally the production of what is termed the "Miami Country". Among the articles from Cincinnati are "types and printing materials $10,000, paper$15,000 cabinet furniture $20,000, chairs $6,000, hats $6,500." Within the last year every store and warehouse has become reoccupied by business men--generally by those who were unconnected with the late embarrassments. All purchases are now made for cash, and at no period, within the last ten years, have we witnessed so numerous and active a population, or so great a number of new buildings in a state of progress."

Corn and wheat were sent to New Orleans from Illinois in 1823.[455] Albion, Illinois, exported produce, for the first time, in this year. They loaded the flat boats with corn, flour, pork, beef, sausages, and other articles, and floated them down the Wabash into the Ohio, and from thence to New Orleans.[456] Harmony was, annually, sending boats laden with produce to New Orleans.[457] Tranchepain journeyed part of the way down the Ohio in a boat loaded with horses, fowls, iron castings, apples, and whiskey for New Orleans.[458]

From St. Louis, a central point on the Mississippi, to New York by way of New Orleans, the price of transportation was about $45 per ton, for a return cargo not less than $80.[459] Beck says, "The export trade must then be divided between New Orleans and New York. She (New Orleans) commands the greatest interior; she is the key to the richest and most extensive inland region of any mercantile capital in the world. Besides the produce required for her own consumption, and that of Louisiana and Mississippi, she will be the entrepot of the produce destined for the West Indies and the provinces of South America. The capital of New Orleans is disproportionate to the quantity of produce landed there. The warmth and unhealthiness of the climate prevents the farmer from sending his produce to that place at a time when he may be most in need of the articles for which he would barter. During this time, he is at present completely deprived of a market for his produce, and is moreover obliged to pay the merchant an exorbitant price for his necessaries. It frequently happens, that in the Western States during the summer and fall, the price of those articles for which they depend upon New Orleans is raised 50 and sometimes 100%. But New Orleans is at all times a very uncertain market. It not unfrequently happens that a few boat loads of produce completely supply the demand.[460] If another cargo then arrives the owner is obliged either to sacrifice it, or leave it in store; in the latter case, if it consists of flour of bacon, it suffers much from the heat and humidity of the climate, and its value is not unfrequently diminished one half or three fourths. This is also the case with furs and several other articles which cannot be transported by New Orleans to a foreign market, without a considerable depreciation in their value. These considerations clearly prove the importance of opening a communication with New York, by which means the States bordering on the Mississippi will be enabled to find a market for their produce during those seasons when they are completely excluded from New Orleans. Even at this time merchants at St. Louis, and in different parts of Illinois and Missouri purchase their goods in the eastern cities, and transport them across the mountains in preference to sending them by New Orleans."[461] For several years all articles of life in Illinois and Missouri, were below what the planters could afford to raise them for, with any view beyond domestic consumption. Grain boats from Missouri scarcely paid the expense of their building and transport to New Orleans.[462]

In 1825 extensive arrivals of cotton came into New Orleans from the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.[463] It was estimated that the goods sent to New Orleans from Louisville during this year weighed 27 or 28,000 tons;--42 steamboats made 140 trips during the same period.[464] The southern interior counties of Illinois began in 1824-1825 to cultivate tobacco and the castor bean, and to make these articles of considerable exportation.[465] Tobacco was raised, with great success, in Ohio, at the rate of 700 lbs. to the acre, and of a quality to bring $12 to $15 per hundred in the Baltimore market.[466] From the extensive glass works of Pittsburg about $100,000 worth was exported yearly.[467]

Niles Register, July 8, 1826, says, "152 boats descending the Wabash passed Vincennes during the late freshets.[468] They were all well laden. The following is an estimate of some of the chief items of their cargoes.

250,000 bu. corn. 100,000 lbs. pork. 10,000 hams 4,000 bbls. pork. 800 bbls. corn meal. 2,000 live cattle. 250 live hogs. 10,000 lbs. beeswax. 3,600 venison hams and many small articles.[1]

[1]Niles, Weekly Register, XXX., 338.