1849..

1857.
1858..
1859..

1861...
Total...

The basis of this large trade has been the increased quantities of domestic products that 1850... have been exported from the United States, which are as a whole an agricultural nation. The Eastern and Middle States are indeed manufacturing and commercial, but the great 1856. wealth of the country consists in its vast tracts of fertile land, open to the enterprising settler almost without cost. Labor actively supplied 1860.. by immigration, and applied to that land, has drawn forth an annually increasing surplus of raw productions and food, influenced by the growing numbers of the people, the increase in labor-saving machines, and the improved means by which distance is measurably annihilated, and transportation to market cheapened. The great agricultural West has fur nished food, and the great agricultural South has furnished tobacco, rice, and raw materials in quantity and abundance that have interested the commercial world. The Northern and Middle States have been supplied with this food and these materials to build up a system of manufacturing goods, for which, under cover of protective laws, they have found an amply remunerative market among the people of the two agricultural sections, whose surplus products have employed eastern vessels in the foreign trade, have paid for whatever of foreign luxuries the growing wealth of the country has

$5,818,049,825 $1,231,456,869 36

The average duty on the whole amount has been 21 per cent. The consumption per head gradually advanced from 1842 to 1853, since when it has been nearly stationary. This fact, in connection with the known prosperity of the country, indicates how greatly domestic manufactures have been developed to the profit of the North.

The following is the official table of the leading articles that were exported in 1861, as compared with those of 1860, before the secession, and in 1840, previous to the great change which took place in British commercial legislation in 1842, by which her markets were opened to American provisions, that had been before prohibited. The figures show in what particulars the great decrease in the business of 1861 took place:

1848..

1851...

1852..

1853..

1854.
1855.

Of

which also a number of railroads radiate through a fertile region, supplies a large proportion of the food exported. The rapidity with which that region has developed produce under the action of the railroads is apparent in the following table: Receipts of grain at Chicago.

Years.

1856...

1854...
1855...

1857...

1858...

662,540

726,321

8,060,766

1859...

1860...
1861... 1,479,284

This great increase for the year 1861 grew principally out of the large crops. These crops could not go South, and being turned on the lakes, caused a great demand for tonnage, and a rise in freights, which almost absorbed the value of the grain, leaving little to the farmer. The Illinois Central Railroad took corn from its land debtors in payment of instalments to the extent of 1,800,000 bushels, and altogether the road delivered 15,000,000 bushels, or five times as much as it delivered in 1855. That was the product of land which the Government had vainly offered for sale more than 10 or 15 years, until it gave 2,500,000 acres to the road to aid its construction. That being done, the land was rapidly settled, and the result is the large annual addition to the exchangeable values of the country.

having aided in more than doubling the export
of Western produce in one year, thus developing
an active capital that would soon restore the
capital absorbed in their construction. The
Southern produce, cut off by the blockade,
made necessary by the war, although that
blockade did not take place until late in the fiscal
year, was very large, and for the present fiscal
year will have ceased altogether. The exports
of goods and produce will then have barely
reached 140 millions, even if the Western prod-
uce continues to find so large a market abroad,
and by this amount the sum of the importations
must be measured, since the country buys no
more than its surplus produce pays for.
the importations certain articles are necessaries:
tea, coffee, sugar, and molasses. These in the
aggregate reach 80 millions, and in 1860 $20,-
446,586 worth of merchandise were imported
free from Canada under the reciprocity treaty.
These items alone absorb 100 millions of the
proceeds of exports, and leave little for the man-
ufactured goods that have been so largely im-
ported. The Northern States have doubtless
consumed the largest proportion of the import-
ed goods; but it has been because they have
been larger sellers of their own manufactures
to those who furnished the produce exported
to pay for their imports. The Western section
has produced an aggregate of $200,000,000 of
exchangeable values per annum, which they
have sold to the East and South in exchange for
imported and manufactured goods. The South-
ern States have produced 400 millions per
annum, which they have sold, and taken in pay
Northern and imported goods. The outbreak
of the secession caused that trade at once to
cease. The South could no longer sell, and the
North lost a customer for $400,000,000 of
goods per annum. Such an event could not
take place without producing immense changes
not only in the foreign trade, but in internal
industry. Those who no longer sold goods to
the South had no longer profits with which to
buy foreign goods. At the same time the ne-
cessities of the Government required the tax
on the foreign goods to be increased.
shipping which had been so largely employed 1853...
in the transportation of cotton, lost much of its
The mills that had been ac-
employment.
customed to work up 700,000 bales of cotton
per annum, were obliged to close, and the long
list of dye stuffs and other manufacturing
materials were no longer in request. At the
West, where in the last four years settlement
has progressed with great rapidity, the harvests
were very abundant, and at the same time the
Southern outlets for it being closed by the events
of the war, it was forced upon the lakes, causing
a great rise in freights, and at the same time low
prices to the farmer. Thus the traffic towards
the East has been very active, without however
a corresponding increase in the return traffic.

The trade of these two ports of Lake Michigan, as outlets for the great northern valley of the Mississippi, is indicative of the immense capacity of those regions. Toledo, at the head

of Lake Erie, receives the produce of Southern Michigan, Northwestern Ohio, and a large portion of Indiana, and pours it upon the bosom of the lake in increasing abundance.

Receipts of Flour and Grain at Toledo, with the sources of supply, for the year ending December 31st, 1861.