USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati in 1841 : its early annals and future prospects > Part 21
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supplies taken direct from boats at the river, which sell on their own account, would swell this amount almost or quite to one million bushels, as the annual consumption for small manufacturing establishments, and private families in the city. To this must be added the quantity required in the large iron-works, city water-works, &c., which I estimate to be as much more, at least; one establishment alone consuming ninety-five thousand bushels of this article a year.
For this supply of coal the market depends principally on the regions of the Monongahela and Youghiogany, and the neighborhood of Wheeling. A proportion, now about fifteen per cent. and increasing, of the whole quantity, is Ohio coal from the neighborhood of Leading creek, and Pomeroy, Meigs county, in this state.
An article of such indispensable necessity, brought from so great a distance, and the supply of which is at times shut out by low water, has rendered it necessary for the citizens to make arrangements by which our families, even down to those lowest in circumstances, might be enabled to secure their pur- chases in the quantity which it might be convenient to re- ceive or to pay for at one time, and at a uniform price. This is accomplished through the Cincinnati Fuel Company, by whose capital and agency, adequate supplies are laid in during the season of navigation, and distributed to the stock-holders,. and to others, when this supply exceeds the wants of its own members ; so as to protect the community from the extortions and fluctuations in price which the monopoly of this article in the hands of a few dealers, would be sure to produce.
I have now reached my last page, and find, to my great re- gret, that space is not left for several subjects of interest I par- ticularly desired to refer to. One of them is a view of the facilities for making bar-iron here; in which I proposed to show that we have every thing necessary-capital excepted- to give this place the ascendancy over every point in the west in this manufacture. I shall avail myself of some other chan- nel to present this interesting subject to the community. If
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my view be correct, it may serve to point out a profitable in- vestment for capitalists, and thereby remove the only obstacle that remains, to the establishment of heavy works of this sort.
It was my desire also to present some interesting statements respecting our sculptors and painters, abroad and at home ; and various testimonies from the Atlantic cities, as well as from Italy, the fiduciary of the fine arts, to their merit and excellence.
Various interesting details I had prepared touching our co- lored population, are also shut out.
In reviewing the extent to which my field of labor has en- larged in the progress of these pages, and the importance of subjects which 'should have been fully presented to the com- munity, the curtailment of which is rendered unavoidable by the limited size and number of my pages, I can only add with STERNE, " Let no man say, henceforth, I will write a duode- cimo." -
APPENDIX.
A
NOT having before my eyes the fear of men, " who (in the language of governeur Morris) with too much pride to study and too much wit to think, undervalue what they do not un- derstand, and condemn what they do not comprehend," I ven- ture the prediction, that within one hundred years from this time, Cincinnati will be the greatest city in America ; and by the year of our Lord two thousand, the greatest city in the world. "How wild," says an eastern friend : "how can Cincinnati, situated nearly a thousand miles from the sea. al- most in the very centre of the continent, rival our great sea- ports, Boston, New-York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and New- Orleans ?" Not so fast, my friend; perhaps it may be worth while to look to the source of your opinion, and then permit me to explain how an castern man may be mistaken, though all his countrymen sustain his opinion. Until quite recently, the whole weight of population in these states lay along the Atlantic shore, on and near its tide waters, and a great propor- tion of their wealth was connected with foreign commerce, carried on through their sea-ports. These being at once the centres of domestic and foreign trade-grew rapidly-and constituted all the large towns of the country. The inference was thence drawn, that, as all our towns of greatest size were connected with foreign commerce, this constituted the only source of wealth ; and that large cities could grow up no where but on the shores of the salt sea. Such had been the experi- ence of the Americans, and the opinion founded on it was ad- hered to after the situation of the country in regard to trade and commerce had materially altered. It has not until lately occurred, even to many well-informed statesmen, that the inter- nal trade of this country has become, by far, more extensive, important and profitable than the foreign. In what ratio the former exceeds the latter it is impossible now to ascertain, as "t has not, unfortunately, been considered one of the appropri-
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ate duties of the general government to collect the facts on which a knowledge of our internal industry and trade, to be accurate, must be based.
The annual production of the industry of Massachusetts has been ascertained to be of the value of about one hundred mil- lions of dollars. If the industry of the whole nation were equally productive, its yearly value would be about twenty three hundred millions, (2,300,000,000) but as we know that capital is not so abundantly united with labor in many portions of the country as in Massachusetts, it would be an over esti- mate to make that state the basis for the whole nation.
ยท - Fifteen hundred millions is, probably, near the actual amount of our yearly earnings. Of this amount about five hundred millions is consumed and used where it is earned, without be- ing exchanged. The balance, being one thousand millions, constitutes the subjects of exchange, and the articles that make up the domestic trade and foreign commerce of the United States. Of these the value of those which enter into our for- eign commerce is on an average less than one hundred millions. For the fiscal year ending on the 30th of September last, the exports of all kinds of domestic growth were between ninety- five and ninety-six millions. This will leave upwards of nine hundred millions, or more than nine tenths, for our domestic or internal trade Supposing, then, some of our marts to be only adapted to foreign commerce, and, others exclusively confined to domestic trade, the latter would have nine times as much business as the former, and should, in consequence, be nine times as large. Although we have no great marts that do not, in some degree, partake of both, yet we have those whose situations particularly adapt them to the one or the other; and I wish it constantly borne in mind, that an adapta- tion to internal trade-other things being equal-is worth nine times as much as an adaptation to foreign commerce. It may be said, and with truth, that our great sea-ports have great advantages for domestic as well as for foreign trade. Since the peace of Europe left every nation free to use its own naviga- tion, the trade of our Atlantic coast has, doubtless, been five times as great as that carried on with foreign nations ;- as its tonage has been somewhat greater, and the number of voyages at least five to one of the foreign.
Now, what is the extent and quality of that coast, com- pared to the navigable river and lake coasts of the west? We will see. From the mouth of the St. Croix to Sandy
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Hook, the soil, in general, though sterile, is well peopled, and in a pretty good state of cultivation. In extent, includ- ing bays, inlets, and both shores of navigable rivers, and excluding Cape Cod, which is nothing but a sand beach, this coast may be estimated at nine hundred miles. From Sandy Hook to Norfolk, including both shores of Delaware and Chesapeake bays, and their navigable inlets, and exclud- ing the barren shore to Cape May, the coast may be com- puted at nine hundred miles more. And from Norfolk to the Sabine, there is a barren coast of upwards of two thou- sand miles, bordered, most of the way, by a sandy desert, the average width of which is not less than one hundred miles. Over this desert must be transported most of the produce and merchandise, the transit and exchange of which, consti- tute the trade of the coast. This barrier of nature must les- sen its trade, probably, as much as one-half. It will be a lib- eral allowance to say, that four thousand miles of navigable coast are afforded to our navigation by the Atlantic ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Of this, only about two thousand five hun- dred miles, to wit, from Passamaquoddy to St. Mary's, can be said to have contributed much to the building of our great At- lantic ports. To the trade of this coast, then, are we to attri- bute five-sixths of the growth and business of Portland, Salem, Boston, Providence, New-York, Albany, Troy, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Norfolk, Edenton, Wil- mington, Charleston, Savannah, and a host of smaller cities and towns. Perhaps it will be said, that foreign trade is more profitable, in proportion to its amount, than domestic. But is this likely ? Will not the New-York merchant be as apt to make a good bargain with a Georgian as with an Englishman, of Lancashire ? Or is it an advantage to trade to have the wide obstacle of the Atlantic in its way ? Do distance, and difficul- ty, and risk, and danger, tend to promote commercial inter- course and profitable trade ? If so, the Alleganies are a singu- lar blessing to the commercial men of our valley. "But" says our eastern friend " it is the foreign commerce that brings all the wealth to the country, and sets in motion most of the do- mestic trade." We will see. During the last fiscal year, for- eign trade brought us seventeen millions of pounds of tea ; eighty-eight millions of pounds of coffee ; silk goods to the val- ue of near sixteen millions of dollars ; worsteds and linens to the value of upwards of eight millions ; woolen goods, about five millions ; manufactures of iron and steel, upwards of
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twelve millions ; watches, parts of watches, and precious stones, near two millions; wines, three millions and a half; spirits, a million and a half; sugar, upwards of seven millions ; cigars, a million and a quarter ; wheat, upwards of four millions ; mo- lasses, three and a half millions ; cotton goods, upwards of ten millions ; and china and porcelain, near two millions. Such are the leading articles of an import of one hundred and forty mil- lions, of which twenty-one millions were re-exported. Now I would ask, is it the eating, drinking, wearing, and using the above enumerated articles that make us rich, or is it the rais- ing the means of paying for them, that possesses this tendency ? Far be it from me to deny the advantages of foreign com- merce. Some of the articles above enumerated as introduced by it, add much to our substantial comfort, such as woolen and cotton goods, sugar and molasses ; and others, such as iron and steel, with most of their manufactures, give much aid to our advancing arts. But I am so much of a western man as to believe, that these would be just as valuable to us, if produced in the factories of Dayton, on the plantations of Louisiana, and in the furnaces, forges, and workshops of Pennsylvania ; and I cannot, for the life of me, understand why the dealing in those of foreign growth and manufacture, should have a ten- dency to enrich, while the dealing in the same articles of home growth and manufacture, have no such tendency.
A disposition to attribute the rapid increase of wealth, in commercial nations, mainly to foreign commerce, is not alto- gether peculiar to our eastern brethren ; for I find it combatted, as a dangerous fallacy, by distinguished writers on political economy ; particularly by Hume and Chalmers. The former maintains that the only way in which foreign commerce tends to enrich a country is by presenting tempting articles of luxu- ry, and thereby stimulating the industry of those in whom a desire to purchase is thus excited : the augmented industry of the nation being the only gain. Dr. Chalmers says that " Foreign trade is not the creator of any economic interest; it Should we is but the officiating minister of our enjoyments.
consent to forego these enjoyments, then, at the bidding of our will, the whole strength, at present embarked in the service of procuring them, would be transferred to other services, to the extension of the home trade; to the enlargement of our national establishments; to the service of defence, or conquest, or scientific research, or christian philanthropy." Again : "The extent of our foreign trade is, in fact, limited
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by the means, or by the extent, of human maintenance in the hands of our inland consumers." Speaking of the foolish purpose of Bonaparte to cripple Britain by destroying her foreign trade, and its utter failure of effect, he says : " The truth is, that the extinction of foreign trade, in one quarter, was almost immediately followed up, either by the extension of it in another quarter, or by the extension of the home trade." "Even had every outlet abroad been obstructed, then, instead of a transference from one foreign market to another, there would just be a universal reflux towards a home market that would be extended in precise proportion with every successive abridgment which took place in our external commerce." " The destruction of our intercourse with any foreign land, between which and ourselves a prosperous and satisfactory trade may now be going on, will but stop an out- let for our commodities, and an inlet for theirs ; but will not destroy the maintenance which, through a process already ex- plained, now passes from the consumers of our imports to the manufacturers of our exports. It will influence the direction of our industry, but not the amount of it; and leave to the industrious as good a wage and as liberal a maintenance as before." "The imports and the exports mutually limit and determine each other; and, generally speaking, whatever for- eign trade a country can support, it is not in virtue of an ori- ginating force from without, but in virtue of an inherent ability that resides and has its origin within the territory."
If these principles are true in their application to the British isles-small in territory, not naturally fertile, and presenting numerous natural obstacles to constructions for the promotion of internal commerce, and moreover located at the door of the richest nations of the world-with how much greater force do they apply to our country, having a territory twenty times as large, unrivalled natural means of intercommunication, with few obstacles to their indefinite multiplication by the hand of man ; a fertility of soil not equalled by the old world, grow- ing within its boundaries nearly all the productions of all the climes of the earth, and situated three thousand miles from her nearest commercial neighbor.
Will it be said, that, admitting the chief agency in building up great cities, to belong to internal industry and trade-it re- mains to be proved that New York, and the other great Atlan- tic ports, will feel less of the beneficial effects of this agency than Cincinnati and other western towns? To most men familiar with the geography and condition of the country, and
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having a tolerable knowledge of political economy, any facts or reasoning to sustain the superior claims in this respect, of our cis-montane towns, would be superfluous.
But, it is presumed that this article may meet the eyes of many whose thoughts have not before been particularly called to the subject, and whose will is not already predetermined against conviction. It should be borne in mind, then, that the " North American Valley," as bounded by Mr. Curry, in his late able article on that subject, embraces the climate, soils and minerals usually found distributed among many nations. From the northern shores of the upper lakes, and the highest navigable points of the Mississipi and Missouri rivers, to the gulf of Mexico, nearly all the agricultural articles which con- tribute to the enjoyment of civilized man, are now produced, or may be produced, in profusion. The north will send to the south most of its surplus of grain, flour, provisions, in- cluding the delicate fish of the lakes, horses, and the fruits of a temperate climate,-in exchange for the sugar, rice, cotton, and the fruits of the warm south. These are but a few of the articles, the produce of the soil, which will be the subjects of commerce in this valley. The intelligent reader, whose vision can stretch a few years into our future agricultural condition, may easily supply the deficiency. Of mineral pro- ductions, which, at no distant day, will greatly tend to swell the tide of internal commerce, it will suffice merely to men- tion coal, iron, salt, lead, and marble. Will Boston, or New York, or Philadelphia, or Baltimore, or New Orleans, be the point selected by us for the interchange of these pro- ducts ? Or shall we choose some convenient central point for these great exchanges ? Some persons may be found, per- haps, who will claim this for New Orleans ; but the experience of the past, more than the reason of the thing, will not bear them out. Cincinnati has now more white inhabitants than. that outport, although her first street was laid out, and her first log-house raised, long after New Orleans had been known as an important place of trade, and when she was already known as a considerable city; and although Cincinnati has had powerful, and, measurably, successful rivals to contend with, in the concentration of internal trade.
It is imagined by some, that the destiny of this valley has fixed it down to the almost exclusive pursuit of agriculture, ignorant that, as a general rule, in all ages of the world, and in all countries, the mouths go to the food, and not the food to the mouths. Dr. Chalmers says, " the bulkiness of food
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forms one of those forces in the economic machine, which tends to equalize the population of every land with the pro- ducts of its own agriculture. It does not restrain dispropor- tion and excess in all cases ; but in every large state it will be found, that wherever an excess obtains, it forms but a very small fraction of the whole population." " Each trade must have an agricultural basis to rest upon ; for, in every process of industry, the first and greatest necessity is, that the workmen shall be fed." Again : "Generally speaking, the excrescent, (by which he means the population over and above that which the agriculture of the country can feed,) bears a very minute proportion to the natural population of a country ; and almost nowhere does the commerce of a nation overleap, but by a very little way, the basis of its own agriculture." The Atlan- tic states, and particularly the eastern states, claim that they are to become the seats of the manufactures with which we are to be supplied; that mechanics, and artizans, and manu- facturers, are not to select for their place of business the sec- tion in which the means of living are most abundant, and their manufactured articles in greatest demand, but the section which is most deficient in those means, and to which their food and fuel must, during their lives, be transported hundreds and thousands of miles, and the products of their labor be sent back the same long road for a market.
But this claim is neither sanctioned by reason, authority, nor experience. The mere statement exhibits it as unreason- able. Dr. Chalmers maintains that the " excrescent" popu- lation could not in Britain, even, with a free trade in bread- stuffs, exceed one-tenth of all the inhabitants; and Britain, be it remembered, is nearer the granaries of the Baltic than is New England to the granaries of our valley; and has also greatly the advantage over the latter in the diminished expense of transportation. But the eastern states have already nearly, if not quite, attained to the maximum ratio of excrescent popu- lation, and cannot therefore greatly augment her manufactures, without a correspondent increase in agricultural production.
Most of the countries distinguished for manufactures have first laid the foundation in a highly improved agriculture .- England, the north of France, and Belgium, all naturally fer- tile, have a more productive husbandry than any other region of the same extent. In these same countries are also to be found the most efficient and extensive manufacturing establish- ments of the whole world; and it is not to be doubted that the abundance of food was the chief cause of setting them in
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motion. How is it that a like cause operating here will not have the same effect? Have we not, in addition to our proli- fic agriculture, as many and as great natural aids for manufac- turing, as any other country ? Are we deficient in water- power? Look at Niagara river and falls, where all the waters of the St. Lawrence basin fall three hundred and thirty-five feet in the distance of thirty-six miles. Look at the falls in the outlet of Lake Superior, amounting to forty-four feet ; and the falls of St. Anthony. Survey, also, the immense power of the water-falls in our large rivers over all our northern region ; and, above all, do not fail to take into your estimate the nu- merous great rivers on our eastern border, each of which falls hundreds of feet in its descent westward from the Alleghanies. Most of these falls are situated near water transportation, and when they shall be fully employed in propelling machinery- why-I will leave it to posterity, living in the year of our Lord three thousand, to provide for the contingency.
And then we have beds of coal of vast extent, throughout the north-eastern and middle portions of the valley, which will suffice for driving all the steam-engines which may be wanted, even beyond the year 3000 of our era.
Will laborers be wanting? Where food is abundant and cheap, there cannot long be a deficiency of laborers. What brought our ancestors (with the exception of the few who fled from persecution) from the other side of the Atlantic, but the greater abundance of the means of subsistence on this side ? What other cause has so strongly operated in the bringing to our valley the six or seven millions who now inhabit it ? The cause continuing, will the effect cease ? While land of unsur- passed fertility remains to be purchased, at a low rate, and the increase of agriculture in the west keeps down the relative price of food; and while the population in the old countries of Europe, and the old states of our confederacy, is so aug- menting as to straiten more and more the means of living at home, and at the same time the means of removing from the one to the other are every year rendering it cheaper, easier, and more speedy; and while, moreover, the new states, in addition to the inducement of cheaper food, now offer a coun- try with facilities of intercourse among themselves greatly im- proved, and with institutions civil, political and religious, al- ready established and flourishing, are farmers, mechanics and manufacturers-the young, the active, the enterprising-no longer to be seen pouring into this exuberant valley, and making it, with their energetic industry, as in times past?
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If my readers are satisfied that internal trade must have the chief agency in building up our great American cities, and that the internal trade of the great western valley will be mainly con- centrated in the cities situated within its bosom, they may ask, how is this valley to furnish trade enough, within itself, to build up Cincinnati, so that, one hundred years from this time, it shall be a greater emporium than New York ? In the first place I answer, that, even now, in the infancy of our growth, with a comparatively sparse population, Cincinnati is growing about as fast as New York. But let us inquire into the pro- bable relative number of people on the Atlantic slope, and in our valley, at the end of the century which I have allowed for Cincinnati to overtake and surpass New York. Since the war of the revolution the population of our whole country has increased by a greater ratio than thirty-three and one-third per cent. for every period of ten years. Taking that ratio for the increase of the next hundred years, and taking thirteen mil- lions as the number in 1830, the number of our people in 1938 will be upwards of two hundred and eighty-seven mil- lions. From this we will make the liberal allowance of fifty millions to the Atlantic states, and thirty-seven millions to the region west of the Rocky Mountains-thus leaving for our valley two hundred millions. The point, then, will be re- duced to the plain and easily solved question-whether two hundred millions of inhabitants will build up and sustain greater cities than forty millions. As our valley is in shape more compact than the Atlantic slope, it is more favorable to a great concentration of trade to one point. Whether that point shall be Cincinnati or Louisville, or St. Louis or Alton, it would be out of place now to discuss. I have at the outset assumed it to be Cincinnati, because that place having already with its suburbs across the river upwards of forty thousand inhabitants, by connecting my argument with that town, it has, at first blush, a less exaggerated aspect to the uninitiated, and because it may always maintain the precedence which it justly claims at present. The fact, that all the productions of a warm climate, which will be consumed by the country bordering the Lakes Erie, Huron, Ontario, and perhaps Superior, must be landed and reshipped here, to be forwarded through the Miami canal; and the productions of those lakes sent back through the same channel to the Lower Mississipi and gulf borders in return, will certainly give it, for a great length of time, a decided advantage over its rivals. But I am wandering from the main point. It yet remains to be shown how I can sus-
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