“Thus De Witt Clinton laid the foundation of our canal financial system. He estimated that ten million tons annually would be carried upon the canals; that the cost of a ton for transportation from Buffalo to Albany would be $3.00.”
The expenses of the engineering department to April 2, 1817, had been $14,462, and the total for exploration and surveying $42,957. The act to provide funds for the canal and also funds for the redemption of the funded debt of the state was passed April 21, 1818. This law authorized the comptroller to sell certain three per cent United States bonds, and to apply the proceeds to the redemption of the funded debt; the comptroller was ordered to borrow one million dollars at six per cent after advertising for proposals for the same. The governor was empowered to appoint a cashier of a New York bank to issue certificates of stock, the principal to be redeemable until 1823, taxed at one mill on the dollar; state deposits were to be made in any bank in New York that would loan one million dollars. The act of March, 1819, authorized the borrowing of $700,000 yearly for the building of the canal; on March 25 this was reduced to $600,000; an assessment of a tax upon all lands within twenty-five miles of the canal, formerly made, was at this time suspended. By a law of April 7, 1819, the commissioners were again authorized to borrow a sum not exceeding (together with the net income of the canal fund) $600,000. The board of commissioners of the canal fund was now reduced to three members (January 20, 1820) at a salary of $2,500 each. To meet the extraordinary expenses of 1819, as previously detailed, the commissioners were empowered, April 12, 1820, to borrow $122,500 at six per cent interest; three fourths of this was to be equally divided between the Eastern and Western sections; the remainder was for the Champlain Canal. The first tolls were levied on the Erie Canal July, 1820; in that year $5,244 was collected, $450 of it from the old canal of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company at Little Falls.
By a concurrent resolution in the legislature, the comptroller, A. McIntyre, was allowed to put into execution a plan for a sinking fund for the extinguishing of the canal debt, January 12, 1821. He took, as a basis of his calculation, a debt of $5,905,456 and a revenue of $210,000; the loan of $600,000, with revenues, was to be continued as heretofore. By this plan the debt was to be extinguished in 1842, at which time the revenue, it was estimated, would be about $580,000, and the canal tolls, $150,000 beyond expenditures for repairs.
“If these estimates of revenue and of the expense of making the canals, be correct, it results that the canals will be completed in 1830, and that the canal loans will be discharged in 1843.” An act dated February 9, 1821, authorized the commissioners to borrow one million dollars in both 1821 and 1822. Nothing can be more interesting than the financial estimates, the fears and doubts and the staunch firmness of these directors of the Erie Canal. In almost every case the estimates of expenses fell far below the actual cost; often the expenses ran thirty per cent above estimates; on the other hand the most optimistic commissioner never, in his most enthusiastic moment, realized what a tremendous income was to be received from the Erie Canal when it should be completed. Far as expenses ran ahead of estimates, they never exceeded them so far as the actual income of the canal exceeded the estimated income. This cannot be more clearly indicated than by a table showing estimated tolls and those actually received, from 1826 to 1834:
| Year | Estimated (1826) | Received |
| 1826 | $500,000 | $492,664.00 |
| 1827 | 550,000 | 786,244.64 |
| 1828 | 600,000 | 838,412.00 |
| 1829 | 650,000 | 861,302.00 |
| 1830 | 700,000 | 943,545.35 |
| 1831 | 750,000 | 1,091,714.26 |
| 1832 | 800,000 | 1,085,612.28 |
| 1833 | 850,000 | 1,290,136.20 |
| 1834 | 900,000 | 1,179,744.97 |
| ————— | —————— | |
| Totals | $6,300,000 | $8,539,377.70 |
In only these eight years, it will be seen, the receipts exceeded the estimates by nearly two and one-quarter millions. In many places these estimates had been laughed to scorn. It will be difficult to find in all the commercial history of America a more splendid success, and it will be quite as difficult to find an instance where success was more richly deserved.
Between June, 1817, and October, 1821, the sum of $2,893,500 was borrowed for canal work, the lenders advancing $91,202 in premiums; the yearly interest was $159,580. The tolls of 1821 amounted to $23,000. It will be interesting to notice on what these tolls were levied; the list includes 44,723 barrels of flour, 17,068 barrels of salt, 43,078 bushels of wheat, 1,061,844 feet of lumber, 71,000 bushels of lime, 9,993 pounds of maple sugar, 85 tons of butter and lard, 772 tons of gypsum, 2,500 tons of merchandise, 47 wagons, and 10 coaches. The rates of toll per mile in 1821 were as follows:
| Article | Rate |
| Salt | 5 mills per ton. |
| Gypsum | 5 mills per ton. |
| Flour, meal, etc | 1 cent per ton. |
| Merchandise | 2 cents per ton. |
| Timber (square and round) | 5 mills per 100 solid feet. |
| Boards (planks, and reduced to one inch) | 5 mills per 1000 solid feet. |
| Shingles | 1 mill per 1000. |
| Bricks, sand, lime, iron ore, and stone | 5 mills per ton. |
| Fence rails and posts | 2 cents per 1000. |
| Wood for fuel | 1 cent per cord. |
| All fuel for manufacture of salt | free. |
| Boats for transportation of property | 1 mill per ton of capacity. |
| Boats for carriage of persons | 5 cents per mile of their passage. |
| Staves and heading for pipes | 1 cent per 1000. |
| Staves and heading for hogsheads | 7 mills per 1000. |
| Staves and heading for barrels | 5 mills per 1000. |
| All articles not named | 1 cent per ton.[56] |
The large amounts handled by the canal commissioners during the building of the canal will indicate the great responsibility that lay on their shoulders; between 1817 and 1822 the amount paid out by Myron Holley was $1,799,425.58; by H. Seymour, $833,335.70; by S. Young, $554,641.19.