| Imports | Exports | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1820 | 74 | 69 | 144 |
| 1830 | 62 | 71 | 134 |
| 1840 | 98 | 123 | 221 |
| 1850 | 173 | 144 | 317 |
| 1860 | 353 | 333 | 687 |
Though the statistics of selected years can give only a rough picture of commercial development, the figures here given suggest the striking features of our trade in this period with sufficient accuracy. For about twenty years after 1815 the foreign commerce of the country was nearly stationary, or actually declined. Not until 1835 did our exports reach again the mark attained in the year 1807. Towards the end of the period, however, they showed increasing strength; the figures for 1860 show the upper limit which they attained, but for some years previously they had been approaching the sum of three hundred millions.
613. Reasons for slowness of growth.—The reasons for these changes in our foreign trade must be sought both abroad and at home. Our prosperity in the preceding period had been due mainly to the European wars. With the return of peace the states of Europe escaped from their commercial dependence on the United States. Our domestic exports of breadstuffs and provisions declined as Europe returned to the policy of protecting the domestic food supply; and our foreign exports declined even more rapidly when we lost our privileged position of the great neutral carrier, and our merchants had to face not only the active competition but also the adverse legislation of other countries. Through most of the period the annual foreign exports of the country were about twenty million dollars in value. Not until near the end of the period did conditions change to our advantage. The repeal of the English Corn Laws in 1846, as was noted in a previous chapter, marked a departure in commercial policy, which offered new openings to American export industries.
614. Absorption of the national energy in territorial expansion.—At home, moreover, the people of the United States were occupied in this period with tasks which turned their thoughts and interests to a large extent away from foreign trade. It was a period of great territorial expansion. A comparison of maps indicating the distribution of population shows that extraordinary changes occurred in the interval between 1810 and 1860. At the former date the people were still gathered mainly along the Atlantic seaboard, face to face with Europe; and most of the territory west of the Appalachian mountains was still left to the Indians. The center of population was not far from Washington, D. C. In 1860, on the other hand, the center of population was near Chillicothe, Ohio. This change indicates an enormous movement of population westward. The country extending west to the Mississippi river had, by 1860, been covered almost continuously with settlements; many people had spread out on the great plains facing the Rocky Mountains; and the population on the Pacific Coast was sufficient to entitle that district to the two States California and Oregon.
615. Relative decline in the importance of foreign trade.—The expansion of population, necessary as it was to the development of the country, proved in its early stages to contribute comparatively little to the growth of foreign commerce. The growth of our trade did not keep pace with the growth of population. While the share of the average inhabitant in foreign trade was over $30 in 1800, it was little over $20 in 1860, and ranged between $10 and $15 through much of the intervening period.
It seems as if the people of the country, after the close of the war of 1812, had turned their gaze away from Europe, the continent which they had for centuries regarded as the source of civilization, and had fixed their attention on their own continent, with the determination to make its resources satisfy their needs, so far as they were able. Many of the settlers in the western country led lives of extreme simplicity, unable to find a market for the surplus which the fertile soil returned to them, and consequently forced to restrict their purchases of foreign goods to the bare minimum.
616. Importance of the problem of transportation in this period.—As the American people expanded and occupied territory far beyond the limits of their original settlements, the question of transportation became one of increasing importance. The early colonists had evaded rather than solved the problem of transportation, by choosing for settlement districts connected with the sea by short water routes, and by renouncing, in large part, the attempt at intercommunication by land. The problem could no longer be set aside, as the people spread out in the great interior valley. The resources of the West could be of no advantage to the people of the East, and could contribute nothing to the foreign commerce of the country, unless means were found to bring the wares to market with a profit.
In the remaining sections of this chapter, therefore, we shall study the development of the means of transportation in this period, that we may be better able to appreciate the details of the export and import trade, described in following chapters.
617. The turnpike era.—Even in the earlier period, following 1789, the condition of the common roads was felt to be intolerable, and a movement for their reform set in. Stock companies were chartered, to improve the more important roads, and were allowed to secure a return on their investment by charging toll on traffic—so much for a one-horse cart, so much for a two-horse wagon, etc. Hundreds of turnpike companies were chartered in the different States, and in Pennsylvania alone over 2,000 miles of improved roads had been constructed by them at the close of the first quarter of the century.