19. The overland route to California. [Henry Inman, The old Santa Fe trail, N. Y., Macmillan, 1899. Salt Lake trail, N. Y., 1898.]
20. Development of gold and silver mining. [C. H. Shinn, Story of the mine, N. Y., Appleton, 1896.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See chapter xlviii.
CHAPTER L
IMPORTS, POLICY, DIRECTION OF COMMERCE, 1815-1860
646. Chief imports in 1860.—The imports of the United States have been so varied in character that it is impossible to classify them with any exactness. An attempt will be made in this section, however, to indicate the leading items in our imports in 1860, giving values in round millions of dollars. Of the total of the year, 354, the largest share fell to manufactures. Under this head the chief place was taken by the textiles (wool 38, silk 33, cotton 32, linen 10); nearly one third of the total imports of the country was derived from these four leading branches of the textile manufacture. Most of the other manufactures imported fell below the mark of 5 millions; a noteworthy exception is the item of iron and steel in various forms, amounting to 21 millions. In comparison with the amount of manufactures imported, the class of raw materials, to be used for manufacture in this country, was still small; we purchased abroad considerable amounts of hides and skins, wool, etc., but in general we either manufactured our wares out of materials procured at home or sent abroad for the finished product. The colonial wares had gained both in value and in the proportion which they formed of the total imports; the chief items in this class were sugar 31, coffee 21, tea 8, cigars and tobacco 6, molasses 5, altogether amounting to about one fifth of the imports of the year.
647. Significance of the import trade at this time.—The general character of our import trade, evidently, had not changed greatly in the seventy years since the establishment of the national government. The attractions of farming were so great, when fertile land was to be had in abundance and when there was an eager demand for such products as cotton and foodstuffs, that the American people still gave most of its energy to raising raw materials; and found it profitable still to look to other countries for much of its supply of manufactured wares. The policy of protection, which was established in the period under consideration, had not as yet succeeded in building up manufactures capable of supplying the wants of the home market. The comparatively small amount of materials imported for our factories showed that our manufactures were still local in character, without the strength, or else denied the opportunity, to reach out and draw from distant sources the raw materials which they could work up and return to the currents of the world’s trade.
The growth in the imports of colonial products represented the increase of general prosperity, enabling the people to consume luxuries in greater quantity. Dividing the amount of these wares imported by the population of the country, and so securing a rough idea of the share falling to each individual, we find that the per capita consumption rose as follows from 1790 to 1860: coffee from about 1 pound in 1790 to over 5 pounds in 1860, sugar from less than 5 pounds to over 30.
648. Growth of domestic manufactures.—Though the imports of manufactured wares increased greatly in the course of this period, it must not be assumed that the United States was as wholly dependent on foreign manufactures in 1860 as it had been in 1790. A population growing rapidly both in numbers and in welfare caused a demand for manufactures which stimulated some producers to choose manufacturing instead of farming for their livelihood, and the government aided these individuals by taxing imported wares, and so giving the domestic producer an advantage in the home market. In the following sections we shall survey the chief branches of manufacture which grew up in the United States at this time, and consider the bearing of the protective tariff on their development.
649. Increase in the use of coal.—Some idea of the development of modern forms of manufacture in the United States can be gained by tracing the history of coal, the great source of power for the developed system of factory industry. The demand for coal was still very small in the first quarter of the century; in 1830 the total production was less than half a million tons, and the United States was surpassed in coal output by four of the states of Europe. The second quarter of the century was marked by a great extension in the use of steam power, and the successful application of coal to iron making; by 1850 the United States had reached the second place among the countries of the world in coal production, with an output of over six million tons. Small as this seems in comparison with the output of Great Britain at that time (54 million), or the output of the United States in 1913 (over 500), it marked a tremendous advance over conditions as they were about 1800, and showed that at least the country had passed through the preparatory stage of industrial development.