"Besides a quantity of horned cattle, castings, grind stones, indigo, muskets, merchandise, paoan nuts, peas, beans, etc.[410]"
Beer, porter, and ale were made in Cincinnati, in great quantities, as well for exportation, as for home consumption. The exports of the city consisted of flour, corn, beef, pork, butter, lard, bacon, whiskey, peach brandy, beer, porter, pot and pearl ashes, cheese, soap, candles, hats, hemp, spun yarn, saddles, rifles, cherry and black ash boards, staves and scantling, cabinet furniture and chairs.[411] Boats were, in 1817, sent from Cincinnati to Boston with cargoes.[412]
East Indian and European goods were imported from Baltimore and Philadelphia by way of Pittsburg.[413] A journey, undertaken for the purpose of purchasing goods at Philadelphia, occupied about three months.[414] A house at Pittsburg advanced money in payment of the carriage, and attended to the receipt of the goods by wagon, and their shipment by boats, receiving 5 per cent commission in payment.[415] Coal, of which vast quantities were consumed at Cincinnati, was brought down the Ohio from Pittsburg and Wheeling in flat bottomed boats. White pine boards, and shingles were brought in rafts from Hamilton on the Allegheny.[416] Lead was procured from St. Louis; and rum, sugar, molasses, and some dry goods were received from New Orleans in keels and steamboats.[417] Salt was easily obtained from the Kenhaway salt works.[418] Thus the town of Cincinnati, which was, before 1811, but a small and unimportant village, was destined to become a greater commercial center than Pittsburg.
Three fourths of the surplus produce of Kentucky found their way to New Orleans,[419] the farmers usually being able to command a ready cash sale for their produce.[420] Fearon says, "Indian corn is raised here in vast abundance, and also stock of various kinds for the New Orleans, Southern and Atlantic markets, 30,000 hogsheads of tobacco were shipped from this State last season, and 8,000 barrels of flour, the price of which latter experienced great fluctuations, varying from 4 to 8 dollars per barrel, at present it is 6 to 7. Pork ... the present price is 3 to 4 dollars per cwt. Beef is also of good quality. Whiskey ... the export of last season was one million gallons. Cordage, yarn, and bagging have been important businesses, but European competition has materially decreased their consumption.[421] The exports for one season were as follows:
1Fearon, H. B., Journey, 238.
In 1817-1818 the wealthy farmers of Ohio raised live stock for the home, and Atlantic city markets, and sent beef, pork, cheese, lard, and butter to New Orleans.[422] Pork was exported from Illinois.[423]
Fearon says, "there is a class of men throughout the western country called 'merchants', who, in the summer and autumn months, collect flour, butter, cheese, pork, beef, whiskey, and every species of farming produce which they send in flats and keel boats to the New Orleans market. The demand created by this trade, added to a large domestic consumption, insures the most remote farmer a certain market. Some of these speculators have made large fortunes."[424]
It may be interesting to note the estimates, on the prices of freight, given by Fearon and Fordham who traveled through the West in the years 1817-1818. Fearon says, "The price of boating goods from New Orleans to Louisville (1412 miles) is from 18 s. to 22 s. 6 d. per hundred. The freight to New Orleans from hence is 3 s. 4½ d. to 4 s. 6 d. per hundred. The average period of time which boats take to go to New Orleans is about 28 days; that from New Orleans 90 days. Steam vessels effect the same route in an average of 12 days down, and 36 days up." "Freight from this place (Illinois) to Louisville (307 miles) is 5 s. per cwt.; from Louisville is 1 s. 8 d.; from hence to New Orleans (1130 miles) 4 s. 6 d.; from New Orleans, 20 s. 3 d.; hence to Pittsburg (1013 miles) 15 s. 9 d.; from Pittsburg, 4 s. 6 d. This vast disproportion in the charge of freight is produced by the difference in time in navigating up and down the streams of the Ohio and Mississippi."[425]
Fordham's figures are as follows: "From Shawnee, Illinois, to New Orleans, $1 per hundred pounds, back $4½; to Pittsburg #3.50, from Pittsburg, $1; from Louisville 37½ cents; from Shawnee, or the mouth of the Wabash to Carmi, on the Little Wabash, 20 miles below us, 37½ cents ... to the nearest point of the Wabash to our settlement, 50 cents; down the stream to Shawnee, 5 cents per hundred pounds."[426] "Freighting down to New Orleans will pay the expense of going, and leave one or two hundred dollars surplus. But if, besides $700, the price of a new boat completely rigged, the owner has a capital of $1500 or $2000, he may make the voyage pay him from $500 to $1500. The whole trip is completed in two or three months."[427] "Trade from the general want of capital, and other causes with which I am unacquainted, is exceedingly profitable. 75 to 100 per cent is reckoned a good profit; 50 per cent is a living profit; 25 per cent will not keep a man to his business, he will look out for something else. I had the following account from a River Trader"