A boat of 30 tons burden from Orleans to Louisville.
| 14 men at $75 | $ 1,050. |
| Board for 75 days | 525. |
| Extra pay to steersman | 75. |
| Wear of boat | 100. |
| ———— | |
| $ 1,750. |
| Freight of 36 tons at $90 | $ 3,240. | |
| Deduct expenses | 1,750. | |
| ———— | ||
| Clear profit | $ 1,490. | 1 |
1Fordham, E. P., Travels, 121.
Groceries for Illinois had been received from Philadelphia or Baltimore, but in 1818 they came from New Orleans: coffee at 40 cents a pound; sugar from 22 to 50 cents; and tea at $2.50.[428] The steamboats coming up stream carried dry goods, pottery, cotton, sugar, wines, liquors, salted fish, and other articles; downwards their loading consisted of grain, flour, tobacco, bacon, etc.[429] At Harmony, Indiana, in 1818, a boat was being built, as a regular trader, to carry off the surplus produce, and bring back coffee, sugar, and groceries, as well as European manufactures.[430] Lead was received from Louisiana, and copper from South America.[431]
Horses, hogs, and cattle were raised, in Illinois, for exportation.[432] Flour, and fish were exported from Cincinnati to New Orleans, in the year 1818.[433] Birckbeck, in 1818, writes as follows, "The demand for grain will probably equal the produce for some years, owing to the influx of new settlers; and the Southern States, down the Mississippi to New Orleans, will be an increasing and sure market for our surplus of every kind; vast quantities of pork, and beef are shipped for New Orleans from Kentucky and Indiana."[434] "500 persons every summer pass down the Ohio from Cincinnati to New Orleans as traders or boatmen, and return on foot. By water, the distance is 1700 miles, and the walk back 1000. Many go down to New Orleans from Pittsburg, which adds 500 miles to the distance by water, and 300 by land. The storekeepers of these western towns, visit the eastern ports of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, once a year, to lay in their stock of goods. The great variety of articles, and the risk attending their carriage to so great a distance, by land and water, renders it necessary that the storekeepers should attend both to their purchase and conveyance. I think the time is at hand when these periodical transmontane journeys are to give place to expeditions down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. The vast and increasing produce of these states, in grain, flour, cotton, sugar, tobacco, peltry, timber, etc., which finds a ready vent at New Orleans, will be returned through the same channel in the manufactures of Europe, and the luxuries of the East to supply the growing demands of this western world."[435]
Faux, while traveling in America, was told by Eastern farmers that transportation per barrel for 80 miles cost half a dollar, while the farmers of the West could send it 2000 miles for $6;[436] and that the western people could afford to sell at half price, better than the eastern could at whole price, because they grew double the quantity per acre, and because the popula tion was rapidly increasing.[437]
Great supplies of lumber from the extensive pine forests about the sources of the Allegheny, supplied the country below as far as New Orleans.[438] A yankee speculation to New Orleans sometimes consisted "of iron coffins, or nests of coffins filled with shoes, so accomodating both the living and the dead."[439]
Wheat in Ohio, in 1819-1820, even at 50 cents, found no market, as New Orleans was then supplied by countries more conveniently situated.[440] Boats carrying from 100 to 500 barrels, sold for only $16.[441] Cincinnati continued to send flour and pork to New Orleans.[442] Flint says, "On shore the utmost bustle prevails, with drays carrying imported goods, salt, iron, and timber, up to the town, and in bringing down pork, flour, etc., to be put aboard boats for New Orleans."[443]
Produce was floated down the Wabash, and the boats returned laden with goods for their market at an enormous profit.[444] Indian corn was purchased of the farmer on the Wabash at 25 cents per bushel, soon after harvest; in the spring it was sent to New Orleans under a freight of 25 cents per bushel, and sold at 75 cents to one dollar a bushel; wheat was bought at six pence or seven pence the bushel dearer than corn, and sold proportionally higher.[445] Produce from the English settlement in Illinois, (corn, etc,), was hauled to Bon Pas, which was on a tributary of the Wabash, and sent from thence to New Orleans, there to be shipped either for Europe or the eastern ports of America.[446]