tailieunhanh - An Outline of the Development OF THE Internal Commerce of the United States 1789-1900

At the beginning of the national era the internal commerce of the United States gave small promise of the tremendous development it was to undergo during the ensuing century. There was as yet too little differentiation of occupation to give rise to a large interstate trade in native products, and the proximity of the greater part of the population to the seacoast made it cheaper and more convenient to carry on the small interstate trade that did exist by means of small sailing vessels plying along the coast. . | An Outline of the Development OF THE Internal Commerce of the United States 1789-1900 By T. W. VAN METRE Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of . BALTIMORE WILLIAMS WILKINS CO. 1913 AN OUTLINE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTERNAL COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES 1789-19001 I 1789-1830 At the beginning of the national era the internal commerce of the United States gave small promise of the tremendous development it was to undergo during the ensuing century. There was as yet too little differentiation of occupation to give rise to a large interstate trade in native products and the proximity of the greater part of the population to the seacoast made it cheaper and more convenient to carry on the small interstate trade that did exist by means of small sailing vessels plying along the coast. Practically all the internal trade was devoted to bringing the surplus agricultural produce of the interior to the seaport towns where it was exchanged for imported wares that could not be produced by the inhabitants of the inland region. As is usual in a new country the settlers who had first pushed into the interior had founded their new homes close to the rivers and these natural highways had always been and still were the most important means of transportation to and from the seacoast. At the mouths of the larger streams flowing into the Atlantic Ocean were to be found large and wealthy cities where enterprising men were laying the foundations of large fortunes in a rapidly growing trade in the agricultural and forest products floated down from the interior. Living close along the ocean where numerous excellent harbors and long stretches of sheltered water gave ample facilities for the little inter-colonial trade that existed and where rivers afforded natural means of transportation from the interior to towns on the coast the people of early colonial days had not found .