Commercial activity has three phases, trade, shipping, and shipbuilding. In each of these three phases of commerce the nineteenth century has witnessed a remarkable progress. The expansion of both domestic and international trade has far exceeded the anticipations of those who lived a hundred years ago; and the agencies of transportation by water, the numerous auxiliaries of commerce and the shipbuilding industries, have undergone a technical revolution so complete, and with consequences so beneficent to our social and industrial life, as to make the commercial progress of the past hundred years one of the salient features of the history of the century. We shall better appreciate the nature and scope of the commercial progress of the past hundred years, if we glance for a moment at a picture of the commerce of the world at the close of the eighteenth century.

I. MAIN FEATURES OF THE WORLD’S COMMERCE AT THE CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

A hundred years ago, the volume of trade, both domestic and foreign, was necessarily kept within proportions relatively small as compared with present traffic, because of the slowness and high costs of inland transportation. Domestic inland traffic is directly dependent upon facilities for water and land transportation, and until the railroad came into use, some seventy years ago, only those countries having numerous navigable rivers or well-developed canal systems could extend their commerce much beyond the cities and districts adjacent to tide water. In all ages since the world became civilized enough to engage in commerce, an overland traffic by caravan or wagon has been carried on; but the amount of commodities could not be large, and the kinds of goods transported were necessarily limited to articles of high value per unit of bulk or weight. Such an inland traffic as this did not establish the basis for a large coastwise or over-sea commerce.

At present, bulky commodities produced long distances from the sea-ports comprise a large portion of international traffic, and supply the coast cities with the raw materials from which they manufacture the articles they contribute to swell the volume of foreign trade. When the means were wanting for the inland transportation of these bulky commodities, only a few countries, such as Phœnicia, the Italian cities, Portugal, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the British colonies in America, could develop an important maritime commerce. During the past fifty years, the improvements in transportation have been such as to enable all industrial countries, inland as well as maritime, to engage extensively in the world’s trade. Commerce has become general; and countries like Switzerland and Saxony readily market their wares the world over.

The volume of foreign trade, as late as a hundred years ago, was really small, even in the case of the most important commercial nations. The imports and exports of the United Kingdom in 1800 amounted to about $360,000,000, which, for a population of approximately 18,000,000, would be about $20 per capita. At that time the trade of the United Kingdom was about one tenth what it is now. At the present time the foreign commerce of the United Kingdom amounts to nearly $100 for each inhabitant of the country.

The thirteen British colonies in America and the original commonwealths of the United States were all maritime States with navigable rivers, and their industries, lumbering, fisheries, production of food products and tobacco, called for the exchange of large quantities of commodities with the manufacturers of the home country, and with the tropical islands of the West Indies. For their time, then, these States were large traders. The statistical information which we possess of their commerce is meagre, but we know that the total trade of the colonies with the mother country in 1770 was about $13,000,000 a year, or something over four dollars per person. There was a trade of considerable proportions with the West Indies, some with the Mediterranean countries and Africa, and, after the colonies became States, with the East Indies and the Orient; but in all probability the foreign trade of the Americans did not reach ten dollars per capita until after 1790. At the present time, in spite of the very rapid growth of population in the United States that has continued throughout the nineteenth century, our foreign trade is equal to twenty-five dollars per person.

It is when the commerce of the eighteenth century is viewed from the standpoint of the transportation agencies by which it was served—the size, speed, and efficiency of the ships—that the contrast with present conditions becomes most striking. Two hundred years ago, the 560 ships owned at London averaged 157 tons. A century ago, a vessel of 300 tons was still considered a large ship, and as late as 1840 vessels of that size traded from the United States to India and China. The Grand Turk, of 564 tons, built in 1791, was probably the largest ship built in America up to that time. During the fourth decade of the nineteenth century numerous vessels of over 1000 tons were constructed, and in 1840 the Great Britain of 3000 tons was ordered. In her day the Great Britain was more of a marvel than is the recently launched Oceanic, of 28,500 tons displacement.

When we consider that these small vessels in use a century ago took from a month to six weeks to cross the Atlantic,—their speed being about one third that of the freight steamers of to-day,—we realize the great difference in the efficiency of the merchant marine of the present as compared with that by which commerce was served in 1800. The efficiency of the ships, however, does not depend alone upon their size and speed. The commercial auxiliaries which enable vessels to enter and clear harbors without delay, and to load and unload cargoes quickly,—lighthouses, beacons, buoys, spacious wharves and docks equipped with mechanical appliances for handling freight,—make it possible for vessels to spend a greater portion of the time at sea. A merchant marine to-day has fully five times the efficiency that one with an equal tonnage had a century ago. We shall better see how this has been brought about, by briefly reviewing the technical revolution which has taken place in ocean navigation during the past seventy years.

II. THE CENTURY’S TECHNICAL REVOLUTION IN COMMERCE.

During the first four decades of this century the wooden sailing vessel was the sole carrier of ocean traffic, and in the construction and operation of such ships the Americans had special advantages and manifested peculiar ingenuity. For forty years the American sailing clipper, whose fine lines made it stanch and speedy, had been “the type and model of excellence in ship-building;” but before the middle of the century the supremacy of the wooden clipper-ship had been destroyed, and the technical superiority of steam and iron had been demonstrated.

There are six distinct steps in the technical evolution of the ocean liner of the present day,—six changes which mark the epochs in the history of the substitution of steam and steel for sail and wood. The first step in the evolution was taken when the steam engine and the paddle-wheel took the place of wind and sails. Like most epoch-making changes, this one was made slowly; indeed, it was preceded by thirty years of hesitation and conservative experimentation. Robert Fulton, taking advantage of ideas and plans which he had obtained in Europe, produced his Clermont in 1807, and demonstrated the practicability of the steamship for river traffic. Five years later, Henry Bell of Scotland constructed the Comet, the first passenger steamboat built in Europe, a vessel only forty feet long, ten and one half feet in width, and of four horse-power. The Clermont was somewhat larger, having a length of 130 feet, a beam of eighteen feet, and a hold six feet in depth. She succeeded in making five miles an hour against stream. These little vessels attracted great attention, and the problem of constructing ships that could cross the ocean by steam power began to be studied. In 1819, the Savannah was fitted with engines and crossed the Atlantic, using both steam power and sails, but the vessel did not prove a success, and her engines were taken out the following year. Indeed, it was not until 1833 that a vessel steamed all the way across the Atlantic; and this ship, the Royal William, a Canadian craft of four or five hundred tons, was able to make the trip from Quebec to Gravesend on the Thames only by stopping for coal at Picton, Nova Scotia, and Cowes near Portsmouth, England.

The first steamships to cross the ocean without recoaling were the Sirius and Great Western, which arrived in New York the same day, April 23, 1838, the former vessel having sailed from London and the latter from Liverpool. This achievement on the part of these two wooden craft, neither one capable of carrying more than seven hundred tons, created a great impression. The New York “Courier and Enquirer” said, in its issue of April 24, 1838:—

“What may be the ultimate fate of this excitement—whether or not the expense of equipment and fuel will admit of the employment of these vessels in the ordinary packet service—we cannot pretend to form an opinion; but of the entire feasibility of the passage of the Atlantic by steam, as far as regards safety, comfort, and dispatch, even in the roughest and most boisterous weather, the most skeptical man must now cease to doubt.”

The employment of steamships in the regular packet service was assured in 1839, when Samuel Cunard founded the famous English line that still bears his name, and ordered four steamers of moderate size that cost between four and five hundred thousand dollars each. These, however, were wooden vessels, and it was not until 1856 that the conservative Cunards constructed any iron ships.

The construction of iron ships for ocean navigation marks the second important phase of the technical evolution of the past century’s commerce. It began on a small scale about 1830, and in 1837 an iron vessel, The Rainbow, of six hundred tons was built; but the first large iron steamer was ordered in 1840, and was the famous Great Britain before referred to, constructed by Brunel, the engineer who subsequently built the unfortunate naval monstrosity, the Great Eastern. The completion of the Great Britain, in 1843, was an important event in the progress of ocean navigation, not only because she was five times the size of her largest iron predecessor, but also because of the fact that Brunel decided, while building the vessel, to adopt the screw for propelling the ship.

The substitution of the screw instead of paddle-wheels represents a third phase of the technical evolution of ocean navigation. John Ericsson, who subsequently built the famous Monitor, had demonstrated the practicability of the screw as a propeller in 1836, and, three years later, the Archimedes, of two hundred and thirty-seven tons, was fitted with a screw. It was the success of the Archimedes that led Brunel to adopt the screw on the Great Britain.

The superiority of the screw over paddle-wheels, and the greater merits of iron ships compared with wooden vessels, have long been accepted; but the adoption of iron as a material and of the screw for a propeller came about slowly. Indeed, iron ship-building made little progress in Great Britain before 1850, and in this country wood was adhered to till much later. One reason why the English did not change to the screw and iron more quickly was probably the great influence exerted by the powerful Cunard line, whose conservatism caused it to hold to wooden ships until 1856. The Great Eastern, finished as late as 1859, was an iron ship, but was fitted with both screw and paddle-wheels. Of the total tonnage built in the United Kingdom in 1853, about twenty-five per cent was steam tonnage and a little more than twenty-five per cent was of iron. At the present time three fourths of all British-built vessels are steamers, and no wooden ships are built in the United Kingdom.

America was slow in changing from wood to iron, because the cost of iron was so high. We had wood in abundance, numerous yards for the construction of wooden vessels, and were the builders of the best type of wooden ships. In 1853, the year just referred to for Great Britain, twenty-two per cent of the tonnage of the vessels built in this country was in steamships, but only an inappreciable portion was in iron vessels. The adherence of American ship-builders and owners to wood is well illustrated by the action taken by the owners of the famous but unfortunate American Collins line, established in 1847. The company began, in 1850, to run four palatial steamers, built without regard to cost, and supplied with luxurious appointments, some of which are retained in vessels of the present day; but the company built the ships of wood and propelled them with paddle-wheels. The great American ship-building firm, William Cramp & Sons, founded in 1850, did not begin constructing iron ships till 1870. Even in 1898, the tonnage of wooden vessels constructed was one and a half times the steel and iron tonnage. About twenty-six per cent of our merchant marine, foreign and domestic, is now made up of iron and steel vessels.

The next important step in maritime progress, following the adoption of iron and the screw, was taken about 1870, when the compound engine came into general use. Though the compound engine had been used on a small vessel in France as early as 1829, it was first extensively adopted as the result of the rapid development in steam navigation which took place in the seventies. In the compound engine the steam, instead of being used in only one cylinder in passing from the boiler to the condenser, exerts its force in two or three cylinders, and even in four, in the quadruple expansion engines. This results in a great economy in the amount of fuel used. In the earlier marine engines the pressure of steam in the boilers was thirteen pounds to the square inch, and the consumption of coal per horse-power per hour was five and one half pounds; whereas, at the present time, a pressure of two hundred pounds per square inch is maintained, and the fuel used has been reduced to less than one and a half pounds per hour for each indicated horse-power.

Ten years after the compound engine came into general use, the cheapened cost of steel made it possible to adopt steel in the place of iron in the construction of hulls. This may be regarded as marking a fifth epoch-making step in the progress of commerce; because the steel ship was stronger, lighter, and able to carry more cargo than iron vessels of the same size. The substitution of steel for iron in the British yards was made rapidly. In 1879, only ten and a quarter per cent of the tonnage constructed on the Clyde was of steel; but in 1889 the per cent had risen to ninety-seven.

During the past twenty years there have been many improvements made in the construction and appointments of ships; but the more important changes have consisted in dividing vessels, by means of bulkheads, into several water-tight compartments, and in substituting twin screws for the single screw. The Inmans placed twin screws on the City of New York in 1888, and since then their use has become general on the larger ocean liners. The twin screws add somewhat, though not greatly, to the speed of vessels; but they render ships much safer and less liable to be disabled. An ocean steamer with twin screws and water-tight compartments can suffer any one of the common accidents—such as breaking of one of its shafts, losing one of its screws, having its rudder damaged, or one of its engines give out, or having its side punctured by collision—without being disabled. Although ocean travel still has its dangers, the risks at the present time are far less than they were a half or a quarter of a century ago.

The technical progress of commerce during the nineteenth century is well summarized by Mr. Henry Fry in his book on the History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, written in 1895. He says:—

“The Comet of 1812 has multiplied into twelve thousand steamships, measuring over sixteen million tons.... Her twenty tons have been multiplied into a ship of eighteen thousand; her forty feet to six hundred and ninety-two feet; and her four horse-power to thirty thousand in a single ship. Symington’s four-inch cylinder has grown to one hundred and twenty inches; the pressure of steam in the boiler has increased from thirteen pounds to two hundred pounds on the square inch; the two hundred and forty-three knots, the maximum of the Great Western in 1838, to five hundred and sixty; and the average speed from 8.2 to 22.01 knots, while the consumption of coal has decreased from about five and one half to one and one half pounds per indicated horse-power per hour.”

The century’s naval technical progress is epitomized in the White Star liner, the Oceanic. The length of this mammoth vessel is over an eighth of a mile, being 705 feet, 6 inches. 13½ feet longer than the Great Eastern was. When loaded, the Oceanic draws 32 feet, 6 inches of water, and on that draft her displacement is 28,500 tons. The figures for the Great Eastern were 25 feet, 6 inches, and 27,000 tons. The capacity of her engines is 28,000 horse-power, or two and one third times the capacity of those in the Great Eastern. The pressure in her boilers is 192 pounds to the square inch, or ten or twelve times that in the boilers of her famous predecessor. Though not built for speed, the Oceanic can average 500 miles a day, or sixty per cent more than the Great Eastern did. The Oceanic will accommodate 400 first-class passengers, 300 second-class, 1000 third-class, and a ship’s company of 394, making a total of 2104 persons. In this regard, however, her figures are fortunately less than those of the Great Eastern, for that vessel was designed to carry 4000 persons, besides crew. These figures regarding passenger accommodations indicate in a forceful way the great advancement that has been made in the comforts of ocean travel during the past forty years.

III. IMPROVEMENTS IN COMMERCIAL AUXILIARIES.

The progress of commerce during the nineteenth century has been promoted not only by the evolution of ships of great speed and capacity, but also by the improvements made in numerous other auxiliaries of commerce. Chief among these aids to commercial activity have been the betterment of natural waterways and the construction of ship-canals, the improvements of harbors, the laying of cables, and the extension of international banking facilities.

The improvements of such rivers as the Rhine, Danube, Hudson, and Mississippi, and of such natural waterways as the chain of Great Lakes in the northern part of the United States, are conspicuous instances of the manner in which the canalization of natural waterways has been undertaken for the promotion of traffic. That part of the Rhine River traffic which passes Emmerich and Mannheim amounted to 2,800,000 tons a year from 1872 to 1875, but by 1895 it had increased to 10,300,000 tons. The traffic on the rivers of the Mississippi Valley, according to census statistics, increased from 18,946,522 tons, in 1880, to 29,485,046 tons, in 1889; and since that year the increase must have been considerable. The effect of the improvement of waterways upon commerce is most strikingly shown in the case of our Great Lakes. In the seventies, the demands of traffic were for channels and harbors 12 feet in depth. During the next decade it was necessary for the United States to increase the depth to 16 feet; and in the nineties the channels had to be made deep enough to accommodate vessels of 20 feet draft. At the present time the traffic on the Lakes is probably over 70,000,000 tons annually. During the year 1898 the freight that passed the locks at the Sault St. Marie equaled 21,000,000 tons, two and a half times the tonnage passing the Suez Canal.

During the last third of the nineteenth century six important ocean ship-canals have been opened; the Suez, opened in 1869; the Rotterdam Canal, in 1872; the canal connecting Amsterdam directly with the North Sea, 1877; the canal across the Isthmus of Corinth, 1893; the Manchester Canal, 1894; and the Baltic or Kiel Canal, finished in 1895. The Panama Canal was begun in 1882, and the construction of the Nicaragua Canal was commenced in 1889; but the date of the completion of these most important works is still problematical.

In the improvement of its harbors every government has been active. Thirty years ago a depth of 23 feet was considered ample, but after 1880 it became necessary to adopt 27 feet as the standard. During the past five years the larger seaports have required harbors with 30 feet of water in order to accommodate the largest ocean vessels, and the limit has by no means been reached. The United States Government has just recently, 1899, authorized the deepening of New York harbor to 35 feet. As noted before, the Oceanic can be loaded to a draft of 32½ feet.

The docks of the great seaports have been improved at a cost of many millions of dollars. As an illustration of this Liverpool may be cited. The city’s position gave it great commercial possibilities, but a troublesome bar at the mouth of the Mersey, and a tide with a rise and fall of thirty feet made the construction of its harbor and docks a difficult matter. The problem was solved by the construction, under public control, of a large number of commodious wet docks with gates which are opened only a few hours a day, during high tide. These harbor improvements have made possible Liverpool’s phenomenal expansion in commerce during the past quarter of a century, an increase that has given the city third place among the seaports of the world, with an annual tonnage of vessels entered and cleared of 16,000,000 tons.

The achievements of Manchester during the past decade are even more notable than those of Liverpool. Manchester is situated on a small stream thirty-five miles from the ocean; but she has become a seaport for the largest ocean vessels, and has docks and wharves equipped with the most improved appliances. Her dock-sheds, for instance, are twin structures, three stories in height, and the arrangements for handling freight are such that goods are taken directly from the ships to any one of the three stories of the sheds.

In the United States, the government and private corporations are rapidly improving the harbor facilities of our ports. During the past decade the Gulf ports have received especial attention, with the result that a large part of our export trade is now moving through the Gulf harbors. As an instance of what private corporations are doing, mention may be made of the fact that a railway corporation has recently completed a wharf in New Orleans that cost $2,000,000.

Besides these harbor improvements, the erection of more and better lighthouses and signals has made the approach of vessels safer. The United States Weather Bureau has also done much to lessen the dangers of navigation by its weather forecasts and its warnings of approaching storms. Although the Bureau was established only twenty-nine years ago, and in a small way, its services have so increased and in such a practical manner as to have come to be regarded as indispensable by the commercial interests.

The first successful trans-Atlantic cable was laid in 1866; at the present time there are 170,000 miles of submarine telegraphs in use. The cables now used for commercial purposes number 320 and include about 150,000 miles of lines, the other 20,000 miles being short government lines connecting forts, batteries, signal-stations, and lighthouses. The total cost of these cables has been about $250,000,000. The influence of the cable upon commerce has been so great as to revolutionize the methods of international trade that prevailed a century ago; indeed, ocean telegraphy has made it no more difficult to effect international sales and purchases than it is to make domestic exchanges. With thirteen cables in successful operation between the United States and Europe, we have had no difficulty in building up an immense trade across the Atlantic; but, with no trans-Pacific line, we are experiencing much difficulty in securing a large place in the trade of the Orient. Of course the development of our commerce with the East is conditioned by numerous other factors; but no one doubts that the construction of the proposed Pacific cable will be of assistance to our commercial progress in the Orient.

Among the other agencies that have promoted the progress of commerce, mention should be made of the extension and improvement of international credit systems and banking facilities. In this regard the United Kingdom leads the nations of the world, London being the clearing-house for a large part of the world’s trade. Germany, France, and the Netherlands have also developed good facilities for international banking; but the United States has not yet done so. Our merchants are still obliged to settle most accounts through foreign banks, but it is probable that our recent acquisition of foreign possessions will cause us to establish some system of international banks.

IV. EXPANSION OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE DURING THE CENTURY.

In the introductory paragraph of this paper it was stated that the commercial progress of the past hundred years is one of the salient features of the history of the century; and, in contrasting the commerce of a hundred years ago with that of the present, a few figures were cited that indicated in a general way the growth that the foreign trade of Great Britain and the United States has enjoyed. The expansion of international trade during the century merits fuller presentation and analysis.

Accurate figures for the whole world’s trade are not obtainable for the earlier years; and if it were possible to present comparative statistics of the international trade of the world, as a whole, the comparisons would not be so instructive as those which present the progress of the commerce of those countries which rank highest among trading nations. Accordingly it will be most profitable to confine our statistics and analytical study to the commerce of Great Britain, Germany, France, and the United States.

The progress which the commerce of the United Kingdom has made during the century is shown by the following table, giving the imports, exports, and total trade for the years 1800, 1839, 1897, and the annual average for alternate quinquennial periods between 1855 and 1890.

TABLE SHOWING GROWTH OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

During the first four decades of the century, the growth of the commerce of the United Kingdom, though considerable, was not rapid,—the figures for 1839 showing an increase of 73 per cent over those for 1800,—but during the fifth, sixth, and seventh decades the progress was phenomenal. The value of the exports in 1873, as compared with 1839, shows a gain of 379 per cent, and the total foreign trade increased nearly 450 per cent; that is, it was five and a half times as much in 1873 as it was thirty-four years previous. Since 1880, the quantities of imports and exports have largely increased, but the fall in prices has been such as to make the increase in the total value comparatively small.

The commerce of the German States during the nineteenth century did not grow very rapidly until after 1850. During the early part of the century the great Continental wars rendered commerce nearly impossible. Peace was restored in 1815, but the German States had neither political nor commercial unity. Each State had a tariff which applied against all other States. Gradually a Zollverein, or customs union, grew up, which, by 1854, had come to include all the German States except Austria, Holstein, Mecklenburg, Lauenburg, and the three Hanse towns, Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen. In 1866, the North German Federation was organized, and this paved the way for the formation of the German Empire in 1871. The Zollverein made commercial progress possible, and political unity gave it a great impulse.

The statistics of the German trade before the establishment of the Zollverein are very meagre. A German authority, Otto Huebner, estimates the value of the total import and export trade of the German States to have been $309,019,200 in 1850, and $504,988,200 in 1855. The value of the imports of Hamburg, the chief port of Germany, rose from an annual average of $92,320,050 for the five-year period 1851–55, to $157,660,472 during the half decade 1866–70. The growth of Germany’s foreign commerce during the past twenty years has been phenomenal, and her trade is now second only to that of Great Britain. In 1881, the imports were valued at $704,904,000, and the exports at $707,978,000, being slightly more than the imports; whereas, by 1890, the imports had risen to $986,641,000, and the exports to $792,620,000, a sum nearly a hundred million dollars less than the value of the imports. The foreign trade of the country, particularly in imports, has continued its rapid growth since 1890, the figures for 1897 being, imports $1,231,756,862, and exports $977,447,198, a total trade of $2,209,204,060.

The foreign trade of France at the beginning of the nineteenth century consisted of $80,500,000 worth of imports and $59,000,000 of exports, a total of $139,500,000. The Continental wars, up to 1815, were even more disastrous to French trade than they were to German; but with the restoration of peace, commercial progress began, and between 1815 and 1831 the total trade increased from $119,200,000 worth to $168,152,000 worth. The growth by decades since 1830 has been as follows: In 1840, the value of the total foreign trade was $278,383,200; in 1850, $358,748,400; in 1860, $805,659,200; in 1871, $1,242,765,600; in 1880, $1,640,712,300; and in 1890, $2,003,557,516. These figures show that the rapid expansion of French commerce began about 1850. The highest point was reached in 1891; but since then there has been a slight falling off in the total trade, due to a decrease in imports. In 1891, the value of the imports was $1,155,973,310; in 1897, $991,537,500. The exports were valued at $920,839,130 in 1891; and at $926,998,300 in 1897. The total trade for these years was $2,076,812,440 for 1891, and $1,918,535,800 for 1897.

During the first quarter of the century France had a strong balance of trade in her favor: that is, she sold more commodities than she bought; and between 1825 and 1840 the exports and imports about balanced each other; but since that date, with the exception of the years 1871 to 1875, when the huge war indemnity was paid, the balance of trade had been unfavorable, as would naturally be expected of a country such as France, whose people are extensively engaged in manufacturing. France, as well as the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and other European countries, imports raw materials and food in large quantities.

The decline in the value of French trade, though due to falling prices rather than to a decrease in the quantities of commodities, has given the French people much concern. It is not probable, however, that this decline is due to permanent causes. The population and industries of France have not reached a stationary stage; they are going to increase and cause a natural growth in the country’s foreign commerce. The commercial progress of France, however, can hardly be so rapid as that of Germany and the United States. These are the countries whose commercial vitality is strongest, and of these two countries, the United States possesses greater natural resources and larger possibilities, industrial and commercial. The progress of the commerce of the United States merits a somewhat closer survey than has been given its three leading rivals in trade.

V. THE TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES DURING THE CENTURY.

The economic progress of the United States during the past hundred years is most clearly indicated by the growth of its foreign and domestic commerce. Being a new country, busied with occupying and developing our large territory, our domestic commerce has been of enormous proportions. With nearly two hundred thousand miles of railroads, comprising four ninths of the total railway mileage of the world, with our chain of the Great Lakes and our admirable system of navigable rivers, it has been possible to exploit our natural resources on a large scale, and to develop an inland traffic several times the volume of our foreign commerce.

Our international trade, however, although smaller than our domestic traffic, has been large throughout the country, has grown rapidly, especially since the year 1850, the period of the Civil War excepted, and is now increasing in such a manner as to give our foreign rivals much concern. The progress of our foreign trade during this century is shown by the following table containing the statistics of the value of our merchandise imports, exports, and total foreign trade for each decade, beginning with 1790.

TABLE SHOWING IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF MERCHANDISE BY DECADES FROM 1790 TO 1898.

During the first half of the century, the expansion of our foreign trade was not especially rapid. The Continental wars, lasting from 1793 to 1815, and our own war with England, from 1812 to 1815, interfered considerably with international trade. Probably our tariffs of 1816, 1824, and 1828 had the effect they were intended to accomplish, and restricted somewhat the volume of our foreign commerce. The chief reason, however, why our trade progress was much more rapid after 1850 was, that it was not until about that time that the means of inland transportation became developed sufficiently to make possible a large domestic traffic. When our central West was able to exchange commodities on a large scale with the seaboard, then our foreign commerce began to increase rapidly.

The growth of our imports was very rapid for the period of fifteen years, 1879 to 1893, their value having risen from $445,777,775 to $866,400,922; but since then there has been a sharp decline to $616,049,654. Our exports, however, have increased in a phenomenal manner during the past decade. Prior to 1897, the highest point was reached in 1892, when the value of the exports was $1,030,278,148. In 1897, the value was $1,050,993,556, and in 1898 (the official year ending June 30), the value, as shown by the foregoing table, was $1,210,291,913. In consequence of this great increase in our exports the total foreign trade of the United States has not decreased in value during recent years, although there has been a considerable fall in prices and a large falling off in our importations. Our total trade, during the fiscal year 1898, was much larger than it was in 1890, and fell only $10,000,000 short of the value reached in the record-breaking year of 1892. The calendar year 1898 shows a larger trade than has been shown by any previous year, the value being $1,868,523,057.

The leading industry of the United States being agriculture, our exports consist largely of various products of the farm. In 1898 the exported agricultural products were valued at $853,683,570, and comprised 70.54 per cent of our total sales abroad. In spite of these large figures, the preponderance of agricultural over other products is being reduced with considerable rapidity by the growth in the exportation of manufactures. Before 1876 our exports of manufactures were less than $100,000,000 a year; whereas, in the calendar year 1898, they were $370,924,994. In 1880, agricultural exports comprised 83.25 per cent of our exports, and manufactures 12.48 per cent; and in the calendar year 1898, a year of exceptionally large foreign sales of food products, agriculture furnished only 69.06 per cent,—less than seven tenths of the exports, while manufacture supplied 24.96 per cent, or one fourth of the total. The year 1898 is a notable one in the history of American manufactures, for it was then, for the first time, that we sold to foreigners more of our manufactures than we bought of theirs.

A table showing the total foreign trade of the United States from 1789 to 1898, the first eleven decades of our national existence, has recently been prepared by the Bureau of Statistics in the United States Treasury Department. It shows the total imports and exports of merchandise and specie, and on which side of our trade account the grand balance comes.

TABLE SHOWING TOTAL TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES 1789–1898.

The table shows that we have exported nearly thirty-one billion dollars worth of commodities,—about a billion dollars more than we have purchased. It also shows that we have sent out of the country $1,460,473,261 more of the precious metals than we have received. Our exports of merchandise and gold and silver combined exceed our total imports by the large sum of $2,432,714,759. If the statistics of our imports and exports for each year since 1789 be consulted, it will be found that during the eighty-seven years preceding 1876 there were but sixteen years when our exports of merchandise exceeded our imports. The balance of trade was nearly always “unfavorable.” Since 1876, however, the balance has nearly always been on the other side, there having been only three years when our exports did not exceed our imports.

In return for something, we have given foreign countries nearly two and a half billion dollars worth more of commodities and precious metals than we have received in return. A part of this large sum, possibly one fourth, has been paid to foreigners for freights on our imported commodities, and we have also spent large sums in foreign travel. The chief reason why we have exported more than we have imported is, that we have been borrowing foreign capital to use in constructing railroads and factories and in developing our farms and mines. Prior to 1876, we received $1,084,339,912 more than we exported; we accumulated a large foreign debt. Since 1876, we have continued to borrow abroad; but we have been able to liquidate a part of our former debts, and also to exchange large amounts of commodities and precious metals for capital; for, since 1876, our exports have exceeded our imports by $3,517,054,671. If our present large excess of exports over imports continues, we shall soon become a creditor nation with large sums invested abroad.

The history of our foreign trade is highly gratifying to our national pride; our achievements have been signal, well-nigh continuous, and have been more marked during the latter decades of the century than at any previous time. The history of the American marine, however, presents a somewhat different picture.

VI. THE AMERICAN MARINE IN FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE.

In colonial days maritime industries held an important place. The location of the colonies adjacent to the ocean, their dependence upon the mother country for manufactures and upon the West Indies for tropical products, their need of foreign markets for their timber, fish, tobacco, and food products, and their abundant supply of lumber for shipbuilding, all tended to make them a seafaring people. This fondness for the sea was especially intense in New England, where the returns of agriculture were relatively meagre. The long Revolutionary War destroyed many ships and interfered seriously with ocean commerce, but the struggle gave the colonists what was of more value than ships,—a spirit of venture and hardihood. Hundreds of ships and thousands of seamen engaged in privateering, and when the war ended the maritime instincts of the Americans were stronger than they had been when the declaration of political and commercial independence was declared in 1776.

The imbecility of the general government under the Articles of Confederation and the restrictions placed upon interstate traffic prevented any considerable maritime progress between the Peace of Paris and the inauguration of a truly national government under the Constitution. But a stable government, sound credit, and uniform national laws for the regulation of commerce gave the maritime instincts of the Americans a chance to assert themselves, and the tonnage of our ships grew rapidly larger. Our tonnage registered for the foreign trade was only 123,893 tons in 1789; by 1795 it had grown to 549,471 tons; in 1800 it amounted to 667,107 tons; during the next five years it increased to 744,224 tons, and by 1810 it had reached 981,019 tons. Such a growth as this in twenty years, from such small beginnings, was truly remarkable.

The American ships soon crowded most foreign vessels out of our commerce. In 1790 we carried only 40.5 per cent of our imports and exports; but by 1795 we had secured 90 per cent; and, with the exception of a short period during and immediately following the War of 1812, it was not till fifty-two years later that as much as one fourth of our foreign trade was carried under foreign flags. Moreover, we not only carried our own commerce, but we also entered largely into the carrying trade of other countries. The great European war crippled the commercial activities of European countries, and made it easier for our ships to gain control of our own commerce and to secure employment as carriers for foreign merchants. During the fifteen years from 1793, the year of the outbreak of the European war, to 1808, when the blockade of European ports and the capture of American ships and seamen led us to attempt to prohibit our ships temporarily from engaging in foreign trade, our merchant marine rose from a position of obscurity to a place of great prominence on the high seas.

As long as ocean commerce was carried in wooden vessels, the maritime interests of the United States continued to prosper. The War of 1812–15, the panic of 1819, and the competition of foreign vessels after the restoration of peace in Europe, gave our marine a setback, so that it was not until 1847 that our tonnage in the foreign trade exceeded the figures for 1810; but during the period of fifteen years, from 1846 to 1861, our tonnage increased 150 per cent. When the Civil War, which proved so disastrous to the shipping interests of the United States, broke out in 1861, our tonnage registered in the foreign trade equaled 2,496,894 tons,—the highest point it has ever reached. The American sailing clipper was for nearly half a century the mistress of the seas. As J. R. Soley says: “It was in these ships that for nearly half a century not only the largest freights of the world were carried, but the finest and most profitable as well. Merchants having valuable cargoes to export would wait for the sailing of a favorite clipper, and merchants with goods to import would instruct their correspondents to wait in like manner.” As late as 1850 the higher grades of commodities were almost always shipped in the stanch and speedy American clipper ship.

Since 1861 the American marine in the foreign trade has played a rôle of decreasing importance. Three causes account for this. About the middle of the century our commercial rivals began to substitute iron ships for wooden; but we were not able to adopt the better material in the construction of our ships because of the high cost of iron in this country at that time. Great Britain could build the iron ships much cheaper than we could, and she soon began to displace us in the carrying trade of the other countries. And it was not long before she began also to carry a large share of our own foreign commerce.

The second cause for our maritime decline was the Civil War. In 1861 our tonnage registered for the foreign trade was 2,500,000 tons; by 1866 it had fallen to 1,387,756 tons, a loss of over a million tons. During the war period, nearly 800,000 tons of our shipping were sold abroad; 110,000 tons were captured by Confederate cruisers; and other casualties occurred. Of course there were no ships built for our merchant marine during the stormy years of the war.

Why, it may be asked, did we not restore our ships after the war and regain our former proud place on the high seas? For the simple, though possibly unsatisfying, reason that we did not find it profitable to do so. Capital is invested where the prospects for profit are best, and the inducement to put money into American ships for the foreign trade was not strong. It still cost more to build ships in our country than it did in Europe, and the expenses of operating them when constructed were greater. Moreover, our rivals had gotten possession of the lion’s share of the world’s carrying trade, and would not release any portion of their business without a keen struggle. At the same time the American capitalist was offered many opportunities for the investment of his property in domestic enterprises. During the quarter of a century which followed the war, we devoted our energies and capital to building our railroads, opening the West, exploiting our mineral and forest resources, and building the mills and factories whose products are now rapidly entering foreign markets in all parts of the world. America’s economic activities were industrial rather than commercial.

The result of these general causes has been the decline of our shipping in the foreign trade from two and a half million tons in 1861 to less than three quarters of a million tons in 1898; but it seems that the low-water mark has been reached and that the tide is turning. The man who writes the history of our merchant marine on the high seas during the first half of the twentieth century will, in all probability, write a record of rapid progress. We have already made much headway in substituting steel for wooden ships; and America’s foremost iron manufacturer, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, says that steel ships can now be built as cheaply on our Atlantic coast as they can be built on the Clyde. Furthermore, the opportunities for investment in domestic industries are becoming fewer and less alluring, and there are good reasons for thinking American capitalists will be disposed from now on to put their ventures in ships to sail foreign seas.

The attitude of American capitalists, however, will depend very largely on the maritime policy adopted by the United States. That policy should unquestionably be as liberal as the policy adopted by our rivals in commerce. Whatever differences of opinion may rightly exist as regards specific measures for the restoration of the American marine to the high seas, all parties should agree as touching the justice and necessity of treating our maritime interests as generously as Great Britain deals with the owners of her mighty marine.

Our domestic marine, being free from foreign competition, has had a prosperity as great as the adversity of our foreign marine. The present tonnage of domestic shipping is nearly 4,000,000 tons, our growth during the period since the Civil War having been nearly a million tons. The traffic on our northern lakes now employs 3256 vessels, canal boats, and barges, with a total tonnage of 1,437,500 tons; and two thirds of this tonnage consists of steamships. In 1888 our lake tonnage was only 874,102 tons; the growth during a decade having been nearly 80 per cent.

It is hardly necessary to remark that the increase or decrease in the efficiency of a marine during the last few decades is not measured by the growth or decline in the tonnage statistics. The modern steamship, aided by the many commercial auxiliaries that facilitate it in receiving and discharging its cargo, is a much more efficient transportation agent than was its smaller predecessor propelled by sails, and loaded and unloaded mainly by human labor. Our present domestic marine of 4,000,000 tons is at least twice as effective as was the domestic shipping of 3,000,000 by which we were served a generation ago.

VII. AMERICAN SHIPBUILDING.

One great aid to the achievement of maritime greatness is a strong shipbuilding industry, and every nation with commercial aspirations endeavors to establish the business upon a sure foundation. For some countries, as in the case of the United Kingdom, that is much easier than for others; and that is one reason why Great Britain has so easily succeeded in maintaining her place as mistress of the seas.

The business of building ships in the United States, to be used in foreign trade, has passed through a golden age of triumphs, followed by a period of decline and discouragement, and it is now entering upon an epoch of revival. The golden age came in the days of wooden vessels. It began in early colonial times and lasted until the middle of this century, when the world began to buy iron ships of the United Kingdom. The magnitude of our shipbuilding industry at the middle of the nineteenth century is indicated by the fact that during the decade beginning with 1850 the tonnage built in our yards equaled 3,988,372 tons, an annual average of nearly 400,000 tons. During the three years 1854–56 we constructed over a million and a half tons.