Provision and Liquor Trade-Grocery Market-Dry Goods. 475

Among the articles of western product have reached the extraordinary total of of primary importance which cannot one million three hundred and seven but be affected both by the completion thousand barrels, a larger aggregate than of the Pittsburgh and Baltimore route, has ever before been attained. When and the opening of the Baltimore and the new flour trade is added which our Ohio Rail-road to Wheeling, is tobacco. rail-road communications must secure Baltimore has for years been a leading from the West, the probabilities are, that market for this commodity-the inspec- the aggregate just above named will tion of which has reached seventy soon be doubled, and that Baltimore will thousand hogsheads per annum-and take the first rank in this item of trade. although New-Orleans has heretofore exceeded this city in her annual aggregate receipts, there is every ground for the belief that Baltimore, through her rapid, cheap and certain lines of rail-road communication, will attract to herself a large portion of the tobacco of the West, which has heretofore descended the Mississippi, and she will thus be rendered de facto and permanently the tobacco market of the Union. The European capital concentrated here for the purchase and exportation of the article is ample, and will certainly expand with the demands created by the new accessions from the West.

The provision trade of Baltimore must also receive a fresh and powerful impetus by reason of our newly completed rail-road communications to Wheeling and Pittsburgh. In this important and constantly increasing branch of trade, there is to be found displayed a degree of enterprise, intelligence and energy, which affords the gratifying assurance that its increase will be met with enlarged capital and all other facilities that the interests of buyer and seller may require. We are credibly informed that the value of the provision trade in this city alone, during the last year, was eight millions of dollars. The business of provision packing, in which Baltimore is at this time so largely in advance of the other seaboard cities, both in the extent of operations and reputation for excellence, is also likely to experience a great increase from our rail-road communications. In regard to position as a provision packing point, Baltimore possesses advantages not to be found elsewhere. At the season for the prosecution of this business, the temperature here is very generally at the desired happy medium point, being neither too cold to prevent the thorough curing of the meat, nor too warm to cause it to spoil.

The importance of the flour market of Baltimore is shown in the fact that the inspections of the year just closed

Although we have no detailed actual data on the subject, we feel warranted in saying, that the foreign and domestic liquor trade is steadily on the increase-to be swelled materially, we have no doubt, by the domestic article which the West will send to this market, as well as by importations from abroad.

Notwithstanding all the disadvantages under which Baltimore has heretofore labored in the absence of cheap and rapid communications with the West, her character as a leading grocery market has been successfully maintained; and now that her long indulged aspirations are realized, and the iron-roads from her harbor to the Ohio River are at length completed, the energy and enterprise of her merchants will take good care that their friends in the interior shall be supplied on even better terms than heretofore. During the year just closed, the coffee trade of Baltimore has comprised an aggregate import of 248,248 bags. We are enabled to state that coffee will shortly be carried to Cleveland from Baltimore, via Pittsburgh, in less than sixty hours, and at less than fifty cents per hundred pounds. Facilities of this character will enable Baltimore to maintain a successful competition with any and all of her sister cities, and insure her a fair share of the grocery trade of the lake country.

In domestic dry goods, it is known that Baltimore has for many years past carried on a very heavy and successful trade with the West; a trade that has arisen from a very small beginning to a present enormous aggregate both in extent and value; and in this branch of business, too, we may confidently predict a still more rapid increase, under the influence of the new and important facilities of access created by our lines of communication with the West, the Northwest and Southwest.

The business of the Baltimore market in the sale of European dry goods is growing steadily and healthfully, and

this department of our trade must now abundance-nearer to Baltimore than to experience a still more rapid expansion. any other city on tide-water, and at prices A sure basis of calculation upon which as low as can be furnished elsewhere. this opinion is founded, exists in the fact that Baltimore will now possess all the elements of a large and regular export trade to Europe, the returns for which will, of course, be in such articles as will best suit the wants, comforts and luxuries of the Western and Southern

states.

Although this article has already been extended to a greater length than we contemplated at its commencement, we cannot forego allusion to the very superior pig iron made in the vicinity of Baltimore. It is unsurpassed for the purposes of car and engine wheels. The ore is found in great abundance, and The advantageous position of Balti- the manufacture of the iron can be inmore as a manufacturing locality has creased to any extent, inasmuch as long been understood. Its water-power, wood fuel is obtained in abundance for extent and availability, is not sur- from the shores of the Bay and its tribupassed; and superadded to these advan- taries, which is not the case in any of tages is the possession of a healthful and the cities east of Baltimore. Large genial climate. The development of the quantities of this iron are now carried Cumberland coal region, and the low to New-England, and there made into price at which its valuable mineral fuel car-wheels for the supply of the Newis furnished in Baltimore-excelling England rail-roads. Already Baltimore beyond question all other kinds of fuel is able to boast of the most extensive for the generation of steam-cannot fail establishments in the Union for the to give a new impetus to all departments manufacture of the rolling machinery of of domestic manufacturing industry. rail-roads. This assertion is proved by Through the instrumentality of the Bal- the fact that at this time Mr. Ross timore and Ohio Rail-road, the coal of Winans is finishing, complete for serAlleghany county is brought from the vice, a locomotive engine every four days, mines to Baltimore in the brief space of or three engines every two weeksfifty hours or less, and furnished on the the value of each engine being about wharves or at the forge fires and steam ten thousand dollars. We may add that engines of our workshops at the very his preparations are so extensive that if low rate of $3.50 per ton. required he can complete two engines per week. The first locomotive for burning mineral coal in the generation of steam was built in the shops of Mr. Winans. His engines, adapted to that kind of fuel, for burthen trains particu larly, enjoy a higher reputation than any other in this country. His workingforce employed in this description of machinery alone, is, at the present time, seven hundred men. There are now building, and under contract, at the various establishments in this city, about two thousand burthen cars.

The arrangements recently concluded by the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-road Company for the large increase of its motive and transporting power, will bring to this city annually 600,000 tons of Cumberland coal, with the certainty of a steady prospective increase the demand for it having been always ahead of the supply. From the Susquehanna valley, we are certain, also, of large supplies of anthracite coals, both by railway and canal, embracing all the descriptions, and existing in the greatest

ART. VIII.-RESOURCES, &c., OF PHILADELPHIA *

MR. TYSON'S LETTERS TO THE LATE WM. PETER, BRITISH CONSUL.-NO. I. MY DEAR SIR:-Your official con- propellers-desirable as these are-but nection with our port has led you to of regular steamers, to London or Livertake some interest in its commerce, and pool, has not been established here, as a residence of ten years in Philadelphia in New-York and Boston. I propose to has enabled you to form a clear notion of its wants and capacities. Among other intelligent inquirers, you have often asked, why a line, not merely of

We have been favored by the author, Job R.

Tyson, LL.D., with a corrected copy of his admirable letters, and shall give them in consecutive num

bers of the Review to our readers.-ED. REVIEW.

Mineral Treasures of Pennsylvania.

and mountain-with which she delighted to guard her treasures. To penetrate their recesses, to scale their conglomerate ramparts, and convey the hidden mineral to market over a country whose undulations of surface seemed to laugh at the effort-was ridiculed as the dream of fanaticism or the dictate of folly. But impediments seemed only to stimulate activity, to quicken the spirit of speculation, to open the purse of enterprise. Much of the capital which had been successfully employed in foreign commerce, was thus diverted from its accustomed channel, and taught to wander to the hills, the ravines, and the rivers of the Lehigh, the Schuylkill, and the Susquehanna.

the chief city of the United Colonies, she alluring in their promises, that the pubwas freely exposed to the perils of lic mind seized upon them with avidity. the conflict. But she participated in The first difficulty was to subdue those the benefits of that unrestricted com- wild and magnificent fortresses of namerce which the Revolution secured. ture-those inaccessible walls of rock Her exports, which were less than eight millions of dollars in 1790, rose in 1796 to the sum of $17,523,866. Chiefly with Philadelphia capital, Pennsylvania made the first turnpike road, excavated the first canal, and constructed the first railway, of any magnitude, in this country. The importance of internal improvements employed the tongues and pens of her best speakers and writers, at an early day. These sentiments concurring with the influence of her example and the experience of its effects, diffused a similar spirit through New-York and New-England. You will not accuse me of indulging in a boastful or vain-glorious spirit, in noting what his tory records. It is simply the truth that Philadelphia, in all the duties of a large Many millions of dollars were buried community-in the construction of hy- in the recesses of these mountains, or in draulic works for the introduction of attempts to wind round their valleys, or pure water from without her municipal improve the navigation of their streams. limits-in sanitary measures—in a Perhaps a HUNDRED MILLIONS and I complete system of subterranean drain- do not lightly hazard this estimateage-worthy of imperial Rome for soli- does not exceed the sum which was dity of structure—was equally in ad- transferred from the concerns of mervance of her sister cities. Her progress cantile activity, and absorbed in unprorequired and sustained these improve- ductive investments, made to develop ments. The rich trade of the West the trade, the agriculture, and above all, seemed destined by nature, aided by the mineral wealth of the interior. But the facilities of improved roads, to centre prodigies were achieved in various in Philadelphia. As the metropolis of parts of the state. The Schuylkill and the colonies, she became the capital of Susquehanna rivers were first united by the United States, under the laws of the a canal, and both afterwards connected Federal Union. Her trade to China and South America was large, and secured golden returns. The vessels of her merchants unfolded their canvas in almost every sea. Colossal fortunes were amassed by an expanded, intelligent, and successful commerce. Under the genial influences of kindly wealth, heaven-blessed charities were founded, and conveniences, arts, and elegancies were multiplied. It forms a portion of the letter I inflict on you, to recount the means by which these advantages were lost, and how they can be restored, with those accretions which time has accumulated.

While thus prosperous, and her commercial progress eminently onward, Philadelphia became informed of the rich mineral wealth of the interior. The vast deposits of coal and iron were so

by the same kind of highway with Philadelphia. That vast arm of the Atlantic, the Chesapeake Bay, was joined by canal with the Delaware, whose noble waters find a ready outlet to the sea. The Ohio River, at Pittsburgh, was made to communicate, by aqueduct, with the great northern lakes, at the town of Erie. One of the great coal-fields of the state was brought to the gates of Philadelphia by a fine canal and a noble railway; and innumerable other works, of present expense and future utility, were undertaken and completed. Fifty miles at least of underground rail-roads, are said to exist in Schuylkill county alone. The locks of the Lehigh canal are the deepest and finest in the world; and nothing can exceed in solidity and beauty, the inclined planes and other artificial works of that opulent region. Of.

Coal Trade-Erie Canal-Bank of the United States. 479

construction of the great highway, which was made to Pittsburgh, the western trade refused the conveyance,-a conveyance, which was, in truth, of such a nature as to confirm it inalienably to New-York.

The chain which was to bind Philadelphia with the West was not continuous and unbroken; composed of intermingling and welded links; but severed, disjointed, fragmentary. It was an amphibious connection of land and water, consisting of two railways separated by canal, and of two canals separated by

the coal mines and iron mines, of the canals and railways of the state, which were undertaken on that day of blind and wanton expenditure, how few have realized the dreams or satisfied the hopes of their ardent projectors! The geology of the state had not been explored, the art of mining was imperfectly understood, and the science of engineering, so yclept, was marked only by improvidence, by fraud, and by blunders. These gigantic efforts, like all premature and undigested schemes, were fruitful only of sad results to the undertakers. The coal trade was to be nurtured and ma- railway-happily elucidating the defects tured by slow degrees; it is yet in its peculiar to both modes of transit, with infancy, and only now beginning to re- the advantages of neither. This imward its owners. The iron manufacture, provement being useless as a competitor which was called into existence by the of the Erie Canal, and other projects protective system, must, in order to flour- being unfinished, the public works disish, be sustained by the stability of appointed private hope in the benefits genial legislation. Exposed to the ca- they promised, and public hope in the prices of fluctuating sentiment, and the unprofitable burden they imposed. The evils of a step-dame policy, it continues commonwealth, oppressed by her debt, to cripple or ruin the manufacturer. and the citizens impoverished by their losses, the western irade alienated and the foreign trade neglected and diminishing, Pennsylvania presented the reverse side of her early picture-one not pleasing to contemplate, but, I presume, less painful and humiliating in the remembrance and retrospect, than in the experience and reality.

While the commercial capital was thus wasting away, and the commercial spirit absorbed by momentous projects at a distance, the Erie Canal was verging to completion. It was intended to conduct, by the way of the lakes to New-York, that western trade which had been the exclusive property of Philadelphia. The object was fully at- These misfortunes were accompanied tained. By this artificial highway, our or quickly followed by others. Severe natural heritage, the trade of the West losses in the China trade ruined some of was transferred to a sagacious and vigi- the largest ship-owners, and unwisely lant rival. For a time, our shrewdest led to the total abandonment, at our citizens were too much amused and de- port, of this lucrative branch of comlighted with their mountain treasures in merce. In the gloom which pervaded the interior, to perceive the decline of the commercial ranks of society, some their foreign commerce, and the adverse of our most astute and enterprising merturn of the commercial tide in their do- chants removed to New-York, and aided mestic trade. The state, animated by by their capital and intelligence to build a proper spirit towards her metropolis, up that prosperity, to which the acquisidetermined not to submit, an unresisting tion of the western trade and the foreign viction, to an inversion of the natural commerce of Philadelphia had largely laws of trade. She planned a grand contributed. Other melancholy events scheme of internal improvements, which succeeded. The Bank of the United proposed, among its primary objects, the States, though situated in this city, did irrevocable appropriation to herself of not render such accommodations to the the western produce and markets, and a business community here as were favorpart of the commerce of the lakes. able to the growth of the foreign, or the This theory, if prosecuted with the in- enlargement of the coasting trade. Still telligence and forecast which gave it paper money was so abundant as to birth, would have neutralized the effects foster remote enterprises, and lead of the Erie Canal, and intercepted the to many visionary and extravagant fame of Clinton, by undermining or re- schemes. The bankruptcy of that great moving the base of its monument. But institution, so long the cherished object owing to irretrievable mistakes in the of our pride and confidence, was as sud