Chapter XXIV: Part 24

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.

(Tonnage, 17,000: length, 705 ft. 6 in.; breadth, 68 ft. 4 in.)]

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.

--------+---------------+---------------+--------------
Years. | Imports. | Exports. | Total Trade.
--------+---------------+---------------+--------------
1800 | $148,876,000 | $210,240,000 | $359,116,000
1839 | 300,474,000 | 321,564,000 | 622,038,000
1856–60 | 890,723,000 | 604,854,000 | 1,495,577,000
1866–70 | 1,425,936,000 | 914,586,000 | 2,340,522,000
1876–80 | 1,862,775,000 | 980,818,000 | 2,843,593,000
1886–90 | 1,897,352,000 | 1,453,695,000 | 3,351,047,000
1897 | 2,194,932,524 | 1,431,598,345 | 3,626,530,869
--------+---------------+---------------+--------------

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.

------+---------------+-------------+--------------
Year. | Exports. | Imports. | Total Trade.
------+---------------+-------------+--------------
1790 | $20,205,156 | $23,000,000 | $43,205,156
1800 | 70,971,780 | 91,252,768 | 162,224,548
1810 | 66,757,970 | 85,400,000 | 152,157,970
1820 | 69,691,669 | 74,450,000 | 144,141,669
1830 | 71,670,735 | 62,720,956 | 134,391,691
1840 | 123,668,932 | 98,258,706 | 221,927,638
1850 | 144,375,726 | 173,509,526 | 317,885,252
1860 | 333,576,057 | 353,616,119 | 687,192,176
1870 | 392,771,768 | 435,958,408 | 828,730,176
1880 | 835,638,658 | 667,954,746 | 1,503,593,404
1890 | 857,828,864 | 789,310,409 | 1,647,139,093
1898 | 1,210,291,913 | 616,049,654 | 1,826,341,567
------+---------------+-------------+--------------

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.

Merchandise
Exports $30,952,202,985
Imports 29,979,961,487
----------------
Excess of Exports 972,241,498
================
Gold and Silver
Exports 3,400,623,581
Imports 1,940,150,320
----------------
Excess of Exports 1,460,473,261
================
Merchandise and Gold and Silver combined
Exports 34,352,826,566
Imports 31,920,111,807
----------------
Excess of Exports 2,432,714,759
================

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.

The decline in American shipbuilding set in sharply after the Civil War, and, in spite of the continued growth of our domestic marine, the tonnage constructed by American builders steadily declined until 1886, when only 95,453 tons were built. The causes of this decline have been stated in what has been said regarding the substitution of iron and steel vessels for wooden. The period of decline seems now to be safely passed, for we are annually building over 200,000 tons on an average, and every indication points to rapid progress in the near future.

What is more indicative of progress than the increase in the tonnage constructed is the growth in the percentage of steamers and iron and steel ships built, as compared with the wooden sailing ships turned out. During the decade 1872–81, we built 800,000 tons of steamers and 224,000 tons of iron and steel ships; in the decade following, we constructed 1,200,000 steam tons and 485,000 tons of iron and steel vessels; and from 1891 to 1898 our yards turned out 730,432 tons of steamships and 543,850 tons of iron and steel vessels. As these figures indicate, the reconstruction of our merchant marine is progressing with a fair degree of rapidity. At the present time one half our tonnage consists of steamers; but our percentage of iron and steel is still small as compared with other countries. Over seven tenths of our tonnage consists of wooden ships, whereas our chief commercial rival has practically no wooden vessels whatever. Only 7 per cent of the French marine consists of wooden ships, and in the case of Germany less than 5 per cent.

The outlook for iron and steel shipbuilding is so promising that a rapid increase in iron and steel tonnage is certain to come. Largely through the influence of the reconstruction of our navy, numerous large plants for the construction of steel ships have been established at Bath, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore, Newport News, San Francisco, and other seaports. Cities on the Mississippi River, and especially those on the Great Lakes, are engaged in building ships of iron and steel. There are several steel plants in the Lake ports, and in them we have built the larger part of our steel tonnage. Our iron ships have been built chiefly in the seaboard yards. During the present year, 1899, the American yards are busy constructing vessels both for the navy and for our merchant fleet, and new yards are being established. Having begun selling crude and structural iron and steel and various classes of machinery in Europe, even in Great Britain, we shall ere long be selling iron and steel ships. The excellence of our navy has brought us orders for war ships, and the skill and invention of our shipbuilders will bring us foreign orders for merchantmen.

VIII. CAUSES ACCOUNTING FOR THE CENTURY’S COMMERCIAL PROGRESS.

The commercial progress of the nineteenth century, the salient phases of which have been depicted in the foregoing pages, has been the result of three sets of causes, economic, political, and social.

The economic causes of most importance are the improvements in transportation, the reorganization of industry on a large scale, the accumulation of capital, together with the growth of corporations and credit institutions whereby the utility of capital has been enhanced, and the discovery of large stores of gold.

Transportation is the handmaid of trade. Whatever enables this handmaid to do her work cheaper and quicker enlarges the scope and volume of the world’s commerce. When one considers that it cost nearly four times as much in 1875 to ship wheat from New York to Liverpool as it did twenty years later, and fully three times as much from Chicago to Liverpool, one can readily understand how transportation has removed hindrances to commerce.

Cheap and rapid transportation has made an extensive commerce possible, but it has been the organization of industry on a large scale that has created the chief demand for commerce. Industry at the present time is, to a large extent, so organized as best to promote the territorial and international division of labor; and each large producer regards the whole world as his market. The amount of commerce required increases with the concentration and specialization of industry, and with every widening of the producer’s market.

It has been the accumulation of capital and its increased availability for purposes of production that have made possible the organization of industry on its present basis, and enabled men to construct the highly developed transportation system by means of which commerce is accomplished. The material progress of the past century is unprecedented. Industry has created wealth as with the touch of a magic wand; and this rapidly growing wealth has been made available capital through the instrumentality of the corporation which, by means of stocks and bonds, has gathered into giant organizations the property of hundreds and even thousands of individuals. The industrial corporations have been greatly assisted in their work of concentrating and applying capital, by the banks and other institutions that have enlarged credit and made a given amount of property capable of performing a much larger work. The expansion of industrial credits, furthermore, has been greatly facilitated by the issue of government bonds in large amounts during the century. These state obligations constitute excellent business securities, of which banks, other corporations, and individuals make extensive use. Such are some of the factors that have promoted the accumulation of capital and increased the volume of commerce.

Money is not capital, but an adequate supply of a sound and stable medium of exchange is essential to industrial and commercial progress. Twice in the history of the world the discovery of large supplies of the precious metals has given a great impetus to industry and trade: once, in the sixteenth century, when the Spanish galleys brought to Europe rich treasure from the silver mines of America; and again, in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the rich finds of gold were made in Australia and California. The very rapid increase in the commerce of the United States and of the world at large, which began about 1850, was in no small degree the result of the rising prices which followed the discoveries of gold. The closing decade of the century is witnessing a similar occurrence. For many years prices declined rapidly; the demands made upon the world’s gold supply were rapidly increased at a time when the annual output was declining. From 1850 to 1870 the annual output of gold averaged over $130,000,000; it then declined so rapidly that it amounted to only a little over $100,000,000 a year, in 1885 and 1886. It was only $118,848,700 in 1890; but the present annual production is nearly $300,000,000, and the fall in prices has been cheeked for a while at least. The very rapid enlargement in commerce during the past two years must have been facilitated by the recent increase in the annual production of gold.

A second general cause accounting for the world’s progress in commerce is political—the commercial policy followed by the leading nations of the world. Up to the nineteenth century, practically every country strove to promote its trade, navigation interests, and its power as a nation by means of the mercantile system,—a system of strict and detailed regulation of foreign trade by means of tariffs and navigation laws. Each country strove to determine the nature of its international trade, and endeavored to carry on its commerce in its own ships. In the case of one country, at least, the mercantile system was eminently successful. Great Britain entered the great Napoleonic wars with a powerful naval and merchant marine, and emerged from that struggle the unquestioned mistress of the ocean. Her industries also, as well as her ships, were stronger than those of other countries; and she soon concluded that both her foreign trade and her shipping would profit by doing away with the restrictions of the mercantile system, and adopting the policy of entire commercial freedom. She made no mistake, for her industries and commerce have wonderfully prospered.

The success of free trade and freedom of commerce in the United Kingdom had much influence upon other countries, and, during the third quarter of the nineteenth century, several countries began to move cautiously in the direction that the United Kingdom had taken. They soon found, however, that for them free trade and shipping meant British trade and shipping, because of their inability to compete successfully with their powerful rival; and, during the last quarter of the century, the dominant commercial and maritime policy outside of the British Isles has been one providing for the regulation of trade by tariffs, and for the promotion of the mercantile marine by postal payments and bounties. At the present time, the two most powerful commercial rivals of the United Kingdom are the United States and Germany; and their trade policy is one of regulation instead of freedom. It would seem, therefore, judging by results, that both the United Kingdom and her competitors have acted wisely, and that in both cases the means adopted were such as conditions demanded.

The third cause of the world’s commercial progress during the past century has been colonial expansion. Germany, France, and other countries, influenced by the great success of the United Kingdom, have established colonies in different parts of the world, and assumed control over uncivilized peoples, until there are now 125 colonies, protectorates, and dependencies. These 125 regions comprise two fifths of the land surface of the globe, and contain one third of its population. These colonies and protectorates import annually over $1,500,000,000 worth of commodities, and of this large sum more than forty per cent is bought from mother countries. The last nation to adopt the policy of colonial expansion is the United States, her principal colony, the Philippine Islands, having been made a part of her possessions because of our desire to secure a larger share of the trade of the Orient.

IX. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY PROSPECT.

The world is entering upon the twentieth century with the nations of the earth bound to each other by much closer relations than existed a hundred years ago, and chief among the forces that draw the countries of the world together is commerce. It is commerce, more than anything else, that has brought about the existing organization of industry in which each nation is dependent upon every other.

The nations of the world are mutually dependent, but their interests are not identical. In the future, as they have done in the past, nations will compete with each other, each striving to secure for itself a maximum of economic advantage; and this competition will continue to take the form of commercial rivalry. The great international struggles of the present day are being carried on to secure trade advantages; and at no time in the past have those contests been more earnest than they now are. The conflicts of the twentieth century will be commercial struggles, and they will be intense.

In the centuries when Phœnicia, Greece, Carthage, Rome, and Venice were successively powerful, the Mediterranean was the theatre of commercial activity and international rivalry. The navigators and explorers, whose exploits closed the mediæval period and inaugurated the modern era, carried the world’s commerce from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic and transferred the centres of national greatness from the southern to the western and northern nations of Europe. The great industrial countries of the present are those of Europe and America adjacent to the North Atlantic. These countries originate the larger part of the world’s commerce; and the main streams of international trade are those which connect these countries with each other and with those regions of the earth less highly developed industrially.

The Isthmus of Suez, just north of the Tropic of Cancer, and the Isthmus of Panama, a short distance south of that line, were the only barriers which nature placed across an otherwise continuous water route around the earth in the northern hemisphere. These barriers diverted the lines which the world’s largest volume of traffic tends to follow far to the south around Africa and South America, or did so until 1869, when Europe overcame the barrier of most consequence to her by the construction of the Suez Canal. Since the opening of that waterway Europe has enjoyed advantages for international trade superior to those enjoyed by our country. Our regions most highly developed industrially are tributary to the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. To the east of us lies Europe, a region of great industrial advancement, demanding little more than our surplus food products and raw materials; to the south are the countries of the South Atlantic lying along the line of the world’s secondary commercial routes; countries, moreover, whose trade we can secure only in direct competition with Europe, which has already forestalled us at many points. In pushing their trade westward the industrial States of the United States—and they are found in the eastern half of our country—find that the possibilities of a traffic by land are restricted within narrow bounds by the heavy costs of a long haul over the elevated Cordilleran Mountain ranges, while shipments by water have to take the circuitous and expensive route around South America. Until an isthmian canal is constructed the United States will be handicapped in its competition with Europe for the trade of all countries bordering the Pacific Ocean.