Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/778

 768 F. P. Goodwin ners and put on extra charges for carriage whenever possible ; it has been stated that they sometimes charged as much as eleven dollars per hundredweight for transportation from Philadelphia to Pitts- burgh. One complainant, in particular, estimated that Cincinnati alone paid twenty-five thousand dollars annually to Pennsylvania freighters over and above a fair charge for carriage.' In 1816 a Cincinnati firm was offering goods wholesale at an advance of twelve and one-half per cent, on Philadelphia prices plus six dollars per hundredweight for carriage ; but it is very doubtful if Cincinnati merchants did or could continue to sell on such a margin. At any rate, as a result of these charges, Cincinnati people were complain- ing that, on an average, they had to pay nearly double the Phila- delphia prices for manufactured goods.- A measure of temporary relief was afl:orded, however, at the close of the war, when eastern towns were flooded with foreign goods and large quantities were sent down the Ohio for sale. The auction system was resorted to in Cincinnati, as it had been in the eastern cities, and for a time the western farmers were buying foreign merchandise for about one- third of what they had previously paid.'' In addition to the high price of imported goods the Miami Country labored under an equal difficulty in exporting its surplus agricultural products. The cost of transportation from Cincinnati to New Orleans was, on an average, only one dollar per hundred- weight, as contrasted with a minimum charge of six dollars from Philadelphia; but the additional charges of marketing the produce of the region from the southern port were so great that Cincinnati prices were about one-half those obtaining on the Atlantic Coast.'' The Westerners, therefore, reasoned that four bushels of corn at Cincinnati would buy what one bushel would buy at Philadelphia. Said one farmer, " I always feel a degree of regret when I see our wagons going to market with flour, pork, etc., and returning with the real trifling amount of merchandise for which the produce was bartered, . . . and I say to myself, who pays the price which at every turn is added to them ? " In view of these facts, then, it is not strange that Cincinnati and the Miami Country took little interest in the tariff controversy of 1816. Instead of this the people were making an eft'ort to estab- lish manufactures in order to escape the long haul and its attendant charges and, at the same time, build up a home market for agri- '^ Liberty Hall, September 11, 181 5. 2 Western Spy, February 14, 1818; ibid., February 28, 1818. ' IVestern Spy, February 28, 181 8.
 * Liberty Hall, October 16, 181 5; Fearon, p. 249.