Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 14).djvu/190



In only these eight years, it will be seen, the receipts exceeded the estimates by nearly two and one-quarter millions. In many places these estimates had been laughed to scorn. It will be difficult to find in all the commercial history of America a more splendid success, and it will be quite as difficult to find an instance where success was more richly deserved.

Between June, 1817, and October, 1821, the sum of $2,893,500 was borrowed for canal work, the lenders advancing $91,202 in premiums; the yearly interest was $159,580. The tolls of 1821 amounted to $23,000. It will be interesting to notice