Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/456

440 charge for sea-freights on articles of comparatively high value has been reduced, is shown by the fact that the ocean transport of fresh meats from New York to Liverpool does not exceed 1 cent (d.) per pound; and including commissions, insurance, and all other items of charge, does not exceed 2 cents (1d.) per pound. Boxed meats have also been carried from Chicago to London as a regular business for 50 cents per 100 pounds. In 1860 6d. (12 cents) per bushel was about the lowest rate charged for any length of time for the transportation of bulk grain from New York to Liverpool, and for a part of that year the rate ran up as high as l3d. (27 cents) per bushel. But for the year 1886 the average rate for the same service was 2d. (5 cents) per bushel. In like manner, the cost of the ocean transportation of tea from China and Japan, or sugar from Cuba, or coffee from Brazil, has been greatly reduced by the same causes.

The above are examples on a large scale of the disturbing influence of the recent application of steam to maritime industries. The following is an example drawn from comparatively one of the smallest of the world's industries, prosecuted in one of the most out-of-the-way places: The seal-fishery is a most important industrial occupation and source of subsistence to the poor and scant population of Newfoundland. Originally it was prosecuted in small sailing-vessels, and upward of a hundred of such craft, employing a large number of men, annually left the port of St. John's for the seal-hunt. Now few or no sailing-vessels engage in the business; steamers have been substituted, and the same number of seals are taken with half the number of men that were formerly needed. The consequence is, a diminished opportunity for a population of few resources, and to obtain "a berth for the ice," as it is termed, is now considered as a favor.

Is it, therefore, to be wondered at, that the sailing-vessel is fast disappearing from the ocean; that good authorities estimated in 1886 that the tonnage then afloat was about twenty-five per cent in excess of all that was needed to do the then carrying-trade of the world; and that ship-owners everywhere have been unanimously of the opinion that the depression of industry is universal?

Great, however, as has been the revolution in respect to economy and efficiency in the carrying-trade upon the ocean, the revolution in the carrying-trade upon land during the same period has been even greater and more remarkable. Taking the American railroads in general as representative of the railroad system of the world, the average charge for moving one ton of freight per mile has been reduced from about 2·5 cents in 1869 to 1·05 in 1885; or, taking the results on one of the standard roads of the United States (the New York Central) from 1·95 in 1869 to 0·68 in 1885. To grasp fully the meaning and significance of these figures, their method of presentation may be varied by saying that two thousand pounds of coal, iron, wheat, cotton, or other commodities, can now be carried on the best managed