Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/626

 590 UNITED STATES.

The State with the greatest mileage is Illinois, which figures for 7,186 miles, and is followed by Pennsylvania with 6,878, Indiana with 5,331, New York with 4,735, and Ohio with 4, 613. Califor- nia has already 2,307 miles, and is far above some of the older States, such as Louisiana and Mississippi. The average cost of construction of the railway system of the United States was 40,000 dollars per mile. The total amount of capital expended upon United States railways to the close of 1869 was 2,212,412,719 dollars.

The annual railway commerce of the United States amounts to six times the original cost of the railways. The gross tonnage per head, according to population, in the year 1869, was 6,1701b., valued at 282 dollars, to each person in the United States. In 1851 the railway tonnage of the United States was only 5,000,000, the earnings of which amounted to 20,192,104 dollars, the value of the tonnage being 750,000,000 dollars. In 1869 the value of the tonnage had increased to 10,800,000,000 dollars, or 14 times greater than 18 years before. The average annual increase of tonnage from 1851 to 1869 was 6,273,861 tons, while the average annual increase of value was 556,666,666 dollars. It is calculated that the railroad tonnage increases annually at the rate of about one-fourth of the amount of the funded debt of the United States.

The strength of the commercial navy of the United States has been decreasing since the year 1861, date of the outbreak of the civil war. According to a statement of the Secretary of the Treasury, annexed to his anmial report to Congress for 1869, the registered shipping in the middle of 1868 was but little more than half of that of 1855, and very little above what it was in 1847. On the 30th of June, 1868, the total tonnage of the United States, including steam and sailing vessels, barges, and canal boats was as follows : — On the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, 2,974,975 tons ; Pacific coasts, 166,512 tons; Northern Lakes, 695,604 tons; Western Rivers, 581,217 tons — makinga total of 4,318,309 tons. The shipping which returned this tonnage consisted of 18,189 sailing vessels, 3,619 steamers, 1,631 barges, and 4,679 canal boats — making a total of 28,118. The tonnage in June, 1861, was 5,539,812 ; and in June 1868, only 4,318,309, or a decrease of 1,221,503 tons. In the fiscal year 1^54-55, a more prosperous year in the trade than any previous one, 373 ships and barques were built, and in 1867-68 only 69 vessels were launched. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869, there was renewed activity in ship- building, the number of vessels built amounting to 1,153, of a total tonnage of 214,095. The number included 2C0 river steamers, of an aggregate of 37,626 tons; 50 lake steamers, of 21,834 tons; and 29 ocean setamers, of an aggregate of 5,605 tons. The total tonnage of the mercantile