Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/37

Rh adopted the same rule, and refused to carry wheat, lumber, or any other productions of the country, for private individuals, having freight enough of their own.

The granaries and flouring-mills of the country were rapidly becoming overstocked; lumber, laths, and shingles were being made much faster than they could be disposed of, and there was no way to rid the colony of the over-production, while money was absolutely required for certain classes of goods. As it was declared by one of the leading colonists, "the best families in the country are eating their meals and drinking their tea and coffee—when our merchants can afford it—from tin plates and cups; many articles of clothing and other things actually necessary for our consumption are not to be purchased in the country; our children are growing up in ignorance for want of school-books to educate them; and there has not been a plough-mould in the country for many months."

In the autumn of 1845 salt became scarce, and was raised in price from sixty-two and a half cents a bushel to two dollars at McLoughlin's store in Oregon City. The American merchants, Stark and Pettygrove, saw an opportunity of securing a monopoly of the salmon trade by withholding their salt, a cash article, from market, at any price, and many families were thereby compelled to dispense with this condiment for months. Such was the enmity of the people, however, toward McLoughlin as a British trader, that it was seriously proposed in Yamhill County to take by force the salt of the doctor, who was selling it, rather than to rob the American merchants who refused to sell.

It was deemed a hardship while flour brought from ten to fifteen dollars a barrel in the Hawaiian Islands,