foreign population in 1870, numbering 144,557 in all, comprised 52,318 Germans, 39,988 Irish, 10,027 English, 4197 Scotch, 565 Welsh, 6374 Norwegians, 6154 Swedes, 1243 Danes, 1226 Swiss, 1418 French, and 9648 from the
British provinces in America.
Government and Finances.—The City Government consists of a mayor and common council of 36 members, elected once every two years by a popular vote. There are 18 political districts called “wards,” each of which elects two members to the council. The council is vested with plenary powers as to taxes, appropriations, contracts, &c.; but the bonded debt is limited, by a provision in the constitution of the State, to 5 per cent, on the taxable valuation of all the property. The valuation of all property, personal and real, for taxable purposes (rated at about one-half the actual value) in 1875 was $293,188,950; the tax-levy, $5,123,905; the bonded debt, $13,456,000; the floating debt, about $4,000,000, abundantly covered by uncollected taxes. Chicago is represented in the National Congress of the United States by three members.
Trade and Commerce.—The amount of trade for 1875 was estimated at close upon 657,000,000, made up as follows:—
| Produce trade | $232,328,000 |
| Wholesale business | 293,900,000 |
| Manufactures | 177,000,000 |
| Total | 703,228,000 |
| Less manufactures included in the wholesale business | 46,228,000 |
| Total business | 657,000,000 |
| Total in 1874 | 639,000,000 |
This business was a growth from 20,000,000 in 1852, since which time there has been a steady increase. The value of the shipments from Chicago of the products of the farm was stated as follows in the annual report for 1875 of the Board of Trade (an association meeting daily, with a membership of 1922):
| Flour and grain equal to 72,369,194 bushels, estimated value | $57,500,000 |
| Livestock | 56,600,000 |
| Produce of cattle and hogs | 53,500,000 |
| Produce of the dairy | 5,700,000 |
| Wool and hides | 25,800,000 |
| High wines and alcohol | 11,300,000 |
| Seeds and broom corn | 3,200,000 |
| Sundry other commodities | 1,700,000 |
| Total | $215,300,000 |
| Corresponding estimate for 1873, | 197,400,000 |
| Corresponding estimate for 1873, | 180,000,000 |
The lumber trade showed the receipt of 1,147,193,432 feet and 635,708,120 shingles. The value of the cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses received at the Union Stock Yards during that year was $117,533,941. There is a growing direct trade with Europe. The value of the importations for 1875 was estimated at $10,000,000, meaning those alone which came to Chicago without being stopped for duty at any seaport city; and the direct exportations increased from 7213 tons in 1869 to 219,387 tons in 1875. The total volume of produce pouring through the city was estimated that year at 7,000,000 tons, or 700,000 car-loads, if it had all come by rail; or at the race of 13 tons for every minute in the year, including nights, Sundays, and holidays. There are 18 grain elevators, with an aggregate storage capacity of 14,650,000 bushels. These are vast store-houses where the grain is elevated from cars and ships, and disposed according to grades, then reloaded on cars and ships, all the work being done by machinery. The shipments of bread stuffs for 1835 were 2,262,030 barrels flour, 23,183,683 bushels wheat, 26,409,420 bushels corn, 10,230,208 bushels of oats, 1,834,117 bushels of barley, and 310,609 bushels of rye. There was a total city consumption of 67,825,311 bushels of grain. The shipments of provisions for that year were 56,040 barrels of beef, 311,170 barrels of pork, 182,068 tons of meat, 57,490 tons of lard, 3701 tons of tallow, 154,559 dressed hogs. The receipts of live stock during that year were 920,843 cattle, 3,912,110 hogs, 418,948 sheep, and 11,329 horses,—a total of 5,251,901, excluding horses. The aggregate of the wholesale trade of that year was estimated at $293,900,000, being an increase of 7 per cent, over the previous year. The capital invested in wholesale houses (exclusive of that invested in other cities, but connected with Chicago) was $63,200,000. The statistics of manufactures at that date were as follows:—
| Number of establishments | 2,240 |
| Number of employés | 62,600 |
| Wages paid | $28,676,000 |
| Capital employed | 69,550,000 |
| Value of products | 177,000,000 |
The principal industries are hog-packing (the number of hogs packed in 1875 being 2,069,200), beef-packing, brewing and distilling, and the manufacture of iron and steel, wood, brick, leather, chemicals, boots and shoes, and cigars and tobacco. There is an annual industrial exhibition held in a building especially erected for that purpose, 200 feet wide and 800 feet long, which attracts exhibitors for one month from all parts of the north-west, and which was visited in October 1875 by 276,000 persons. The shipping of Chicago for 1875 was as follows:—number of vessels arrived, 10,488, with a tonnage of 3,122,004; vessels cleared, 10,607, with a tonnage of 3,157,651. There are eighteen trunk lines of railroads running from Chicago, five to the east, and the others west and south, viz. The Baltimore and Ohio; Lake Shore and Michigan Southern; Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago; Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St Louis; Michigan Central; Chicago and Michigan; Chicago and Alton; Chicago, Danville, and Vincennes; Chicago and Iowa; Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific; Chicago and North-western (comprising three trunk lines); Chicago and Pacific; Chicago, Milwaukee, and St Paul; Illinois Central; Western Union; Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy. The aggregate mileage of the railroads centring directly in Chicago is nearly 10,000 miles, and 750 trains arrive and depart daily; but it is estimated that Chicago has an uninterrupted connection with more than one-third of the entire railroad mileage of the continent, which is more than 70,000 miles. A notable peculiarity of the Chicago railway system is that it has been built almost entirely by capital outside of Chicago, and was centred in that city because of its superior advantages as the entrepôt of the north-west The mails received in Chicago weigh 64,400 pounds daily. The banking capital of Chicago at the latest reports was as follows:—National banks (those organized under the provisions of the United States law) $13,381,000; State banks (organized under the State law) $7,165,000; private bankers, $3,885,000; total, $24,431,000. The annual bank clearings for three consecutive years were as follows:—1872, $993,060,503; 1873, $1,047,027,828; 1874, $1,101,347,918.
history of Chicago was the destructive fire of 1871, the largest of modern times. The conflagration commenced by the overturning of a lamp, in a district built up almost exclusively of wood, about 9 o'clock in the evening of Sunday, October 8, 1871; it continued through that night and the greater part of the next day, lapping up great blocks of houses, and growing by what it fed on. It was finally checked by explosions of gunpowder in a line of
houses on the south of the fire, and exhausted itself on the