$150,000 beyond expenditures for repairs.
"If these estimates of revenue and of the expense of making the canals, be correct, it results that the canals will be completed in 1830, and that the canal loans will be discharged in 1843." An act dated February 9, 1821, authorized the commissioners to borrow one million dollars in both 1821 and 1822. Nothing can be more interesting than the financial estimates, the fears and doubts and the staunch firmness of these directors of the Erie Canal. In almost every case the estimates of expenses fell far below the actual cost; often the expenses ran thirty per cent above estimates; on the other hand the most optimistic commissioner never, in his most enthusiastic moment, realized what a tremendous income was to be received from the Erie Canal when it should be completed. Far as expenses ran ahead of estimates, they never exceeded them so far as the actual income of the canal exceeded the estimated income. This cannot be more clearly indicated than by a table showing estimated tolls and those actually received, from 1826 to 1834:
