Rapid rise of New Orleans
Nevertheless, in spite of these hostile tariffs, and
the war of retaliating duties which was for some
time waged, New Orleans, from being the natural
emporium of the vast tracts of country traversed by
the Mississippi, Missouri, and their tributary streams,
and enjoying, as it does, a greater command of internal
navigation than any other city in either the
Old or New World, has made since 1820 the most
astounding strides in its maritime commerce.[1]
and of New York. But in the face of equal difficulties as regards hostile tariffs, New York, through the great natural resources at her command, and other causes, surpassed New Orleans in the rapidity of its early commercial and maritime progress. Although its advancement during the first decade of the present century was scarcely equal to that of the preceding ten years, during which it enjoyed unexceptionable prosperity (no other city in the United States having profited so much, during the earlier periods, by the war in Europe), its merchants and shipowners suffered severely between 1806 and 1815 from the disastrous effects of captures, condemnations, and embargoes. Nor was it until 1825 that New York began to assume the importance which she has continued to maintain among the other commercial cities of the Union. In that year an internal element of prosperity was brought into operation by the construction of the Erie Canal, which opened for trade
- ↑ In 1818, the whole of the exports from New Orleans was only in value a little more than three million sterling; in 1850 it had reached thirty millions; the shipments of raw cotton alone in that year being 1,600,000 bales. During the year ending June 30, 1874, the exports of that article to foreign countries were 2,883,785 bales from the port of New Orleans alone.
