THE INTERNAL GRAIN TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES 1860-18901 I The purpose of this study is to consider some of the distinctive features of the internal grain trade of the United States during the period from 1860 to 1890. Various movements and developments in the preceding period had resulted in the establishment, by 1860, of a mutual economic dependence between the three great sections of the Union the manufacturing East, the plantation South, and the food producing West- and upon this the growing volume of internal trade depended. The three decades following 1860 witnessed the rapid transformation of American agriculture from a primitive, pioneer, largely self-sufficing type of industry into a modern business organized on a scientific, capitalistic, commercial basis. The most significant result of this transformation was the rise of the United States to the leading place among the nations of the world in the production of grain and live stock-a position which 1 This is the first of two articles covering the period 1860-1890. Other phases of the period will be treated in a later article. Attention is directed to an earlier article by the same writer on The Internal Grain Trade of the United States, 1850-1860, which appeared in THE IOWA JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND POLITICS, Vol. XVIII, pp. 94-124. 2 It is interesting to note that the Federal Government made no provision for the collection of information on the internal trade of the United States until 1876 when the first annual report was issued; while from the very beginning of the national period of our history full and complete statistics on foreign commerce had been collected and published in a document known as the Annual Report on the Commerce and Navigation of the United States. See the Report of the Select Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard (Washington, 1874), Vol. I, p. 8, and the Annual Report on the Internal Commerce of the United States (Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department), 1876, pp. 8, 9. this country had already long since attained and still continued to hold with respect to cotton and tobacco. Grain was the most important American product and the leading item entering into the nation's domestic and foreign commerce. Its production and distribution therefore constitutes a subject of fundamental interest and significance in the study of American economic development.3 In undertaking a consideration of the internal grain trade of the United States during this period, attention will be given to the following aspects of the problem: first, the rapid expansion in the production of grain; second, the geographic distribution of population and grain production; third, the principal transportation routes connecting the surplus grain States of the North Central region with the consuming States of the East and the South; fourth, the growth of the great primary grain markets of the Middle West; and fifth, the movement of grain and flour from the primary markets to the Atlantic and Gulf ports. The grain trade of the Pacific coast will not be considered in this paper, inasmuch as this subject may more conveniently be treated in another article. A study of foreign grain trade of the United States during this period will also be presented in a subsequent paper. THE RAPID EXPANSION IN THE PRODUCTION OF GRAIN The rapid development of the grain growing industry in the United States is shown by Table I, which gives the production of the six leading cereals by ten-year periods from 1859 to 1889. It will be seen that the volume of corn production in 1859 amounted to 838,793,000 bushels. This was decreased in 1869 to 760,945,000 bushels, owing to the dis 3 See Schmidt's articles on The Internal Grain Trade of the United States, 1850-1860, in THE IOWA JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND POLITICS, Vol. VIII, pp. 94-124; and Some Significant Aspects of the Agrarian Revolution in the United States in THE IOWA JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND POLITICS, Vol. XVIII, pp. 371-395. TABLE I PRODUCTION OF THE SIX LEADING CEREALS OF THE The writer is indebted to Miss Mary Nicholson of Winterset, Iowa, a senior student in History and Economics at the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts during the academic year of 1920-1921, for assistance in the preparation of the statistical tables used in this paper. The statistics used in Table I, giving the complete returns of each of the six leading cereals for the four census years included in this period, are taken from the tables of the Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, Vol. VI, pp. 72-93. The per capita returns are based on these tables and on the statistics of population presented in Table II of this paper. For a brief historical sketch of American agriculture, particularly as related to grain production, see Brewer's Report on the Cereal Production of the United States, pp. 131-141, in the Tenth Census of the United States, 1880, Vol. III. For a brief statement of some of the more important aspects of grain production in the United States, see pp. 142-152 of the same report. astrous effects of the Civil War on Southern agriculture which before 1860 had contributed a fair share of the total annual product. During the succeeding decade, however, production was more than doubled, amounting in 1879 to 1,754,592,000 bushels. This was further increased in 1889 to 2,122,328,000 bushels - an amount which represented about two and one-half times the returns of 1859. Wheat increased steadily from 173,105,000 bushels in 1859 to 287,746,000 bushels in 1869, mounted rapidly to 459,483,000 bushels in 1879, and then increased more slowly until 1889 when 468,374,000 bushels were produced. This represented an increase to more than two and one-half times the amount shown in the returns of 1859. Oats showed even a more remarkable proportionate increase than either corn or wheat, rising from 172,643,000 bushels in 1859 to 282,107,000 bushels in 1869. This was steadily increased to 407,859,000 bushels in 1879, after which production was expanded still more rapidly, amounting in 1889 to 809,251,000 bushels nearly five times the volume of production in 1859. Barley showed a similar proportionate increase, although this cereal was of much less importance as to total volume of production which in 1859 amounted to only 15,826,000 bushels. This was increased to 29,761,000 bushels in 1869 after which there was a continued rise to 43,997,000 bushels in 1879. This was doubled during the succeeding decade, the volume of production in 1889 amounting to 78,333,000 bushels, or nearly five times the returns of 1859. Rye which was of greater importance than barley in 1859, amounting in that year to 21,101,000 bushels, decreased in both absolute and relative importance to 16,919,000 bushels in 1869, then increased to 19,832,000 bushels in 1879, thereafter rising to 28,421,000 bushels in 1889. This represented an increase to an amount less than one and one-half times the returns of 1859. Buckwheat was even of less impor tance than rye, decreasing from 17,572,000 bushels in 1859 to 9,922,000 bushels in 1869, and then increasing only slightly to 11,817,000 bushels in 1879 and amounting to but 12,110,000 bushels in 1889. The total volume of production of the six leading cereals amounted in 1859 to 1,239,040,000 bushels. This was increased to 1,387,299,000 bushels in 1869, in spite of the disturbances caused by the Civil War. The next ten years showed a marvellous expansion in cereal production, the returns of 1879 amounting to 2,697,580,000 bushels, while in 1889 the returns amounted to 3,518,817,000 bushels. This represented an increase to an amount three times that returned by the United States Census of 1860. The significance of the rapid expansion in the volume of grain production during this period is further emphasized by the increase in per capita production. It will be seen by reference to Table I that while the production of corn decreased from 26.6 bushels per capita in 1859 to 19.8 bushels in 1869, the returns for 1879 increased to 34.9 bushels and thereafter were maintained at the same high average until 1889 when 33.8 bushels were returned. Wheat production increased with marvellous rapidity, rising from 5.5 bushels per capita in 1859 to 7.4 bushels in 1869 and then to 9.2 bushels in 1879, thereafter decreasing to 7.4 bushels in 1889, which represented a return to the per capita production of 1869. Oats showed a consistent growth from 5.4 bushels per capita in 1859 to 7.3 bushels in 1869, rising further to 8.2 bushels in 1879, and finally reaching 13 bushels in 1889. Barley, although of minor importance, showed an increase of from five-tenths of a bushel in 1859 to nearly eight-tenths of a bushel in 1869, rising further to ninetenths of a bushel in 1879, and then to one and one-tenth bushels in 1889. Rye decreased from seven-tenths of a bushel per capita in 1859 to four-tenths of a bushel in 1869, |