the economic progress of the United States from 1860 to 1900, there was a continuous and rapid development of all the requisite factors for the existence of a large internal trade. Population more than doubled, annual production per capita quadrupled, the diversification of industry became more pronounced and the transportation system developed to a degree that afforded the utmost fluidity of movement of all articles of trade. Furthermore, the range of movement of internal trade was greatly widened by the settlement of the vast expanse of new country west of the Mississippi River.

The extent, volume and complexity of internal trade during this period render it impossible to attempt, within the scope of this paper, to give a connected account of its development. However, some idea of its wonderful expansion may be conveyed by the following brief statement of the growth of the movement of some of the most important commodities.

Cereals and Flour. The history of the internal grain trade from 1860 to 1900 centers around the receipts and shipments at the great primary grain markets situated on the Great Lakes and the rivers of the upper Mississippi Valley. In 1900 the chief surplus cereal area of the United States comprised a vast stretch of territory included in a semicircle described by a southern and western sweep of a compass moving on a radius extending from Duluth to Buffalo. Three-fourths of the 4,500,000,000 bushels of grain were raised in the twelve states embraced in this territory. The ten most important markets in the region, each of which was receiving annually from 10,000,000 to 300,000,000 bushels of grain, were Chicago, Minneapolis, Duluth-Superior, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Toledo, Kansas City, Peoria, Cincinnati and Detroit. From each of these points there radiated toward the South and West a network of railways over which grain came from the farming districts and over some of which there was a return movement of flour and grain for domestic consumption or for exportation from Gulf ports, while stretching to the eastward were numerous rail and water lines by which an immense cereal and flour traffic was carried to the manufacturing districts and exporting cities of the Atlantic coast. In 1900 the ten markets named received about 850,000,000 bushels of grain, including flour, and shipped 650,000,000 bushels.

Live Stock and Meat. The extension of railroads to the grazing lands of the West and the tremendous increase of corn production in the Mississippi Valley after 1860 gave a great impetus to live stock raising. Like the trade in grain the trade in live stock centered around a series of great cities located centrally within easy reach of the producing sections on one side and of the consuming region on the other. To these primary markets the railroads carried thousands of car loads of stock—horses and mules for distribution among the farms and cities of the East and South, cattle, hogs and sheep for slaughter at the packing houses at the primary markets, for distribution among the farms of the Central States to be fattened for subsequent killing, or for shipment to the slaughter pens of Eastern cities.

Until 1863 Cincinnati was the chief meat packing city of the country, but in that year Chicago took the lead and has held it ever since, and as the live stock industry shifted westward, St. Louis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Omaha and St. Joseph in turn surpassed Cincinnati in the business. The trade in meat was revolutionized during this period by the introduction of the refrigerator car which made possible the transportation of fresh meat for any distance. The total value of the products of wholesale slaughtering and meat packing in 1900 amounted in value to $700,000,000, of which more than one-half was produced in three cities, Chicago, Kansas City and South Omaha. In Chicago alone 2,000,000 cattle and 22,000,000 hogs were packed. The chief market for the numerous products of the packing establishments was in the manufacturing districts of the East. The eastbound rail shipments of provisions from Chicago in 1900 averaged about 20,000 tons a week.

Cotton. The geographical limits of the cotton belt had been reached before 1860 and consequently there was no further extension, but the cotton acreage was increased from about 13,000,000 acres to more than 30,000,000 acres during the period. Texas in 1900 had over 7,000,000 acres of land devoted to cotton raising and seven more of the thirteen states in the cotton belt each had an acreage of more than 1,000,000. The chief interior cotton markets in 1898 were Houston, St. Louis, Memphis, Augusta, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Little Rock and Shreveport. The city of Houston, through which passed a large part of the Texas crops, destined for export from Galveston, had the heaviest receipts amounting to 1,800,000 bales. St. Louis and Cincinnati owed their prominence to their position as natural gateways through which cotton passed to Northern markets from Texas and the lower valley of the Mississippi. Among the Southern seaports New Orleans held the lead in cotton receipts until 1899, when Galveston took first place. Together these two cities shipped nine-tenths of the cotton exported by the way of the Gulf of Mexico. On the Atlantic coast Savannah held the lead in cotton receipts. The trade of Charleston declined somewhat after 1880; Norfolk and Wilmington, of relatively small importance before the war, became large markets during this period, the former ranking next to Savannah after 1880.

The "overland movement" of cotton by rail to the North, which began in 1855, developed to large proportions after the war. This movement represented the results of the efforts of the railroads to secure a share of the traffic that had formerly belonged entirely to the coasting trade. The "overland" traffic originated in all the cotton states, most of it passing through St. Louis and the gateways on the Ohio and Potomac rivers to North Atlantic States to be sold to Eastern spinners or exported to Europe. In 1899 the all-rail movement of cotton amounted to 1,370,000 bales, as compared to a coastwise movement of 2,019,153 bales.

A noteworthy feature of the cotton trade of this period was the increase of cotton consumption in the South. After 1885 there was a rapid expansion of cotton manufacturing in several Southern States, and in 1899 their mills used 1,400,000 bales of cotton, only a third less than the number of bales consumed in Northern mills. The decline of cotton receipts at Charleston was largely due to the growth of cotton manufacturing in South Carolina, whose mills were consuming more than one-half of the annual product of the state at the close of the century.

Coal. Previous to 1860 practically all the coal shipped from the anthracite districts in Pennsylvania was transported to Philadelphia and New York where it was consumed or carried coastwise to points along the Atlantic seaboard. The movement to Eastern points continued to constitute the largest part of the anthracite trade after 1860, but a trade toward the West also sprang up. The chief route for this traffic was by canal or rail to Buffalo, from where it was distributed among other ports on the Great Lakes. Another important movement was to Pittsburgh, large quantities being shipped thither for distribution westward by rail.

Until the early sixties the production of bituminous coat was less than that of anthracite, but with the increase of manufacturing the production of the former increased rapidly and by 1900 the output, amounting to 190,000,000 tons, was nearly four times the output of anthracite. The great fields of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Ohio turned out much more than one-half of the bituminous coal mined during this period. From these fields there were large shipments in all directions. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the southern trunk line railroads carried a heavy tonnage to the cities on the Atlantic seaboard; millions of tons were floated down the Ohio River; the railroads took immense quantities westward for