rom
Pittsburg to St. Louis, in keel-boats, $1.62-1/2; to Nashville, $1.50; to
Louisville, $0.75; to Cincinnati, $0.62-1/2; to Maysville, $0.50; to
Marietta, $0.40; to Wheeling, $0.18-3/4; in wagons, from Pittsburg to
Philadelphia, $1.00 to $1.12-1/2; from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, $3.00;
from Philadelphia to Wheeling, $3.50.(426) A Columbus, Ohio, editor
declared that it required thirty days and cost $5.00 per hundred to
transport goods from Philadelphia to Columbus, while it required but
twenty days and $2.50 to transport from New York.(427) No explanation was
given, but the most probable one is the opening of the Erie Canal.
Illinois buyers could, of course, take advantage of the cheaper rate as
well as the inhabitants of Columbus. The freight schedule agreed upon by
the owners, masters, and agents of steamboats in July, 1830, was, per 100
pounds, as follows: Pittsburg to Cincinnati, $0.45; Pittsburg to
Louisville, $0.50; Wheeling to Cincinnati, $0.40; Wheeling to Louisville,
$0.45; Cincinnati to Louisville, $0.12-1/2; in the reverse direction rates
were the same, except that the rate from Louisville to Cincinnati was
$0.16. Freight on pork, from Cincinnati to Louisville was $0.20 per
barrel, and on flour and light (probably meaning empty) barrels, $0.15 per
barrel. The schedule rates were not, however, generally adhered to, many
boats carrying freight at from 2-1/2 to 5 cents lower than the quoted
rate.(428) At this time there were 213 steamboats in use in western
waters--an increase of about three-fold since 1820.(429) Improved
transportation caused a better market price for produce in the West. In
1819, at Cincinnati, flour sold at $1.37-1/2 per barrel, corn at from $0.10
to $0.12 per bushel, and pork at $0.10-1/2 per pound,(430) while in 1830, in
the same market, flour from wagons sold at $2.65 per barrel, or from store
at $3.00; corn at $0.18 to $0.20, and pork at $0.05 per pound ($10.00 to
$10.50 per barrel).(431) The influence of improved transportation on
emigration is obvious. In regard to steamboat navigation it should be
noted that in 1817 rates up-stream were more than three times as high as
rates down-stream, in 1823 the former were less than twice the latter, and
in 1830 the two were about equal. During the same period the time of
up-stream passage was diminished more than one-half. Steamboats had not
driven out the ruder crafts, but more and more use was being made of the
more expeditious means of transp