developed rapidly indeed, thanks to the wonderful increase of the crops even more than to the closing of the river.. The receipts and shipments of the port of Chicago grew apace, and were typical of the growth of the new routes eastward. Starting in 1838 with a shipment of 78 bushels of wheat, and gradually thereafter increasing her shipments, but never before 1860 sending out over 10,000,000 bushels of wheat and wheat flour, this new city in each year of the war shipped on the average 20,000,000 bushels of wheat and wheat flour; her yearly corn exports, in the past never above 11,000,000 bushels, now averaged 25,000,000 bushels.

The closing of the Mississippi route, the abundance of the harvests and the vast transport requirements of the Army very greatly increased the pressure of railway traffic. It could be handled only by greatly increasing the efficiency of the railroads. Necessity thus led to the introduction of scientific railway management. Hitherto railways had been built haphazard by enterprising capitalists. Unrestricted individualism and the desire to hamper competitors had led to the introduction of at least eight different gauges, which varied from 4 feet 8 inches to 6 feet. The war forced the railways to combine and to adopt a single gauge.

The standardisation of railways was gradually evolved. An Imperial railway system was created which found its highest expression in the Interstate Commerce Commission of 1887. The United States have private railways, but an Imperial railway system owing to the supervision and control exercised by the Interstate Commerce Commission throughout the Union. During the war the weak iron rails, which rapidly wore out, were replaced by heavier iron and especially by steel rails. Stations, goods yards, and sidings were enlarged. Military and economic pressure made the rapid extension of the railway system indispensable. Notwithstanding the war the length of the American railways was increased from 30,626 miles in 1860 to 36,801 miles in 1866, or by 20 per cent. In consequence of the vast increase in railway business and of the improvements in handling

the traffic which were introduced the American railways flourished greatly during the war. The American Railway Record of January 8, 1863, wrote, in reviewing the year 1862:

The year 1862 will ever be remembered in railroading as one of the most prosperous that has ever been known. The railroads never earned so much in the whole course of their existence as they have during this much-dreaded year.

The American Railroad Journal of January 2, 1864, declared in reviewing the business of the year 1863:

The railway system has greatly flourished the past year. The Companies have got out of debt or largely diminished their indebtedness, their earnings are increasing, their dividends have become regular and inviting. The past year has been, therefore, the most prosperous ever known to American railways.

Modern war is carried on by weapons and by machines. It is fought quite as much in the factory as in the field. The Civil War, while greatly promoting the development of America's agriculture and of the American railways, had not unnaturally the most far-reaching and the most striking effects upon the American manufacturing industries. Without their help the North could not possibly have won the war. Before 1861 the United States manufactured little. They imported vast quantities of manufactured goods of every kind from Europe, chiefly from Great Britain. Therefore, when the war broke out the Americans found that they lacked not only weapons and ammunition but wool and cloth for uniforms, boots, &c., as well.

The heavy cost of imported goods, the unfavourable position of the American exchange, and the disinclination to buy the commodities needed at an extortionate price and a ruinous exchange in Europe made necessary not only the rapid creation of war industries but that of general

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manufacturing industries as well. The war had totally disorganised America's foreign trade. It had stopped the exports of cotton, tobacco, and sugar which were produced in the revolted South, with which foreign imports were very largely paid for. How seriously America's foreign trade had been affected thereby may be seen by the fact that American exports shrank from $333,576,057 in 1860 to only $166,029,303 in 1865. They declined to one-half. During the same period imports were reduced from $353,616,119 to $238,745,580. However, soon after the war the American export trade expanded rapidly.

In view of the total disorganisation of the foreign trade and of the foreign exchange the United States were no longer able to buy manufactured goods in Europe and to pay for them chiefly with cotton, sugar, and tobacco. Necessity forced them to become self-supporting as far as possible. To encourage the American industries to produce those goods which hitherto were imported from abroad the American Government took a step comparable to that which the British Government took during the present War. With the intention of discouraging imports heavy taxes were imposed upon imported goods. The change effected in America's Fiscal Policy, owing to the stress of war, may be seen at a glance by the following table:

It will be noticed that the ad valorem duties were twice

as high in 1862 as in 1861, and that they were considerably increased in 1865. Since then import duties have on an average been only little below 50 per cent. ad valorem on dutiable articles. Only during the last few years has the duty declined to an average of about 40 per cent.

Before the Civil War iron and iron ware had been one of the principal American imports. The Civil War laid the foundations of the gigantic iron and steel industry of the United States which is at present by far the largest in the world. Professor Fite wrote:

The progress of manufactures involving the raw materials of the mines was marked. Iron was used in all branches of manufacturing, and its growing consumption was an indication of general industrial progress. Of all the flourishing centres of iron manufacturing Pittsburg was the largest ; here in one year six extensive iron mills were erected, and in the last year and a half of the war $26,000,000 worth of iron and steel were manufactured.

The report of the American Iron and Steel Association of 1871 stated:

In 1860 205,000 tons of iron rails were made in the United States, the largest amount ever made in any one year up to that time; 187,000 tons were made in 1861, 213,000 tons in 1862, 275,000 tons in 1863, 335,000 tons in 1864, and 356,000 tons in 1865. In 1853 importations reached 358,000 tons, the highest figure reached in the 'fifties; 146,000 tons were imported in 1860, 89,000 tons in 1861, 10,000 tons in 1862, 20,000 tons in 1863, 146,000 tons in 1864, and 63,000 tons in 1865.

The Civil War was instrumental in creating the gigantic American clothing and boot and shoe industries. Professor Fite tells us:

At first uniforms were very scarce; in the various United States garrisons, when the war came, there were only enough on hand to accommodate the regular army of 13,000 men, and but few factories were fitted for making

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cloth for military purposes.

ment made heavy purchases of army cloth in England and France in order to meet the crisis, the almost savage cry arose in some quarters: Patronise home industries.'

In the succeeding years the woollen factories were able to cope with the situation, and no more complaints were heard; the millions of soldiers were clad in products of the country's own mills. The annual military consumption of wool in the height of the war was 75,000,000 pounds, for domestic purposes 138,000,000 pounds more, a total consumption for all purposes of over 200,000,000 pounds, against 85,000,000 pounds in times of peace.

The progress of the woollen factories, most of them located in New York and New England, was enormous; every mill was worked to its fullest capacity, many working night and day, Sunday included. In all 2000 sets of new cards were erected, representing many new mills. As the report of the New York Chamber of Commerce said, the progress seemed scarcely credible. . .

The ready-made clothing industry was as necessary for clothing the army as were the sheep farms and the woollen mills. . . . The trade thus created did supplant importations from the East side of London. By the middle of the war the importations ceased, and then the country succeeded in clothing its army of over a million men almost entirely by native industry, not only furnishing a large percentage of the wool for manufacturing all the cloth, but making the uniforms.

Much of this success was doubtless due to the sewing machine then but recently invented. . . . The manufacture of clothing was greatly stimulated. Men's shirts, which required fourteen hours and twenty minutes for making by hand, by the machine could be made in one hour and sixteen minutes.

The shoe industry likewise benefited by the sewing machine; in fact, was converted by it from a system of household manufacture to the modern factory system.

During the Civil War British cotton thread, which hitherto had had practically a monopoly in the United States;