It will be seen that these tables do not include many of the largest departments of business. Beside the houses already mentioned are many commission houses, whose sales in cotton, tobacco, rope, bagging, hemp, provisions &c., would very greatly increase the amounts above stated. The impossibility of procuring accurate and reliable statistics of the amount of sales by these houses will prevent any attempt to fix the exact ratio of their business. The Western reader who is at all connected with commerce does not, however, need to be told that the trade in these articles in Louisville is of immense extent. The great superiority of this city as a market for hemp and its products, bagging and rope, is so obvious, so well known and so widely acknowledged, that any dissertation upon these merits is unnecessary here.
As aTobacco Market, Louisville possesses advantages which are not afforded by any other Western or Southern city. The rapid and healthful increase in the receipts and sales of this article during the last few years is of itself sufficient evidence of this fact. Even as early as the year 1800 the prospects of the city in this regard,though in the distant future, were looked upon as highly flattering. A Mr. Campbell had at that time a tobacco ware-house, which was situated opposite Corn Island. This ware-house was suppressed by the legislature in 1815, and a new one ordered to be erected at “the mouth of Beargrass.” The building thus directed was located on Pearl Street, about one hundred feet from Main, and the salary of the Inspector was fixed at £25, currency, per annum. This inspector resided at some distance from the city, and when a sufficient quantity of tobacco had been collected at the ware-house to make it an object, he was sent for to come and perform his duties. The entire crop did not then exceed 500 hogsheads. There are at present in the city three large tobacco ware-houses, all receiving and selling daily immense quantities of this article. Speculators are attracted to this market from great distances and the receipts are continually upon the increase. The following table of receipts since 1837 will show how steadily and securely this increase has been effected:
These figures are of themselves a strong argument in favor of this city as a market for tobacco. The reasonsfor the steady and rapid increase in the receipts of this article, as well as for the opinion that this is the best market for tobacco in the United States, are very simple, very convincing and very easily stated. In the first place, it is a fact well known to all tobacco dealers, that in the three divisions of Kentucky—to-wit: the Northern, Southern and Middle—a variety of leaf, suitable toallthe purposes of the manufacturer, is grown. In no other State is so great and so complete a variety of leaf produced. The cigar maker, the lump manufacturer and the stemmer all find in this State the article just suited to their various purposes. These tobaccos all naturally find their way to Louisville as a market, and, of a necessary consequence, attract buyers to this place. Beside this advantage, another important point is gained in the presence of the numerous manufacturers of tobacco in Louisville. These persons, having to compete with the established markets of older States, offer large prices to the planter and so attract here great quantities of the article. It is well known that really fine tobacco, for manufacturing purposes, has brought and will always command here as high rates as can be had for it at any other point in the United States. The number of manufacturers is rapidly increasing, the character of the article which they produce is steadily growing into favor, and the market for its sale is enlarging every day, so that planters cannot be so blinded to their interests as to seek foreign markets for an article which will pay them so handsomely at their own doors. Again: the facilities for the shipment of the article from this point to the various Eastern markets are recently so increasedthat an entirely new demand has sprung up for Louisville tobacco. Western New York, Western Pennsylvania, Northern Illinois, Ohio and Michigan, all of which were formerly obliged to look to New York City for their supplies of this article, have recently turned their faces westwardly, for the simple reason that they can now get the same article at less rates of freight and without the former numerous and onerous commissions. Nor is this the only benefit procured to these purchasers in choosing this market. It is well known that, unless tobacco is in unusually excellent order, it is always seriously injured by being confined on shipboard in its passage through the warm climate of the Gulf of Mexico and along the coast of the Southern States. And as Louisville is the only other prominent shipping point for the article, it has, of course, this great advantage over rival markets. The facts above enumerated indicate only the prominent and leading reasons for believing Louisville to be the best tobacco market in the Union. Many other advantages might be enumerated, but these, which are all acknowledged and have been demonstrated over and over again, are considered sufficient to establish the proposition. However much Louisville has gained in regard to this article, there is yet much to gain. Her destiny is but beginning to be unfolded, and only a few years will elapse until the largest of the receipts above quoted will appear quite insignificant and worthless beside the swollen columns of the statistician of a future period.
The assertion that Louisville is destined very soon to become distinguished also as aCotton Marketmayexcite some surprise among those who have not had their attention called to this matter. But that this is a fact can readily be shown to the most skeptical. The consumption of cotton in the West amounts to 35,000 bales, and heretofore this has constituted the entire demand of this section of the country. But the recent opening up of new means of communication with the Atlantic coast at the East has begun and will complete an entirely new state of affairs in this regard. Let us look for a moment at the effect of these new facilities of transport. By the 1st of January, 1853, an uninterrupted communication with the Atlantic at the North will be effected by the lake route, continuing from 1st of May to 1st of November. At the same time the Jeffersonville Railroad will have established connection with other railroads reaching to New York. Beside all of which, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad will have been completed from Wheeling to Baltimore, from which point all descriptions of Western produce can reach Philadelphia and New York, either by railroad, or, more cheaply, by means of propellers, steamers and sail-vessels. The completion of this latter road will be the signal for the establishment of a line of steam-packets from Louisville to Wheeling, another to Memphis, and yet another to Nashville. These lines are already established and merely wait the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to go at once into operation. A line of packets to Tuscumbia and Florence is already in successful operation. The facts above stated are well known to the community both East and West. It only remains, therefore, to examine how they will affect Louisville as amarket for cotton. New Orleans, it cannot be denied, has heretofore been considered the only proper point of shipment for this article, but if both the seller and the buyer can be benefited by a change of markets, surely that change will ensue. New Orleans is certainly the natural depot for Southern cotton, but if the cotton raised in Alabama, Tennessee and North Mississippi, or that which finds its way to market down the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, can be placed in Louisville at less rates of freight than would be charged to New Orleans, and thence can reach the Eastern markets in less time and at less rates than from that city, it is surely the interest of both seller and buyer to make Louisville their market. Now it is certain that from these points cotton will be carried to Louisville at one dollar per bale less than to New Orleans; it is equally certain that insurance can be had via Louisville to New York atone-halfthe rates charged via New Orleans, and that freight, after the 1st of January next, from this city onward, will be the same as from New Orleans; beside which the time of transit will be thirty days less, thus saving no inconsiderate sum in interest. Again, the trade of North Alabama, Tennessee and North Mississippi with this city is ascertained to reach two and a half millions of dollars. To pay this debt seventy thousand bales of cotton, valued at seven cents per pound, would be required. Here is presented another reason why this cotton should seek Louisville as its natural market. One of our most sagacious and enterprising merchants has recently returned from the East, where, with laudable energy, he had been presenting the claims of this marketto Eastern buyers. And the result of this mission is, that reliable arrangements have been made for buying whatever cotton may come to this market at New Orleans quotations. It is perfectly safe then to predict from January of next year a spirited and regular demand for all the cotton which may be sent here. The 140,000 bales produced in Tennessee, or finding its way to market from Tennessee river, will find ready sale in Louisville and at the regular New Orleans prices. Can it be doubted, in view of all these facts, that Louisville is entirely certain to attain prominence as a market for cotton. This has long been the natural market for the article, and only waited the completion of lines of connection with the East, which, now they are about to go into operation, must of necessity make it thefirst cotton market of the Western country.
Louisville also deserves consideration as a market for pork. This market, though perhaps less in extent here than in some other Western cities, is steadily increasing in the amount of its operations and rapidly growing into favor with the dealers. In 1827 there were but two pork houses in the city; one of which was owned by Patrick Maxcy and the other by Colmesnil and O’Beirne. It was then the custom to buy the hog in small lots from the farmers by means of agents who traveled through the State. These hogs so procured were concentrated at some point and corn was bought and fed to them until the time for slaughtering arrived, when they were driven to this city and here butchered. The number of hogs killed by these two houses did not then exceed fifteen thousand, while at the end of the pork season in1851, this amount had been increased to one hundred and ninety-five thousand, four hundred and fourteen. It is fully calculated by the packers that this number will be exceeded ten per cent in the ensuing year. Both the farmer and the buyer have reasons for prefering this city as a pork market. The farmer, because it is not the custom here to “scale” the hog—that is, to make a standard weight for which the market price is given, while all below that point are taken at reduced figures—and the buyer, because pork is here packed under the same roof where it is butchered. This last may be considered a small inducement; but when it is remembered that where the butchering and packing are carried on by different individuals and in different parts of the city, the hog is obliged to be transported at all seasons and in all states of weather from house to house at considerable labor and cost and with danger of damage to the meat, it will be found an item worthy the serious consideration of the buyer. The meat put up here is surpassed in quality by none in the world, and when the facilities of transportation referred to in the above remarks upon cotton are established, the growth of this city as a pork market will be yet more rapid than it has before been. There are at present eight large pork houses in the city. The importance of Louisville as a pork market is well enough known to need no further elaboration of its merits in these pages.
The manufacturing interests of Louisville come now to claim their share of attention. And it is somewhat singular that, with the resources and capacity of this city as a place for manufactures, there should be so littleto boast of in this regard. Of her commercial statistics, as has already been shown, Louisville has abundant cause to be proud, but she has at the same time reason to regret the little use which has heretofore been made of her immense advantages as a manufacturing point. It is not to be denied that there are many excellent manufacturing establishments in and around the city, but the number is greatly below what is needed and greatly disproportioned to the advantages offered here. There are many reasons why this city should hold prominent rank as a place for manufactures. The facilities in the way of water-power, the immense surface of level and highly productive country by which it is surrounded, the cheapness of rents and of building lots, and the advantages for placing the manufactured article in market, are among the most prominent of these reasons. There is, perhaps, no city in the Union where similarly great inducements are offered to the judicious and enterprising manufacturer. And yet the results of commercial enterprise of other sorts have been so successful and so rapidly produced as to lead away from the manufacturing interests much capital which would otherwise have been invested in them. The brilliant success of any one department of trade in a city has usually led to precisely similar results as are alluded to here. Of this Cincinnati furnishes a notable example. Her earliest success was effected by means of her manufactures, and persons seeking investment for their capital naturally gave it the direction which had already proved productive. Louisville, on the contrary, owing to her peculiar location, found her earliest and most promising evidences ofprosperity in commerce, and consequently all the capital seeking employment was naturally drawn into this channel. And it is unfortunate for Louisville that this has been true, for however important commercial prosperity may be to a city, it is far inferior in point of utility and universal profit to the advantages conferred by successful manufactures. During the last four or five years this matter has begun to engage the attention of capitalists and a proper and healthful feeling is rapidly gaining ground in favor of this branch of trade. Many new factories have already sprung up, and several more are on the eve of establishment. The public mind is fully awakened to the necessity for building up and for encouraging the products of home industry, and the producer has taken new rank in public estimation. The prejudice which may once have existed against mechanical employments of all sorts is no longer felt, but the manufacturer and his employees are held alike high in favor and in social rank.
The following table of manufactures in Louisville is chiefly taken from the census report of 1850. Additions have been made to the more important branches of manufacture as far as reliable data could be obtained, so as to enable the reader to have a comprehensive view of the subject up to the present time. It is believed that the figures in this table are under the actual amounts; it is certain, at any rate, that they do not in any instance exceed the truth. A more extended and special notice of the principal manufacturing establishments of the city will be given in an appendix to this volume, to which all who feel an interest in the state of manufactures here are especially referred.
TABLE OF MANUFACTURES.
To this list may be added the following memoranda of steamboats for 1850. It has been found impossible to bring this list forward as far as 1852. In the former year there were employed on 53 steamboats, owned in Louisville, 1,903 hands. The amount of capital invested in these boats was $1,293,300, and the annual product for freight and passage reached $2,549,200.
In concluding this history it will be well to look back and examine the ratio of its progress for the last half century, as well in population as in pecuniary value. This may be done: first, in the following table showing the increase in numbers of every ten years; and second, in a tabular view of the assessment of real estate at the end of each similar term of years. The population of Louisville then, commencing with the year 1800, may be stated as follows:
It will be seen from this table that the city has never shown as rapid an increase as has been effected in the last two years. This is the result chiefly of the impulse which has been given to Louisville by her action in reference to lines of railroad, and other facilities of communication with distant points, as well as of the fact that a new energy has been infused into the commercial circles, and more vigorous efforts have consequently been made to afford to this city that reputation as a commercial mart, which she has long deserved.
Of the present population of Louisville, no less than 18,000 are Germans, and this number is daily being augmented by arrivals from the fatherland. It wouldperhaps be no more than just to say that these foreigners form, as a body, one of the best classes of our population. They are a careful, pains-taking and industrious people, of quiet, unobtrusive and inoffensive manners; and are, in a majority of instances, men of some education and ability. The better class of this population are rapidly rising in public estimation, and while they are becoming in a measure identified with the native citizens, and so Americanized, the influence of their philosophic habits of mind, of their thoughtfulness, and of their love of the beautiful in nature and in art, is gradually incorporating itself into the social life of the city, and so adding to each some of the advantages possessed by the other. The German character, in its higher developements, displays many attributes which are wanting, in more senses than one to our native population. From the educated German, we may learn that enthusiastic love and reverence for the intellectual and for the beautiful in all its phases, whether of nature, of sentiment, or of art, which is inherent in his character, and which gives to life so much of its charm; while by us he is taught that practicality must be the basis of his philosophy, and that without a certain admixture of utilitarianism his sentiment is mawkish and unmanly, and his theories are idly speculative and puerile. Thus each class imbibes from the other what it most needs, and society reaps the benefits of the union. The German population is also useful to the city in a political point of view. They serve as the “filling up” to the picture. As has been recently said: “The bulk of the population of every city, perhaps two out of three, are small manufacturers or artisans ofsome description or other, and those dependent on them; of the sewers together of clothing, the makers of toys, confectionary, and jewelry, the compounders of materials used in medicine and the arts, the furnishers of the toilet, the parlor, and the kitchen, the fabricators of iron, wood, and stone into forms required by the uses or fancies of man. Think of the amount of our yearly purchases of Boston bonnets, New York caps, and Philadelphia shoes, and of the thousand, the innumerable articles that our retail and fancy dealers pick up in the lanes, alleys, and cellars of those cities, articles which were made for Western demand, for the very market of which this is the natural, and ought to be the commercial center. To this kind of population we are to look for increase, these hand workers are to cover our vacant lots, and consume the products of our surrounding agriculturists; they come in silently, and go to work unnoticed; the grocer at the corner, the baker, and the brewer, build higher houses, and are men of more noise and note, and we forget that for every one of the latter there must be one hundred of the former.”[22]
It is precisely the class spoken of in the foregoing extract that is being built up, and is yet to be built up by the German citizens in Louisville. And, notwithstanding the number already here, there is yet room and work for many more. As has already been said the advent of artizans of this class is desired by the city, and, if they can be content to rise to wealth by slow and steady increase rather than by rapid strides of progress, theirsuccess is infallibly certain. Other inducements will also be offered to this and to other classes of people, seeking homes and investments, in considering the value of real estate in Louisville. Let us first look at the progress of property valuation during the last half century, as shown in the following table. The assessment valuation of property was, in
This valuation is much smaller than that of the same quantity of property would be in any other American city, and this very fact has been urged against Louisville by her rival neighbors. They insist that the low price of property here is a proof that the trade of the city is not progressive, that hence no inducements are offered, either to the emigrant or to the capitalist. A slight examination of the subject, however, will show why property has not advanced here in the same ratio as in other cities, and will also demonstrate the fact that the very argument which is urged against Louisville, is really a matter of serious congratulation to her. It is not denied that land can be had within one mile south of the center of the city at from two to three hundred dollars per acre, whereas land similarly situated either in Pittsburg, Cincinnati, St. Louis or New Orleanswould command nearly, if not quite four times that price. On the contrary, it is urged that this should be and that it is at once claimed as a strong recommendation both to the capitalist and to the emigrant, in favor of this city. The reason why this difference exists in favor of Louisville, is thus plainly shown. If the reader will take up the map of Kentucky and Indiana, and, commencing at the mouth of Harrod’s Creek, which empties into the Ohio river eight miles above the city, will draw a line down to a point five miles below the mouth of Salt river, and another line thence southwardly for a distance of sixteen miles; and from this point draw a gradually decreasing arc back to the point of beginning, he will have enclosed a space of country, every foot of which is entirely level, is delightfully watered, abounds in building material of every description, and is equally as well suited to all purposes of building, as are the best lots now within the city limits. Nor is this all; crossing the Ohio river at the foot of the Indiana Knobs, one mile below New Albany, and going north-east a distance of sixteen miles, and thence back to the Ohio river at or near Utica, a triangle is formed whose base is twelve miles long, and whose other legs reach about twenty miles to the apex. The space embraced within this triangle possesses precisely the same characteristics as that contained in the arc above mentioned. When it is remembered, as has been said by another writer upon the same subject, that we have “no need to encroach on arms of the sea as at Boston or New York, or to raze hills in the rear as at Pittsburg and Cincinnati, or to make embankments and to reclaim swamps as at NewOrleans,” but on the contrary, that we possess a location where building lots equally good, both as to site and material, may be had at one mile and at ten miles distant from the center of the city, the mystery of our cheap lots begins to be evolved. Here is a space of level country beyond the reach of any flood, all parts of which are equally well adapted to the purposes of the builder, sufficiently large to contain within its limits the cities of London, Paris, and St. Petersburg, with the foundation for a large city already laid, with a location which, in reference to facilities of intercourse with the rest of the United States, is unsurpassed; at the only point of obstruction in a continuous line of two thousand miles of inland navigation; a half-way house between North and South; a point through which all the great railroad arteries must of necessity pass; in the center of the most fertile and productive agricultural lands in the Union; in a State distinguished for the nobility and chivalry of character of its inhabitants, with every advantage which nature can give to the merchant, the manufacturer or the idle man of wealth and fashion; what is there, in view of all these circumstances, to prevent it from becoming the Great City of the West? What other inducements could be asked either by the capitalist at home or the emigrant from abroad? Does the cheapness of property or do the low prices of rents prove obstacles to either of these classes of people? Does the fertility of the surrounding country, and the consequent cheapness of the markets draw away any who might otherwise be attracted hither? Is one of these present the reason why Louisville is not already what she must inevitably become, thefirst city in the West. The reason is contained in the fact, not that these things are true, but that being true, they are not known. It is to her own supineness, to her indifference and lack of ambition to attain the rank to which she is entitled, that she is indebted for her second-rate position. Had the energy of the last two years been invested ten years ago, and been continued till now, the population of Louisville would to-day have been one hundred thousand souls. But she has been content to sit languidly down to the enjoyment of the passing hour, while her competitors were bracing every nerve and straining every muscle, not only to surpass her in the race for supremacy, but to disable and destroy her. She has at last awakened to a sense of her position, her lethargy is at last thrown off, and now the struggle begins in earnest. If it be continued in earnest it is easy to see that she can rapidly regain her place, and easily bear off the palm.
Let us look for a moment at the geographical position of Louisville, and her facilities of intercourse with other portions of the country. The following table of distances, time, conveyance and cost will readily show this:
In a very few years, Cincinnati, Nashville and St. Louis, will be connected with us by railroads, which are already partly completed, and so reduce the time to those cities to six, eight, and twelve hours respectively. These communications once established, Louisville becomes the very center of a vast network of roads, connecting different climates, the products of different soils and regions of every diversity of wealth. The railroad to Nashville connects immediately with Charleston, and thence opens roads to New Orleans and Mobile; while in another direction it reaches Richmond, Va., passing through immense tracts of rich agricultural and mineral lands. The railroad to Cincinnati opens to us the whole North and East; while that to St. Louis will ultimately bring to our doors the products of the Pacific Coast and the treasures of the modern El Dorado. Add to all these advantages the unavoidable effects of these railroads, in bringing to light all the possible wealth of the countries through which they pass, and then say if anything but the most criminal neglect of the advantages which Nature has given her, can prevent Louisville from arriving at the most prominent rank among Western cities. Does the capitalist desire an investment? Where can he better find it than near a city thus situated, and one where lands are sold at less prices, and building materials are cheaper and are more accessible than in any other city of the Union? Does the emigrant desire a home? Where can he better find it than near a city thus situated, one where the whole of his little fortune is not required to buy him a shelter from the winds and the rain, one that is yet unfilled with eagercompetitors in the struggle for wealth, one where the products of his industry are needed and will be eagerly taken from his hands at their fair value, one where he can have not only a field for his own struggle with the world, but a place and a circle of friends possessing all those attributes which make a home happy? It cannot be but that as publicity is given to these advantages possessed by this city, she will attract to her thousands of emigrants from abroad, and thousands of capitalists and adventurers from other parts of our country. While other cities have been spending time and means and influence in advocating their claims to consideration, Louisville has been silent. She gives publicity to her merits now for the first time, and, by this humble little missive, she begs only for a fair hearing and for an unbiassed consideration of her claims to public favor, satisfied that if these can be secured her, she need have no fear that the highest dreams of ambition which have ever been presented to her will be fully realized.