There are five banks at New York, and nine insurance companies; one of the latter was a branch of the Phoenix Company of London. At Philadelphia there are four banks, and eleven insurance companies, one of which also was a branch of the London Phoenix Company. In consequence of its increase of business, a law was passed in 1810 prohibiting any person or persons not being citizens of the United States, from insuring property in any case within the state, against loss by fire or sea, or upon land transportation of goods. A penalty of five thousand dollars is incurred by any person acting as agent for such foreign insurers. In each of these cities, a chamber of commerce is established, whose object is to promote and regulate mercantile concerns. For the greater security of trade, inspectors are also appointed at both ports, to examine lumber, staves, shingles, beef, and pork, butter, flour and meal, pot and pearl-ashes, and other articles previously to exportation: and persons shipping any of the above articles without such inspection are liable to heavy duties.

The following Table, compiled by Dr. Mease from authentic documents, will convey a favourable idea of the commercial prosperity of Philadelphia.

"ARRIVALS-The number of square-rigged vessels that entered the

port in 1771, was.

Sloops and schooners.

In 1786, the total number was

361

391

752

910

870

854

1261

1050

1420

3563

400

In the year 1790, the total amount of the exports of

Dollars.

Philadelphia was...

7,953,418

In 1796, it was

17,523,866

1809, the amount of domestic produce

exported was..

4,238,358

Foreign

4,810,883

9,049,241

"It was stated to Congress, in February 1811, by a master shipbuilder of Philadelphia, that there were then 9,145 tons of shipping on the stocks.

"The commerce of Philadelphia has kept pace with the progress of the general prosperity of the state; but in common with the whole Union has suffered a considerable diminution, by reason of the vexations from European nations, who for some years past have acted as if power gave right, and by the restrictive measures forced upon our

government. Our merchants are equal to any in the Union for industry and enterprise; but during the uncertainty of trade that has prevailed for some time past, they have observed a prudent caution in their adventures, which has had the effect of lowering the amount of tonnage, when compared with other cities in the United States; but the good effects of such conduct were most striking during the year 1810, when, owing to the uncertainty of the renewal of the charter of the United States' Bank, that great wheel of commercial credit, a very great diminution of bank accommodation necessarily took place: hence, while in other cities of the Union, the greatest distress has been produced, and failures have been numerous and to an immense amount, so few have taken place in Philadelphia as to produce no diminution of that chain of mutual confidence by which commerce is upheld, and cannot fail to confirm the opinion generally entertained of the stability of the mercantile community of Philadelphia.

Prices Current, of Foreign and Domestic Articles, at various Dates.

"No article in the above list exhibits so great a difference in price as bohea tea. At the date first mentioned its use was confined to a few persons, the greater part of whom had been educated in Europe, and could not abandon the pleasant meal which the article afforded them. It was deemed by many a sinful luxury, and of course pro

scribed by the bigoted. All of it came by way of England, and was saddled with heavy duties. Bohea tea was, moreover, the only kind of tea then used."-(Mease's Pict. of Philadelphia, p. 52-56.)

The State of Vermont is yet a new country, and before the American war was but little settled, especially towards its northern parts. The inhabitants are extremely active and industrious; most of the towns towards Canada have been built within the last twenty years, and almost entirely depend for their existence upon the trade with that country. The southern part of Vermont trades chiefly with New York, Boston, Salem, and the principal ports of New England. Their exports consist of pot and pearlashes, salt pork, beef, and fish, horses, oxen, wheat and flour, oak, pine-timber, staves, and other lumber, butter, cheese, MAPLE-SUGAR, &c. The chief articles received from Canada are salt and specie, so that the balance of trade is greatly in their favour.

"Previously to the revolutionary war the exports of South Carolina amounted, upon an average, to 500,000l. sterling, and consisted principally of rice, indigo, tobacco, deer skins, pitch, tar, turpentine, salt provisions, Indian corn, and lumber. During the war agriculture and commerce were both materially injured. The usual supplies of clothing from the mother-country being stopped, manufactories were established; and the negroes were for the most part clothed with mixed cloths of cotton and wool spun and woven for the occasion. Many negroes were taken from agricultural pursuits, as well to assist at these manufactures as to carry on the erection of fortifications and other public works; in consequence of which the articles for exportation naturally decreased, or, when collected, were consumed at home alternately by friends and foes.

"At the conclusion of the war it appeared that the agriculture and commerce of South Carolina had retrograded nearly forty-seven years; the exports of 1783 being scarcely equal to those of 1736. The internal consumption, however, must have been greater, but the loss to the state was the same. Since that period her agriculture and commerce have rapidly augmented, though in some degree counteracted by the partial prohibition of the importation of negroes for several years past, and which was fully carried into execution on the 1st of January 1808. From year to year new prospects have presented themselves; new objects of agriculture have arisen; and the loss of one staple has been supplied by another of superior value; cotton is now the most valuable export of South Carolina.

"Since the French Revolution Charleston has been the medium of the greatest part of that trade which has been carried on between the French West India islands and the mother-country under the neutral flag of the United States. In this manner quantities of cocoa, coffee, sugar, rum, indigo, and other articles, the produce of the French, Spanish, and Dutch possessions in the West Indies and South America, are included in the exports of South Carolina, from the year 1793,

which in time of peace are directly exported from the colonies to the mother country."-(Lambert, Vol. II. p. 212–214.)

Much of this commerce was abolished by the restrictive decrees of Napoleon, and our own Orders in council, for which, as our readers well know, the Americans retaliated by a general embargo. Charleston, however, has been rapidly rising as a trading port since the year 1792: and the following statement of the gross amount and value of rice, indigo, tobacco and cotton, exported from South Carolina to Great Britain and other foreign parts,. from 1760 to 1801, will show most satisfactorily the rapid increase of commercial prosperity of that fertile state.

Years.

Barrels of lbs. weight of Hogsheads of lbs. weight | Total val. of exports

for each year.

It would have been more gratifying to us, if our details could have been extended to the other ports of the United States. From the facts, however, which have been stated in the preceding pages, it will be perceived that the Americans are by no means in that retrograde state either in manufactures or in commerce, in which the British nation have sometimes been taught to suppose them, but, on the contrary, that they are in many respects entirely independent of their mother-country.

4. Internal Improvements, Roads and Bridges.-The immense facilities afforded to the Americans by internal navigation have greatly contributed to produce the effects above described. Intersected as the country is by vast rivers flowing in almost every direction, and navigable, as many of these are by vessels of various burthens for some hundreds of miles up the interior, from the sea, the Americans have diligently availed themselves of this resource: and, particularly during the continuance of the embargo they interchanged by this mode of conveyance the superfluities of