In December, the United States took possession of the newly acquired territory and the undisputed control of the Mississippi was secured forever. The opening of the Mississippi marked the beginning of an active internal commerce within the United States. The farmers of the Ohio Valley, which was now being rapidly settled, found an outlet for their heavy agricultural produce, and consequently secured a purchasing power, enabling them to buy manufactured goods and merchandise, which, notwithstanding the distance and the inferior roads, could be carried to them in wagons from the East. Though the produce of the western farmers was shipped down the Mississippi, very few of their supplies were brought up the river, because of the difficulty of urging a flat-boat against the powerful current of the stream. This triangular trade of the Ohio Valley grew rapidly. The receipts at New Orleans, in 1807, including the cotton, sugar and molasses of Louisiana, which made up a third of the total, amounted to $5,370,555. The money for which the products of the West were exchanged at New Orleans was almost invariably spent for manufactured and imported wares from eastern cities. Large Conestoga freighters made regular trips from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh bringing loads of hats, boots, powder, lead and clothing which were distributed from the "Gateway of the West" among the towns and villages down the river. Baltimore and New York also shared in the western trade. The internal commerce of the country in 1810, as in 1790, was greatly handicapped by the high costs of transportation. Taking the country over, the charges for transporting merchandise were $10 per ton per 100 miles and articles that could not stand this rate were shut from market. Grain and flour could not bear transportation by wagon more than 150 miles. The lack of commerce intercourse caused many sections to develop local economic and political interests which endangered the unity of the nation. "The question of the hour was plainly how to counteract this tendency by a system of interstate commerce which should unite them by a firm bond of self interest."[2] Gallatin's report on internal improvements in 1808 reflects the plans and ambitions that were in the minds of the commercial and political leaders of the country, but unfortunately the foreign controversies in which the United States became involved at that time prevented any attempt to carry out his proposals. [2] B. McMaster, _A History of the People of the United States_, vol. iii, p. 465.