The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
By tables 33 and 36, census of 1860, the value of the products of
Massachusetts that year was $283,000,000; and of Maryland, $65,583,000.
Table 33 included domestic manufactures, mines, and fisheries (p. 59);
and table 36, agricultural products. Dividing these several aggregates
by the total population of each State, the value of that year's product
of Massachusetts was $229.88 _per capita_, and of Maryland, $95.45,
making the average annual value of the labor of each person in the
former greatly more than double that of the latter, and the gross
product more than quadruple. This is an amazing result, but it is far
below the reality. The earnings of commerce and navigation are omitted
in the census, which includes only the products of agriculture,
manufactures, the mines, and fisheries. This was a most unfortunate
omission, attributable to the secession leaders, who wished to confine
the census to a mere enumeration of population, and thus obliterate all
the other great decennial monuments which mark the nation's progress in
the pathway of empire.
Some of these tables are given as follows:
_First, as to Railroads._--The number of miles in Massachusetts in 1860
(including city roads) was 1,340, and the cost of construction
$61,857,203 (table 38, pp. 230, 231). The value of the freight of these
roads in 1860 was $500,524,201 (p. 105). The number of miles of railroad
in Maryland at the same time was 380, the cost of construction
$21,387,157, and the value of the freight (at the same average rate)
$141,111,348, and the difference in favor of Massachusetts $359,412,883.
The difference must have been much greater, because a much larger
portion of the freight in Massachusetts consisted of domestic
manufactures, worth $250 per ton, which is $100 a ton above the average
value.
The passengers' account, not given, would vastly swell the difference in
favor of Massachusetts.
The tonnage of vessels built in Massachusetts in 1860 was 34,460 tons,
and in Maryland, 7,798 tons (p. 107).
The number of banks in Massachusetts in 1860 was 174; capital,
$64,519,200; loans, $107,417,323. In Maryland, the number was 31;
capital, $12,568,962; loans, $20,898,762 (table 34, p. 193).
The number of insurance companies in Massachusetts 117; risks,
$450,896,263. No statement given for Maryland, but comparatively very
small, as the risks in Massachusetts were nearly one sixth of all in the
Union.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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