Year. Price in Charge for Decrease in Decrease in gold of carrying one the railroad the profits staple farm ton one expenses per of the products. mile. ton. (Cents) railroads (Dollars) (Cents) for carrying one ton. (Cents) 1870 776.02 1.7016 1.1471 .5545 1871 735.33 1.7005 1.1450 .5555 1872 675.92 1.6645 1.1490 .5155 1873 662.50 1.6000 1.0864 .5136 1874 748.54 1.4480 .9730 .4750 1875 696.40 1.3039 .9587 .3452 1876 651.74 1.1604 .8561 .3043 1877 751.95 1.0590 .7740 .2850 1878 569.81 .9994 .6900 .3094 1879 568.34 .8082 .5847 .2295 1880 631.32 .9220 .6030 .3190 1881 703.10 .8390 .5880 .2510 1882 776.12 .8170 .6010 .2160 1883 662.11 .8990 .6490 .2500 In 1855 the charge per ton per mile was 3.27 cents, as compared with 0.89 in 1883. Tons moved 1 m. in 1883 by 9,286,216,628 railroads of N.Y. At rate of 1855, would cost $303,659,283 Actual cost in 1883 83,464,919 Saving to the State $220,194,364 The explanation of this reduced cost is given by Mr. Edward Atkinson(135) as (1) the competition of water-ways, (2) the competition of one railway with another, and (3) the competition of other countries, which forces our railways to try to lay our staple products down in foreign markets at a price which will warrant continued shipment. Besides these reasons, much ought also (4) to be assigned to the progress of inventions and the reduced cost of steel and all appliances necessary to the railways. The large importance of the railways shows itself in an influence on general business prosperity, and as a place for large investments of a rapidly growing capital. The building of railways, however, has been going on, at some times with greater speed than at others. Instead of 33,908 miles of railways at the close of our war, we have now (1884) over 120,000 miles. How the additional mileage has been built year by year, with two distinct eras of increased building—one from 1869 to 1873, and another from 1879 to 1884—may be seen by the shorter lines of the subjoined chart, No. VI.