502 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

REPORTS ON WILMINGTON TRADE 1815-1872.

The following reports on the trade of Wilmington at intervals

of about thirty years, beginning with 1815 and ending with 1872,
will give some idea of the domestic and foreign commerce for the

half-century preceding the War between the States and the period

immediately following it, when every effort was made to recover
from the paralyzing effects of the great struggle.

Tue Travre or Wiimineton, 1815.

By JosHvuA Ports.

(A commercial statement which came into the possession of the Chamber of Commerce,

Wilmington, North Carolina, through the courtesy of Mrs. W. H. C. Whiting,
widow of General Whiting.)

~ Wilmington, though but a small port, affords in season and
in proportionate quantities nearly all the various kinds of pro-
duce that are to be found in the growth of the United States,
collectively—such is the effect of an intermediate climate, an
extensive territory of different soil, and diversity of occupation
of numerous inhabitants.

Portable articles of produce are brought from the interior
country by land carriage to inland towns at the head of boating
navigation; thence they are carried down to Wilmington in
large flatboats, calculated for that purpose.

In the lower part of the country transportation of lumber,
naval stores, timber and spars is facilitated by rafts, conducted
by a few hands down numerous rivers and creeks.

In times of uninterrupted commerce, many ships and vessels
of considerable burthen were annually loaded here and bound
for European ports with cargoes of naval stores, tobacco, flax-
seed, cotton, rice, and large timber of pitch pine; their cargoes

Peace Restored 503

the merchants and dealers of Wilmington and Fayetteville are

generally furnished with a variety of merchandise from sundry
ports on the northern coast, especially from New York. Regu-
lar packets ply between Wilmington and New York.

Excellent crops of various kinds of produce are annually pro-
duced throughout this country. Our market opens in Novem-
ber, is brisk in December, increases in J anuary, February, and
March, slackens in April, declines in May, and ends in J une.
The summer and fall months in regard to trade, are dull, and
the fall sickly.

Those kinds of our produce of the first importance are noted
for the present year as follows:

; Tobacco is raised only in the upper country; it is brought and
inspected at Fayetteville, at the head of boating navigation,
ninety miles above Wilmington. It may be had at Fayetteville
at almost any time of the year; but it is more plentiful between
December and March. Of late years the quantity has been
reduced, and the culture of cotton substituted, as being less pre-
carious, less toilsome, and of more profit than tobacco. Within
the last fifteen years, tobacco has been lessened in culture more
than one-half of former crops. Its quality is said to have been
inferior to that of Virginia, but of late it has been produced of
amended goodness, and some of it prime. In the first place, it
is uniformly purchased from the planters b |
etteville, and by them either ex

in the United States.

Cotton, upland, is but of recent cultivation in this State, and
8 Increasing In quantity; the quality is said to be equal to that
of South Carolina or Georgia. The planters at first put up
their cotton in round bags, but of late much of it is packed in
square bales. There is no Inspection of cotton, —

Rice: A fine crop is raised chiefly in the vicinity of Wil-

mington, near tidewater, of quality equal to any in the South-
ern States; and a charge fo

were dunnaged and stowed with staves. ; r the rough casks which contain it
Our produce is particularly adapted for the markets of the a Fl 's made by the planters.

West India Islands, and when we have a free trade, many ef seni The usual crop of considerable quantity; of late

vessels of Wilmington and the Northern States during winter y i subject wa good Inspection and marked under several

and spring load here, and depart for the West Indies in as many eg, the superfine is said to be equal to that of the Middle

directions as there are islands, their cargoes assorted with lum- Gan, os weld : ee

ber, flour, rice, pork, bacon, lard, butter, tobacco, tar, live- a ps — at sc plentiful or cheap in Wilmington. The

stock, ete. a ennai "nd does not produce it in sufficient quantity for
A proportion of our produce is transported coastwise to vari- :

ous ports, but that of New York the principal—and vice versa,

Nae = PA CER RG \o

tah LT SR I A A TE SIN ED AN A A iat

: 7
Sees eitipenmeatetiemmee scam ca tics ae nee ee

 

  

Pn pe a nae a RE