Carey claimed his readers would be amazed at the figures he was about to report. He wrote that he was astonished himself when he analyzed foreign and domestic exports from the United States.
Exports Foreign and Domestic Exports Foreign and Domestic
1791-1795[1] 1796-1800[2]
Massachusetts $21,631,000 Massachusetts $48,387,000
New York $23,718,000 New York $72,580,000
Pennsylvania $32,395,000 Pennsylvania $62,252,000
Maryland $20,024,000 Maryland $60,321,000
Virginia $16,481,000 Virginia $16,480,000
South Carolina $18,177,000 South Carolina $34,960,000
North Carolina and $4,660,000 Georgia $6,125,000
Georgia
Carey’s readers could immediately see that Pennsylvania was the largest exporter of foreign and domestic products from 1791-1795, and New York was the largest exporter of foreign and domestic products from 1796-1800. Massachusetts was the third largest for 1791-1795 and the fourth largest from 1796-1800.
Using an exclamation point and italics, Carey noted the exports from Massachusetts were thirty-three percent less than those from Philadelphia from 1791-1795. Next, he tallied all the exports from the United States, and those of New England. He determined that New England’s exports from 1791-1795 were just twenty percent of all American exports.
Analyzing the figures for 1796-1800, Carey tallied all exports, comparing them with the exports from New England. During that five-year period, New England’s exports were less than nineteen percent of all American exports.
As Carey dashed off the first edition of the Olive Branch, he could not get the figures for 1801-1810. He did find the figures for 1811-1813:
Exports Foreign and Domestic 1811-1813[3]
Foreign Domestic
Massachusetts $8,134,000 $11,550,000
New York $6,997,000 $22,410,000
Pennsylvania $5,505,000 $13,603,000
Maryland $5,754,000 $11,291,000
Virginia $41,612 $9,600,000
South Carolina $263,295 $9,489,000
District of Columbia $15,916 $5,040,000
New Orleans $110,000 $4,527,000
Georgia $4,717,000
While Massachusetts edged ahead of Pennsylvania in total exports, foreign and domestic, New York continued to be the largest exporter of foreign and domestic goods. Massachusetts, however, was the largest carrier of foreign exports, which were profitable.
Carey concluded:
“The naked fact is, that New England, not satisfied with deriving all the benefits from the southern states, that she would from so many wealthy colonies–with making princely fortunes by carrying their bulky and valuable productions–with supplying them with her own manufactures, and the manufactures and productions of Europe, and the East and West Indies, to an enormous amount, and at an immense profit, has uniformly treated them with outrage, insult, and injury–and now, hostile to her vital interest, is courting her own destruction, by allowing a few restless, turbulent demagogues to lead her blindfolded to a separation, which is pregnant with certain destruction to New England.”[4]
Next: Did New England Pay More Duties than the South?
Look for it Monday, June 24
[1] Note: Carey rounded the last three figures of each number for easier comprehension and calculation. Mathew Carey, The Olive Branch: Or Faults on Both Sides, (Philadelphia: M. Carey, November 8, 1814) 193-4.
[2] Carey, Olive Branch, 196-7.
[3] Carey, Olive Branch, 200-201.
[4] Carey, Olive Branch, 202.
