Outline of the development of the internal commerce of the United States

d flour were but little more than the average for the five years from 1790 to 1795. The plantations of the South were drawing much of their subsistence from the northern farms, but they were unable to absorb more than a small fraction of the tremendous surplus that was seeking a market.

Agricultural interests sought urgently for relief. Since there was no foreign market for their surplus, they resolved to create a home market. If England would not buy food products from the United States, the United States must refuse to buy manufactures from England, and must, by the establishment of manufacturing industries at home, give rise to a non-agricultural population that would consume the redundant supplies of meat and grain. The problem of attracting capital to manufacturing enterprises, the farmers proposed to solve by the creation of a system of protective tariffs that would check importations and encourage investment in mills and factories at home. Manufacturing industries already in existence w