Growth of the United States, as Viewed in London

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 30, 1882

Growth of the United States, as Viewed in London.

A LONDON correspondent, in a New York journal, writing on the subject of the growth of this country from an English stand-point, says:—

"In the history of mankind there is no parallel to the growth of the United States, which, at the beginning of the present century, was not much ahead of Portugal, and at present stands before Great Britain, occupying, therefore, the foremost rank among nations.

First let us consider the population and wealth, for men and money are two of the principal factors in all that goes to make up national power:—

1800... 5,300,000... $1,110,000,000... $210 1810... 7,200,000... 1,560,000,000... 215 1820... 9,600,000... 1,950,000,000... 200 1830... 12,900,000... 2,200,000,000... 215 1840... 17,100,000... 4,900,000,000... 230 1850... 23,200,000... 7,400,000,000... 320 1860... 31,500,000... 16,800,000,000... 530 1870... 38,600,000... 31,200,000,000... 810 1880... 50,300,000... 49,800,000,000... 990

It is remarkable that in 1840 the share of public wealth to each inhabitant was not much greater than at the beginning of the century; but in the ensuing forty years, the increase has been more rapid than in any country of Europe. In 1840 Great Britain stood for more than five times

the wealth of the United States (the valuation of the former country in that year being £4,100,000,000), but now you are nearly six milliards of dollars, or £1,200,000,000 ahead of the United Kingdom; for while this country has doubled its wealth in forty years, you have seen yours multiply twelvefold; the highest relative increase in the United States, compared with population, was between 1850 and 1870, while the decade ending 1880 has only added 24 per cent. to the individual share of public capital. Before going further, it may be well to take the chief items of wealth in the United States, to wit:—

Millions of Dollars. Railways... 5,225 Farms... 9,610 Cattle... 1,820 Manufactures... 5,255 Houses... 13,300 Furniture... 5,420 Forests, Mines, Canals... 2,793 Bullion... 720 Shipping... 315 Public works, etc... 5,252 Total... 49,710

The national debt, amounting to $1,650,000,000, should not be deducted from the above, since most of it is held by Americans, and the same may be said of municipal or other local debts. There can be no doubt that the influx of emigrants from Europe has in a great measure tended to the increase of public wealth; but it is no less certain that such a rapid rise of population has kept down the ratio of wealth per inhabitant, and hence the increase per head in the decade ending 1880 has been less than in the preceding ones. It may be interesting to observe that the growth of wealth in the decade just ended would be sufficient to buy the whole Austrian Empire, or to pay for the aggregate value of Italy, Holland, and Belgium. Nevertheless the average of wealth per inhabitant with you is less than in Great Britian or France, as shown thus:—

United States... $49,770,000,000... $990 United Kingdom... 44,100,000,000... 1,200 France... 37,200,000,000... 1,045

As regards the items that make up your wealth, it is comparatively easy to trace their growth, the first on the list being railways. The mileage and cost of railways have increased as follows:—

Miles. R. R. Capital per Inhab. 1850... 9,020... $302,000,000... $13 1860... 30,630... 1,127,000,000... 36 1870... 52,974... 2,410,000,000... 62 1880... 93,671... 5,205,000,000... 104

Not only is the railway capital at present three times as much per head as in 1860, but it has served in a prodigious manner to develop your agricultural resources, and enhance the value of your farms and lands. The increase of public wealth in railways once since 1870 has been over five millions weekly, or very little short of one million dollars a day, deducting Sundays. It is perhaps more in agriculture than in anything else that one can realize the unprecedented rise of industry in the United States in one single generation, which appears by comparing the returns of 1880 with those of 1840:—

1840 1880 1840 1880 Acres, tillage... 44,850,000... 166,140,000... 26... 33 Grain, million bush... 615... 2,643... 35... 52 Value of all crops... $410,000,000... $1,995,000,000... $24... $40 Value of all cattle... 372,000,000... 1,820,000,000... 22... 36

Thus, while population has only trebled, the growth of agricultural interests has been fivefold, and, whether we regard the value of crops or of cattle, the ratio per inhabitant is almost double what it was forty years ago.