Journal of Political Economy Vol. 4 No. 2 1896

The Growth and Character of the Commerce on the Great Lakes

George Tunell

Abstract

THE growth of lake commerce in recent years has been phenomenal and it is justly attracting a great deal of attention. Unfortunately the statistics covering it are but fragmentary and consequently its development cannot be accurately set forth. This deficiency is, however, in a large measure made good by more or less comiplete information of the commerce passing through certain channels which, from a statistical point of view, stand in a peculiar relation to lake transportation. The St. Mary's Falls Canal is one of these channels. All of the commerce going to and coming from Lake Superior passes through this gateway, and, thanks to the government officers in whose care this national work has been placed, we have accurate and quite complete statistics of the traffic passing through it. The other and much more important channel is that connecting Lakes Huron and Erie. It is to be regretted that we do not possess equally satisfactory statistics of the commerce passing through this gateway. As the local traffic on the Great Lakes is comparatively insignificant, the two sets of figures would convey a fairly accurate idea of the growth and character of the commerce upon the whole system and its various main divisions. For instance if it were known how much east-bound freight had -passed through Detroit River in a year and it were also known how much freight had passed through the St. Mary's Falls Canal eastward bound it could easily be ascertained how much freight had originated on Lake Michigan, as the freight which originates on Lake Huron is but trifling in amount. The importance of the channel connecting Lakes Huron and Erie is disclosed by the following table, taken from a report of Col. 0. M. Poe, U. S. A., Corps of Engineers, which gives the total American tonnage passing both ways from i88o to I890 inclusive:

DOI

10.1086/250345

Volume

4

Issue

2

Pages

243-245

Language

en

Sources

semanticscholar openalex crossref