the foreign commerce of the United States. Flour, tobacco, rice,
wheat, corn, dried fish, potash, indigo, and staves were the
principal exports. Great Britain was the best customer, with the
French West Indies next, and then the British West Indies. The
principal imports came from the same countries. Imports and
exports practically balanced each other, at about twenty million
dollars annually, or about five dollars a head. The great
merchants owned ships and many of them, such as John Hancock of
Boston, and Stephen Girard of Philadelphia, had grown very rich.

Inland transportation depended on horses and oxen or boats. There
were few good roads, sometimes none at all save bridle paths and
trails. The settlers along the river valleys used boats almost
entirely. Stage-coaches made the journey from New York to Boston
in four days in summer and in six in winter. Two days were
required to go between New York and Philadelphia. Forty to fifty
miles a day was the speed of the best coaches, provided always
that they did not tumble into the ditch. In many parts of the
country one must needs travel on horseback or on foot.

Even the wealthiest Americans of those days had few or none of
the articles which we regard today as necessities of life. The
houses were provided with open--which, however cheerful, did not
keep them warm--or else with Franklin's stoves. To strike a fire
one must have the flint and tinderbox, for matches were unknown
until about 1830. Candles made the darkness visible. There was
neither plumbing nor running water. Food was cooked in the ashes
or over an open fire.

The farmer's tools were no less crude than his wife's. His plough