232
ESSAYS IN COLONIAL HISTORY
the staple. The ease with which the tide-water planter
and retailer could deal directly with the ship captain was
lost to the frontiersman. Only a few miles between plan-
tation and ship make necessary a middleman to effect
exchanges. One could not haul a crop from the Monocacy
to deep water on the mere chance that a ship would be
lying there to load it. A warehouse to receive the crop
and a stock of goods for immediate delivery to the
wagons were requisite for back-country trade. Thus the
whole volume of new frontier trade had to pass into the
hands of merchants.
The development of grain culture and the settlement
of the west guaranteed greater commercial activity to
the Chesapeake; but circumstances were yet to determine
whether this activity was to follow Maryland precedent
and be dispersed among many small centers, or whether
it was to be concentrated into one large city. During the
first half of the eighteenth century small trading com-
munities developed at Oxford, Chestertown, North East
(Cecil County), Nottingham on the Patuxent, and other
points, but no concentration of this trade seemed possi-
ble. With the development of grain culture in the north-
ern counties much of the crop found its way to Phila-
delphia.20 Charlestown in Cecil County was founded in
20 Calvert Papers, no. 598. The records of Kent and Cecil counties show
this trade in many places. See Kent County, March Court, 1745, Lifter JS,
no. 32, p. 151; Old Book, 1745-1754, 1751, p. 265; Nov. Court, 1762, Liber
DD, no. 3, p. 97; Aug. Court, 1763, ibid., p. 360; Cecil County, June Court,
1759, Liber FK, no. 2, p. 243; Aug. Court, 1760, Liber FK, no. 3, p. 482.
During the Revolution it waa proposed to base the British army in the
Delmarva Peninsula, and several descriptive papers were drawn up. One of
these papers estimates that one fifth of the wheat and flour and one half
the corn received in Philadelphia in 1774 came from this peninsula (40,000
bu. wheat, 12,000 bbl. flour, and 100,000 bu. corn). Another estimate puts
the totals higher, and allots to the Maryland counties about 62% of the
wheat exported from the peninsula, 48% of the corn, and all the flour. These
papers are in the New York Public Library, Chalmers Papers, Md., Vols.
I and II.
THE E1SE OF BALTIMORE
233
1742 to tap this trade. A large exportation of grain was
expected, and the Philadelphians arc said to have felt a
little uneasy over the threatened competition.21 The su-
perior advantages of Philadelphia and later of Baltimore
could not be withstood, however, and about 1765 or 1770
much of Charlestown's industry seems to have trans-
ferred to Baltimore.22 During the Revolution the town
had but sixty houses and no foreign trade.23
On the western side of the upper bay the navigable
streams do not penetrate far inland, and settlers soon
had to abandon direct dependence on ships. This led to
the beginnings of commercial activity before the crop
changed to grain. Both on the Northwest Branch of the
Patapsco River—the site of Baltimore Town—and on the
Main Branch, at Elkridge, activity became noticeable
during the early years of the eighteenth century. Elk-
ridge, being further inland, had a larger surrounding
territory, and seems to have been more precocious. Its
territory was largely tobacco land; and as late as 1773
the tobacco inspectors at Elkridge were among the high-
est paid in the colony, which suggests, at least, that theirs
was one of the busiest shipping points.24 An account book
21 On September 24, 1743, Dulany wrote Lord Baltimore, "the Phila-
delphians continue to be alarm'd by the town at North-east, which (if it
thrives) will be a thorn in their sides" (Dulany Papers, no. 17). That some
Pennsylvania trade did go there is indicated by the name "Conestoga
Street" and also by the large number of Pennsylvania's who took lots there
(Cecil County Hecords, Charlestown Becord, passim).
22 T. W. Griffith, Annals of Baltimore, pp. 42, 43; G. Johnston, Cecil
County, pp. 265 ff. Johnston says, "Many of the inhabitants who had
erected substantial houses in Charlestown tore them down and shipped the
material to Baltimore" (p. 273).
23 See note 67 below.
2* Elkridge inspectors received 10,400 pounds of tobacco per year. Those
at Baltimore Town received 7,000 pounds, and those at Georgetown, 12,000
pounds. Others throughout the colony ran usually from 6,000 to 8,000 pounds
(Session Acts of 1773, ch. 1). Charles Varle says the town was small but
was a place of business long before Baltimore was established and was the
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