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