240         ESSAYS IN COLONIAL HISTORY

Stevenson's ventures began about 1745, just when mar-
ketable grain was increasing in the neighborhood and the
back-country trade was opening.

Though Eddis's account seems to say the original
cargoes came from the surrounding country, it was un-
doubtedly the "peculiar advantages . . . with respect to
the trade of the frontier counties" that were responsible
for succeeding events. The first mention of back-country
trade in connection with Baltimore is in the preamble of
an act uniting Jones Town with Baltimore Town in 1745.
"The said Towns," reads the act, "are very conveniently
situated in regard to the back Inhabitants, and Naviga-
tion on the Head of the North-West Branch of Patapsco
River."48 An act enlarging the town in 1747 repeats the
idea by establishing a fair as "an Encouragement to the
back   Inhabitants   and   others,   to   bring   Commodities
there."" A pledge circulated in 1751 to raise subscrip-
tions for a market house also says that the situation of
the town "renders it convenient for navigation and trade,
as well with the inhabitants of Baltimore and Anne Arun-
del counties as the back settlements of this province and
Pennsylvania."" In  the same year, according to the
Maryland Gazette, sixty wagons loaded mostly with flax-
seed, were brought in from the back country within two
days.49 Such was the renown of this progress that Gov-
ernor Sharpe made it an early duty to visit the town; and
though his expectations had been built too high, he saw
clearly enough that because of "the extensive Country
beyond   it"   Baltimore   would   outstrip   Annapolis   in
trade.47 These statements leave no doubt that about 1745

<s Records of Baltimore Town, p. jrvii.

«« Bacon, Laics, 1747, ch. xxi.

« Griffith, Annals, pp. 31, 32.	"Oct. 30, 1751.

" 3l<i. Arch., VI, 57. "I have taken an Opportunity since my arrival of
visiting Baltimore which indeed has the Appearance of the most increasing
Town in the Province, tho it scarcely answered the Opinion I had conceived

THE RISE OF BALTIMORE

241

an active exchange began with the western frontier set-
tlements.

Baltimore profited from trade with the north as well as
the west. Points beyond the Susquehanna are much
nearer to Baltimore than to Philadelphia, and from all
over western Pennsylvania products were brought to the
younger city. For a few years Charlestown probably cut
off some of the trade from the north, but the movement of
Charlestown tradesmen to Baltimore about 1765 may
mark the passing of serious competition from that quar-
ter. About the time of the Revolution the bulk of the
produce of the Susquehanna valley from the northern-
most settlements down to the Maryland line was mar-
keted in Baltimore.48 Brissot in 1788 seems to have been
more impressed by the Susquehanna trade than by that
to the westward.49

An indication of the intimacy of the relations with the
German frontier is the large number of German people
who settled in Baltimore. In no other part of tide-water

of it: hardly as yet rivaling Annapolis in number of Buildings or Inhabit-
ants; its Situation as to Pleasantness Air & Prospect is inferior to that of
Annapolis, but if one considers it with respect to Trade, The extensive
country beyond it leaves no room for Comparison; were a Few Gentn of for-
tune to settle there & encourage the Trade it might soon become a flourish-
ing place but while few beside Germans (who are in general Masters of
small Fortunes) build & inhabit there I apprehend it cannot make any
considerable Figure."

48 Smith, '' Sectionalism in Pennsylvania,'' Political Science Quarterly,
XXIV, 220. See also Mathew Carey, "Selected Scraps, Internal Improve-
ments," III, 15 (an extensive series of clippings from old newspapers, in
the Bidgway Library, Philadelphia). Notices in the Maryland Journal show
a strong interest in this region.

«• Brissot de Warville, Nouveaux Voyages dans les ftats-Unis de L'Amt-
rique Septentrionale, fait en 1788, II, 260. "A great deal of the trade of
Philadelphia has passed there [to Baltimore]; the largest vessels can go up
that far, but no further; many foodstuffs go down there by the Susque-
hanna. When that river is made navigable, Baltimore will be an important
port."