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absence of a central government and the lack of any substantial settle-
ment west of the Appalachian Mountains which might help aid internal
improvement efforts.
The development of the lucrative fur trade spurred the first
systematic efforts to extend communication within the North American
continent. At first these forms of communication merely took advantage
of existing rivers, mountain passes, and other areas of easy passage.
But as easily exploitable fur lands became fewer, entrepreneurs were
forced to attempt improvements of more difficult routes to more remote
areas where large numbers of fur-bearing animals still existed. With
rapidly incrPasing settlement in the eighteenth century, entrepreneurs
were also quick to realize the possibilities of speculation in fur lands
that might be developed into farm lands. This was especially true in
the mid-Atlantic colonies where rapid soil depletion of tobacco lands
forced settlers westward earlier than in the more northern or more
southern coionies.l Furthermore, the mid-Atlantic colonies had the most
direct access to the Ohio River. Thus, for these reasons internal
improvement became vitally important to speculators in the abundance of
North America and particularly those who lived in the Maryland-Virginia
area.
Both fur trading and tobacco farming required communication with
the coast where products could be exported. Trading companies and
planters looked to England for the technology and funding to make coastal
connections possible. The fundamental difference between American
internal improvement projects and those in England, however, was not the
lAvery Craven, Soil Exhaustion as a Factor in the Agricultural
History of Virginia and Maryland, 1606-1860 (Urbana: University of
Illinois Press, 1926 , pp. 25-71.
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