St. Louis the Commercial Centre of North America [pp. 308-320]

SAINT LOUIS.
keeping gold on deposit at New Orleans, prefer to pay the duties
on their foreign goods at the Port of Entry.
An excessive and unnecessary delay at the New Orleans Custom IHouse recently, subjected one of our merchants to a loss of
$8 a ton on a shipment of iron.
Last season, another of our importers ordered a large stock of
Christmas goods. The articles reached New Orleans in season,
but were detained there till after the holidays. They must now
be kept, with loss and deterioration, for another year; and
before next Christmas they may become comparatively worthless by changes of mode and new directions of public taste.
These examples illustrate the importance of time in commercial transactions.
The Government could easily obviate all the difficulties which
our importers now experience by making St. Louis a Port of Elntry. The commercial embarrassments of the present system need
immediate removal. In the event of the proposed change, frauds
upon the Government could be prevented by reshipping the goods
at New Orleans under the eye of the Custom House authorities,
keeping them during the voyage under lock and key; and, if
necessary, subjecting them on the passage to the surveillance of
a revenue officer. During the rebellion, the shipments of merchandise to Southern ports were placed under similar supervision.
The satisfactory operation of this system, amid all the liabilities
to abuse which exist in times of civil turbulence, warrants the
conviction that the proposed plan would, in a period of peace,
prove eminently successful.
If Congress respects commercial rights, St. Louis will soon become a Port of Entry.
Froinm the records of the United States Assessor, it appears that
in 1865 the sales of 612 St. Louis firms amounted to $140,688,856.
For the same year, the imports of this city reached an aggregate
of $23o,873,875.
The manufactures of St. Louis constitute an important element
in our commercial transactions. In 1860, the capital invested in
manufactures, was $9,205,205, and the value of the product was
$2 I,772,323. In 1866, the muills of this city made 820,000 barrels
of flour.
In 1865, our receipts of grain, including flour, were 17,657,250 bushels.
1866,'... 2(),855,280
1865, exports " 13,427,000 "
1866,. 18,680,500 "
St. Louis, though the eighth city in the United States in population, ranks as seventh in the importance of its manufactures. MissourIi might profitably imitate the activity of its metropolis.
The extent of our social and commercial intercourse with the
rest of the world may be inferred from the postal statistics of this
department. In 1865, the number of letters which passed through
311