,323,844 in 1908). The principal industries are
the preparation of fertilizers--largely from the extensive beds of
phosphate rock along the banks of the Ashley river and from cotton-seed
meal--cotton compressing, rice cleaning, canning oysters, fruits and
vegetables, and the manufacture of cotton bagging, of lumber, of
cooperage goods, clothing and carriages and wagons. Between 1880 and
1890 the industrial development of the city was very rapid, the
manufactures in 1890 showing an increase of 229.6% over those of 1880;
the increase between 1890 and 1900 was only 6.2%. In 1900 the total
value of the city's manufactures, 16.3% (in value) of the product of the
entire state, was $9,562,387, the value of the fertilizer product alone,
much the most important, being $3,697,090.[2]

_History._--The first English settlement in South Carolina, established
at Albemarle Point on the west bank of the Ashley river in 1670, was
named Charles Town in honour of Charles II. The location proving
undesirable, a new Charles Town on the site of the present city was
begun about 1672, and the seat of government was removed to it in 1680.
The name Charles Town became Charlestown about 1719 and Charleston in
1783. Among the early settlers were English Churchmen, New England
Congregationalists, Scotch and Irish Presbyterians, Dutch and German
Lutherans, Huguenots (especially in 1680-1688) from France and
Switzerland, and a few Quakers; later the French element of the
population was augmented by settlers from Acadia (1755) and from San
Domingo (1793). Although it soon became the largest and the wealthiest
settlement south of Philadelphia, Charleston did not receive a charter
until 1783, and did not have even a township government. Local
ordinances were passed by the provincial legislature and enforced partly
by provincial officials and partly by the church wardens. It was,
however, the political and social centre of the province, being not only
the headquarters of the governor, council and colonial officials, but
also the only place at which courts of justice were held until the
complaints of the Up Country people led to the establishment of circuit
courts in 1772. After the American War of Independence it continued to
be the capital of South Carolina until 1790. The charter of 1783, though
frequently amended and altered, is still in force. By an act of the
state legislature passed in 1837 the terms "mayor" and "alderman"
superseded the older term