n from the Mississippi was not large at first and the movement of
commodities southward showed no marked decline until the outbreak of
the Civil War.

Next to the river trade, the trade in live stock and slaves was the
most important element in the internal commerce between the North and
the South. Each year large droves of horses, mules, cattle and hogs
were driven into the South from the Northern and "border" states, the
farmers all over the corn-raising section finding an unfailing source
of gain in the demand for live stock in the southern cotton fields. The
domestic slave trade commenced to be of importance after 1820, when
cotton culture spread among the Gulf States. Slaves were bought in
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and
Texas, and exported from Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Missouri and Delaware. Though no statistics of the volume of
the internal slave trade exist, evidence from contemporary accounts
indicates that it was unquestionably extensive, probably reaching a
value of $30,000,000 a year in the late fifties.

3. TRADE OF THE FAR WEST

Long before Texas and the California territory became a part of the
United States, enterprising merchants on the western frontier began a
merchandise trade with the Mexican settlements in what is now New
Mexico. By 1843 this trade reached an annual value of $500,000. After
the occupation of the territory by the United States troops it became
much larger, reaching a total value in 1860 of $3,800,000. The chief
shipping points were Independence and Kansas City, Missouri.
Transportation was supplied by regular freighters who employed a large
number of men to conduct the white-topped prairie schooners across the
unsettled plains between the Missouri River and the mountains. New
Mexico paid for its imports with bullion and wool produced in the
territory, or with money secured by the sale of sheep driven to
California, or by the sale of a scanty agricultural produce to
government military posts and Indian agencies.

In addition to the wagon trade with New Mexico, the Missouri River
cities carried on a similar trade with Utah after its occupation by the
Mormons in 1848. When gold was discovered in Colorado in 1859 there was
an immediate rush of settlers to that territory, which was accompanied
by the rise of a large trade in tools and provisions. There was no
regular overland freight traffic to the Pacific coast,