He has been told in
the newspapers that business is undermined by the withdrawal of
great numbers of men from "productive" consumption of the fruits
of labor and their engagement as soldiers in "unproductive"
consumption. But, to his astonishment, he finds that the
statistics of 1861-1865 show much increase in Northern business
--as, for example, in 1865, the production of 142 million pounds
of wool against 60 million in 1860. The government reports show
that 13 million tons of coal were mined in 1860 and 21 million in
1864; in 1860, the output of pig iron was 821,000 tons, and
1,014,282 tons in 1864; the petroleum production rose from 21
million gallons in 1860 to 128 million in 1862; the export of
corn, measured in money, shows for 1860 a business of $2,399,808
compared with $10,592,704 for 1863; wheat exporting showed, also,
an enormous increase, rising from 14 millions in 1860 to 46
millions in 1863. There are, to be sure, many statistics which
seem to contradict these. Some of them will be mentioned
presently. And yet, on the whole, it seems safe to conclude that
the North, at the close of the third year of war was producing
more and was receiving larger profits than in 1860.
To deal with this subject in its entirety would lead us into the
labyrinths of complex economic theory, yet two or three simple
facts appear so plain that even the mere historian may venture to
set them forth.
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