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Baltimore Foreign Trade
63
nia brought to Baltimore and its surroundings some of the leading millers of the period—the Ellicotts, Tysons, Hollingsworths, and Ow-ings—who, using the falls and the latest in mill equipment, turned the grain of northern Maryland and southern Pennsylvania into fine-quality flour for export. In time metal and textile mills joined the flour mills, but in this period the latter remained the most important. By 1800 there were about fifty of them within twenty miles of Baltimore with an annual capacity of over 500,000 bushels of wheat. The only other big industry of Baltimore was shipbuilding and it, too, helped expand trade. In and around Fells Point the shipyards of Cumberland Dugan, David Stoddert, and others turned out the modified Chesapeake Bay pilot boats whose topsail, streamlined bottom, sharp bow, and raked masts provided the speed and maneuverability that fitted them ideally not only for the West Indian trade but also for the privateering and blockade-running of the war years.
While Baltimore merchants were able to respond energetically to the opportunities the war presented, they could never control these conditions. The pattern of Baltimore's export trade in provisions and reexport trade in West Indian goods after 1790 reflected and was determined by wartime conditions in Europe and later in the United States. From 1790 to 1807 the amount and value of Baltimore trade generally rose. After a series of very good years in the nineties, in 1798-1800 the value of Baltimore's exports exceeded that of Philadelphia's. A slight dip in 1802-3 during the Peace of Amiens was followed by record exports in the years 1804-7. The embargo put an abrupt stop to this expansion. There was some evasion, of course: the use of double papers was common and there was some clearing of ships to be loaded and sent off to Europe from small harbors down the Bay, but such practices could scarcely make up in any substantial way for the losses suffered by the stoppage of regular trade. Since Baltimore was a Jeffersonian stronghold, it was not surprising that many merchants welcomed the embargo at first and even when its effects became clear outward support continued. In the elections of 1808 with the embargo as an issue, the Republicans managed to maintain control. From 1809 to 1813, foreign trade began to move once again; its volume never, however, reached the heights of the period immediately before the embargo and even this recovery was cut short when in 1813-14 the Bay was blockaded by British fleets and trade virtually stopped. Mer-
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