Summary - TST 19

TRANSPORTES, SERVICIOS Y TELECOMUNICACIONES


TST 19

Giles Vandal
The Development of Railroads as a response to the problems that plagued the New Orleans Port during the mid-nineteenth century

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Key Words: Ports; Financing; Trade; Rail networks.

[ Abstract ]

From 1820 to 1860, New Orleans underwent a constant expansion. By 1840, New Orleans ranked fourth among the American cities by the size of her population. But the expansion of the trade that transited through the New Orleans harbour was even greater. The value of the commerce of New Orleans, which was $16 million in 1820, had reached $324 million by 1860. Between 1820 and 1860, no other port in the world displayed a greater variety of shipping. On the eve of the Civil War, some 1500 vessels entered each year the New Orleans harbour. By then, the magnitude and value of the goods transiting by New Orleans were exceeded only by the ones of London, Liverpool and New York. However, despite these successes, the New Orleans port faced stiff competition and increasing challenges.
However, the success of the New Orleans port rested on the control of the hinterland and largely depended on a network of rivers to bring the western goods to the port. And yet, by the 1850s, many other US cities spared neither labour nor expenses to direct the western trade toward their port by investing in the development of railroads lines. By the mid-Nineteenth Century, the authorities of New Orleans implemented various policies to adjust to a difficult situation and to confront the increasing commercial competition. Among these measures, the development of an important railroad network was paramount. The present paper will examine how the development of railroads contributed to maintain the predominance of New Orleans in the world trade during the second half of the Nineteenth Century.