The imports of this year are stated to he,
domestic, $18,868,129; foreign, $1,013,866.
The exports aggregated, domestic,
$6,284,735, foreign, $5,648,116, making a
total of about $12,000,000.
The wholesale trade diminished, owing to the
cessation of railroad construction, but, as
an offset, country merchants found that they
could do better at Portland than at the
East.
In 1885 there were shipped 4,546,540 centals
of wheat, valued at $45,643,650, and 459,159
barrels of flour, valued at $1, 751, 589,
making a total value of $7,394,239.
The shipment of wool aggregated 11,558,427
pounds, worth $1,637,936. The value of all
exports reached $14,280,670, being
$2,347,819 over the exports of the preceding
year. The greatest crop of grain hitherto
raised in the Northwest was harvested this
year.
For 1886, the following table of exports
still further illustrates the growth.
| Wheat, centals | 4,919,346 | Flax seed, sacks | 68,431 |
| Flour, barrels | 605,694 | Furs, hides, skins, etc., lbs. | 2,383,710 |
| Salmon, cases | 548,366 | Hops, pounds | 6,520,036 |
| Wool, pounds | 19,227,105 | Barrel stock, packages | 11,594 |
| Woolens, cases | 819 | Potatoes, sacks | 111,062 |
| Mill stuffs, sacks | 227,719 | Oats, sacks | 209,126 |
| Barley, centals | 40,685 | Laths, M | 6,658 |
| Leather, packages | 590 | Green fruit, boxes | 91,166 |
| Tallow, packages | 1,765 | Dried fruit, packages | 7,236 |
| Butter, packages | 286 | Ore, sacks | 18,592 |
| Eggs, packages | 3,488 | Onions, sacks | 5,1648 |
| Provisions, packages | 6,570 | Teasels, cases | 29 |
| Pig iron, tons | 1,567 | Stoves | 1,615 |
| Lumber, M | 28,771 | Total value of exports | $16,960,147.00 |
For 1887 the shipment of wheat was 173,915
tons, and flour, 45,766 tons, making a
total-all reduced to wheat-of 237,989 tons.
The total export of 1887 was $13,985,681.
The statistics of wheat for 1888 are given
as follows:
| To Europe-Centals | 3,149,764 | valued at | $3,716,598 |
| To San Francisco-Centals | 1,099,109 | valued at | 1,288,819 |
| Coastwise-Centals | 160,154 | valued at | 196,370 |
| Peru-Centals | 53,344 | valued at | 60,610 |
The shipment of flour for the same period is shown by the following table:
| Europe-Barrels | 402,734 | valued at | $1,399,773 |
| San Francisco-Barrels | 107,834 | valued at | 397,346 |
| Coastwise-Barrels | 62,967 | valued at | 245,775 |
| China--Barrels | 71,036 | valued at | 259,412 |
The total shipment of wheat reached
4,462,371 centals, of a value of $5, 716,598
; flour, 644,471 barrels, of a value of $2,
302, 606.
The total export of 1888 reached
$16,385,658. The shipment of salmon was
428,437 cases; the production of wool about
18, 000, 000 pounds.
It may be noticed in relation to the
foregoing statistics that they are to a
large extent incomplete, nor always correct
so far as given; but they are the best to be
obtained, and it is believed that the
natural tendency to exaggeration is largely
offset by the difficulty, or even
impossibility, of finding a record of all
products and exports. Indeed, for the
purposes of this work it is not necessary
that they should absolutely be impregnable,
yet they are probably fully as reliable as
those tabulated for other cities or other
lines of industry. In some departments, such
as salmon, wool, and to some extent in wheat
and flour, the product of near or
surrounding points has been undoubtedly
tabulated with that of Portland; and in the
case of wheat and flour considerable
shipments have been made by rail to Tacoma
for lading on foreign vessels. But this
feature has now been obviated by the new
pilotage laws so that port charges and
towage on the rivers do not increase
expenses of loading at Portland to a point
above that at ports on Puget Sound. The
facts given above show substantially the
volume of business done by Portland, or by
Portland capitalists.
Present Character and Conditions
From the preceding pages it will be noticed
how Portland has weathered all the storms of
opposition from the earliest days, and has
advanced to and continued to hold the
position as emporium of the Pacific
Northwest. In the primitive times she proved
the superiority of her position over points
on the lower Willamette for lading and
unlading. Having securely gained this
pre-eminence she proceeded during the second
era to emancipate herself from the
commercial tyranny of San Francisco, and
during the third to build up an independent
commerce with the world. Since 1868 she has
stood before the nations as an autonomous
power` in commercial affairs, acting without
fear or favor, and pressing her activities
on the simple basis of the advantages that
she possessed and the facilities which she
could give. She boldly entered upon the
construction of railroad lines, calling in
capital from California, from the East and
from Europe, and thereby made a practical
test of what she was able to do. If, by
virtue of position and business activity,
she should prove inferior to other points,
these railroads would necessarily withdraw
from her, her capital and population leaving
her stranded upon the shoals of bankruptcy.
But if, on the other hand, her position and
business enterprise enabled her to serve the
entire surrounding region, these lines of
transportation would give her still greater
advantages. Amid all vicissitudes-social,
commercial and political-incident upon
construction of railroads, Portland steadily
held her own; and, now that these lines are
completed and in operation, finds her wealth
and population increased four or five fold.
She finds herself more secure than ever as
the emporium and business center of the
Pacific Northwest. Her present position is
that accorded to her by nature, as the point
of exchange between domestic productions and
foreign imports, the point of supply for
interior towns and country places, and the
general depot for the stores that must
somewhere be held in readiness for the use
of the people.
The character of her business at present is
determined by that of the surrounding
sections. While they raise wheat she must
handle and sell wheat; their wool, fruit,
ores, lumber, fish, coal, iron, cattle and
other domestic productions all figure in her
lists as passing through her for market.
This work being chiefly historical need not
here be burdened with further details of
commerce. It is confidently believed,
however, that the exports of 1889 will reach
a greater value than for any preceding year.
These will, of course, be of the same
character so far as quality or kind is
concerned, as of years before. They will be
drawn from the entire circle of valleys and
mountains from the California and Montana
borders.
It will not be necessary to insert here a
disquisition upon the commercial needs of
Portland, nevertheless the reader will
naturally think of the steps that must be
taken to make Portland complete as an
emporium. First of all, it remains to
perfect that confidence between Portland and
the agricultural communities which will
induce them to rely upon her merchants.
Portland must reach such friendly terms with
the farmers and graziers that her business
men may never with any semblance of
propriety be called "Shylocks." Our
merchants must seek rather the enlargement
of their sales than a large per cent. upon
each one, knowing that a profit of even one
per cent. on a hundred dollars, or orders
worth a hundred dollars, is better than that
of three per cent. on but twenty dollars;
and the small merchants and dealers of the
country must be encouraged to feel that they
are made to share with Portland the
advantages which result from her superior
natural position.
For another thing the people of Portland
must learn to regard the whole Northwest as
in a measure their "farm." That is, they
must feel the same interest in improving and
developing the fields, forests and mines of
all this region that the energetic farmer
feels in making his own acres productive.
Every effort must be put forth to bring wild
lands in cultivation, to increase the area
of orchards and the number of flocks and
herds, and, if possible, to render
substantial assistance to settlers who find
the difficulties of pioneer life too great
to be overcome. In some sections capitalists
have greatly increased the productions of
the soil, and enhanced values by selling
land for an interest in the crop for a term
of years until the purchase price was
liquidated. It is possible that extensive
orchards and the cultivation of wild lands
might be profitably encouraged in the same
way.
For the most part the business men of
Portland will find it to their greatest
advantage to encourage those kinds of
industry and occupation as lead to the
settlement of the country and to the
introduction of families. It is to he
noticed that great as has been the volume of
money turned over by the salmon canning
business of the country, but comparatively
little real advantage has accrued to the
State. The business itself has been grossly
overdone, the supply of fish well nigh
exhausted, and for a large part at least,
but an idle, transitory and turbulent
element of laborers attracted hither. In
like manner the immense lumbering business
of Puget Sound and the lower Columbia has
brought no benefit proportionate to the
amount of capital employed and the money
made. Exhausted forests and too frequently
dissatisfied and demoralized communities
have followed in the path of the ax and saw.
A lesson also may be gathered from the great
plains of Texas and Dakota, where the cattle
and wheat business are cultivated by a class
of capitalists who are themselves in New
York or in London, and delegate to agents
the management of their immense herds and
fields. A band of cow-boys, or a camp of
plow-men and harvesters, for a few months in
the year are the only inhabitants of plains
and meadows that might well support
thousands of families. By such management
the utmost extravagance of methods is
engendered. Pastures are eaten out, soils
exhausted, and the country left in a
condition inviting the English or Irish
system of landlordism. Portland wants
nothing of this. She should consider that it
is a State filled with families, with a
multitude of rural towns, and with
productive manufactories, that makes demand
for the immense imports which she is to
store and to distribute, and which provides
the immense exports to be exchanged for the
imports. For this reason she will
principally encourage such industries as
fruit raising, dairying, sheep and stock
raising by small farmers small farms; the
raising of poultry and the labor of small
manufactories, and of persons in rural
communities.
It remains also to open up the water ways,
to complete the natural entrance at the
mouth of the Columbia river, and to unlock
the gates of the Columbia to the whole
interior.
By such liberal policy, by breadth of plan
and outlook, by exercise of a spirit of
fraternity and accommodation, Portland will
maintain her ascendancy. The conditions out
of which monopolies and oppressive
combinations arise will be prevented.
Although expecting to run a hard race with
San Francisco and even some Eastern city as
Chicago, and with some local rivals for
control of the business in certain portions
of her field, she need have no fear of the
result.
Locally, there is room here for great lumber
yards, cattle yards, fruit canning
establishments, cold storage houses and
depots of supply for the merchant marine,
for the fishing stations of Alaska, and for
the mines of the upper Columbia. These will
come in time.