Philadelphia

European settlers first established the English colony of Pennsylvania in 1681, an area previously inhabited by Delaware Indians and a few Europeans. The connections of the settlers and the influence of the investors meant that the port quickly dominated the colony's economy. Food was imported from Ireland and textiles and manufactures from Great Britain. These were paid for with exports of grain, flour, and timber to the West Indies, and later to Great Britain and southern Europe, as well as with the increasingly important earnings from the coastal trade and the saleshipping services, the "carrying trade." As immigration increased the population in Philadelphia's hinterland, there was still more produce for export, and more imports required. Thus, by the third quarter of the eighteenth century, 70 to 80 percent of the city's workforce was engaged in the commercial, service, and manufacture sectors. Philadelphia had become the principal shipbuilding port and the leading commercial center of the thirteen continental colonies.

Dislocation during the American War of Independence meant that Philadelphia lost out relative to New York and Baltimore in terms of population and trade during the nineteenth century. However, the financial sector, beginning with the Bank of North America in 1781, grew in importance, and Philadelphia was the leading financial U.S. city until the 1850s. Commercial and Maritime Exchanges were established in 1863 and 1875, and the Bourse in 1891. During the nineteenth century, improved land and sea communications encouraged trade with local, regional, and overseas markets. Large coal shipments from the hinterland literally fueled a large textile sector from the 1840s, and iron deposits encouraged manufacturing in a wide variety of items. Manufacturers took over from merchants as centralized factories spread throughout the city. Shipbuilding stagnated mid-century, but was later encouraged as iron prices fell and demand increased from South America. Philadelphia celebrated its role as the leading industrial city in the United States with a commercial exposition in 1876, but international trade was still important. Five miles of wharves on the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers handled molasses and fruit imported from the West Indies, wool from England, glassware from Germany, and iron from Scandinavia. Grain was still the main export, but coal and oil were also important. This diverse economy cushioned Philadelphia from much of the boom and slump inherent in the globalizing economy.

The twentieth century witnessed even greater changes for the city. During the Depression of the 1930s fifty Philadelphia banks failed, but the financial sector was robust enough to meet and exceed its war-bond quotas during World War II. It later encouraged local and regional development, and consolidated its position with a regional stock exchange in 1976. World War II revived shipbuilding in the city, with production of warships, submarines, and tankers. However, Philadelphia experienced a massive decline in manufacturing after World War II, and people and employment slowly moved to the suburbs. Philadelphia's economy was drastically restructured in the later twentieth century with the healthcare, professional, and business and retail sectors employing the most people, but trade still played a part. In the early twenty-first century, vehicles, machinery, electrical goods, and medicines were exported through Philadelphia to Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany, with iron and oil imported from Canada, Venezuela, and Mexico. The knowledge, science and tourist sectors were also promoted. The diversity of Phil-adelphia's economy continued to help the city overcome adversity, but the port legacy endured.

SEE ALSO Agriculture; Baltimore; Boston; Cargoes, Freight; Cargoes, Passenger; Chambers of Commerce; Charleston; Containerization; Empire, British; Free Ports; Harbors;Los Angeles–Long Beach;New Orleans;Newport;New York;Port Cities;Salem;San Francisco–Oakland;Shipbuilding;United States.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Doerflinger, Thomas M. A Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise: Merchants and Economic Development in Revolutionary Philadelphia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.

Warner, Sam Bass. The Private City: Philadelphia in Three Periods of Its Growth, 2nd edition. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987.

Weigley, Russel F. Philadelphia: A 300-Year History. New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1982.

Sheryllynne Haggerty