Note XXXIII-26 — Chapter XXXIII · COMMERCE AND FINANCE. 1801-1887.

The steamship lines doing such service in 1867 were the following: 1st. The Pacific Mail Co. of N. Y., whose capital in 1847 was $400,000; raised in 1850 to $2,000,000; in 1860 to $4,000,000; and in 1866 to $20,000,000; the lowest estimate of its property being set down in 1867 at $30,000,000. This company has passed through many vicissitudes, as indicated by the stock market. The highest rates attained by its shares were 248 in 1863, 325 in 1864, 329 in 1865, 234 in 1866. Every other year they have been under 200, the highest being in 173½ in 1867. From that time they sank very low, even to 16¼ cents in 1876, the highest that year being 39¼. 2d. Brit. and W. India and Pac. running between Liverpool, W. Ind., W. coast of S. and Cent. Am., and Colon. 3d. Brit. Royal Mail, between Southampton, W. Ind., eastern coast of Mexico, S. and Cent. Am., and Colon. 4th. Brit. Pan., New Zealand, and Australia. 5th. Brit. Pac. Steam Navigation Co., between Pan. and ports of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. 6th. Pan. R. Road Co.'s steamers between Pan. and Acapulco, touching at all Cent. Am. ports. This line finally was merged in the Pacific Mail Co. 7th. Am. Cal. Or. and Mex. Co.'s line running between S. F. and Mex., and between S. F. and Portland, Or., and Island of Vancouver. It was afterward discontinued. 8th. French Transatlantic Co. running between St Nazaire in France, W. Ind., Mex., and Colon. 9th. German line. In 1871 the following arrivals of vessels occurred: steamers, Brit., 84, with 158,579 tons; Am., 25, with 66,813 tons; German, 36, with 42,740 tons; French, 24, with 15,782. Sailing vessels, 56 Brit., 43 Am., 12 German, 4 French, 8 Italian, 112 Colombian, mostly small. Grand total of tonnage, 316,271 tons. Otis' Hist. Pan. R. R., 50-6, 148-60, 169-232; Pan. Star and Herald, May 2, 1867; Apr. 14, 1877; U. S. Gov. Doc., Comm. Rel., 1871-2, 252, 263; Bidwell's Isth. Pan., 353-7. The author of the last-quoted work was British vice-consul at Panamá, and enjoyed leisure and opportunity for gathering facts from many sources, concerning the past and present history of Panamá, as well as on her resources, trade, etc. The arrangement of the book, as he acknowledges, is defective, there being no order—chronological or other—in the information he gives. The description of the social and political condition of the city and country, to the time of his writing, is quite accurate.