economy

Whaling: Oil & “Bone” – Making A Profit

/ Sarah Kay Bierle / 7 Comments

In the last few weeks, I’ve vaguely referred to whale oil and the profits made through a successful 19th Century whaling voyage. Now it’s time to get a little more specific. After-all, a two year voyage, all that hard work of whale hunting, and the trip home should have been worth something.

It was. In fact, the industry was so profitable that the hunting continued endlessly, in an attempt to supply the market with the raw materials.

Today, we’re going to talk a little about the numbers and monetary value of the whaling industry. It’s not an attempt to justify over-hunting or glorify the pain and suffering; rather, it’s an attempt to understand why this was acceptable in the past. Continue reading →

American International Trade

/ Sarah Kay Bierle / 3 Comments

19th-century-american-maritimeTrade – a rather nebulous word has been used frequently in the last few weeks’ blog posts. The U.S. Navy was established to protect trade. The Barbary Pirates were disrupting trade. So…what’s so important about “trade”? Where did trade happen? What did they trade for?

Today’s article addresses some pretty amazing facts about early 19th Century maritime trade and its role in the United States’ international, interstate, investments, and infrastructure goals and opportunities. We can’t really do the topic justice in a short article, but we’ll give an overview. Continue reading →