The rapid increase of population and the growing prosperity in Pennsylvania during the life of its founder present a striking contrast to the slower and more troubled growth of the other British colonies in America.The settlers in Pennsylvania engaged at once in profitable agriculture.The loam, clay, and limestone soils on the Pennsylvania tide of the Delaware produced heavy crops of grain, as well as pasture for cattle and valuable lumber from its forests.The Pennsylvania settlers were of a class particularly skilled in dealing with the soil.They apparently encountered none of the difficulties, due probably to incompetent farming, which beset the settlers of Delaware, whose land was as good as that of the Pennsylvania colonists.
In a few years the port of Philadelphia was loading abundant cargoes for England and the great West India trade.After much experimenting with different places on the river, such as New Castle, Wilmington, Salem, Burlington, the Quakers had at last found the right location for a great seat of commerce and trade that could serve as a center for the export of everything from the region behind it and around it.Philadelphia thus soon became the basis of a prosperity which no other townsite on the Delaware had been able to attain.The Quakers of Philadelphia were the soundest of financiers and men of business, and in their skillful hands the natural resources of their colony were developed without setback or accident.At an early date banking institutions were established in Philadelphia, and the strongest colonial merchants and mercantile firms had their offices there.
It was out of such a sound business life that were produced in Revolutionary times such characters as Robert Morris and after the Revolution men like Stephen Girard.
Pennsylvania in colonial times was ruled from Philadelphia somewhat as France has always been ruled from Paris.And yet there was a difference: Pennsylvania had free government.The Germans and the Scotch-Irish outnumbered the Quakers and could have controlled the Legislature, for in 1750 out of a population of 150,000 the Quakers were only about 50,000; and yet the Legislature down to the Revolution was always confided to the competent hands of the Quakers.No higher tribute, indeed, has ever been paid to any group of people as governors of a commonwealth and architects of its finance and trade.
It is a curious commentary on the times and on human nature that these Quaker folk, treated as outcasts and enemies of good order and religion in England and gradually losing all their property in heavy fines and confiscations, should so suddenly in the wilderness prove the capacity of their "Holy Experiment" for achieving the best sort of good order and material success.They immediately built a most charming little town by the waterside, snug and pretty with its red brick houses in the best architectural style.It was essentially a commercial town down to the time of the Revolution and long afterwards.The principal residences were on Water Street, the second street from the wharves.The town in those days extended back only as far as Fourth Street, and the State House, now Independence Hall, an admirable instance of the local brick architecture, stood on the edge of the town.The Pennsylvania Hospital, the first institution of its kind to be built in America, was situated out in the fields.
Through the town ran a stream following the line of the present Dock Street.Its mouth had been a natural landing place for the first explorers and for the Indians from time immemorial.Here stood a neat tavern, the Blue Anchor, with its dovecotes in old English style, looking out for many a year over the river with its fleet of small boats.Along the wharves lay the very solid, broad, somber, Quaker-like brick warehouses, some of which have survived into modern times.Everywhere were to be found ships and the good seafaring smell of tar and hemp.Ships were built and fitted out alongside docks where other ships were lading.Aprivateer would receive her equipment of guns, pistols, and cutlasses on one side of a wharf, while on the other side a ship was peacefully loading wheat or salted provisions for the West Indies.
