Before the building of Railroads and other transportation, farmers produced food primarily, locally, and for there own family use. Bulk trade of products was not nearly as common between East and West before the building of railroads. If one needed to buy a product from another non local location, then the price would be very expensive, because shipment of the product would have to occur in limited amounts. The cost of shipping products such as wheat or corn in 1812 over land was 30 cents per ton mile. It also took a lot more time to trade so they could not trade as much. The overall trade time was 90% with horse and buggy than by railroad. This steep shipping price meant the products had to be sold for a more expensive price. This price explains why people rarely bought products such as food from local stores. Overall this expensive price to ship products lead to people not buying them. Trade was also much slower. Horse and buggy or canal boats were much slower. They could not travel through mountain ranges but rather had to go around. This took more time and made trade much more slow. The slower trade made products delivered much less. That made the products much more expensive and purchased less. Trade was also much less safe because there was less protection against the elements. Horse and buggy could not be sheltered like a train and did not have plumbing systems. This lead to many deaths and products being stolen or destroyed. The product could not be sheltered and stolen by robbers as seen in the Oregon trail. This made the product exported less which lead to more expensive products.
After the Building of Railroads
After the building of the railroads, the shipping of products was much quicker, cheaper and efficient. Products were much cheaper as well as available to people across the United States. It was much more common to see people in the late 1800s going to local stores and purchasing products from other parts of the United States than earlier years. This was because the railroads provided a much cheaper and efficient shipping method. It was only 12.5 cents to export a hundred pounds of grain. With horse and buggy it was very hard to export a hundred pounds of grain alone disregarding the cost. Products were able to be shipped for much cheaper, and this in turn lead to them being able to be sold for much cheaper. It was also much quicker to trade. A weeks worth of travel by railroad could take you to Texas. This was much faster than horse and buggy. These railroads could also travel through tough terrain that could not have previously been traveled through. An example of this was the the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Traders no longer had to go around these natural dangers but could go through. When trade occurred faster more products could be shipped. When more products could be shipped they became cheaper to the public because they were sold in bulk. Trade also became more reliable and safe. The new wooden and metal trains protected against the natural elements and the human dangers. It protected against robbers that previously were part of the Oregon trail. They also had much better hygiene on the trains which lead to much less deaths by disease. They had drinking water and bathrooms on each train. With less stops for the ill traders, trade was once again faster. This lead to a better more efficient trade. Safety, speed, and cost of trade was all positively affect after the building of railroads.