The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-26 00:00:00

TIIE OIL TRADE.

Five years ago the oil trade of Pittsburg was in
its infancy. The following table will show its pro-
gress and value. The receipts of oil by the Alle-
gheny River for seven years, ending Dec. 31, 1865,
were as follows :

Average price
Year. Barrels. of crude. Value.
1859 7,037
1860 17,161
1861 94,102 $2 75 $258,780 50
1862 171,774 1 75 300,604 50
1863 175,181 3 87 677,950 37
1864 476,939 10 25 4,888,624 75
1865 1,200,000 950 11,400,000 00

Total in 7 year5...2,142,194. Val. 5 years 817,525,960 12
The oil receipts by the Allegheny Valley Rail-
road, for the past two years, have been—
Barrels.
1864
1865

Total in two years... _ 839,870

The exports of oil over the Pennsylvania Railroad,
from this city, in 1865, were 465,825 barrels, or an
average of 1,503 barrels per day for the working
days.
This vast trade has created other branches of
business. It has given employment to thousands
of boatmen on the Allegheny ; has widened the de-
mand for barges, tugs, and steamers ; has built 60
refineries in our suburbs and furnishes the domestic
and foreign markets with the great bulk of their
supply, and do a business amounting to $7,000,000
per year. It has built portable engine, tanking,
still, boiler, and oil tool works, that send to the
oil regions of Pennsylvania and Virginia $2,500,000
worth of material per year. This trade has made rail-
roads necessary in the oil regions, and Pittsburgh has
furnished the rails ; steamers, and Pittsburgh built
them; capital and labour, and Pittsburgh furnished
tcohofettcn)it;tylf
,raigcute,,the development and early success as
well as the prominence of the oil trade in Venango
capitalists,
to the energy and tact
Pittsburg is the ioreatht centre of the oil trade—a
which, to
is
trade whose value
year, and the revenue $65,000,000 a
the Government,
is also counted by millions. The
tax on refined oil,
in this city, during the single month of October
last year, was $36,951 10, a gain of $13,095 30
over 1864. That some idea may be formed of the
amount of business done by our oil merchants, it
is sufficient to instance Messrs. Waring and King,
who, in the single month of August last (a dull
month), sold 62,231 barrels, and Tack Brothers
and Co., who sold 30,000 in the dame time. The
value of the refined and crude oil hipped over the

Pennsylvania Railroad, from this city, last year,
was (over $15,000,000.
'Let us take a cursory glance at the source of our
fn esent and expectant supply of oil. Venango
es,ounty lies along the headwaters of the Allegheny
River and its tributaries. This river, either by
main stream or its branches, navigable to the very
wells themselves, is our chief and only direct
Ithoroughfare for the oil trade. One million dollars
would complete the Allegheny Valley Railroad to
, the very heart of the oil regions and bring us so
Iclose to the great supply that no city in the Union
cculd ever hope to compete with us for the trade.
But this is not done. ' And our enormous trade is
clogged when the river closes every year. But
let us look at the wealth of the district from which
our wealth indirectly comes. From the returns of
the Collector of Internal Revenue for the district
embracing Venango county, it appears that the
Government received the following revenues from
crude oil for the months indicated :

April, 1865 $111,991.50
May, 1865
June, 1865
July, 1865
August, 1865
November, 1865 246,734.00
The tax on refined during the same time in that
district amounted to $700,000. The total tax on
crude and refined, for the first six months of last
year was $1,738,095. For the whole year, 1865,
it was $2,897,032.03. In 1863 the revenue derived
was $649,962.00 ; in 1864, $2,255,238.80.