Existing comment:
The Rise of Commerce and Industry
The view from Gamble's Hill provides evidence of the state's expansion of commerce and industry. Canals and railroads connected farmers, rural flour mills, iron furnaces, and coal mines to eastern production centers and international markets. Richmond's merchants exported tobacco; its flour-milling firms dominated trade with South America; and the Tredegar ironworks produced railroad iron and ordnance for a national market. |