More buildings have been erected since emancipation, than for twenty years before.

Stores and shops have multiplied astonishingly; I can safely say that their number has more than quintupled since the abolition of slavery."-- _Dr.Ferguson_.
"Emancipation has very greatly increased the value of, and consequently the demand for, real estate.

That which three years ago was a drug altogether unsaleable by private bargain; has now many inquirers after it, and ready purchasers at good prices.

The importation of British manufactured goods has been considerably augmented, probably one fourth." "The credit of the planters who have been chiefly affected by the change, has been much improved.

And _the great reduction of expense in managing the estates_, has made them men of more real wealth, and consequently raised their credit both with the English merchants and our own."-- _James Scotland, Sen., Esq._ "The effect of emancipation upon the commerce of the island _must needs_ have been beneficial, as the laborers indulge in more wheaten flour, rice, mackerel, dry fish, and salt-pork, than formerly.