The Struggle for the Panama Portage
A power struggle between railroad titans over a critical transit monopoly leaves the Pacific Mail Steamship Company reeling.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
We have intelligence of another revolution in the management of this great line, which we hope will ensure its stability and continued prosperity. The company has had its share of the vicissitudes of fortune incident to human affairs generally. The construction of the overland road was a signal blow to its business, just subsequent to which it met with an unparalleled series of disasters on sea and otherwise. Besides, it has had persistent competition on its own routes. Its stock, which once ranked in the class known as 'fancy gilt-edged,' has latterly fallen below 20. There has been a struggle for its control between the Panama Railroad Company, with Trenor W. Park at its head, and a combination represented by Jay Gould, resulting in the triumph of the former. Park has for a long time past been managing for this result. To this end, he projected the opposition line of the Panama Transit Steamship Company. The Panama Railroad Company, of which he is president, is one of the compactest little monopolies in the world. It has steadily charged $25 in gold for every passenger of the P. M. S. S. Co. across the isthmus, even when the through rates between New York and San Francisco were down to $47. It was the one great mistake of the steamship company that it did not secure control of this portage in the outset. This was the unheld key point in the strategic situation that has lost it the battle.
“The Panama Railroad Company... is one of the compactest little monopolies in the world.”
This 1876 account of a transit monopoly highlights a recurring theme in Pacific Northwest history: the tension between local commerce and the massive, often predatory, corporate interests that control the infrastructure of trade. Much like the modern battle over trans-continental logistics and tech-driven monopolies, Seattle’s early growth was perpetually held hostage by those who owned the 'portage.'
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