Why was Portland remained and still remains a small city in New England?

Sam Biswas

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Portland%20Maine%20Map.jpg

Why was Portland, Maine remained and still remains a small city in New England in comparison to Boston or New York?

Portland wasn't really always like this. Back then, it was an important industrial center fueled by a profitable port, the city grew in economic output and population through the mid nineteenth century. Portland was a city that actually even rivaled New York and Boston until after the Civil War. So what sort of prevented Portland that would've ever become that a one day large American metropolis. Geography? Politics? Natural disasters?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Portland,_Maine

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/boston.htm

https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/epr/05v11n2/0512glae.pdf
 
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Portland has always been a state center rather than a national center. It’s a good port, but it’s too far north, and too close to older, bigger cities to really compete with them. I’m not going to mention New York, as Manhattan was arguably America’s urban center at this point. But I’m not sure where you got your information about it rivaling Boston, as in the timeframe you mentioned it had about 1/7th the population, it was always, like Portsmouth or Providence, going to be a peripherally important city in New England, as by the time it was founded, hell by the time Maine was colonized, Boston had already cemented its place as the most important city in the region. The only way I could see this changing is if Portland was part of Canada, where it would probably get a lot of the trade that nowadays would go go to Halifax, although I’m not sure of this due to the importance of the St. Lawrence river in Canadian trade
 
Wasn't Portland also a pretty big deal in the whaling days? If it was, and can't find some way to substitute that loss of income once the whaling is no longer profitable/legal, I think it might end up as many cities past their heyday.
 
You should read Ed Glaeser's history of Boston. He notes that despite early advantages, Boston suffered from its location - the Charles was a small river, and after US independence the growing intra-national market favored ports closer to the center of the country, i.e. New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Both of these problems are even worse in Portland.
 
You should read Ed Glaeser's history of Boston. He notes that despite early advantages, Boston suffered from its location - the Charles was a small river, and after US independence the growing intra-national market favored ports closer to the center of the country, i.e. New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Both of these problems are even worse in Portland.

If the same people who settled Boston had settled in an area like Philadelphia instead, it would probably be the largest city by far. Early lead, and a better location? Forget about it
 
If the same people who settled Boston had settled in an area like Philadelphia instead, it would probably be the largest city by far. Early lead, and a better location? Forget about it

New Haven tried to settle Philadelphia - the Passyunk neighborhood in particular - in 1644 but it died out basically due to a lack of local ability to support itself or trade to do so (IE, New Sweden wasn't going to help rival Europeans within its claimed territory). Shut out New Netherland and New Sweden by having the Plymouth colonists successfully settle the mouth of the Hudson River and so keep the English claims of the whole eastern seaboard de-facto as well as de-jure, and this 'Delaware Colony' as John Winthrop called it would be able to get support from a much stronger and closer New England that includes *New York-as-New Plymouth, as well as a link between this expanded New England and the Chesapeake.
 
New Haven tried to settle Philadelphia - the Passyunk neighborhood in particular - in 1644 but it died out basically due to a lack of local ability to support itself or trade to do so (IE, New Sweden wasn't going to help rival Europeans within its claimed territory). Shut out New Netherland and New Sweden by having the Plymouth colonists successfully settle the mouth of the Hudson River and so keep the English claims of the whole eastern seaboard de-facto as well as de-jure, and this 'Delaware Colony' as John Winthrop called it would be able to get support from a much stronger and closer New England that includes *New York-as-New Plymouth, as well as a link between this expanded New England and the Chesapeake.

Also just a lot better land in the Chesapeake than up north
 
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