Banked-In Charleston there are 19 national savings and State banks, with aggregate capi tal and surplus of $5,077,899, resources of nearly $40,367,069, and deposits of $31,002,632. The city's annual bank clearings are more than $175,000,000, Charleston also has in active operation building and loan associations with aggregate capital amounting to between $2, 000,000 and $3,000,000.
Government and Finances,--The govern ment is, by the charter of 1836: a four-years' mayor and a council elected half by wards and half at large. The administrative boards and officials are partly appointive by the mayor and partly elective by the council. The city expenses are about $600,000 a year, of which 00,000 each goes for schools and charities, $75,000 for police and $50,000 for the fire de partment. The net debt in 1910 was $4,086,500; the assessed valuation of all taxable property, $18,824,978, of which $12,400,000 is real estate; the city tax rate is $27.80 per $1,030, besides a school tax of $1 and a State and county tax of $10.62%.
Population.- In 1790, the first census, 16,359; 1800, 18,924; 1810, 24,711; 1820, 24,780; 1830, 30,289; 1840, 29,261; 1850, 42,985; 1860, 40,522; 1870, 48,956; 1880, 49,984; 1890, 54,955; 1900, 55,807; 1910, 58,833; 1916, 72,000; 1918, 81,807.
History.-The first settlement in South Carolina was made at Port Royal by the French, in 1562; it was not successful, but they never forgot the experiment or their favor for the region. In 1670 an English colony under Gov. William Sayle made for Port Royal also; but on the advice of the cacique of Kiawah (the then name of the Ashley), settled instead at Albemarle Point, on west bank of the Kiawah, three miles from the present site, fortunately, as the colony Lord Cardross planted at Port Royal was exterminated by the Spaniards in 1686. The settlement was named Charles Town after Charles II. Within two years the settlers had discovered that Oyster Point, the end of the Charleston peninsula, was a better site, and within 10 years later had be come the main settlement and the offices were removed there. The first village was on the Cooper entirely, as the main business still is. The commerce even at this early date was lively, 16 vessels sometimes discharging at once. In 1685-86 a colony of Huguenot refugees set tled there and built a church: this strain has deeply molded Charleston and South Carolina, and its fiery zeal in heading every political movement is perhaps due to this quick French blood. In 1704 there were five churches: Saint Philip's, the Huguenot, the First Baptist, a Presbyterian and Congregational meeting house and a Quaker one. In August 1706 an allied French and Spanish fleet attacked it, but were driven off by a small improvised fleet under Lieutenant-Goyenioz Rhetti shortly afterward another French vessel, unaware of the others' defeat, came up and landed a party, which was routed with heavy loss, and the sur vivors, with the ship and the rest of the marines, captured. The city at this time was desolated with yellow fever, but this militia action counts among the brilliant feats of the War of the Succession. In 1755 a colony of 1,200 deported Acadians settled there, still further reinforcing the French element. In 1773, Josiah Quincy of Boston writes in his diary that the town was 'beautiful and in many respects magnificent"; and 'far surpassed everything he ever saw or expected to see in America.° It was at this time the third seaport
in size in America, and in 1774 established a chamber of commerce. It was not only the first Southern city to join the Revolutionary movement, but was the prime agent in bring ing about the first provincial congress 10 years before; it held the first constitutional conven tion in any colony in March 1776, and promul gated an independent constitution. On 28 June the British fleet, under Sir Peter Parker, be sieged the city, and was beaten off with ter rible loss by the garrison of Fort Moultrie be hind an improvised palmetto fortification. In 1774 a second attack under Gen. Augustine Prevost was defeated. But on 12 May 1780 Sir Henry Clinton captured it and its garrison under General Lincoln, after a six weeks' siege; it was not reoccupied by the Americans till 14 Dec. 1782. In 1783 it was incorporated as a city, and remained the capital of South Caro lina till 1790. In 1784 it exported the first bale of cotton sent from the United States to Europe. In 1793 some 500 French refugees from the massacres of San Domingo settled there. It was the heart of the Nullification movement in 1832, as of all movements to op pose Federal authority first and last; and the Breckenridge convention of 1860 met here be fore adjourning to Baltimore. The conven tion which proclaimed the State's secession from the Union was held here 20 Dec. 1860. The Civil War was begun by its bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter on 12-13 April 1861; and from 7 April 1863 on, for nearly two years, the fort was incessantly besieged and steadily bombarded by the Union fleet, for the last 18 months it being only a heap of ruins, but impregnable. On 17 Feb. 1865, on the sur render of Columbia, Hardee evacuated the city and burned all public buildings, stores and ship ping, and the next day Foster, and the Union forces took possession. Despite its devasta tion quid wreckage, it grew 21 per cent from 1860 to 1870, while it had fallen off in the pre vious decade,- a curious phenomenon. In 1886, on 31 August, the heaviest earthquake ever recorded in the United States destroyed several hundred buildings, and made three fourths of the whole uninhabitable, killed scores of people and caused a property damage estimated at $8,000,000. On 2 Dec. 1901 the South Carolina Interstate and West Indian Ex position was inaugurated in the city. The year 1906 saw Charleston beginning the era of modern business and commercial prosperity upon which she is now fully launched. In the 10 years that have passed since then, the city has grown faster than in 25 or 30 years before. It has now assumed its _posi tion as the leading seaport city of the South Atlantic and the most important military point between the Chesapeake and the mouth of the Rio Grande. Her people have been filled with a great faith in her future and are leaving no stone unturned to make their city as great in the America of the future as she was in that of the past.
For a compact sketch of its history, consult Yates Snowden in Powell's 'Historic Towns of the Southern States' and Mrs. Ravenell's, 'Charleston, the Place and the People' ; in connection with State history, McCrady's three volumes of South Carolina histog, 1897-1901.