Business in each decade has its own particular troubles, and it is interesting, often amusing, to read of bygone days. Modern communication, banking facilities, transportation, and business methods stand in vivid contrast to those of the early nineteenth century. To men in the East, able to obtain current news, the difficulties caused by the Embargo and Non-Importation acts were a sad worry; but to the merchants in the hinterland, often little more than agents for eastern firms, these regulations were a matter of utmost confusion and concern.