gross
|                               |  Estimated
|                               |    Dollar
|  Domestic   Foreign   Total   |    Amount
-----+-------------------------------+------------
1900 |      —–­       —–­     6,238  |   100,000
1910 |    5,975       —–­       —–­  |    96,000
1920 |    3,243       —–­       —–­  |    52,000
1930 |      —–­     1,893       —–­  |    30,000
1941 |      316       —–­       —–­  |     5,000

The foregoing data show sales of the Indian Root Pills only; this was by far the most important product, but the factory was also selling Worm Pellets, Judson’s Pills (up to 1920), and N & B Liniment.  Also, this tabulation excludes sales in quantities less than one gross, and there were actually many such smaller orders.  Only physical shipments were shown in the records recovered, and the dollar volume is the author’s computation at $16 per gross, the price which prevailed for many years.  Through 1900 there was only a single order book; beginning prior to 1910, separate domestic and foreign order books were introduced, but most of them have been lost.  On the assumption that there was a fair volume of foreign sales in 1910, total sales must have continued to climb through the decade then ending, but by 1920 domestic sales—­and probably total sales—­had dropped materially.  The number of employees, apparently about forty at the peak of the business, had dropped to thirteen according to the 1915 paybook but recovered slightly to sixteen in 1922.  These fragmentary data suggest that the Morristown branch of the Comstock enterprise probably never grossed much over $100,000, but in an era when $12 or $15 represented a good weekly wage and the clutching grasp of the income-tax collector was still unknown, this was more than adequate to support the proprietor in comfort and to number him among the more influential citizens of the district.  It is not known how Morristown sales compared with those of the Brockville factory, but it may be assumed that the company utilized its “dual nationality” to the utmost advantage, to benefit from favorable tariff laws and minimize the restrictions of both countries.  The Morristown plant supplied the lucrative Latin American trade, while during the era of Imperial preference, Brockville must have handled the English, Oriental, and Australian business.

[Illustration:  FIGURE 26.—­In its final years the Comstock advertising assumed a modern guise.  Depicted here is the N. & B. Liniment (originally registered with the Smithsonian as Carlton’s Celebrated Nerve and Bone Liniment for horses, in 1851).]

For many decades—­from 1900 at least up into the 1930s—­a number of very large shipments, normally 100 gross or more in single orders, were made to Gilpin, Langdon & Co., Baltimore, and to Columbia Warehouse Co. in St. Louis, important regional distributors.

Many substantial orders were also received from legitimate drug houses, such as Lehn & Fink; Schieffelin & Co.; Smith, Kline & French; and McKesson & Robbins.  Curiously, A.J.  White & Co. of New York City also appears in the order book, around 1900, as an occasional purchaser.  Among the foreign orders received in 1930 the United Fruit Company was, by a wide margin, the largest single customer.