thor, "must have ruined all the iron works in the colonies, to the great loss of the proprietors." The bill was not passed; but the principles on which it was founded had their influence even on those who opposed it, for we find the same author who was so reasonable in regard to iron, contending, "that negro slaves in our plantations should not be permitted to work in manufactories there (as certainly many do) but to keep them to their original intent of planting and drudging: and also, that the increase of woollen, &c. manufactures there, interfering with those of our own, should be restrained as much as possible." In 1722, a bill was passed extending the bounties on pitch and tar, and granting new bounties on timber imported from the colonies, without the objectionable clause contained in the bill of 1719. By such means as these, the British legislature hoped to divert the attention of the Americans from manufactures; but, from the cause to which they owed their origin, viz. the impossibility of finding profitable employment for all their labour and capital in agriculture and navigation, American manufactures continued to advance. "Soap, candles, starch, hair-powder, tanned leather, linseed oil, strong waters, and strong beer," are enumerated among the ordinary exports from Pennsylvania and some of the adjoining colonies, in 1731. The building of ships for sale in foreign ports was a regular employment. At this early period, the Pennsylvanians alone appear to have built yearly about 2000 tons of shipping, for sale abroad: and the New Englandmen carried on the business on a more extensive scale. For some years the British manufacturers supplied the Americans with many of the hats they used: but at the time of which we are now speaking, the manufacture of hats in America was carried so far, that considerable quantities were exported to Spain, Portugal, and the West Indies. "The conveniences in point of cheapness which the Americans have beyond the mother country, by the plenty of beaver, hare, coney wool, and many other furs, gave them such advantages," says a British author, "that had they not been restrained, they would soon have supplied all the world with hats." This was rather hyperbolical: but the rival spirit of trade is apt to magnify the dangers arising from free competition: and, in 1732, an act of parliament was passed, declaring, "that no hats or felts whatever shall be exported from any of the said plantations to foreign parts, nor shall be laden on any horse, cart, or other carriage, with that intent, under forfeiture thereof, and a fine of five hundred pounds for every such offence; and aiders and abettors therein shall forfeit forty pounds: and custom-house officers permitting entries of such hats to be made, shall forfeit their office and five hundred pounds. None shall make hats in the said colonies but such as shall have served an apprenticeship thereto of seven years. And no master shall have, at any time, above two apprentices; nor shall he employ any negro in that manufacture." These were severe measures; but we can hardly wonder at their being adopted by a government which in 1721, only eleven years before, had passed an act, "for employing the manufacturers, and encouraging the consumption of raw silk and mohair yarn:" by which act, the wearing of buttons or button-holes made of cloth or other stuff, was absolutely prohibited to the people of England! A report made by the Board of Trade, in 1732, exhibits, in a strong light, the jealousy with which the British regarded American manufactures; and the caution of the Americans not to rouse that jealousy. To the queries forwarded by the Board of Trade, the governors of the different provinces gave very guarded, and, in some cases, very indefinite answers. When the fact of a manufacture's being established was too notorious to be passed over, they gave such representations as they deemed fit for lulling suspicion that it might interfere with British industry, or apologized for its existence by stating, that without it the people would be without employment, or the means of paying for their importations from Great Britain. The reply from New York was, "they had no manufactures in that province that deserved mentioning." Similar replies were received from several other colonies. The governor of Massachusetts was forced to confess that the inhabitants of some parts of that province worked up their wool and flax into "an ordinary coarse cloth" for their own use; and that there were also a "few" hatters set up in the maritime towns: but he represented the manufacture of iron as quite insignificant. The Board of Trade had, however, other correspondents in America, and these gave, in some cases, directly opposite statements to those made by the governors. The surveyor general of his majesty's woods wrote, that they had, in New England, six furnaces and nineteen forges for making iron. From another source, the Board learned, that great quantities of hats were exported from New York, the province which, according to the reply given by its governor, "had no manufactures that deserved mentioning." The governor of Pennsylvania had been bold enough to assert, that the Pennsylvanians had "no manufactures established: their clothing and utensils for their houses being all imported from Great Britain." The deputy governor, when subsequently applied to, could not sustain this representation; but he evinced the same feelings as his principal. He writes, says the Board of Trade, that "he does not know of any trade carried on in that province that can be injurious to this kingdom: and that they do not export any woollen or linen manufactures; all that they make, which are of a coarse sort, being for their own use." From a comparison of the different statements, it is evident that the Americans, at that time (a century ago, and when the population of the country amounted to hardly one million), worked up all the wool they raised, and nearly, if not quite, all the flax, into coarse cloths for family use; that they had some manufactures of hemp; that nearly all the leather they used was manufactured by themselves; that the manufacture of iron was increasing; that the Pennsylvanians, in addition to the wool and flax they raised themselves, manufactured a part of what was raised in Virginia and Maryland; that the manufacture of fine linen had been introduced into New Hampshire by emigrants from Ireland; that they had sugar-bakeries and distilleries in New England; that in Massachusetts they had some furnaces for cast iron or hollow ware, one slitting mill, and a manufactory of nails; that some duck or canvass was manufactured by the people of that province; that they made brown hollands for women's wear, "which lessened the importation of calicoes and some other sorts of East Indian goods;" that they also made some "small quantities of cloth of linen and cotton, for ordinary shirting and sheeting;" and that, by a paper mill, set up about the year 1729, they made paper to the value of two hundred pounds yearly. This early establishment of the manufacture of fine paper is truly remarkable, as, till the year 1690, "there was," says a British historian, scarce any other kind of paper made in England but the coarse brown sort." The Board of Trade did not complain of the fine paper of Massachusetts, as interfering with the business of the British manufacturer; but "as interfering with the profit made by the British merchant on foreign paper sent thither, being almost the only sort of paper sent thither." 66 About the year 1740, the Carolinians had carried the cultivation of rice to such a height, that in time of peace they overstocked the markets to which they were wont to send it. The case was still worse when the war with France broke out in 1743, by reason of the high freight and insurance. This induced the planters to try to employ their negroes in several new manufactures of linen, woollen, and other things, which they were before accustomed to take from Great Britain. The introduction of the culture of the indigo plant, which occurred a year or two after, gave them more profitable employment. In the year 1750, an act of parliament was passed, "to encourage the importation of pig and bar iron from his majesty's colonies in America, and to prevent the erection of any mill or other engine for slitting or rolling iron, or any plating forge to work with a tilt-hammer, or any furnace for making of steel, in any of the said colonies." The enactments respecting woollens, hats, and iron, appear to have been the only direct attempts made by the British government to retard the progress of manufactures in America. Instead of marvelling at their having been adopted, let us rather marvel that a government which heaped piles of regulations on nearly every branch of the industry of the people of England, should have imposed so few restraints on this department of colonial enterprise. It was British policy rather to divert the attention of the Americans from manufacturing pursuits, by granting a bounty on many kinds of raw produce, when imported into Great Britain. Perhaps these bounties were regarded by our ancestors as a compensation for the restrictions on manufac. tures. Whatever the cause may have been, the restrictions on manufactures appear to have produced less feeling than the restraints on commerce; but, from the evidence they on various occasions gave of their spirit, we may rest assured, that if the Americans of that day did not break through these restrictions, it was only because they could import all the more refined or more advanced manufactures cheaper than they could make them at home. As a drawback was allowed on the exportation from England of the greater part of foreign goods, many of the manufactures of the continents of Europe and Asia could be bought cheaper in America than in England. The acts of 1764, by abolishing in some cases, and diminishing in others, the drawbacks on goods exported from England to the colonies, had a tendency to raise the prices of many articles in America, but less on account of this rise of price, than to show their dissatisfaction with the policy of the mother country, and to retaliate on her the evils they suffered through restrictions on trade, the Americans made considerable efforts to introduce new manufactures, and to extend those already established. A society of arts, manufactures, and commerce, on the plan of that established in London, was instituted at New York, and markets opened for the sale of home made goods; by which it soon appeared, says Mr. Coombe, " that neither the natives nor the manufacturers who had for some time past been invited from Britain, by very ample encouragements, had been idle. Linens, woollens, some of the coarser kinds of iron ware, malt spirits, paper hangings, &c., were produced to the society, and, when offered for sale, were greedily purchased. At the same time, lest the new woollen manufactories should be checked by a dearth of materials, most of the inhabitants came to a resolution not to eat any lamb, and not to deal with any butcher who should kill or expose lamb to sale." Efforts of this kind were repeated at different times, from the commencement of the troubles to the breaking out of the war; but how far manufacturing industry was extended by them, we have not the means of ascertaining. During the war of the revolution, some of the common arts and trades were stopped, for the want of materials: but it does not appear that the dimi nution of manufacturing industry was relatively greater than that of commercial or agricultural industry. On the return of peace, the trades which had been suspended during the war, were resumed. Of the little capital then left to the Americans, a due portion was appropriated to the support of manufacturing industry. From that time to the present, manufactures have been gradually extended; and have been subject to vicissitudes from the same general causes that have affected commerce and agriculture. From those fluctuations of prices, and that uncertainty of business which is produced by a super-extended system of paper credit, resting on an insufficient basis, this branch of industry has suffered more severely, perhaps, than any other. Its march has, notwithstanding, been onward, occasionally retarded, and occasionally accelerated, by political events. Having, happily, had excise duties on only two occasions, and then limited to a few articles, it is impossible to give an exact account of the state of different manufactures, at different periods. Hardie, in his chronological formulary, published in 1795, after mentioning the institution of the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures, in 1787, makes the following remarks, in a note. "Every friend to America must rejoice at the rapid progress of its manufactures, and those gentlemen of affluence who employ their capital in promoting them, may be said, with propriety, to deserve well of their country. Amongst this number, there is none more conspicuous than John Nicholson, Esq., late comptroller general of the state of Pennsylvania, who is at present concerned, as principal, in the following manufactures, now either in operation, or contracted for and in preparation, in and near the city of Philadelphia: 1st, a factory for making the machinery and apparatus necessary for carding and spinning cotton; 2d, a ditto for wool; 3d, two mills for carrying on the carding and spinning of cotton, one of 2500 spindles, and the other of 500; 4th, a cotton stocking factory, to consist of forty looms; 5th, another ditto, of a less number, to be increased as it progresses; 6th, a factory of weavers, to consist of forty looms or more; 7th, a factory for making the machinery for carding and spinning wool; 8th, a manufactory for making the machinery for cotton printing and bleaching; 9th, a cotton printing and bleaching factory; 10th, a factory for making cloths without spinning or weav-, ing; 11th, a hat manufactory, on an improved plan; 12th, a button manufactory; 13th, a manufactory for cleaning buttons; 14th, a manufactory for making planes and all such kind of edge tools; 15th, a glass manufactory; 16th, a manufactory for making oil cloths, floor cloths, &c.; 17th, a newly invent ed manufactory for weaving straps for carriages, hollow hose for fire engines, ships, &c.; 18th, a foundry for casting; 19th, a manufactory for constructing running improvements on mills; 20th, a manufactory to make steam engines applicable to mills, breweries, watering of cities, &c.; with various others, on a less scale." The period which elapsed from the close of the war till the year 1796, was, in a peculiar sense, an age of speculation: and it was as natural for manufactories begun without sufficient capital, sufficient science, or sufficient skill, to miscarry, as it was for injudicious speculations in lands, in canal stocks, or in general commerce, not to succeed. Yet, at this period, many branches of manufacturing were carried on to a considerable extent. The common dress of the yeomanry was a domestic fabric, spun and wove by their wives and daughters, and dressed at the neigbouring fulling mill-a mode of manufacturing, it must be allowed, more favourable to the promotion of morals than to the increase of wealth. The various handicrafts were prosecuted with vigour by the inhabitants of the towns and cities. Mention is made of duck factories in successful operation in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. American iron was an article of export. The spinning of cotton by the new machinery was begun in this period, which was further distinguished by success ful experiments in steam navigation, and by the invention of Oliver Evans's improved mill machinery. The spirit of speculation now found ample room for employment in the opportunities for commercial enterprise which were created by the wars which grew out of the French revolution. The demand for our agricultural products and for our shipping, caused less of labour and capital to be directed to certain branches of manufacturing than would naturally have followed that direction in a state of general peace. But the importance of manufactures was duly appreciated, and in every year some improvements were made in the useful arts. The embargo and the other non-intercourse acts had a very stimulating effect on several branches of manufacturing. The foundations were laid, during this period, of some extensive establishments, which still continue in operation. In 1810, the government made an effort to obtain information of the extent of manufactures. The marshals of the several states, and the secretaries of the territories, and their assistants, were directed, pursuant to instructions from the secretary of the treasury, to make returns of the manufacturing establishments and of the manufactures within their respective districts, territories, and divisions: which were transmitted to the secretary of the treasury, for the purpose of being laid before congress. Some elaborate and valuable returns were made, and transmitted; the greater number of them were irregular and very deficient: those which came from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia were the most complete. It is certain, says Dr. Seybert, that the returns fall very short of the truth, as will be evident from the following instances, viz: printing offices were returned from only three states, and their number was stated to be one hundred and ten, when Mr. Thomas, the author of the history of printing, who was well informed on the subject, stated that the number of printing houses in the United States was more than 400. Bookbinders, calico printers, and dyeing establishments were returned for only one state; glass works for five states, omitting Massachusetts, in which very extensive establishments. existed, from which glass of a superior quality had been, long before, exported to the other states; bark mills for only one state; carriage makers for three states; blacksmith shops for five, and hatters only for four states. We might very much extend this catalogue of omissions. Notwithstanding the imperfectness of their inquiries, the agents reported 1776 carding machines, by which 7,417,216 lbs. of materials had been carded; 1682 fulling mills, and 5,452,960 yards, which had been fulled; 122,647 spindles; 325,392 looms; 153 iron furnaces, 53,908 tons of iron manufac tured; 330 forges, which made 24,541 tons of bar iron; 346 trip hammers; 34 rolling and slitting mills, which required 6500 tons of iron; 410 naileries, in which 15,727,914 lbs. of nails had been made; 4316 tanneries, producing 2,608,240 lbs. of leather; 583 flaxseed oil mills, making 770,583 gallons of oil; 141,191 distilleries, producing 22.977,167 gallons of spirits from grain, and 2,827,625 gallons from molasses; 132 breweries, in which 182,690 barrels of beer had been made; 89 carriage makers, who made 2,413 carriages; 33 sugar refineries, in which 7,867,221 lbs. of refined sugar had been manufactured; 179 paper mills, furnishing 425,521 reams of paper; 4 stainers, who stained and stamped 148,000 pieces of paper; 22 glass works, which furnished 4,967,000 square feet of window glass; 194 potteries; 82 snuff mills; 208 gunpowder mills, in which 1,397,111 lbs. of powder had been made. The following summary of the value of the manufactures of the United States is founded on the before mentioned returns, which were made by the marshals and other public agents in 1810: the value expressed is independent of the "doubtful articles." 1. Goods manufactured, by the loom, from cotton, wool, hemp, and silk, including stockings, 2. Other goods spun from the materials above mentioned, 3. Instruments and machinery manufactured, estimated at $186,650; carding, fulling, and floor cloth stamping, by machinery, estimated at $5,957,816, 4. Hats of wool, fur, &c., and from mixtures thereof, 5. Manufactures of iron, 6. Manufactures of gold, silver, set work, mixed metals, &c., 7. Manufactures of lead, 8. Soap, tallow candles, and wax, spermaceti and whale oil, 9. Manufactures of hides and skins, 10. Manufactures from seeds, 11. Manufactures from grain, fruit, and case liquors distilled and fermented, 12. Dry manufactures from grain, exclusive of flour and meal, 13. Manufactures of wood, 14. Manufactures of essences and oils from woods, $39,497,057 2,052,120 6,144,446 4,323,744 14,364,526 2,483,912 1,766,292 17,935,477 858,509 16,528,207 ing amount of $127,694,602 is extended to $172,762,676: the sum last mentioned does not embrace the "doubtful articles." The doubtful articles include such manufactures as have a very near relation in their character to, and connexion with, agricultural pursuits, amongst which are the following, viz: cotton pressing, flour and meal, the mills for grinding grain, the barrels for containing the arti cles manufactured, malt, saw mills, horse mills, pot and pearl ashes, maple sugar, sugar from the cane, molasses, rosin, pitch, slates, bricks, tiles, saltpetre, indigo, red ochre, yellow ochre, hemp and hemp mills, fisheries, lime, grinding of plaster of Paris, &c., &c., all of which are estimated at $25,580,795 making the aggregate value of the manufactures of every description within the United States for 1810, $198,613,471. The same able statistical writer says, in a work published in 1813, "The manufactures of the United States consume all our wool, which amounts to thirteen millions of pounds weight per annum. They also consume our flax, hemp, hides and skins, iron and lead, and much of our cotton. Besides our own productions of these things, we import much iron, hides, skins, flax, hemp, lead, and some wool. All of these are manufactured. There appears the best reason to affirm, that three-fourths part of all the manufactures consumed in the United States are made in our own families, shops, and manufactories. Ships and vessels, distilled spirits, beer, loaf sugar, cheese, starch, as well as hats, shoes, iron wares and piece goods, are meant to be included. "The people of America have secured the benefits to themselves of manufactures in their own families, by their female weavers, by labour-saving machinery, and by labour-saving processes. The manufactures of red and white lead, for example, have suddenly absorbed all of that raw material which we can procure from our own mines and by the most industrious importation. The shot manu179,150 factory has been added in the same moment. 75,766 5,554,708 1,415,724 1,939,285 426,115 1,047,004 259,720 1,260,378 "Most of the operations of the American people, in their ordinary business, have been elicited by occasion. Hence it is, that the desire of a market at the farmer's door has led our women to the distaff and the loom, and has created the distillery, wherever there is produced a surplus of grain. Hence, also, it is that mill carders, spinners, fullers, weavers, hatters, shoemakers, smiths, carriage makers, and many other of those useful workmen are found in all our states, and in many of our counties and townships and they often form a considerable portion of the inhabitants of the cities, towns, villages, and hamlets. "The distance of the United States from the countries which would consume their productions, and furnish their supplies, with the consequent charges of exporting the first, and importing the last, are found to operate as a powerful encouragement to manufacturing in America. The duties on entry and export in Europe, and of entry here, add to the encouragement. This advantage, arising from the nature of things, can never fail, or even be diminished." These remarks are extracted from a volume pub lished nineteen years ago. Another noble art, that of making iron, has not advanced in equal proportion with the increase of wealth and population. We have already seen that as early as 1730, the Americans began to export iron to Europe. They continued their exportation of it till the period of the revolutionary war, and for some time after the conclusion of peace. Through a discovery made in England, of making iron with coked coal, the expense of the mar.ufacture there has been greatly reduced. The neglect of our manufacturers of iron to profit by this improvement, is one of the most remarkable facts in the history of American arts. The quantity of iron now manufactured in the country is variously estimated at from 85,000 tons of pig iron, to more than double that amount. The manufacture of leather is carried on extensively. Besides the hides produced in our country, we annually convert about two millions of dollars worth of foreign hides into leather. Of wool, the Americans appear at all times to have manufactured all they raised. Three-fourths of the woollen cloths consumed in the country between the years 1791 and 1794, are believed to have been of domestic fabric. Mr. Pitkin estimated the number of sheep in the United States in 1816, at from 12 to 15,000,000. Mr. Niles, in 1826, estimated the number at 15,000,000. Taking two pounds and a half for the produce of each sheep, the total will be 37,500,000 lbs., to which if we add the wool imported, we shall have from 39 to 40,000,000 lbs. for domestic manufacture. Mr. Henry Lee, an intelligent merchant of Boston, and a member of the late Free Trade convention, estimates the annual value of the woollen manufacture of the United States at $59,000,000. Much of this is produced in the household way. The spinning of cotton with the new machinery was begun in Rhode Island about the year 1793. No long time elapsed before similar works were established in Philadelphia. So great a curiosity was the operation in those days, that a formal visit was paid to the Globe Mills by some of the chief officers of government; and some of the cotton thread spun there was deposited in Peale's Muse um, for the gratification of the virtuosi! With each succeeding year, the business of cotton spinning increased, and Mr. Pitkin estimated the amount of cotton consumed in the manufactories of the United States, in the year 1809-10, at 16,000,000 lbs. The present annual consumption is, agreeably to an estimate made by a committee of the New York tariff convention, 77,000,000 lbs. Mr. Lee, of Boston, had previously computed the amount at 70,000,000 lbs. Another committee of the same convention has estimated the value of the paper annually manufactured in the country at seven millions of dollars, and that of the glass at three millions. Some experienced publishers have estimated the annual sale of books at $10,000,000, and of newspapers at $3,000,000. The governor of Connecticut states, in his last message to the legislature, that the quantity of raw silk produced in that state last year, would, if the art of manufacturing it had been properly understood, have produced seventy-five thousand yards of silk cloth. Experienced workmen have recently arrived in the country, through whom, it may be hoped, the science and skill requisite for the profitable management of the silk manufacture will be imparted to those engaged in that business. To enumerate all the manufactures of the United States, would be to give a list of nine-tenths of the fabrics exhibited in the stores of a large city. Manufactures, using the word in its proper and comprehensive sense, are to be found in every town, in every village, and in almost every township. In some of the towns of the New England states, they form nearly the exclusive business of the inhabitants. In the west, they are carried on extensively. Pittsburgh bids fair to become the Birmingham of America. From their scattered state, it is difficult to form an estimate of the value of manufactured articles annually produced; but it must amount to some hundred millions. Mr. Niles, about the year 1828, computed it to be three hundred millions of dollars; but this was probably below the real amount. There is one branch of industry carried on very extensively in the United States, which we know not where to rank, unless it be under the head of manufactures: we allude to house-building. Of the importance of this branch of industry, some conception may be formed by considering the fact, that when a direct tax was levied in 1798, the lands were assessed at four hundred and seventy-nine millions, and the houses at one hundred and forty millions, or that the houses constituted nearly onefourth part of the value of the real estate. What a great accession has since been made to this item of wealth! How much is annually added! In a single year, the new buildings erected in one of our large cities may exceed a million of dollars in value. What, then, must be the value of those built in every part of the Union? The number of houses building in England, when the census was taken in 1821, was 18,289. Such is the plentifulness of building materials, and so rapid is the increase of population, that more than twice this number must be annually built in the United States. |