MANUFACTURES OF NEW-ENGLAND.

Extracts from the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, April 19, 1810. General Account of the Manufactures of Massachusetts and of Connecticut. Account of the Manufactures of Rhode-Island, with a History of their Origin.

DEAR SIR;

I WILL now present you with a few observations on the manufactures of this country. Before I attempt to specify the agency and influence of New-England, it will be proper to take some notice of the general state of manufac tures in the country at large.

Returns were made to the national government, at the time when the last census was taken, of all the manufactures which were of any considerable importance; and congress committed to several gentlemen the business of arranging, and publishing in a volume, the particulars of which they were composed. For this volume I have hitherto waited in vain. Should it see the light before these Letters are finished, I shall certainly avail myself of the information which it shall communicate. At present my guide must be a Report drawn up by the secretary of the treasury, and referred, April 19th, 1810, to a committee of the house of representatives.

The following manufactures, Mr. Gallatin observes, are carried on in the United States to such an extent as to supply the wants of the inhabitants; those of the same kinds which VOL. IV. 2 H

are imported amounting to less than those which are exported:

Manufactures of wood, leather, soap, tallow candles, spermaceti oil, spermaceti candles, linseed oil, refined sugar, coarse earthenware, snuff, chocolate, mustard, hair powder.

The following manufactures, he observes, are firmly established, and supply in some instances the greater, and in all a considerable part of the whole consumption:

Bar iron, manufactures of iron, cotton, wool, flax, hats, paper, printing types, printed books, playing cards, spirituous and malt liquors, several manufactures of hemp, gunpowder, window glass, jewellery, clocks, several manufactures of straw bonnets and hats, lead, wax candles.

Progress, Mr. Gallatin observes, has also been made in the following branches:

Paints and colours, several chemical preparations, medicinal drugs, salt, manufactures of copper and brass, japanned ware, plated ware, calico printing, queen's and other earthen

wares.

Many other articles the secretary supposes are undoubtedly omitted, the information actually obtained having been in many respects imperfect.

Under the head of manufactures of wood he observes, that they consist of vessels, household furniture, and carriages for pleasure and for transportation. All of them are carried to a high degree of perfection.

Of vessels above twenty tons burthen, there were built during seven years, from 1801 to 1807, 774,922 tons, a little more than 110,000 tons in a year, worth more than six millions of dollars annually. Two-thirds of these were registered for the foreign trade, and the remaining third for the fisheries and the coasting trade.

The annual exportation of furniture and carriages amounted to 170,000 dollars.

The yearly value of all the manufactures of wood was 20,000,000 dollars.

Of pot and pearl ashes, referred by the secretary to this head, 7,400 tons are annually exported.

Of manufactures of leather Mr. Gallatin observes, that the exportations amount to more than twice the value of the im

portations; and that the whole value of all the articles of this
class annually manufactured is 20,000,000 of dollars. The
value of the soap and the tallow candles he estimates at
8,000,000 of dollars. The annual importations were,
Candles, 158,000 lbs.; soap, 470,000 lbs.

The annual exportations of domestic manufacture were
Candles, 1,775,000 lbs.; soap, 2,220,000 lbs.

Of spermaceti oil and candles, annually manufactured, the value was 300,000 dollars.

Of refined sugar, 5,000,000 lbs. were annually made, worth 1,000,000 of dollars.

Concerning the manufactures of cotton the secretary observes, that he has from the returns formed the following Table:

Mills, 87; spindles, 80,000.

Capital employed, 4,800,000 dollars.

Cotton used, 3,600,000 lbs.; value, 720,000 dollars. Yarn spun, 2,880,000 lbs.; value, 3,240,000 dollars. Persons employed, men 500, women and children 3,500. The goods into which the yarn is spun in the cotton manufactories in Rhode-Island are principally, bed-ticking, stripes and checks, shirting and sheeting, ginghams and counterpanes. Elsewhere are made, webbing, coach laces, table cloths, jeans, vest patterns, cotton kerseymeres, blankets, fustians, cords, and velvet.

Wool, the secretary observes, is principally spun and woven in private families. Fourteen manufactories, however, have been reported to him; each of which, on an average, yields 10,000 yards of cloth annually, at from one to ten dollars a yard. Wool, especially fine wool, was seriously deficient in quantity, but is rapidly increasing. The Merino sheep, particularly, since this Report was published, have increased to a very great number.

Manufactories for spinning and weaving flax were few. Three are mentioned, at which 662,000 yards of cotton binding, sail-cloth, and other coarse linen were, or might be made annually.

From Martha's Vineyard, 9,000 pair of stockings were annually exported:

The value of all the goods made of cotton, wool, and flax,

the secretary estimates at more than 40,000,000 of dollars, household manufactures included.

Whittemore's machine for making cards had completely excluded foreign importations of that article. The quantity manufactured annually, before the embargo lessened the supply of wire, was worth 200,000 dollars.

Of hats, the number exported of American manufacture was 100,000. The number imported was 350,000. The value of the number made is estimated at nearly 10,000,000 of dollars.

Most of the paper consumed in the United States was of home manufacture. Books, for which an adequate number of purchasers can be procured, are printed and bound here.

Paper hangings and playing cards were also extensively manufactured.

A supply of printing types was furnished, sufficient for the consumption, chiefly at Philadelphia, New-York, and Balti

more.

The annual importations of foreign hemp amounted to 6,200 tons; but, from the increased cultivation of this article in Massachusetts, New-York, Kentucky, &c., the secretary believed, that a sufficient quantity would soon be produced in the United States.

The manufacture of cordage of all descriptions was equal to the demand. That of duck was less prosperous, and far from supplying a sufficient quantity.

The aggregate value of spirituous and malt liquors annually made was 10,000,000 of dollars; yet the quantity imported, of spirituous liquors only, amounted, in 1806 and 1807, to 9,760,000 gallons a year; a fact immeasurably disgraceful to the country.

At a loose estimate the bar iron, annually used in the United States, amounts to 50,000 tons; of which 10,000 were supposed to be imported, and 40,000 to be manufactured at home. A great part of the American iron was however inferior in quality to that which was imported.

Five hundred and sixty-five tons of sheet, slit, and hoop iron, were annually imported, and seven thousand annually manufactured, in the United States.

The cut nails amounted yearly in value to 1,200,000 dollars. Of these 280 tons were yearly exported.

Fifteen hundred tons of wrought nails and spikes were annually imported.

The manufactures of iron consist principally of agricultural implements, and other products of the blacksmith's forge, anchors, shovels, spades, edged tools, and a great variety of the coarser articles of ironmongery. But the finer species of hardware, cutlery, &c., were imported almost wholly from Great Britain.

Balls, shells, and cannon of small calibre were cast in several places; and three founderies for casting solid, boring, and finishing those of the largest calibre were established; one at Richmond, Virginia, one in Cecil county, Maryland, and one near the city of Washington. Each of the two first could cast three hundred pieces of artillery in a year; and a great number of iron and brass cannon were made at the other.

The castings of hollow ware were sufficient for the consumption.

At the two public armories, at Springfield and Harper's ferry, nineteen thousand muskets were annually made. About twenty thousand more are made at other manufactories; all private, except one established at Richmond by the state of Virginia. This number might be immediately enlarged. Gunsmiths were in various places employed in making rifles and other species of arms.

The iron, manufactured and unmanufactured, was estimated at an annual value of from 12 to 15,000,000 of dollars: the imported at near 4,000,000.

Rich copper mines are found in New-Jersey, in Virginia, and near Lake Superior, but none of them were wrought.

The principal manufactures of copper and brass are stills, bells, cannon, andirons, chandeliers, sconces, vessels of various kinds, &c.

Zinc was lately discovered in Pennsylvania.

Lead is found in Virginia, and in several other places. The richest mines of this metal are, however, in Upper Louisiana, and it is said also in the adjacent country east of the Mississippi. They were not wrought to a sufficient extent; and, after supplying the western country, furnished only two hundred tons a year to the Atlantic states.