Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1883-10-06
American Manufacturing Interests
BY JOSEPH NIMMo, JR.
North American Review.

OhiVSu CIotCo W blC ISOSub Iulil uioN
cussion in Congress suggests the pro-
priety Of considering some of the more
important circumstances attending the
genesis and development of American
manufactures.
The establishment of manufactures
on the shores of the western world was
contempOraneous with its earliest set.
Element. The artisan came with the
trader, the agriculturalist, the school,
master, and the preacher, Up to the
time of the Revolution, large pro-
portion of the colonial manufactures
was the product of household industries.
These industries gave employment to
both the male and female members of
families. Alexander Hamilton said, as
late as the year 1892: ut is computed,
in a number of districts, that two-thiris,
three-fourths, and even four-ffths of
all the clothing Of the inhabitants is
made by themselves" But the in
creasing population and wealth of the
colonies early gave rise to manufacto-
ries devoted to special industries.
Furnaces and FORCES were constructed
for the manufacture of iron and steel,
and manufactures of vehicles, house.
hold furniture, farm implements, hats
and caps, glass, wooden and cotton
goods, silk goods, linen goods, leather,
gunpowder, paper, books, sugar, and
other articles, were established in sew
eral of the colonies, but chiefly in New
York and New England. From the
very beginning, the colonists exhibited
a marked aptitude for mechanical pur-
suits. The exigencies of their social,
industrial, and commercial life excited
the quest for discoveries and stimulated
genius to new inventions and adapta>
tons. The fact that they were so far
removed from the methods which char.
acterized European mechanical indus
tries gave stamp Of originality to
American manufactures, which, in
latter days, has manifested itself in the
peculiarities of thousand mechanic
arts. The success of the industrial en-
terprises of the cOlonists was based
upon faculty and wholesome lives.
Through the tuition of self.culture,
from generation to generation, inven'
tive genius became an inherited in.
stinct.
From an early date the mother coun,
try bitterly opposed the establishment
Of manufactures in American colonies
her avowed policy being to confnt
their external commerce to the ex
portation of products of agriculture, O
the forests, and of the fisheries, tt
England alone and in British ships, anC
in return to supply them with the pro
ducts of her own manufactures. Blu
this policy served only to illustrate tn,
irony Of events. In the end, it PROVED
to be protective and stimulating, ant
not repressive to the colonial industries
The restraints imposed by the British
Government in connection with tn
duties lald upon colonial produce whel
imported into Great Britain, and tn
great cost Of transporting the crud
products of the colonies across the Al
lantic Ocean, left little to them 70
their labor. In order, therefore, t
supply their needs, they were forced t
create market for their products b
becoming their own artifcers. House
hold mechanical industry increased
and hundreds of manufactures wer
established in the several colonies I'll
sale Of goods of colonial manufactur
were at first confined to the towns 0
neighborhoods in which they were pre-
duced, butsoon were extended to create
distances. An intercolonial trade thu
sprang up which was the beginning {
the enormous internal commerce of tn
United States of the present day. A
ter awhile, the colonies were enabled t
export their manufactured products t
foreign countries, and they did so to
considerable extent, in defiance of til
edicts of the mother country.
The laws of Parliament and the o
ders of the British Board of Trade, fC
the suppression of American manufa,