as well as craftsmen? Obviously, the practice of agriculture by all the members of the community meant that none of them could have an opportunity to sell anything regularly to his neighbors. That is, under such conditions as we have described, there was no market for agricultural produce in the inland town. What this state of affairs meant to the farmers and how far it determined the character of the agricultural industry, and of home and community life, are subjects which are best considered in later chapters.

Manufactures in Inland Towns.

The question naturally arises at this point, How far were such communities as these described typical of all the towns in southern New England? Were there not, perhaps, some towns in which manufacturing or commercial enterprises had concentrated an industrial or a maritime population? And, if so, to what extent did these furnish a demand for the farmers' produce?

A casual survey of the list of articles manufactured in the Northern and Eastern states as reported in the official statements of Hamilton (1791),1 Gallatin (1810),2 and Coxe (1814)3 would lead one to expect that somewhere in these states a considerable concentration of industrial workers might be found. Among the articles there enumerated were soap and candles, tallow and spermaceti; leather goods, linen, cotton and woolen cloth, cabinet ware and furniture, hats, paper, spirituous and malted liquors, cordage, manufactures of iron, gunpowder, glass and earthenware. But when we come to analyze the methods by which these articles were produced it becomes evident that only a few of them were, in any significant sense of the word, manufactures. The great majority of the articles included under this term were produced either in the household, as for instance a large part of the soap and candles, woolen and linen cloth, or in craftsmen's shops, as were the furniture and the leather goods. Such goods were either consumed in the family which produced them or disposed of within the community. Of these articles there was practically nothing produced for a wide market, and consequently there was no cause for the growth of an industrial population. In the case of such articles as cordage, liquors, gunpowder and glass there was real manufacturing. But this was carried on for the most part in a few coast towns, such as Boston, Norwich, Providence and

1 American State Papers, Finance, I. 123.

2 Ibid. II. 425-439.

3 Ibid. II. 666–677.

New Haven, and the effect which these enterprises may have had in creating a market for farm produce is best considered in connection with the commercial activities of these towns.

In many inland towns, it is true, there were enterprises already established producing small articles of various sorts which were disposed of in a market much wider than that of the local community. Such were the buttons, tinware,1 clocks, combs, and other "Yankee notions" which formed the stock in trade of the peddlers in their annual trips to the Southern states. Yet the production of these articles was conducted on such a minute scale, at this early date, that no noticeable concentration of an industrial population resulted. Towns like Waterbury, or Plymouth, or Berlin, in Connecticut, or Leominster in Massachusetts, were not noticeably different, in the opening years of the century, from the hundreds of other inland towns which had no manufacturing enterprises. Their population was not larger than that of many prosperous agricultural towns and the presence in them of ten or a dozen industrial workers would not have meant much to the farmers. Besides the articles enumerated above, some towns made paper, some linseed oil, others earthenware and pottery in establishments or mills of much the same sort as the grist-mills and saw-mills which were regular features of the village economy.

Hats.

There were only a few branches of manufacture, some carried on in inland and others in coast towns, which had become sufficiently

1 For a description of the tinware industry in Berlin and of the methods of marketing this and other small manufactures see Dwight, Travels, II. 43-45. Also Kendall, Travels, I. 128-129. A consideration of the early development of many small manufactures in Connecticut towns, including tinware, clocks and buttons, will be found in Lathrop, William G. The Brass Industry in Connecticut. New Haven. 1909.

2 In Leominster 6500 dozen combs were produced annually by a labor force varying from ten to twenty men. See Whitney, History of the County of Worcester, p. 198.

In 1810 the populations of Waterbury and Berlin were 2900 each; Plymouth, where clocks were made in a few small shops, had 1900 people and Leominister 1600.

4 According to the statistics collected for the census of 1810 there were 19 paper mills and 24 oil mills in Connecticut, 22 oil mills and 33 paper mills in Massachusetts, and 3 of each sort in Rhode Island.

↳ See Larned, History of Windham, II. 365. These goods were also marketed by peddlers.

important to deserve especial consideration. The manufacture of fur and woolen hats, which in many inland towns was carried on in small shops for a purely local market, had in Fairfield County, Connecticut, been developed into an export industry. In 1810 the census credited this county with a product of 350,000 hats. Most of these were made in the town of Danbury, where there were 56 hat shops employing from three to five men each.1 As a result of the growth of this industry the population of the town had increased from 3,180 to 3,600 in the decade 1800-1810. Hats were also manufactured in smaller quantities in New London.2

The Iron Industry.

Iron furnaces, forges and trip-hammers, as well as rolling and slitting mills, were in operation all through the inland region of southern New England in 1810. For the furnaces the three requisites to profitable operation were a supply of iron ore, a plentiful supply of wood to produce the char coal used as fuel, and a stream of water to furnish power for the bellows. These requisites seem to have been met best in two localities; in Litchfield County, Conn., and in a small area in south-eastern Massachusetts, including towns in Plymouth and Bristol Counties. In Litchfield there were in 1810 four furnaces, 32 forges, 8 trip-hammers, and 2 rolling and slitting mills. These works were rather evenly distributed among 16 towns, those most interested being Salisbury, Canaan and Kent. In the first of these there was a famous mine from which 4,000 to 5,000 tons of ore of excellent quality were annually taken. Iron was also mined in Kent and limestone was procured in Canaan.

3

The principal articles produced from iron in this county were anchors and other forms of ship-hardware, bells, cart and wagontires, sleigh-shoes, scythes, gun-barrels, bar and sheet-iron, and nailrods. Up to 1810 this industry seems to have had little if any appreciable effect in creating a non-agricultural population in the county.

1 Bailey, James M. History of Danbury, Conn. New York. 1896. p. 217. 2 Coxe, Tench. View of the United States, pp. 158-159. In this place there were 17 hatters' shops, producing 10,000 hats annually.

* Pease and Niles' Gazetteer gives us facts concerning the extent of the iron manufacture in these towns at a somewhat later date, 1819. There were then in Canaan 8 forges, 7 anchor shops and 2 furnaces; in Kent there were several mines in operation and 7 forges, with an estimated total output of 100 tons annually. Salisbury had 3 forges, 2 blast furnaces, 1 shop making anchors and screws, another making scythes, and 2 shops fitted with trip-hammers operated by water power which produced gun-barrels, sleigh-shoes and hoes.

The largest towns, Litchfield and New Milford, had populations of 4,600 and 3,500 respectively, but in neither of them was there any industrial development beyond the artisan activities which were regularly found in agricultural communities. Their growth was based upon exceptionally large area1 and upon exceptional opportunities enjoyed by their inhabitants in getting produce to market. On the other hand, the towns in which the iron manufacture was most important were considerably smaller, Salisbury having 2,700 people, Canaan 2,200 and Kent 1,800.

The iron industries in south-eastern Massachusetts depended on the bog ore which was dug or dredged from the bottom of their shallow ponds.2 Another valuable asset were the tracts of small pines and oaks, which furnished a plentiful supply of charcoal for fuel. At the beginning of the century there were 14 blast furnaces, 6 air furnaces, 20 forges and 7 rolling and slitting-mills in this region. The furnaces turned out on an average 75 to 90 tons of cast-iron each year, the forges had a capacity of about 50 tons of bar-iron and the rolling and slitting-mills produced about 200 tons each annually.3 The furnaces gave employment to about eight or nine men each, when they were in operation. Besides nails and nail-rods, which seem to have been the staple product, these works manufactured agricultural implements, such as spades, shovels and scythes, wire teeth for wool and cotton cards, saws and edge tools, buttons, cannonballs and firearms, anchors, bells, sheet-iron and iron utensils.

The towns of Taunton, Plymouth, Middleborough, and Bridgewater were those most engaged in this industry, although a halfdozen or more neighboring towns had a furnace or a forge or two apiece. The total annual output from the works in Taunton was estimated in 1810 at 800 tons, including 350 tons of nails and 200 dozen spades and shovels. In Plymouth there were rolling and

'Litchfield contained 72 square miles and New Milford 84.

2 One of these ponds, in the town of Kingston, was said to have yielded 3000 tons of this ore in the space of a few years. A full description of the various sorts of bog-ore found in this region and of the methods of obtaining it will be found in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Series I. Volume 9, pp. 254-256. Ore was also imported in small quantities from New Jersey for these works.

3 Bishop, History of American Manufactures. I. 492. See also Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. I. 9: 263.

♦ These were all larger in population than the typical inland town. Bridgewater, the largest town in New England off tide water, had 5150 people. The others ranged from 3900 to 4400.

Morse, Gazetteer, 1810.

2

slitting-mills whose principal produce was nail-rods, of which they turned out about 100 tons per year. In Bridgewater scythes, axes, edge-tools, muskets and cannon were produced. The manufacture of nails was the particular branch of this industry pursued in Middleborough. The ore was dredged from ponds within the town limits, smelted in local furnaces and rolled and slit into nail-rods. These rods were later turned into nails by the farmers of the town in winter. This union of agriculture and manufactures was commented on by travelers. In fact, it seems to have been prevalent all through this section. The business of the inhabitants of a typical town in Plymouth County was thus described in 1814: "Supplying the furnaces with coal (i.e., charcoal), and Plymouth with fuel, together with the sale of a surplus of rye, and some other productions, are the usual resources of the inhabitants, most of whom are farmers, with some mechanics; and in the summer months furnishing a few fishermen from Plymouth. " Here we see that although somewhat of a market was now open to the farmers, due to the extension of the iron industry, yet agriculture and manufacture are not yet separate industries.

Of the iron manufacture in Rhode Island Bishop says: "Manufactures of iron, including bar and sheet-iron, steel, nail-rods, and nails, farming implements, stoves, pots, and other castings and household utensils, iron-works for ship-builders, anchors and bells, formed the largest branch of productive industry in the State toward the close of the eighteenth century."4 In Providence County where the bulk of the manufacture was carried on, there were in 1810, 20 triphammers, 2 furnaces and 1 rolling and slitting-mill. Since many of the towns in which these and other works were located were also engaged in commerce, the effect of this industry in creating a nonagricultural population can best be discussed in a later section.5

1 Morse, Gazetteer, 1810.

2 Dwight, Travels, II. 31 says: "In the winter season the inhabitants of Middleborough are principally employed in making nails, of which they send large quantities to market. This business is a profitable addition to their husbandry; and fills up a part of the year, in which, otherwise, many of them would find little employment." See also Mass. Hist. Coll. I. 3:2.

3 Mass. Hist. Coll., II. 4:276. Similar conditions are described in Wareham and Kingston. Ibid. II. 4: 286, and II. 3: 205-207.

History of Manufactures, I. 503.

See infra pp. 281-282.