CHAPTER VI. THE MANUFACTURES OF THE UNITED STATES. 1840-1860. WE are now approaching a period when the manufacturing industry of the country, established upon a solid and permanent foundation, had attained such wonderful expansion that it is no longer possible to trace its progress in detailed statements or isolated facts. In spite of temporary checks and adverse legislation, the Anglo-Saxon steadily widened the circle of his enterprises, until the sound of his hammers rung throughout the whole extent of the populated portion of the republic; and the chronicler of his achievements, bewildered by the multiplicity of details, and abashed at the magnitude of the task, gladly takes refuge behind the imposing, though not always reliable, computations of the decennial census-takers. Turning to the census of 1840 for information as to the state of Manufactures at that date, we are astonished as well as embarrassed by the meagreness of details. Even of the leading branches in some instances only the capital is given, in others only the product; and we confess we do not know by what rule in arithmetic or mensuration any one could have calculated from official data that the capital invested in manufactures at that date was $267,726,579. AGGREGATE OF THE STATISTICS OF MANUFACTURES IN THE UNITED STATES, ON THE FIRST OF JUNE, 1840. It appears that the production of Cotton Goods was then, as now, the leading branch of pure manufactures, giving employment to over seventytwo thousand persons, and requiring a capital of over fifty-one millions of dollars. In a comparison with careful estimates made by a convention of manufacturers, of the extent of the Cotton manufacture in twelve States, in 1831, the number of factories had increased from 795 to 1,240; the number of spindles from 1,246,503 to 2,284,631; and the value of the manufacture from twenty-six to upward of forty-six millions, or in the ratio of one hundred and thirty per cent. Of the aggregate production of Cotton goods, upward of thirty and one half millions in value was returned by the New England States, upward of twelve millions by the STATE OF MANUFACTURES IN 1840. 421 five Middle States, nearly two millions by the Southern, and the balance by the Western States. The number of printing, dyeing, and bleaching establishments reported was one hundred and twenty-nine, and the quantity of printed cottons made in thirty-six print-works in three New England and four Middle States, which were the only ones having printworks, was ascertained to exceed a hundred million yards annually, valued at $11,667,512, or about eleven and a half cents a yard. The increase in the total value of printed cottons was upward of three hundred per cent. More than one half the amount was produced in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Dye and Print-Works of the Merrimac and Hamilton Mills at Lowell, together turned out weekly upward of a quarter million yards of goods of their own manufacture, dyed or printed in madder colors, of a price and quality that rivalled the foreign. So skilful were the manufacturers in imitating new foreign designs, and so rapid in executing them, that the importers of choice styles were not unfrequently undersold in a few days by the domestic commission houses.1 By the employment of the best foreign and native skill, systematic economy, and tact in every branch of the business, aided by a moderately protective tariff, the difficulties attending the introduction of calico printing had been in a great measure overcome. The Manchester Print-Works, commenced in 1839, has been among the most conspicuous and successful in the use of scientific and labor-saving devices, and has contributed largely to the manufacturing enterprise of that city. Equal skill in other departments, but chiefly the introduction of the power-loom and other mechanical improvements, had, within a quarter of a century from the introduction of that machine, raised the cotton manufacture of the United States to the rank it now holds, as the first among American industries, in respect to the amount of capital, the number of hands employed, and value of product. Our dependence on foreign manufacturers was still shown by the annual importation, on an average of the nineteen years preceding 1840, of upward of ten millions' worth of Cotton goods of all kinds, in consequence of which many of the New England factories were about to close, and upward of thirty large cotton-mills at Lowell, running each from six to sixteen thousand spindles, were only (1) On the 1st of February, 1840, a new pattern of mousseline de laines arrived from France at New York, and was offered by the importer at fourteen cents per yard by the case. The agent of a Rhode Island calicoprinting establishment forwarded a piece of the new style of goods to Providence the day after their arrival; and in sixteen days he had the same style of goods, and of equal fabric, in New York, selling at ten cents per yard. The manufacturer had but twelve days to engrave the new pattern on a copper cylinder, from which the engraving was raised on a steel cylinder, then hardened and made ready for impression; the compound of ingredients for colors discovered by chemical experiments; the cloth printed, dried, and cased for market. 422 WOOLENS CARPETS-SILKS. able to continue by several times reducing the wages of the operatives, until Congress should act upon the tariff, which, under the compromise act, had now nearly reached the uniform rate of twenty per cent. In the manufacture of Woolens less progress had been made, but the capital invested exceeded fifteen millions of dollars, employing over twenty-one thousand persons, and yielding a product valued at $20,696,999. Of the value returned, nearly thirteen millions was the product of the six New England States, and about one half that amount was returned by the Middle States. The principal producers of Woolens were the State of Massachusetts, in which the value manufactured exceeded seven millions of dollars annually, New York, which produced about half that value, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. Although the tariff had been modified in 1828, with a view to increased protection to the Woolen interests, which, as the manufacturers claimed, then represented a capital of fifty millions of dollars, and to have increased tenfold since 1815, yet the ad valorem duties, and the mode of valuation established in that and subsequent acts, both for Woolen manufactures and for Wool, had in a great measure defeated the intention of those measures. Notwithstanding great improvements in machinery, as the most effective means of competing with foreign manufacturers, which had reduced the cost of making Woolen cloths, in some of the best conducted mills, more than fifty per cent., many establishments had been compelled to suspend operations. But few successful attempts had yet been made to produce the finer qualities of cloth, although many companies had been incorporated within twenty years for the manufacture of broadcloths. The domestic manufacture of blankets and shawls had reduced the importations of these articles. The power-loom had been successfully adapted by American ingenuity to the manufacture of all kinds of hosiery, which was thereby greatly reduced in price. A like reduction had been made in the importation of foreign carpets, as well as in the cost of the domestic article, which was becoming nearly adequate to the demand. A principal agency in this reduction was the use of improved machinery, and especially of the power-loom, which had been recently, for the first time, adapted to the weaving of ingrain carpeting by the genius of E. B. Bigelow of Massachusetts, by whom it was soon after extended to the production of Brussels carpets and all kinds of looped and velvet pile fabrics. We still continued, however, to import annually upward of ten million dollars' worth of Woolen manufactures. A regularly organized Silk factory on a small scale had been put in operation by I. W. Gill, Esq., at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, under the superintendence of an experienced English manufacturer, who spun and wove MANUFACTURES 1840-1850. 423 from native silk, velvets worth four to six dollars a yard, hatters' plush, dress silks, flowered vestings, handkerchiefs, and other fabrics. About the same time, an establishment at Baltimore employed fifteen or twenty Jacquard looms in making silk and worsted vestings, velvets, dress, and other silks. But the chief products of the Silk manufacture consisted of sewing silk, fringes, tassels, gimps, coach lace, and other trimmings. In the manufacture of coach lace, of which there were several factories in the country, Mr. Bigelow had recently substituted for the tedious handloom process, the curious automatic machinery from which he subsequently developed the Brussels and Tapestry carpet loom already mentioned. The annual value of silk manufactures imported was very heavy, amounting on an average of the twenty years preceding 1841 to about eight and three quarter millions of dollars; and for the year 1839, including raw silk and one half the value of silk and worsted, to nearly twenty-three millions. The Iron manufacture constituted one of the great industries of the country, which, though temporarily depressed at this time, in common with most branches of trade and commerce, showed a gratifying increase in the past ten years. The greatly augmented production and reduced. cost of Iron making in England within the last thirty-five years, chiefly caused by the more general use of cheap mineral fuel, of the hot blast, and improved machinery, created a powerful competition with the domestic manufacturers, with whom the cost of labor and the interest on capital was so much greater. A prompt adoption of all new and approved processes and mechanical devices, culminating in the recent successful use of anthracite in smelting and puddling, and the application of skill, economy, and enterprise scarcely inferior to that of their rivals, had alone enabled the iron makers to sustain themselves against adverse markets and combinations for their ruin. Many had perished, however, in the effort. The rapid increase of the means of internal communication, bringing into closer connection with the iron interests the vast depositories of fossil fuel and of ore, as well as with the consumers of iron, and the numerous collateral interests with which it is naturally allied, and the large demand for Railroad Iron, enabled them to enlarge, multiply, and perfect their establishments, even through a period of unexampled financial embarrassments from which the country had not yet emerged. The official returns showed a satisfactory increase in the last ten years, and also in the next few years a severe check to this important industry. The number of Iron Furnaces returned in 1840 from twenty-five States was eight hundred and four, whereof nearly one half were in the two States of Pennsylvania and New York. They produced two hundred and eighty-six thousand nine hundred and three |