Rhode Island, in mineral wealth, ranked 47th among the States of the Union. The total value of all mineral cided drop from the peak of 1929. Textiles held in 1933 the first place among the manufactures of the State, employing over one half the persons engaged in manufacturing. In the manufacture of worsted goods, Rhode Island was surpassed by Massachusetts only. The State ranked third in the dyeing and finishing of tex tiles ; sixth in the manufacture of cotton goods ; and fourth in the manufacture of silk. Rhode Island has long been a leader in the manufacture of jewellery; the product of the State in 1933 was exceeded by that of New York only. The table below shows the 10 principal manufacturing industries in 1935, the number of active establishments, and wage-earners and value of products.
products of the State in 1934 was $485,441, and of this total granite was valued at
Fisheries.—Whaling was early an established industry in Rhode Island. As late as 1846 about 5o whaling vessels sailed annually from Rhode Island ports ; but by the close of the century the industry had become practically extinct. Rhode Island, in 1933, ranked third among the New England States in the number of persons engaged, investment and yield of her fisheries. The total number of persons employed was 1,065, of whom Boo were in the shore and boat fisheries. The total catch amounted to 17, 366,000lb., valued at $1,001,300.
Rhode Island is essentially a manufacturing State; of the 297,172 persons in the State engaged in gainful oc cupation in 1930,
or
were employed in manufac turing and mechanical pursuits. Boat-building was an early industry, and large vessels were built at Newport. During the Revolutionary War the State offered a premium for every pound of steel made within its boundaries. Cotton was first imported to Providence from Spain in 1785; a company to carry on cotton spinning, formed at Providence in 1786, established there in the following year a factory containing a spinning jenny of 28 spindles (the first machine of its kind to be used in the United States), and also a carding machine and a spinning frame with which was manufactured a kind of jean. The fly shuttle was also apparently first introduced at Providence in 1788. The prohibition of the exportation from England of machinery, models or drawings, had retarded mechanical improvement in America, but in 1790 an industrial company was formed at Providence to carry on cotton spinning, and in December of that year there was established at Pawtucket a factory equipped with Arkwright machines con structed by Samuel Slater, an immigrant from England. This
machine was operated by water-power, then first used in the United States for the spinning of cotton thread; and from this may be dated the beginning of the factory system in Rhode Island. The first power-loom used in the United States was in vented about 1812, and was set up at Peacedale, in 1814. Textile manufacturing by improved methods, however, was hardly well established in Rhode Island before 1825. The manufacture of jewellery, which was established in Providence in 1784, was greatly promoted ten years later by Nehemiah Dodge's invention of the process of "gold-filling," and was still further improved in 1846 by Thomas H. Lowe. Rhode Island's water power has been its only natural resource which has aided its development.
The State, in 1933, ranked 22nd in the value of its manufac tured products. The manufacturing industries in 1oll show a de The total value of all manufactures in 1935 was
The chief industrial centres were Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, and Central Falls.
The steam railway mileage in Rhode Island never has been great because the cities are un favourably situated to be the termini of interstate railway sys tems. The total mileage within the State increased from 191m. in 193o to 205m. in 1934. At the close of the year 1932 the mileage of electric railways, chiefly interurban, in the State was 183 miles. This total shows a decrease of i2IM. since 1927. Much attention has been given to the State's highway system. The total mileage in the State system of highways on Jan. 1, 1935, was 1,01 om. ; of this total 664m. were surfaced. In
were spent by the State for the construction and maintenance of roads.
Rhode Island has water outlets at Providence (by far the largest), Newport, Pawtucket, Bristol, Tiverton and Wickford. There are also harbours of refuge at Block Island and Point Judith. The water-borne traffic of Providence in 1934 consisted of 308,000 short tons of imports, 3,00o short tons of exports, 4.004,000 short tons of goods received in the coastwise trade, and 1,350,00o short tons of goods shipped in that trade. Total water-borne commerce in 1934 was 5,665,000 short tons, 3.6% of the total commerce of the Atlantic ports, or 2.0% of the total for the United States. The foreign trade of Rhode Island in 1935 amounted to 312,258 cargo tons of imports and 16,329 cargo tons of exports, all but 1,296 tons of which entered or cleared through Providence. Vessels en gaged amounting to 255,00o net tons, in 1935.