The first cloths ever made in the colonies were the result of a bounty offered by the general court of Massachusetts in 1640. In the following year this bounty was given to several persons who made attempts at this manufacture; probably, at first, a coarse olescription of linen. The first systematic effort at the manufacture of woolens was by a, company of Yorkshire men in 1644 at Rowley, Mass. At this period cotton WaS obtained from Barbadoes, while hemp and flax were native. Cotton seeds were first planted in the colonies in 1621; the plant was introduced into the Carolinas in 1666. It was grown only as a garden-plant, however, until after the revolutionary war. The first oxportation of raw cotton occurred in 1754. In 1775 a corporation was formed in Phila delphia called the " United company of Philadelphia for promoting manufactures," of which Dr, Rush was president. Its object was "to establish American manufactures of woolens, linens, and cottons, with a view to the exclusion and supersedure of British goods." The company possessed a spinning-jenny, newly imported from England, and -employed in their factory 400 women. Two years later this company contracted with oongress to supply clothing for the army.--A report made to the British house of com mons in 1731, by the board of trade, on colonial industries, stated that in the American oolonies the settlers had " fallen into- the manufacture of woolen cloths and linen cloths, but for the use of their own families only; that the very high price of labor rendered it impracticable for them to manufacture such articles at less than 20 per cent dearer than that exported from England; that the greater part of the clothing worn in the province of Massachusetts Bay was imported from Great Britain, and sometimes from Ireland; that there were a few hat-makers only in the maritime towns; that there were no manu factures in New York worth mentioning, or in New Jersey; that the chief trade of Penncylvania lay in the importation of provisions, no manufactures being. established,
and their clothing and utensils for their houses all imported from England; that in Mas sachusetts Bay some manufactures were carried on, as brown holland for women's wear, which lessens the importation of cloaks aud some other sorts of East India goods." This report, in view of what has been heretofore stated, will be seen to exhibit a desire to underrate the manufacturing industry of the colonies; which was, however, already oncroachino. seriously upon the demand on the home market.
.
This brief staternent concerning the early history of American manufactures is chiefly of interest in displaying, by contrast, the vast movement which took place in the century following the revolutionary war. In the United States, as elsewhere throughout the world, the organization of local, national, and international exhibitions has forwarded this movement with a rapidity and a result of excellence otherwise unattainable.
The gross statistics of manufacturing iu the United States were given in the U. S. oensus for 1870 as follows: Establ ishments 252,148 Steam-engines—Horse-power....... . 1,215,711 E 2,346,142 Water-wheels— tt . 1,130,431 Hands employed—Males above 16 1,615,598 1,939,368 " —Females above 15 323,770 Capital $2,118,208,769 Wages 775,584,343 Material.. . 2,488,427,242 Products 4,232,32'5,442 The increase in the different elements of this manufacturing industry as between 1850-60 and 1860-70 was as follows.
The approaching publication of the U. S. census returns for 1880 will afford material in tabulated form by which it will become practicable to deduce important conclusions, and possibly to establish the existence of positive laws controlling the movement of the manufacturing industry as a whole, and in its relation to the most vital economic inter ests—not of the laboring classes alone, but of the race.