TRADE, American. The beginning of the dry-goods trade in America dates from the time when the first colonists landed upon American shores, for it was not long after the first effort toward the settlement of this country was made that the demands for trading facilities resulted in the opening of the first store. So far as the actual trade in Amer ican textiles was concerned it is difficult to say just when or how it commenced, but as it is impossible to imagine any time when people who had been used to the advantages of civilization would not have felt the need of a place to pur chase some kinds of dress fabrics, it is pretty safe to say that the original American shop keeper was soon compelled to add such mer chandise to his stock in trade, even if it did not figure in his opening announcement. Of course, in those days all stores were general stores, and merchants handled, or tried to handle, every article for which there was any great demand. As the result their stock was of a most incon gruous character. There were cottons and silks from India; there were velvets and woolens from various parts of Europe, and, side by side with the most costly articles known to colonial commerce, there were groceries, hardware, etc.
In the early days of the colonies, and even for many years after the settlement of the coun try had assumed quite respectable proportions, but little cloth was mamifactured in America. The textile trade, such as it was was almost entirely of an import character. In the begin ning the retail dealers arranged for consign ments of their own, and they were naturally of small value, but soon the wholesale merchant became the importer.
So far as actual wearing apparel was con cerned, the greater part was made by the people in their homes. The men of the households raised the flax or wool, which was carded, spun, and woven at home, for, at that period in our history, the distaff, the spinning-wheel, and the hand-loom occupied an important position at every well-regulated fireside. Moreover, it was by no means uncommon for the same hands that made the cloth to fashion the home-made fabrics into clothing for the use of the several members of the family. It was only the rich or more prosperous members of the community who were able to import their wearing apparel, to say nothing of their bed and table linen, and some years had passed before the customs tailor had assumed a position of any considerable commer cial importance. Nowhere in America was the cultivation of cotton made a matter of much attention, and, when its manufacture in anything like an organized way began, it was, as in the case of wool, confined to a f ew establishments of crude construction and operation. They pro
duced certain kinds of fabrics, it is true, but the they only importance that ey can have for us to-day lies in the fact that they marked the beginning of the great industries which have since been developed. • Really to comprehend the fact that the great textile industry of our own time is a matter of comparatively modern development it is only necessary to remember that the inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, Paul, Crompton, and Cartwright, had scarcely become known in this country at the close of the 18th century. At this time our home products were confined to a few coarse woolen cloths; a few laces, and some sundries, in silk, and nothing more than coarse sheeting and toweling in linen. In fact, during the 18th century, even our imports of foreign textiles were of most moderate proportions, be ing scarcely more than double the value of the home products, for it was not until some time after the close of the Revolutionary War that American imports of textiles began to show any marked increase in value. Prior to that time the value of the dry-goods imported from other countries ranged from $24,000,000 to $26,000,000 per annum, while the domesticproduct showed an annual value of between $12,000,000 and $13,000,000. Of course, the greater portion of this output represented the goods manufactured in the households of the country, very little of which ever appeared in the merchants' stock Comparatively populous as some sections of the country were, the village stores outside the centres of trade, were few and far between. Having but little demand for anything like costly grades of goods, the only textile products which they sold were the coarser textures in woolens, cottons and linens and these, with the usual supply of buttons and thread, were closely associated with the sale of rum, molasses, gro ceries and some few articles of hardware. Peo ple living in the small towns that were located upon the banks of the inland streams seldom had greater trading facilities than those that were offered by the flatboats which visited them from time to time with stock which was similar in character to that of the village stores. Ped dlers also went through the country, thus af fording the scattered inhabitants of the interior an opportunity to make some few purchases from their meagre stock of wares.