COMPILED FROM THE TWELFTH CENSUS, VOL. VII., PP. XLVII.-CLV. THE Twelfth Census marks the close of the first complete century of manufactures in the United States. As a basis from which to measure the progress of the one hundred years, there is available a government paper, now become classic, which fairly represents the industrial situation in the United States shortly after the organization of the federal government, and just prior to the opening of the nineteenth century. This is the "Report on Manufactures," submitted to Congress in 1791, by Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, in obedience to an order of the House of Representatives. He enumerated some 17 industries which had grown up and flourished with a rapidity which surprises, affording an encouraging assurance of success in future attempts." The 17 industries were as follows: 1. Skins. Tanned and tawed leather, dressed skins, shoes, boots, and slippers, harness and saddlery of all kinds, portmanteaus and trunks, leather breeches, gloves, muffs and tippets, parchment and glue. 2. Iron.. - Bar and sheet iron, steel, nail rods and nails, implements of husbandry, stoves, pots and other household utensils, the steel and iron work of carriages, and for shipbuilding, anchors, scale beams and weights, and various tools of artificers, arms of different kinds; though the manufacture of these last has diminished for want of a demand. 3. Wood. Ships, cabinet wares, and turnery, wool and cotton cards, and other machinery for manufactures and husbandry, mathematical instruments, coopers' wares of every kind. 4. Flax and hemp. Cables, sail cloth, cordage, twine and pack thread. 5. Bricks and coarse tiles and potters' wares. 6. Ardent spirits and malt liquors. 7. Writing and printing paper, sheathing and wrapping paper, pasteboard, fullers' or press papers, paper hangings. 8. Hats of fur and wool, and mixture of both, women's stuff and silk shoes. 9. Refined sugars. 10. Oils of animals and seeds, soap, spermaceti and tallow candles. 11. Copper and brass wires, particularly utensils for distillers, sugar refiners and brewers; andirons and other articles for household use, philosophical apparatus. 12. Tinwares for most purposes of ordinary use. 13. Carriages of all kinds. 14. Snuff, chewing and smoking tobacco. 15. Starch and hair powder. 16. Lampblack and other painters' colors. 17. Gunpowder. In addition to the industries above enumerated, which were carried on as regular trades in many localities, Mr. Hamilton went on to describe a vast scene of household manufacturing, which contributes more largely to the supply of the community than could be imagined without having made it an object of particular inquiry. The "manufactories carried on as regular trades," and included in Mr. Hamilton's category, comprised such as would naturally spring up in a new country to supply the immediate necessities. of the inhabitants, together with those whose materials were most abundant and inviting. Agricultural implements and other tools of industry were made in quantities fully equal to the demand. Firearms were also made. The dressing of skins, especially tanning, had become an important industry, and was carried on both in establishments exclusively devoted to the purpose, and by many shoemakers and farmers as a subsidiary occupation. The number of brewers and distillers was remarkable, and nearly the entire domestic demand for beverages was supplied by home production. Sawmills, grist mills, brick kilns, wool-carding mills, and fulling mills existed in great number, but always on a small scale, supplying only local needs. The manufacture of paper, which had been a successful colonial industry, also supplied the domestic requirements, and several glass works existed. "Iron works have greatly increased in the United States," said Mr. Hamilton, " and are prosecuted with much more advantage than formerly." The shipbuilding industry was particularly well developed and widespread. In 1793 the tonnage of the United States exceeded that of every other nation except England. In the main, however, the people had confined themselves to such manufactures as could not be imported to advantage. Foreign goods, chiefly textiles, were largely imported in exchange for agricultural products. In 1810 Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, in response to a resolution of the House of Representatives of June 7, 1809, made a report which is an admirable summary of the condition of American manufactures at that date. Secretary Gallatin estimated that in 1809 the value of the products of American manufactures exceeded $120,000,000. Tench Coxe's estimate, based upon the returns obtained at the census of 1810, was $198,613,471, and the Treasury reports show that in 1811 American manufactures to the value of $3,039,000 were exported. The censuses immediately following throw little light upon the rate of growth, that of 1820 being so defective that Congress never authorized the publication of the figures.. The enumeration of manufactures was omitted altogether from the census of 1830; and the census of 1840 made no attempt whatever to foot up the aggregate value of the products returned. The census of 1850 fixed this value at $1,019,106,616 for that year an increase of fivefold over Mr. Coxe's estimate for 1810. It is clear from the report of this census and from a great body of unofficial data available, that the country had made notable progress in nearly every line of manufactures, and laid the foundations deep and broad for subsequent development. But it may be noted that until nearly 1840, iron continued to be smelted by charcoal, the process differing little from that employed in colonial times, and not until the decade between 1830 and 1840 was puddling generally introduced in the United States. During this decade the iron rails used in the construction of railroads were obtained exclusively by importation; coke was not generally used in smelting until 1850; in 1860 our production of pig iron reached only 987,559 tons, in comparison with the 14,452,234 tons produced in 1900; steel rails were not manufactured in the United States until 1860; and the first Bessemer steel was produced here in 1864. The factory system of manufacture, so called, in contrast to domestic and shop manufacture, had practically no existence in the United States at the opening of the nineteenth century, although its development in England, particularly in the textile industries, had been rapid during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. During or just prior to that period, the great basic inventions for automatic textile manufacture were put in practical operation in England. These, together with the invention of the steam engine, which occurred at about the same time, rapidly withdrew manufacturing industries from the household and the shop, and concentrated them in the factory, where large bodies of men and women worked for stipulated wages under skilled direction, thus accomplishing what is commonly called the industrial revolution, and inaugurating the factory system of manufacture. This system obtained its first foothold in the United States during the period of embargo and the War of 1812. The manufacture of cotton and wool passed rapidly from the household to the mill; but the methods of domestic and neighborhood industry continued to predominate, even in these industries, down to and including the decade between 1820 and 1830; and it was not until about 1840 that the factory method of manufacture extended itself widely to miscellaneous industries, and began rapidly to force from the market the handmade products with which every community had hitherto chiefly supplied itself. It seems probable that until about the year 1850, the bulk of general manufacturing done in the United States was carried on in the shop and the household, by the labor of the family or individual proprietors, with apprentice assistants, as contrasted with the present system of factory labor, compensated by wages, and assisted by power. The census of 1850 is therefore the proper starting point for the comparative statistics of manufactures, although it is not possible to make any analysis of the figures returned by that census, which will determine with certainty the proportion of manufactures produced in factories, in distinction from the products of the household and of the neighborhood shop. Since the date of that census, the relative value of the manufactured products of the shop and the household has steadily decreased, until, at the Twelfth Census, it represents but an insignificant part, say one-thirteenth, of the total value of products. Not until the decade between 1860 and 1870 did it become apparent that the complete supply of staple products for the home market was within the capacity of domestic manufacture. During the Civil War, the great demand for manufactured supplies of every description, and the high protective duties on imports, necessitated by the revenue requirements of the government, stimulated enterprise and production to an extent not known before or since. The census indicates that the value of manufactured products |