industry. This condition, however, was an exception, for Hamilton 

 hsted tanning first among the industries that flourished in the 

 United States and capped this summary by announcing that there 

 were "scarcely any manufactories of greater importance."'''^ 



Following the pattern set by Hamilton, the Government solicited 

 data for Albert Gallatin's "Report on Manufactures," -'^ for the 

 first census of manufactures (in 1810) and the next (in 1820),'^^ for 

 the McLane Report in 1832,'^- and for the census of 1840.^-* With 

 each enumeration, information became more voluminous and 

 progressively more accurate and meaningful. Although the strict 

 statistical value of the several reports was marred by error and 

 inconsistencies, the raw material gathered for analysis frequently 

 contained detailed descriptions of manufacturing processes not 

 readily available elsewhere. 



Obviously the several reports are prime sources, indicative of 

 manufacturing in general and tanning in particular; and when 

 equated collectively, along with the census of 1840 and its rough 

 estimate of 8229 tanneries in the United States, the picture of the 

 early leather business is more sharply focused. In the report, even 

 if but partially complete, is firsthand evidence of a widely scat- 

 tered industry, with small operations taking place in small towns 

 and employing mostly local labor. J. Leander Bishop captured 

 the essence of this when he wrote that the tannery — 



was a necessary appendage to every village, as communication between places 

 was imperfect, and Leather perhaps relatively a greater dependence than in 

 our time. Transportation and travel in new settlements were exclusively 

 by means of packhorses. As roads became improved, the heavy and cumber- 

 some four-horse wain became the medium of transport. The gear and 

 equipments of these conveyances required frequent renewal .... 1^ or vari- 

 ous other purposes in Agriculture and the mechanics Arts, Leather was 

 much depended upon. The cost of freight from the seaports to the interior, 

 and of hides thence to the older maritime towns, was saved by the early 

 establishment of a tannery by some member of each new community .... 



-" Cole, ed., Industrial and commercial correspondence of Alexander Hamilton, Anticipating His 

 Report on Manufactures, pp. 25, 82, 117, 96, 93, 90-91, 279, 305. 



"^^ American State Papers . . . , Finance, vol. 2, p. 425. 



^' American State Papers ■ ■ ■ , Finance, vols. 2 and 4. 



32 McLane, compil., Documents Relating to the Manufactures in the United States, Executive Docu- 

 ments, 22nd Cong., 2nd sess., Nc. 308, Washington, 1833. Hereinafter cited as McLane Report. 

 As a descriptive account of individual manufactories this source is invaluable. 



^' Statistics of the United States of America, 1841; George Tucker, Progress of the United States, 

 and Eighty Years Progress of the United States. 



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