crafts" most fitted for life in the new province. Two years later, 

 in a letter to the Free Society of Traders, Penn reported a tannery 

 at Frankford so plentifully supplied with bark that only God's 

 blessing was required to assure its "Reputation and Profit." And 

 in 1685, in a "Further Account" of his proprietary, Penn enumer- 

 ated among the colony's useful tradesmen, tanners, shoemakers, 

 glovers, and fellmongers. Gabriel Thomas' account of Pennsylvania 

 in 1698 specifically mentioned tanners and gave an exact prospectus 

 of the business. "Tanners," wrote Thomas, "may buv their 

 Hides green for Three Half Pence per pound and sell their leather 

 for Twelve Pence per pound," while the currier, whose job it was 

 to finish the leather, received "Three Shillings and Four Pence 

 per Hide for Dressing it." Francis Daniel Pastorius, with his 

 flock suitably settled at Germantown, also appraised the advan- 

 tages of tanning; hides were abundant "indeed two raw for one 

 dressed," and there seemed every likelihood for "great profit."^® 

 In the fast-growing city of Philadelphia the early tanyards were 

 on Dock Creek where, by 1739, six were in operation.^' 



Pennsylvania as well as New York by 1700 had passed laws to 

 insure the quality of leather. These statutes prohibited the sale 

 of an ill-tanned product and in addition fixed and controlled prices. 

 In 1721 another act, for "The Well Tanning and Currying of 

 Leather," was passed by the Pennsylvania legislature and, like 

 most laws dealing with industries closely connected to the public 

 welfare, it was restrictive. The pattern of close governmental 

 control continued throughout the 18th century, as well as the 

 extremely simple production methods employed even in the very 

 best leather factories. The regional characteristics that afl-ected 

 other institutions from New England to Georgia had little effect 

 on the appearance of tanvats, beaming sheds, or bark mills, and 

 only the use of the tanning agent — hemlock bark in the north and 

 oak bark in the middle and southern provinces — varied from 

 place to place. ^^ 



"• Myers, ed.,"Some account of the Province of Pennsilvania," pp.207, 209, 241n, 261, 327, 409, in 

 Narratives of Early Pennsylvania .... 



'' Bishop, vol. 1, p. 445. 



"* Mitchell and Flanders, eds.. Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to ISOJ, vol. 2, pp. 90-91 ; 

 vol. 3, pp. 257-263. Clark, History of Manufactures . . . , vol. 1, pp. 32-72; shows effect of colonial 

 legislation on manufactures. Hening's Statutes at Large, vol. 3, pp. 75-80; good elaboration of 

 official interest and control in another colony at about the same period as the Records of the Governor and 

 Company of the Massachusetts Bay, and the Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut. Hoove r. Location 

 Theory and the Shoe and Leather Industries, pp. 130-132; defines the oak and hemlock forest regions 



