CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY IN 1789 399 



laborer usually earning three shillings by the day ..." Albert 

 Gallatin, when ex-Secretary of the Treasury, reported that as 

 early as 1810, there were north of the Potomac fifty mills for spin- 

 ning cotton in operation, and twenty-five more went into operation 

 the ensuing year. The date mentioned by Gallatin is interesting, 

 since the protective policy was not applied to cotton manufactures 

 till 1816. And finally we may fall back on the most noted report 

 of the period, Hamilton's Report on Manufactures (1791), in order 

 to determine the condition of prosperity already reached by manu- 

 factures, under the natural protection of 3,000 miles of sea between 

 them and the competition of the mother country, and only slow 

 sailing vessels for transportation. Hamilton wrote as follows: 



"To all the arguments which are brought to evince the impracticability 

 of success in manufacturing establishments in the United States, it might have 

 been a sufficient answer to have referred to the experience of what has already 

 been done; it is certain that several important branches have grown up and 

 flourished with a rapidity which surprises, affording an encouraging assurance 

 of success in future attempts. Of these it may not be improper to enumerate 

 the most considerable: 



1. Of 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. Of 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, scalebeams, and weights, and various 

 tools of artificers, arms of different kinds, though the manufacture of these 

 last has of late diminished for want of demand. 



3. Of Wood. Ships, cabinet wares and turnery, wool and cotton cards, 

 and other machinery for manufactures and husbandry, mathematical instru- 

 ments, cooper wares of every kind. 



4. Of Flax and Hemp. Cables, sail-cloth, cordage, twine and packthread. 



5. Bricks, and coarse tiles and potter's wares. 



6. Ardent spirits and malt liquors. 



7. Writing and printing paper, sheathing and wrapping paper, paste- 

 boards, fuller's or press papers, paper hangings. 



8. Hats of fur and wool, and of mixtures of both, women's stuff and 

 silk shoes. 



9. Refined sugars. 



10. Oils and animals and seeds, soaps, spermaceti and tallow candles. 



11. Copper and brass wares (particularly utensils for distillers, sugar 

 refiners and brewers), andirons and other articles for household use, philo- 

 sophical apparatus. 



12. Tin wares 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. 



Also vast amount of household manufacture (coarse cloth, coating, serges, 

 flannels, linsey-woolseys, hosiery, coarse fustians, jeans and muslins, checked 

 and striped cotton and linen goods, bed ticks, coverlets, tow linens, shirtings, 

 sheeting, towels, table linen). Also flour, pitch, tar, turpentine, etc." 



