106 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



their trade consisted chiefly in furs, whalebones, oil, pitch, tar, and provisions. No 

 manufactures in New Jersey that deserve mentioning, their trade being chiefly in 

 provisions shipped from New York and Pennsylvania. The chief trade of Pennsyl- 

 vania lay in their exportation of provisions and lumber, no manufactures being 

 established, and their clothing and utensils for their houses being all imported from 

 Great Britain. By further advices from New Hampshire, the woolen manufacture 

 appears to have decreased; the common lands, on which the sheep used to feed, 

 being now appropriated, and the people almost wholly clothed with woolen from 

 Great Britain. The manufacture of flax into linens, some coarse and some line, daily 

 increased by the great resort of people from Ireland thither, who are skilled in that 

 business. By late accounts from Massachusetts Bay, in New England, the assembly 

 have voted a bounty of 30 shillings for every piece of duck or canvas made in the 

 province. Some other manufactures are carried on there, as brown holland, for 

 women's wear, which lessens the importation of calicoes, and some other sorts of 

 East India goods. They also make some small quantities of cloth, made of linen and 

 cotton, for ordinary shirting. By a paper-mill set up three years ago, they make to 

 the value of 200 sterling yearly. There are also several forges for making bar iron, 

 and some furnaces for cast-iron or hollow ware, and one slitting mill and a manu- 

 facture for nails. The governor writes, concerning the woolen manufacture, that the 

 country people, who used to make most of their clothing out of their own wool, do 

 not now make a third part of what they wear, but are mostly clothed with British 

 manufacture. The surveyor-general of His Majesty's woods writes that they have 

 in New England six furnaces and nineteen forges for making iron, and that in this 

 province many ships are built for the French and Spaniards in return for rum, 

 molasses, wines, and silks, wliich they truck there by connivance. Great quantities 

 of hats are made in New England, of which the company of hatters in London have 

 complained to us that great quantities of these hats are exported to Spain, Portugal, 

 and our West India Islands. They also make all sorts of iron for shipping. There 

 are several still-houses and sugar bakeries established in New England. 



By the last advices from New York there are no manufactures there that can affect 

 Great Britain. There is yearly imported into New York a very large quantity of the 

 woolen manufactures of this Kingdom, for their clothing, which they would be ren- 

 dered incapable to pay for and would be reduced to the necessity of making for 

 themselves if they were prohibited from receiving from the foreign sugar colonies 

 the money, rum, molasses, cocoa, indigo, cotton, wool, etc., which they at present 

 take in return for provisions, horses, and lumber, the produce of that province and 

 of New Jersey, of which he affirms the British colonies do not take above one-half. 

 But the company of hatters of London have since informed us that hats are manu- 

 factured in great quantities in this province. 



By the letters from the deputy governor of Pennsylvania he does not know of any 

 trade in that province that can be considered injurious to this Kingdom. They do 

 not export any woolen or linen manufactures, all that they make, which are of a 

 coarse sort, being for their own use. We are further informed that in this province 

 they built many brigantines and small sloops, which they sell to the West Indies. 



The governor of Rhode Island informs us, in answer to our queries, that there are 

 iron mines there, but not a fourth part enough to serve their own use; but he takes 

 no notice of any manufactures there. No returns from the governor of Connecticut. 

 But we find by some accounts that the produce of this colony is timber, boards, all 

 sorts of English grain, hemp, flax, sheep, black cattle, swine, horses, goats, and 

 tobacco; that they export horses and lumber to the West Indies and receive in return 

 sugar, salt, molasses, and ruin. We likewise find that their manufactures are very 

 inconsiderable, the people being generally employed in tillage, some few in tanning, 

 shoemaking, and other handicrafts; others in building and in joiners', tailors', and 

 smiths' work, without which they could not subsist. No report is made from Caro- 

 lina, the Bahama, or the Bermuda isles. 



