EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 113 



that the woolen, cotton, and linen manufacture ought to be encouraged, 

 especially coating, flannel, blankets, rugs or coverlets, and hosiery, and 

 that fulling mills should be erected ; also mills for breaking, swingling, 

 and softening hemp and fla-x. 



At the beginning of the Eevolution the household industry of the 

 New England colonies and some parts of New York, Pennsylvania, New 

 Jersey, and the southern colonies was nearly or quite equal to the ordi- 

 nary wants of the inhabitants for clothing, but as the struggle went on 

 the health and comfort of the soldiers suffered for the want of suitable 

 woolens, which became very scarce and dear, causing many appeals to 

 the people to increase their stock of sheep and supplies of wool and 

 other materials and to promote the fabrication of cloth for the bodies of 

 their destitute countrymen in camp and in the field. It was suggested 

 that the cloth be dyed brown. A man who furnished his own blanket 

 was allowed $2, and was permitted to take it away with him at the end 

 of the campaign. 



Wool rose rapidly in price, and its deficiency in the manufactures of 

 the country was apparent in the contributions for the army. An in- 

 stance to the point: 



A letter from Samuel Wetherill, jr., to the Board of War, in May (1777), informs 

 them that, in consequence of the unexpected rise in the price of wool and labor, he 

 would be unable to comply with a contract made for a supply of cloth at a time when 

 he supposed prices were at the highest. He had a factory, including dye-house, full- 

 ing-mill, etc., in South Alley, between Market and Arch and Fifth and Sixth streets, 

 where he carried on the manufacture of woolens, and soon after, if not at that time, 

 of cottons and chemical products. "Wool being then Is, Qd. a pound, with a prospect 

 of its becoming 10., he could not furnish for less than 27. 6<7. such cloth as he had 

 engaged to supply at 20s. the yard. He rendered an account the next month for 

 cloth furnished, including some samples of superfine red and coating; but the extreme 

 scarcity of wool, he says, almost discouraged him from proceeding with the woolen 

 branch of his business. Those who had engaged to sell him wool at Is. 6d. thought 

 it too cheap, and his spinners and weavers in each branch had doubled their wages. 

 He could continue to make it, however, at an adequate price. These prices, which 

 were doubtless provincial currency, and the fact that all the operations of carding, 

 spinning, shearing, etc., were manual operations, and that 40 to 50 cents was the 

 usual price for fulling and dressing a yard of cloth, enable us to comprehend that, 

 with an empty exchequer and doubtful credit, Congress found no little inconven- 

 ience in providing supplies of clothing and other necessaries.* 



The suffering of the army at Valley Forge in the winter of 1778, half- 

 clad and freezing, is known to every American schoolboy, and damp- 

 ened the ardor of the people. Manufacturers could not get supplies of 

 wool and would not dispose of what little stock they had to a Govern- 

 ment whose currency was rapidly depreciating and whose cause seemed 

 almost hopeless. But, thanks to our French alliance, money was raised 

 in France and in the Netherlands on French security, and English 

 goods, principally cloths, were purchased in Holland and shipped to 

 America. More, however, was done by the women of America, for the 



* Bishop's History of American Manufactures. 

 22990 8 



