EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



129 



lowed on May 1, 1810, by an act opening trade. Immediately the ports 

 of the United States sent out hundreds of vessels freighted with the 

 accumulated produce of two years, and the ocean was covered with 

 sails speeding for Archangel, Gottingen, Lisbon, Cadiz, and elsewhere, 

 everywhere to find a market for flour, corn, rice, tobacco, and other 

 stores. Lisbon and Cadiz were favorite markets, and their provisions 

 ruled high, the British army being one of the best customers. Fortu- 

 nately for the United States, these vessels had arrived and were arriv- 

 ing when the advance of the French armies on the two cities and the 

 misfortunes and necessities of the Spanish cause forced the sale of 

 choice Spanish flocks, and over 26,000 Merino sheep were purchased 

 and shipped to the United States in 1810 and 1811, 20,000 of them 

 being safely landed, and distributed over the country from Maine to 

 Georgia and far into the interior. The introduction of these sheep 

 marked the beginning of a new era in the American woolen manufac- 

 ture, the departure from the household woolen industry to that of the 

 fine-wooled manufacture, founded on the improved and fine wool of the 

 Spanish Merino. 



In 1777 the English House of Commons ordered an account made of 

 the value of all woolen goods, viz, baize, cloths, coatings, flannels, 

 serges, says, stuffs, mixed, carpets, and worsted stockings, exported 

 from England to all countries during the years 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, 

 and 1776. The accompanying table shows the custom-house valuations : 



Valuations from 1872 to 1876, inclusive. 



Statement showing the proportion of the English manufacture of \coolens exported to the 

 United States from 1790 to 1799. 



22090 9 



