102 Industrial Experiments in Colonial Araerica. 



the industry and enterprise which was indicated by the exten- 

 sive commerce of the people with foreign nations and w'ith the 

 French West India plantations. And yet it was claimed that 

 they might be made far more useful to the kingdom by a stricter 

 control of their trade. 



The chief industries of New England, on which the people 

 depended for products to exchange for articles they could not 

 produce, and for money to pay for British manufactures, were 

 the fisheries, ship-building and the lumber trade. Lumber was 

 not only an important and profitable article of export, but it 

 ministered directly to the other two industries, and was, in its 

 various forms, in steady demand for domestic purposes. 

 Scarcely any natural product is convertible into so many forms 

 of merchandise, with so little waste, as a tree; while unwrought 

 timber, in the form of masts, bowsprits, and specially-shaped 

 pieces for ship-building, commands high prices ; so that the 

 demand for lumber is bound to be fairly constant. Almost 

 from the beginning, the masts and ship timber of New England 

 found a ready market in foreign countries. To the island plan- 

 tations, which did not produce timber extensively, were ex- 

 ported materials for house-building, and even frame houses and 

 ready built ships. Cargoes of masts and yards were sent to 

 Guinea and Madagascar in return for slaves. The wine islands 

 exchanged their products for pipe staves; the sugar islands, 

 for barrel and hogshead staves. Before 1650, the trade in these 

 commodities vvas so heavy that it was feared that the supplies 

 of timber at Piscataqua would fail.'- The fact that, in 1660, one- 

 third of a saw-mill sold for £250, shows how important the in- 

 dustry was esteemed.^ 



The first saw-mill in America is said to have been set up on 

 the Salmon Falls River, New Hampshire, in 1663,^ many years 

 before one appeared in England. Once established, the mills 

 multiplied rapidly along the rivers where the water-power could 



^Weeden, " Social and Economic History of New Eng.," page 200, 



2Ibid. 



•''Bolles, "Industrial History of the United States," p. 499. 



