Rural Economy in New England 275 



Coxe found that there were 96 cotton manufacturing establishments 

 in southern New England; 54 in Massachusetts, 28 in Rhode Island, 

 and 14 in Connecticut.^ The district of greatest concentration was 

 then an area within a radius of 30 miles from Providence, including 

 towns in all three states. Here there were 26 mills, with about 

 20,000 spindles.2 The ftiills were mostly small, having on an average 

 600 to 800 spindles. Such a mill would employ about 40 persons, 

 5 men and 35 women and children.^ Up to this time spinning was the 

 only operation carried on in these mills, the power looms not being 

 introduced until about 1815.* Meanwhile the yarn was given out 

 to the farmers in the vicinity to be woven into cloth in their homes. 



Summary 



In summarizing these facts we must again emphasize the real 

 meaning of the term "manufactures." In the only sense in which it 

 is significant for the purposes of this essay, and, indeed, for any 

 economic history, it includes only articles produced for a wide mar- 

 ket, by persons who depend entirely upon the income derived from 

 such activity for their support. Of manufactures in this sense we 

 may say that there were practically none in New England in 1810. 

 We found that among the many articles listed as manufactures in 

 the official reports of the period 1790-1810, by far the greatest part 

 were either produced in farm-houses for family consumption, such as 

 homespun cloth, soap, candles, maple-sugar, etc.,^ or by village 

 artisans for local demand, as, for instance, the products of the saw- 

 mill, the grist-mill, the tannery, or the hatter's shop. A few instances 

 were found of articles such as paper, tinware, buttons, and other 

 "Yankee notions, " which, through an ingenious method of marketing, 

 were disposed of over a large area. Yet their production required 

 n^ organization of industry on a large scale, nor did it lead to the con- 

 centration of a non-agricultural population. Only in the case of a 

 very few industries is a separation of employments apparent. We 

 have seen how imperfect this separation was in the iron industry. 

 In the shoe industry, although factory methods had not yet been 

 introduced, still the width of the market supplied had made the 



' Digest of Manufactures. There were also three factories in the District of 

 Maine, twelve in New Hampshire, and one in Vermont. 



' Gallatm, Op. cit., p. 433. 



» Ibid. p. 427. 



♦Hammond, M. B., The Cotton Industry. Publications of the American 

 Economic Association. New Series. No. 1. New York. 1897. p. 241. 



* See also infra, Chapter VI. 



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