EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI EIVEE. 115 



serious to be overcome and delayed the introduction and use of the new 

 machinery. 



Meanwhile English and East India goods glutted the American mar- 

 kets, drained the country of money to pay for them, and built up a debt 

 that was onerous. A necessity for the creation of domestic manufac- 

 tures was apparent and deeply felt. Cotton was increasing in the 

 South, sheep were multiplying in the Middle States and at the East, 

 and their wool was fairly good. The foundation was good, but the su- 

 perstructure was wanting. Newspapers and public men impressed the 

 importance of the subject, and the farmer and laborer hoped for its fru- 

 ition, that the field of agricultural products might be extended and indus- 

 try encouraged. 



When direct statistics are wanting, as at this point, other facts can 

 be used to advantage. That a variety of manufactures from domestic 

 and foreign materials struggled into existence in 1787 to 1789 is evinced 

 by the well-known cultivation or production in those years of flax, 

 hemp, and wool, furs, skins, tallow, and importations of raw material, 

 with but small exports, a showing that enables us to infer that the ex- 

 tent of our manufactures equaled the amount at least of the raw mate- 

 rial produced in the country. Artisans' tools and all machinery were 

 exempt from duty, and in many States an artificer was allowed the right 

 of citizenship upon his declaration of intention to pursue his calling. 

 Frequent acts were passed in the several States encouraging the rais- 

 ing of sheep, principally for their protection, by imposing heavy taxes 

 on dogs, acts that were repealed and reeuacted according as patriotism 

 and the public good or the spirit of the demagogue moved the mind of 

 the legislator. Prior to this time lambs were not generally shorn the 

 first year, but in 1787 it was advised, as being better for the animals, and 

 as tending to the increase of the quantity of wool to shear them. 



Among the early manufactures of the country and one of the most 

 successful was that of hosiery. Knit stockings were known in England 

 as early as 1533, although ordinarily cloth hose were worn. Worsted 

 stockings were not known until some time after, and at the time of the 

 first English colonization of America were certainly not possessed by 

 one m a thousand. Yet " among the articles of outfit provided in 1629 

 to be shipped to New England we find mention of 800 pairs of stockings, 

 200 of which were to be Irish, at 13^. a pair iu Dublin, and 100 pairs of 

 knit, at 2s. M. a pair; also 500 pair of redd knit capps, milled, about 

 5d. a piece." These articles are included in the same invoice with 

 " sutes of dublett and hose of leather lyned with oyled-skin leather, y" 

 hose and dubletts with hooks and eyes" and with "breeches" or 

 " leather drawers," which at that time, and for many years subsequently, 

 were a much more common article of apparel than knit hosiery.* 



Though mainly dependent upon importations from England, the early 



'Felt's Annals of Salem, Vol. i, p. 49, and lutroductiou to Eighth Census, p. xll. 



