128 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



telligent people were unable to see what benefit could be derived from 

 their ships rotting in the ports, seamen out of employment, the indus- 

 try of the country prostrated, and agriculture in decay; and mur- 

 murs were heard on every side, rising in places to resistance. First, 

 the shipping interests suffered, then the planters and farmers com- 

 plained, and, on March 1, 1809, the embargo was repealed and there 

 was substituted for it another nonintercourse act. But the embargo 

 had done its work. It had about completed the overthrow of the for- 

 eign commerce of the United States. 



Some good grew out of the embargo. As shijjping declined manu- 

 factures increased. Capital invested in commercial enterprises being 

 in great danger, it was withdrawn and applied to manufactures, and 

 small factories rapidly multiplied. Those of woolen did not feel the 

 first impulse, for the reason that more money could be made from the 

 cotton manufacture, and from another good reason, that there was not 

 a supply of wool beyond the needs of the household make. In fact, 

 there was not a sufficiency for household purposes, and complaint was 

 made of the farmer that he did not raise enough to keep his daughters 

 busy; that the time lost for want of it, between sunset and bedtime, 

 would suffice to make clothing for all the people and give some cloth 

 for export. 



There was a great change taking place, both in appreciation of Amer- 

 ican goods and in the disposition to encourage and promote their man- 

 ufacture. It was no longer considered beyond the pale of good style to 

 dress in American goods; and from the President of the United States, 

 at his official reception, down to the most humble in the land, to be 

 clothed in homespun was the proper thing. And as this disposition ran 

 parallel with necessity, the household manufacture was greatly ex- 

 tended. This furnished goods of a coarse character, but for the manu- 

 facture of fine woolens fine wool was needed. ISTow began, also, a keen 

 appreciation of the few Merino sheep in the country, and prices rose 

 rapidly from $100 to $1,000 for a single animal; whole flocks of common 

 sheep were crossed with them, and factories went into operation in 

 many places, backed by the capital that had been withdrawn from com- 

 merce. Wool, which had risen to $1 per pound in 1807, now rose still 

 higher. Chancellor Livingston selling some full-blooded Merino wool 

 unwashed, for $2 per pound. 



The estimated production of wool in the United States in 1810 to 

 supply the factory and household demand, was 13,000,000 to 14,000 000 

 pounds, which many sources of information agree in stating was neither 

 equal to the amount required nor of good quality. But this quality was 

 now to be vastly improved by the infusion of more new blood of the 

 fine-wooled sheep, and causes that operated to force the country into 

 extended woolen manufacture opened the way to supply the fine wool. 



The temporary suspension of American commerce by the proclama- 

 tion of August 9, 1809, reestablishing the nonintercourse act, was fol- 



