been known at a very early period to the colonists. In the year 
1620, the company to whom the province of Virginia had, 
been granted, sent out 150 persons to erect three iron works.f 
The success of this attempt is not stated. In 1645, permis¬ 
sion to make iron, was granted by the legislature of Massa¬ 
chusetts, and in consequence works were erected in several 
towns.! Nearly a century afterwards (in 1731) there were 
in New-England 6 furnaces for hollow ware and 19 forges.* 
In 1715, pig and bar iron were first made in Virginia, and 
the flourishing state of the manufactories of this metal in the 
colonies may be inferred from the fact, of the British Parlia¬ 
ment in 1719, enacting several restrictive clauses unfavora¬ 
ble to these works.! Since the revolution, new mines have 
been continually discovered, and in general worked to great 
advantage. At present there is scarcely a State, in which 
iron is not found. From actual enumeration it appears that 
in 1810, the furnaces, forges and bloomeries in the United 
States amounted to 530, of which this state furnished 69.§ 
If they have increased with the same rapidity in other states 
as they have in ours, their number at this time cannot be 
much short of six hundred. The value of the iron and its 
manufactories annually made in the United States, is estima¬ 
ted by Mr. Gallatin at from 12 to 15 millions of doilars 3 ff 
whilst the imported metal, in its forms of bar-iron, steel, &c„ 
is supposed to average near four millions. This statement 
is highly encouraging even if it be compared with the Eng¬ 
lish iron trade. Abounding in mines of excellent ore, and in 
facilities for working them, it is still found that for seven 
years (from 1797 to 1803) England annually imported about 
f Holmes’ American Annals, vol. 1, p. 205. 
± Ibid. - - vol. 1, p. 535. 
* Ibid. - - vol. 2, p. 130. 
! Oddy’s European Commerce, vol. 2, p. 286. 
§ Mitchell’s view of the manufactures in the United States, in 
the American Med. and Philos. Register, vol. 2, p. 413. 
|| Gallatin’s report on the state of American manufactures in 
1810. The manufactures of iron in the state of Pennsylvania 
amounted in that year to the value of $5(869,487. (Mease’s 
Picture of Philadelphia, p. 80.) 
