| Imports, 1791, in Millions of Dollars | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Articles paying duties ad valorem | 17.0 | ||
| Wines, spirits, malt liquors | 2.6 | ||
| Colonial wares.— | Sugar | 1.6 | |
| Molasses | 1.4 | ||
| Coffee | .5 | ||
| Tea | .3 | ||
| Total, Colonial, including minor | 4.0 | ||
| Total, including minor items omitted | 25.0 | ||
571. Classes of wares imported; manufactures.—The table shows, on its face, only one thing with clearness, that the people used already a considerable part of their surplus to purchase articles of food, of the nature rather of luxuries than of necessaries, which could not be produced to advantage at home. This feature has ever since characterized the import trade of the country. In the recent commerce of the United States we find, beside the class of colonial products, two other classes comprising the bulk of the remaining imports, manufactures and material for manufacturing. Were articles of these two classes masked behind that large item of the table which classifies the imports only with reference to tariff schedules? The answer can be given, without hesitation, in the affirmative. Raw materials for manufacturing were still, however, comparatively unimportant; most of the imports to this country, at the beginning of its national existence, were finished manufactures. The statement made by a writer in 1818 held true at this time: “Our imports consist chiefly of articles which habit and fashion have made necessary for our consumption: but a very small proportion of them is subservient to our arts and manufactures.”
To describe the character of these imported manufactures in detail would be an arduous task, for they included the products of practically all the handicrafts and factories of Europe. In contrast with the exports of the country, which have been restricted always to a few great staples, the imports, from earliest times to the present, have been extraordinarily diversified. The imports included, besides the items specified in the table above, a large part or the whole of the metals used in the country (tin, copper, lead, pewter, brass, and iron), and manufactures of metal. They comprised, further, a great quantity of the various textiles, of woolen, cotton, linen, and silk; and miscellaneous manufactures such as glass and earthen ware, paper, leather wares, etc.
572. Significance of the import of manufactures.—Accepting now as the most important characteristic of the imports of this period the preponderance of manufactured articles, we must seek to realize why this was so, and what it signified. Anticipating the substance of following sections it may be said, in summary, that the people of the United States supplied their need for manufactured articles by their own handiwork, so far as possible, but that they found it unprofitable to attempt to make wares the manufacture of which required high technical skill, the use of machinery, and an advanced organization of business. They depended on Europe, therefore, for all the finer manufactures. The total amount of manufactures imported annually was not large in proportion to the population, being less than $5 per head; yet this amount comprised most of the comforts and luxuries as well as many of the necessaries, which the people enjoyed. Even at the end of the colonial period the average American led a life of struggling and privation, and could think himself fortunate if he won by his toil on land or at sea a surplus sufficient to provide him with a few articles beyond the bounds of his absolute necessities.
573. Household self-sufficiency.—In contrast with the modern scale of living the simplicity of the standard of life at this period can scarcely be exaggerated. Most of the articles consumed in a family were produced at home. The house was begun with the help of neighbors, and was finished, perhaps long afterwards, by the inmates themselves. Domestic utensils, household furniture, and farm implements were still made, to a large extent, on the farm where they were used. The every-day clothing of the people, made from linen or wool or from a combination of the two (“linsy-woolsey”), was spun and woven, cut out and made into clothes, with comparatively little professional help. Carpets were made from woolen yarn spun in the family, sent away only to be dyed, and then woven either at home or in the neighborhood. The self-sufficiency of the family group was not so complete in 1800 as it had been in 1700, but it continued still to be the dominant feature in economic life, and in some districts lasted for decades to come.
574. Town self-sufficiency.—Articles which were not made in the household were, as a rule, made in the town, and did not contribute to the volume of distant trade or of foreign commerce. The important unit in the economic organization of the United States at this period was the rural group of perhaps a few hundred inhabitants. Most of the people were farmers, as has been said above, and very few were entirely independent of farming. Some, however, had the skill and implements which enabled them to supply the needs which could hardly be met by household production. Nearly every village had a gristmill, and, if conditions favored, a sawmill. The village blacksmith was to be found in almost every settlement, and performed an astonishing variety of work for the people. Toward 1800, moreover, a tannery had become a common though not a universal feature of village life, and most towns could now boast of a shoemaker. Some still depended, however, on the itinerant cobbler, and few were large enough at this time to furnish paying custom to special artisans; and relied on traveling tinkers, glaziers, coopers, curriers, etc., to perform the services proper to their trades.
575. Development of household manufactures.—Only in a few lines of manufacture had the organization developed beyond the simple lines sketched above. The making of cloth is an operation requiring much time, considerable technical skill, and, for some processes, machinery such as few households would possess. By 1700 it had become customary to rely upon professionals for fulling, the process which compacts the fibers of the cloth, and fulling mills were widely distributed in 1800. Carding machines, for straightening the fibers of wool before spinning, were to be found in many towns, and it was more and more common, also, to have the weaving done out of the house, though this process was ordinarily attended to in the immediate neighborhood. With outside aid of this character the people of some parts of the country were able to produce cloth in excess of their needs, and could use the surplus in trade.
Nearly every town, moreover, in the northern and central colonies, had some industry which utilized the spare time of the inhabitants, and gave them the means of exchange with people in the colonies or abroad. For a characteristic description take the following of Raynham, Mass., 1793, when the town had a population of about 1,000: “Besides the usual business of husbandry, numbers are here employed in the manufactories of bar iron, hollow ware, nails, irons for vessels, iron shovels, potash, shingles, &c.”
576. Appreciation and criticism of American manufactures at this time.—It would be tedious and unprofitable to study in detail the petty manufactures which cropped up in the various towns of this period. Let us accept as a summary the following statement, applying to the decade ending in 1800: “The domestic manufactures best established are those of leather, iron, flax, potters’ wares, including bricks, ardent spirits, malt liquors, cider, paper of all kinds, hats, stuff and silk shoes, refined sugars, spermaceti and tallow candles, copper, brass and tin wares, carriages, cabinet wares, snuff, gunpowder and salt.”
In studying this description the reader should bear certain facts in mind. First, the list, however long it seems, is far from including all the wares required for the satisfaction of ordinary wants. Second, though these manufactures are stated to be the ones best established, there was, among them all only one sufficiently strong to produce a considerable surplus for sale outside the country; this was the rum manufacture. The people still relied largely on importations from foreign countries for many of the wares enumerated. Third, many of these manufactures (bricks, cider, snuff, and salt, for example; flour and sawmill products might properly be included) were of a very simple character, requiring no great technical skill or elaborate machinery. Water power was used widely, but steam power had not yet been applied, and improved machinery had not yet been introduced from Europe. The factory system, with its extensive use of machinery and its strict organization of labor, was first permanently established in the United States in 1790, at Pawtucket, R. I.; and the American factories did not, for many years, reach the English standard of efficiency. An English committee reported in 1791 that the American cotton manufactures were of a coarse grade, of worse quality and of higher price than those produced at Manchester.