The iron trade of the United States, and the domestic manufacture of iron, were spoken of by Mr. Gallatin, in a report to Congress, in 1810, as being firmly established. He was able to obtain very imperfect information about it, but it was known that iron ore was plentiful; that numerous forges and furnaces had been erected, supplying “a sufficient quantity of hollow-ware, and of castings of every description.” From Russia, about forty-five hundred tuns of bar iron were imported yearly, and perhaps another forty-five hundred from Sweden and England. A vague estimate gave fifty thousand tuns of bar iron as the annual consumption of the union, of which he considered forty thousand as the product of the republic. Some good iron was made in Virginia and Pennsylvania, but much inferior iron, carelessly manufactured, was brought into market. Of sheet, slit, and hoop iron, about five hundred and sixty-five tuns were annually imported; about seven thousand tuns were rolled and slit in the United States. Massachusetts had thirteen rolling and slitting mills, and the value of cut nails and brads made within the republic in a year, was estimated at twelve hundred thousand dollars. Nearly three hundred tuns of cut nails were exported. Agricultural implements were made at home, and much coarse ironmongery; but cutlery, fine hardware, and steel work, were brought from Britain. About forty thousand muskets were yearly made in New England and at Harper’s Ferry: also balls, shells, and brass and iron cannon, in various places. There were several iron founderies for machinery castings, and steam-engines had begun to be made at Philadelphia. Mr. Gallatin valued the iron and manufactures of iron then annually made at home, at from twelve to fifteen millions of dollars, and the imports at near four millions, as prices went.
Adam Seybert enumerates the domestic products of 1810, at 53,908 tuns of pig iron, from 153 furnaces; 24,541 tuns of bar iron from 330 forges; 15,727,914 pounds of nails (partly out of imported iron) from 410 naileries; and 6,500 tuns of iron were required at 316 trip-hammers and thirty-four rolling and slitting mills. His estimate of the value of the home manufacture is $14,364,526. In 1806 or 1807, Chancellor Livingston, then our minister to France, had to apply repeatedly to the British ministry for permission to buy in England, and export to New York, the steam-engine which Fulton put on board his first steamboat on the Hudson. Now, the manufacture of steam-engines is an important branch of our home industry.
In 1827-8, it was given in evidence before a committee of Congress, that Pennsylvania had made, during the past year, 21,800 tuns of bar iron, and 47,075 tuns of cast iron; that 3,000 tuns of bar iron were made near Lake Champlain; that three counties in New Jersey had made 2,050 tuns, and that in a circle of thirty miles’ diameter, in New York, there were one hundred and ten forge fires, each of them able to produce twenty-five to thirty-five tuns yearly. In 1830, a committee of Congress reported on the iron trade, and from their report and other later sources, we learn that that year 112,866 tuns of bar, and 191,537 of pig iron, worth $13,327,760, employing 29,254 men, who received $8,776,420 in wages, were made. Perhaps the quantity and number of workmen are overstated. In 1840, with improved machinery, only 30,497 men produced 484,136 tuns.
Without coal and iron, the United States and Britain never could have risen to the rank of first-rate powers. In fact, without iron, civilization must have made very slow progress, as must be evident to any one who will take the trouble to try seriously to enumerate the various articles essential to society, of which iron is an indispensable part.
In 1839-40, according to the official returns, which are imperfect, the United States produced, with 804 furnaces, 286,903 tuns of cast iron, and with 795 blomaries, forges and rolling-mills, 187,233 tuns of bar iron. The capital invested was nearly twenty and a half millions of dollars; the men employed, miners included, were 30,497, and 1,528,110 tuns of fuel were employed in these operations. The value of iron and steel, and their manufactures, imported in 1839-40, as per official returns, was $7,241,407. The estimated value of the iron made in the United States that year, was $22,778,635; of which sum $15,585,730 were for labor, including mining, transportation, coaling, hauling, &c. The persons employed in the iron manufacture, and their families, were estimated at 213,505, which, at twelve and a half cents each, per day, for agricultural products consumed, would give $9,741,166.
In 1845, the product of the union was estimated thus: 540 blast furnaces, yielding 486,000 tuns of pig iron; 954 blomaries, forges, rolling-mills, &c. yielding 291,600 tuns of bar, hoop, sheet, boiler, and other wrought iron, 30,000 tuns of blooms and 121,500 tuns of castings; value of the whole nearly forty-two millions of dollars.
The United States imported of iron, chiefly bar and bolt, rolled, hammered, or otherwise manufactured, and pig, hoop and sheet, in 1838-9, 115,637 tuns; in 1839-40, 72,769; 1840-1, 112,111; in 1841-2, 107,392; in 1842-3, 38,405.
In 1846-7, we find by the treasury report, that the United States exported of domestic manufactures, 3,197,135 pounds of nails, worth $168,817, of which Cuba took 2,317,550 pounds; also other articles of iron and steel to the value of $998,667, of which $478,681 to Cuba, and $162,020 to British North America. In that year, among the imports, chiefly from England, were 549 tuns of steel, value $1,126,458; 55,599 tuns of bar iron; 28,083 tuns of pig; 1,893 tuns of scraps; 6,167,720 pounds of chain cables; 13,410,556 pounds of sheet and hoop; 1,412,332 pounds of anvils; 921,845 pounds of nails; 361,423 pounds of anchors; 975,256 pounds of castings; 170,909 pounds of cast-iron butts; 431,916 pounds of band; 660,133 pounds of round or square; 347,737 pounds of nail or spike rods.
Official tables show that the imports of manufactures of steel and iron in 1839, were worth $6,507,510; in 1843, $1,012,086; in 1844, $3,313,796; in 1845, $5,077,788; and that in 1839, the value of pig and bar iron and steel imported was $6,302,539; in 1842 and 1845, nearly four millions each year; in 1843, $1,091,598; and in 1844, $2,380,027.
Some idea of the extent of the iron trade inland may be formed from the quantities carried on the canals. In 1847, there came to the Hudson on the New York canals, pig iron, 21,608,000 pounds; bloom and bar 26,348,000 pounds; iron ware, 3,014,000 pounds: 340 tuns of iron and iron ware were cleared on the canals at Buffalo and Oswego; St. Lawrence county, N. Y., shipped 515 tuns of pig, a surplus made there; 7,716 tuns of pig iron reached Buffalo via Lake Erie, and 1,256 kegs of nails; 15,103,565 pounds of iron and nails arrived at Cleveland via the Ohio canal, and 4,085 tuns of iron and 12,537 kegs of nails were shipped from Cleveland coastwise. There were cleared at Portsmouth, Chilicothe, Massillon, and Akron, in 1847, about 5,713 tuns of iron; 5,269,055 pounds of nails were shipped at Akron. The trade in coal and iron on the western rivers and lakes is very large.