manufactured in England, would increafe the hundred pounds to five thoufand. This quantity of frik manufacture fent to New Spain, would return ten thousand pounds.

The fame may be faid of a parcel of iron-ftone, which, when originally dug from its natural bed, is not worth more than five fhillings, but when manufactured into iron and fell, and thence moulded into all the various articles of iron ware, is capable of producing a fum of not lefs than ten thousand pounds.

Steel may be made near three hundred times dearer than ftandard gold, weight for weight: for fix of the fleel wire fprings for watch pendulums weigh but one grain, and, when appropriated by a fkilful arift, they are each worth feven fhillings and fix pence fterling. This is two pounds five fhillings, or five hundred ind forty pence, for the whole : whereas a fingle grain of gold is worth no more than two pence.

Twenty acres of fine flax, manuFactured into the deareft and moft proper goods for foreign markets, may, on return, produce ten thouand pounds. One ounce of the finest Flanders thread has been fold in London for four pounds and fuch an punce, made in Flanders into the fineft face, may be fold in London for forty pounds, which is about ten mes the price of ftandard gold, weight for weight.

This fine thread is fpun by children, whofe feeling is nicer than that of grown people, by which they are capable of fpinning fuch an ex ifite thread, even fmaller than the het hair and one ounce of that thread is faid to reach in length Exteen thousand yards.

Lay on the promotion of American manufactures. By William Barton,

VERY man must be convinced, that a people, who have reVol. II. No. III.

courfe to foreign markets for almost every article of their confumption, can be independent in name only; and are incapable, under fuch circumftances, of becoming either great or profperous. There is not, perhaps, any nation that is rendered fo dependent, by nature. And yet, how extraordinary is it, that this country, to which providence has been peculiarly bountiful, in the diftribution of thofe things that contribute to the convenience, eafe, and happinefs of man, fhould unneceffarily and wanton y give a preference to foreign commodities, although at the expenfe of the molt important interefts of the government and individuals! There is no country poffelling greater natural advantages: and, confequently, no nation can be more refpectable and happy than the united states may become by a proper improvement of thofe advanta ges: but, to make the most of them, we muft practife the virtues of induftry and economy-virtues effential to the well-being of a republic. Our governments muft alfo promote the introduction of useful manufactures and trades among us; and protett fuch as are already inflituted. Thus we fhall employ and enrich our own citizens ; accelerate the popula tion of an extenfive and valuable country; and increase our national ftrength, dignity, and independence.

If we take a view of the various articles of trade and commerce, which our country fupplies, and of the numerous and profitable manufactures and employments, which may be established in the feveral ftates, under due encouragement, we fhall be convinced we may become, in a few years, a thriving, happy, and truly independent people. Previous to the late revolution, it was a favourite fentiment among Englishmen, and an opinion imbibed by too many Americans, that it was contrary to the intereft of this counG

try to carry on manufactures. However juft the obfervation might have appeared to Englishmen, when applied to us as colonifts, and a fubordinate part of the British empire, it is totally inapplicable to us as a fovereign and diftinct power. All the principal advantages that Europeans can derive from manufactures and mechanic arts, may be obtained by their introduction here. The inhabitants of America are fupposed to double their numbers every twenty years what, then, is to become of this vaft increafe of the inhabitants of our towns? They cannot be all labourers and but a fmall part can engage in hufbandry, the learned profeflions, or merchandize: confequently, the greater part muft apply to trades and manufactures, or farve. Befides, it is to be fuppofed, that a very confiderable proportion of the emigrants from Europe, hither, will be tradefmen, who are neither capable nor defirous of becoming farmers: and, in proportion to the encouragement manufactures receive, will be the accellion of tradefmen and mechanics to us, from abroad.

Labour is dear in America, because the lands are thinly fettled, in proportion to their extent and this has been urged as a powerful reafon, why we cannot manufacture to advantage. But it ought to be confidered, that as population increases, (and this, it has been obferved, is very rapidly), the price of labour will fall: and that altho' our manufactures may, for fome years to come, be higher than foreign ones, yet, as the price of the former would be paid to our own cirizens, and that money be kept in the country, which would otherwife leave it, to return no more we might thereby be better enabled to pay the advanced price for our own, than fomewhat lefs for foreign commodities. It is, at any rate, our intereft, as a nation, to

fupport those manufactures, in the firit place, which are produced from the native productions and raw materials of the country, or from fuch as may be cafily procured, and which require not much labour in proportion to the value. Many of the fmaller kind might employ numbers of induftrious poor, unfit for hard labour, and likewife women and children.

It is not neceffary to add any further obfervations on this fubject. The following LIST will, probably, fuggeft fome additional reflexions on this object of great national importance.

A lift of raw materials and natural

productions which now are or may readily be, furnished by the united ftates of America; and of such articles, and branches of manufactures and the ufeful arts, as are beft a dapted to the refources and fitua tion of this country-for home corfumption and use, and for expor

tation.

NCHORS,
Anvils,
Andirons,
Axes, (felling and broad)
Adzes,
Apparel, (wearing)
Annifeeds,
Apples,
Augurs,
Bar-iron,

Beef, (falted and dried)
Bifcuit and fhip-bread,
Bricks,
Buckskins, (dreffed)
Butter,
Brafs-foundery,
Bell-foundery,
Beer, ale and porter,
Bellows,
Bagging,

Brushes, of hogs' briftles,
Button-moulds, of horn, bone, and
wood,
Beans,

*Thefe, and fome other articles in the lift, may appear too infignificant to merit notice. But, in commercial countries, every thing that may be employed in trade deferves attention. The French fend great quantities of chefnuts to foreign countries; particularly to the Dutch, who tranfport them to the northern parts of Europe. Why, then, may not the American chefnuts, walnuts, hickory nuts, annifeeds, apples, &c. be employed to the best advantage for the good of the country? There may, perhaps, be fome articles which have escaped notice, and been omit ted in the catalogue,

Roots of divers kinds, Ship and boat-building, Sail-cloth,

Shoes and boots,

Shoes, women's, of fluff and filk,
Spirits, diftilled from rye, barley,
perfimmons, peaches, &c. &c.
Salt, (common)
Sal ammoniac,
Sal volatile,
Shovels and fpades,
Soap,

Ship-timber and plank,
Scale beams and fteel-yards,
Springs for wheel carriages,
Sickles and scythes,
Silk, (raw)

Staves and heading, and shingles,
Snuff,

Smith's ware, and cutlery of various kinds,

Straw hats, bonnets, mats, &c.
Saltpetere,

Sugar-refining, and fugar from the
fugar-maple,
Seine twine and pack-thread,
Starch,
Sealing-wax,
Saffaparilla,