American industry began in earnest in New England, and Massachusetts mills garnered great attention from interested observers at home and abroad, many of whom assessed the success and potential of American industry. In the first document, Henry Wansey, a retired clothier from England who visited New England’s mills in 1794 to determine whether they would provide competition for his home country, describes his visit. In the second document, Timothy Dwight, the president of Yale College, surveys the mills in Worcester, Massachusetts.
| 8.3 | Henry Wansey | An Excursion to the United States, 1794 |
Near Boston are the following manufactories established, according to the accounts given me by a considerable merchant there: A cotton and carpet manufactory at Worcester, carried on by Peter Stowell and Co. with a good capital; and one of woollen, by Thomas Stowell; at Newbury Port, Joseph Brown, a clothier, makes a variety of woollen goods of the coarse kinds. . . . But all these I judge rather the seeds of manufactories, than any large or permanent establishments. That energy which is created in our country by necessity and difficulty of living cannot take place there for many years; nor need England fear a rivalship there, or in any other country. France, when disburdened of her present military government, will be many years in recovering her manufactories.
When we consider that the United States, with scarcely four million inhabitants, import annually of our manufactures more than twelve million dollars in value, it follows that when her inhabitants are increased to eight million, she will want manufactures to the annual amount of twenty-four million dollars. From hence I conclude that her population and prosperity are an advantage to Great Britain. I am convinced that the ability of the United States to manufacture cannot keep pace by any means with her increasing population; at least for a century. It therefore follows, that she must increase her demand for foreign manufactures; and the Americans generally acknowledge that no country can supply them so well as Great Britain.
Source: Henry Wansey, An Excursion to the United States of North America, in the Summer of 1794 (London: Salisbury, 1798), 29–30.
| 8.4 | Timothy Dwight | Travels in New England, 1821 |
Few towns in New-England exhibit so uniform an appearance of neatness and taste or contain so great a proportion of good buildings, and so small a proportion of those which are indifferent, as Worcester. There is probably more wealth in it also than in any other, which does not exceed it in dimensions and number of inhabitants. Its trade, considering its inland situation, is believed to be extensive and profitable. . . .
There are in Worcester four grist-mills, four saw-mills, two fulling-mills, and a large paper-mill. The proprietors of the fulling-mills carry on the Clothiers’ business to a great extent; and with skill supposed not to be excelled in the State. Scarlet and blue have for some time been dyed here in a superiour manner.
On the subject of mills I wish you to observe, once for all, that I shall rarely mention them. There is scarcely a township in New-England which has not a complete set of grist-mills and saw-mills. . . . There is, probably, no country in the world where mill-streams are so numerously and universally dispersed, or grist-mills and saw-mills so universally erected as in New-England. Conveniences of this kind may be said, almost if not quite literally, to be furnished in abundance to every Parish in the Country. To reiterate this fact would be to take very effectual means for wearing out your patience.
Source: Timothy Dwight, Travels; in New-England and New-York (New Haven: Timothy Dwight, 1821), 366–67.
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