Globalization of the United States, 1789-1861

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Bishop, J. Leander. A History of American Manufactures from 1608-1860: Exhibiting the Origin and Growth of the Principal Mechanic Arts and Manufactures.... Philadelphia: Edward Young and Co.; London: Sampson Low, Son and Co., 1864.

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J. Leander Bishop. A History of American Manufactures from 1608-1860: Exhibiting the Origin and Growth of the Principal Mechanic Arts and Manufactures.... Philadelphia: E. Young and Co.; London: Sampson Low, Son and Co., 1864. 1:Frontispiece.

Bishop envisioned a future of economic independence for a United States behind Britain in manufacturing prowess, but blessed with similar Anglo-Saxon enterprise and ingenuity.

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In the volume which is here offered, I have traced more circumstantially than was at first intended, the origin and early condition of several branches of Manufactures which have since become important, or seem likely, at no distant time, to be engrafted upon the staple industries of the country. I have endeavored to follow the history of each as an art, from its first introduction, as nearly as could be ascertained, in each of the colonies, through the transitional period of our history, to the adoption of the present Constitution, when we may be said to have first had a national existence. The space thus occupied may, to some, appear disproportioned to the importance of the subject, inasmuch as our domestic manufactures were yet quite in their infancy. It was indeed, in all but its latent physical and moral resources, a day of small things with this nation. Though emancipated from foreign political domination, the people seemed yet chained in complete dependence upon the workshops of Europe, — from which, notwithstanding our marvelous progress, they are not entirely liberated. But the foundations of a broad and varied industry had been already laid in the patient toil, indomitable energy, and prudent foresight of an ancestry, gathered from the skillful ranks of all nations. Far back in the colonial period where the germs of American liberty and independence were implanted, were sown also the seeds of those frugal and industrious habits, that facility in adapting means to ends, and in meeting the peculiar contingencies of their lot, that still characterize the majority of American people. The early colonists planted most of the mechanic arts, and the roots of a vigorous civilization on our soil, while their children carried shoots from the same hardy stem, into the fast-receding wilderness....

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During the twenty-five years that elapsed between the peace of Paris, which established the supremacy of Great Britain upon this continent, and the commencement of the present government of the United States, American industry received its first considerable impulse in the direction of Manufactures. The various non-intercourse measures and the war with the parent state promoted a steady growth of the domestic manufactures, which it had been the policy of Great Britain to discourage, particularly those of the household kind. Although by no means emancipated from dependence upon the workshops of Europe, a broad and permanent foundation for their future growth had been laid in the industrious, prudent and enterprising character of the early population of the country. Gathered from the productive ranks of the most active and ingenious nations of Europe, with a preponderance of the Anglo-Saxon element, their colonial training was well fitted to develope [sic] habits of patient toil, self-reliance, ready invention, and fertility in the use of resources. These qualities, so necessary to success in all the practical arts, were conspicuous in the American character....