USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 12
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of watches by machinery. At first only rough skeleton movements were made, the finer parts being imported from Switzerland. The company was afterward merged in the Boston Watch Company, a factory being erected for their purposes at Waltham. The concern became involved in financial difficulties, and the Waltham property passed into other hands, Mr. Howard returning to Roxbury, where he has since been located. The Howard Company now makes everything necessary to complete a watch.3
The discovery of gold in California stimulated the ship-building interest at East Boston. The yard of Paul Curtis was established in 1852 ; Simpson's dry dock in 1853, and the yard of the Messrs. Boole the following year. There then existed seven yards and docks for building and repairing, a floating dock, several extensive spar-making establishments, and nume- rous other industries connected with the business. More than five hundred mechanics were employed in the various branches of the industry.4 The iron steamship " Le Voyageur de la Mer," launched Feb. 25, 1857, was the first instance, in this country, of the application of American iron to the con- struction of a first-class vessel. Many noted vessels built here testify to the
1 Bolles, p. 540.
3 Bolles, p. 229 ; also Bishop.
2 Ibid., p. 245.
4 Sumner, History of East Boston.
91
THE INDUSTRIES OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.
skill of Boston mechanics.1 The manufacture of earthenware and fire-brick was begun at East Boston in 1854 by Mr. Frederick Mear, assisted by Mr. William F. Homer.2
After 1852 the East Boston Sugar Refinery, before alluded to, completed improvements in their machinery and apparatus, thus placing their works on a level with the best refineries in the country. In 1858 the quantity of sugar refined per annum was about twenty-five million pounds. About two hundred men were then employed.3 In 1858 the erection of the works of the Adams Sugar Refinery at South Boston was begun. This refinery - one of the largest in the country-succeeded an old refinery, burned in that year, the property of Mr. Seth Adams, who had embarked in the business in 1849, having previously been connected with his brother in the manufac- ture of printing presses and machinery, as before noted.
The leading sewing-machine in 1858 was that invented by Messrs. Grover and Baker, of Boston, and patented by them in 1851. This embodied a new principle, used no shuttle, and made a double loop-stitch, by means of a circular rotary needle.4 In 1855 there were five establishments for the manufacture of sewing-machines; they produced but 3,385 machines that year. The sewing-machine manufacture was inaugurated during this de- cade. The sewing-machine manufactured at the beginning of this decade was invented in Boston in 1850 by I. M. Singer. He had a manufactory in Harvard Place, which was soon transferred to New York.
The third State census of industries was taken in 1855, and by this the value of products in Suffolk County (present territory) for that year was $58,301,028. There were at this time twenty pianoforte-manufactories, and 6,122 instruments were made during the year, valued at $1,984,700. The product in other lines had increased, and the general business of manufac- turing was in prosperous condition; but the financial disasters of the year 1857 checked the growth of the industries of Boston for a brief period.
1860-1870. This decade, eventful to the country, brought prosperity to the manufactures of Boston, and the effects of the depression of 1857 were quickly overcome; nor was there any check to this prosperity during the decade, at least none that could in any sense compare with that of 1857. The War of the Rebellion stimulated in an extraordinary and an unhealthy degree all industrial enterprises, but to the popular mind the stimulation meant prosperity. Nevertheless, but few new industries were established during this decade; among such, however, was the Downer Kerosene Works.
1 The following table, drawn from data con- 1847
tained in Sumner's History of East Boston, will afford a view of the growth of the industry from 1834 to 1857 :-
NUMBER OF VESSELS BUILT AT EAST BOSTON, BY YEARS. 1852
$851
12
1857
19
1834-39 6 1843
1840
2 1844
5
1841
3
1845
8
IS42 4 1846 7
I348
6
1853 1954
30
1847
IO
1855
19
1850
12
1856
28
15
3
2 Sumner, History of East Boston. 3 Ibid.
4 Bolles, p. 246.
21
92
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The means of reference are too easy of access to require at our hands detailed statements after the year 1860, in which the eighth United States census was taken. From this the products of Suffolk County have been estimated at $64,000,000, the leading industries being the manufacture of food preparations, camphene, clothing, copper and brass goods and ma- terials, furniture, iron castings, rolled iron, iron steamships, leather, liquors (malt and distilled), machinery, lumber, pianofortes and musical instru- ments, linseed-oil, kerosene, printing (including books and newspapers), sewing-machines, ships, sugar-refining, upholstering, etc.
The fourth State census, 1865, gave the exhibit at the close of the war, and by this exhibit Suffolk County (present territory) produced $110,000,000 worth of goods.
1870-1880. The products of the county for 1870 could not have been far from $120,000,000,1 while in 1875, by the last State census, they were $140,809,856; and in 1880 their estimated value reaches $150,000,000.2
From 1873 to 1878-79, the industries of Boston, like those of the whole country, suffered severely from financial disturbances, and did not probably progress much in value of products; but during 1878-79 the business of the country began to revive, so that the close of the century beginning with 1780 found Boston's industries in a most thriving condition, and her manu- facturers as thoroughly alive to her interests as they were at the beginning of the period assigned us. The Boston of 1780, producing between three and four million dollars' worth of goods, has grown to the Boston of 1880, producing, according to the best estimates, one hundred and fifty million dollars' worth within her own territorial limits, or the limits of Suffolk County ; while in fact the manufactures dependent upon Boston capital, if their value could be ascertained, would reach $300,000,000 per annum. This is well illustrated in the boot and shoe business. Boston is credited with the production of boots and shoes to the value of about $2,000,000, when the product derived from her invested capital in this industry is really ten times that amount. No true account of the industries of Boston can be given until the census shall consider the location of capital in relation to the production of goods.
There are in Boston at the present time many establishments whose origin dates well back in the history of the town and city. Among these are two book-binderies established in 1825, one in 1828, one in 1834, three in 1850, and one in 1858; of the establishments for printing and the manufacture of blank-books, one was begun in 1799, and one in 1804; for making boots and shoes, one in 1810, one in 1826, and one each in 1839, 1840, 1841, 1845, 1847, and 1848; for making brushes, one in 1803, and one in 1840; for the manufacture of chocolate, one in 1674; copper goods, one in 1818, and one in 1834; carriages, one in 1830; for making elevators, one in 1813; saddles,
1 The sums stated since 1860 are currency rates.
2 The results of the United States Census of 1880 are not available.
93
THE INDUSTRIES OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.
trunks, etc., one in 1819; manganese and plaster, one in 1645; friction matches, one in 1835; medicines, one in 1826; pianofortes, one each in 1831, 1842, 1843, and two in 1849; preserves and canned goods, one in 1822 ; razor-strops, one in 1827; rum, one in 1791; sails, one in 1820; silver and plated ware, one in 1820, one in 1821, one in 1830, and one in 1836; soda- water and beer, one in 1814; starch and gum, one in 1829; stoves, furnaces, and ranges, one each in 1823, 1830, 1839, 1840, 1842 ; tin-ware, one in 1826, one in 1835, four in 1837, one in 1838, and one in 1843 ; trusses, etc., one in 1832; umbrellas, one in 1810 and one in 1825 ; watches and clocks, one in 1793. The dates of the establishment of newspapers now in existence are given in the following list by years and number in each year: -
1 804
I
1849
2
Our interest in the value of products from decade to decade has been excited by the consideration of all the data essential to the preparation of this brief account of the industries of Boston, and we have made an estimate' of such value for each decade since 1780. To do this, all the elements en- tering into the growth of the city have been carefully weighed, -the increase of population, the census statements when available, and all the other ele- ments in the matter. We have seen the necessity of such estimates so often, that we feel it almost a duty to insert them here, not as infallible, but yet as near the actual truth as we have been able to make them. They are valuable because no such estimates exist, and because made while the study of the industries of Boston is fresh in mind, and with the attention fixed upon the · whole sweep of the period.
Table showing Actual and Estimated Value of the Annual Products of the Industries of Suffolk County (present territory) for the first Year of each Decade, from 1780 to 1880.
1780. $3,000,000 to $4,000,000. Estimated.
1850. $45,000,000. 1855. $58.301.028.
1790. $4:500,000.
,.
1800. $6,500,000. 1860. $64,000,000. ,,
1810. $9,000,000. 1865. $110,000,000. ",
1820. $16,000,000.
"
1870. $120,000,000. 1875. $140,809,856.
1830. $25,000,000.
1840. $30,000,000.
1880. $150,000,000.
Estimated.
I
1852
I
2
5
1821
I I 2 1838 1840 I 1841 I I 1842 1843 I 1844 2 1847 I 1848 1831 1832 1836 2
2
1850
2
4
1815
1851
2
6
1819
1820
1854
1857
9
1822
I
1859
3
1860
1824
3
1862
1825
3
1864
1830
I
1865
2 I 2 4 2 2
1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875
3
I
I
6
1823
3
9
6
4
1813
1
Estimated. Actual. Estimated. Actual.
94
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The details of the industries of Boston are fully given in the reports of the State and Federal censuses since 1837; we have, therefore, given less space to the consideration of details since that time than to those prior to the year 1837. A full historical and philosophical account of the industries of Boston would require a volume by itself, although the data from which such account would be drawn are meagre indeed, and exist mostly in fugitive statements of writers who did not pay particular attention to industrial in- terests, - one of the chief defects in all history. We have recorded in this sketch all that space would warrant, but it may be we have saved others the research necessary to the construction of this outline.
Carroll S. Wright: Horacel, Harlin!
CHAPTER IV.
BOSTON AS A CENTRE OF MANUFACTURING CAPITAL.
·
BY EDWARD ATKINSON.
TN order that we may fully comprehend the relative importance of the industrial arts in the social system, it would be well if we could give precision to the terms which we must use, lest we should be misled by words which have lost their original meaning, and are now applied, like the word " manufacture," to processes which they do not truly designate.
The application of capital to the construction of the great textile factories, to which the title of "manufactures" is apt to be limited in common thought, imposes somewhat upon the imagination, and may divert our attention from other branches. It has not been in that direction that the most character- istic work of Boston has been effected. In its conventional use the term " manufactures " is now applied almost wholly to the goods worked in facto- ries under a divided system of labor, rather than to wares made in workshops in which true manufacture or handicraft still exists. This factory system has been almost exclusively the growth of the last century. It only became possible concurrently with the application of steam-power, - the substitu- tion of the turbine for the old water wheel, the invention of automatic spin- ning machinery, of the power-loom, and of machine tools. It has been applied to other occupations than the textile arts and metal working, just in proportion to the displacement of manual labor and the substitution of mechanism, more or less automatic, -such as the sewing-machine, the engine lathe, the boot pegging and stitching machines, and the like.
The development of the factory system thus made possible by the sub- stitution, in whole or in part, of mechanism for manual labor has worked great changes in the social order both of Boston and of Massachusetts; it has substituted in large measure the supervision of the agent or super- intendent of the factory for the close personal intercourse of the em- ployer with his journeymen and apprentices; and while it has increased abundance and reduced the arduous and long-continued hours of labor for- merly necessary to subsistence, it has, on the other hand, made a division of society into classes, and has created an apparent but not real divergence of
96
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
interest between capitalists and laborers, which must call for wise discretion in the study of economic questions for many years to come.
The subject of this chapter may therefore be rightly divided into two parts : -
First, the work of Boston capital in the development of true manufac- tures.
Second, the work of Boston capital in the development of the factory system.
The two branches are, it is true, but different phases of the same work, but they mark a very distinct line in the application of capital to the general work of production. One class of work - chiefly the production of textile fabrics - has been carried on mainly by corporations numbering very many stock-holders; the other by individuals, or else by corporations which are only partnerships under a corporate title. In the one class, the function of the operative is to mend the broken ends and to cure the faults in the work of the machine, which almost, if not quite, takes care of itself; in the other the artisan must give direction to the tool or machine, and with trained hand and eye secure the just result. One kind of work becomes a habit, the other calls for constant mental as well as manual practice. In the one the ma- chine, or in other words the capital, is the prime factor, the operative the lesser ; in the other the artisan is paramount, and the machine only responds . to his special skill.
In the first century and a half of the history of Boston the factory system was almost unknown, but true manufactures had been developed in great diversity.1 The work was arduous indeed; and as yet all the mechanism required the application not only of the hand to direct, but of the head to control its operations. The master of any and all of the industrial arts was a craftsman who must have been initiated into the " mysteries" of his trade ; the journeyman and the apprentice served the master and were taught by him. Human relations were closer than at the present time, and although the conditions of life were harder, and of labor more severe, yet brain, hand, and eye were trained together more adequately and universally than they now are.
The few fortunes acquired before the beginning of the nineteenth century had been mainly gained by merchants in the conduct of foreign commerce.2 The town of Boston was then the centre of the traffic of a limited section of the interior; domestic exchanges could be made only within the narrow limits traversed by wagons on common roads, - limits a little extended, it is true, on rivers, and by pack-horses. On the sea long distances could be surmounted; but even there, legal obstructions were held in abeyance only until their enforcement became one of the acts which brought on the War of Independence, and the later war with Great Britain in 1812.
1 [See the chapter on " The Industries of
the last Hundred Years," by Messrs. Wright and Wadlin. - ED.]
2 [See the chapters on " Finance in Boston," and on "Trade, Commerce, and Navigation." - ED.]
97
BOSTON AS A CENTRE OF MANUFACTURING CAPITAL.
Up to the War of the Revolution, Boston, like New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and other prominent places, was the centre of a homogeneous population peculiar to its own section. With few exceptions manufactures, in the modern conventional sense, it did not possess, nor had its capital then been devoted in any large measure to great works now usually included under that term.
Rope-walks must have been the most conspicuous examples of works within the town in any degree analogous to the modern factory.1 Outside the limit of what is now the city of Boston the paper-mill constituted another example of a branch of manufacture in the modern sense, and some of the machines in use in the first mills constructed in the early part of the eighteenth century for the preparation of the pulp were the same in principle and almost identical with those that are still used for the same purpose.2 The felt-maker also conducted the work of making hats in fac- tories not unlike modern examples, only not so large; and that also is one of the few arts which, although now conducted in the factory, still remains in large measure a handicraft, so far as the felt or fur hats now worn are concerned.3 The use of iron and steel, then as now, gave occupation to large numbers of persons within the town. To what extent the capital of Boston had been devoted to works for mining and smelting the ores and preparing these metals for use cannot now be fully determined; but when it is considered that the grievances which long preceded the final resistance of the citizens of Boston to the oppressive acts of Great Britain had consisted in her attempts to break down the production of iron and steel, of hats, of paper, of woollen cards, of woollen cloth, and other articles now convention- ally known as manufactures, we may be very sure that the capital of the cit- izens of Boston had been largely invested in the iron and steel works, the paper-mills, the felt or hat making, and other branches of industry which constituted the infant manufactures of the country, and which have since been so widely extended; although these works were not to any great extent within the limits of the town.
1 In 1793 there were fourteen rope factories in the town; but in that year a fire broke out in one of the largest, near Gray's Wharf, destroy- ing it with six others, besides ninety-six other buildings. The selectmen then provided that no more should be constructed in the heart of the town, and tendered the use of the low land west of the Common, where six were built, "all of which were burned in 1806; five were rebuilt, and fortunately these were all once more con- sumed in 1819, which ended the use of that region for such purposes.
2 Paper-hangings had become such a leading article of Boston manufacture, that in 1790 it was estimated that Boston produced twenty- seven thousand rolls, which sufficed not only to supply the State, but to furnish considerable quantities for other States. [For the beginnings
VOL. IV. - 13.
of paper manufacture see the chapter on " Indus- tries," and Vol. II., p. 462, note. - ED.]
3 The Company of Felt-makers in London petitioned Parliament, in February, 1731, to pro- hibit the exportation of hats from the American Colonies, representing that foreign markets were supplied from thence, and not a few to Great Britain. Of these obnoxious manufacturers there were reported to be sixteen in Boston; whereupon an act was passed that "no hats or felts, dyed or undyed, finished or unfinished, shall be put on board any vessel in any place within any of the British plantations, nor be laden upon any horse or other carriage to the intent to be exported from thence to any other plantation or to any other place whatever, upon forfeiture thereof ; and the offender shall likewise pay £ 500 for every such offence."
98
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
The ground has been already so fully covered 1 in respect to these early undertakings, that the writer may well devote this chapter mainly to some of the later applications of capital.
One of the most beneficent of these more modern uses of capital was the establishment of what has since become the leading single industry of the city, -the manufacture of ready-made clothing, which was practically begun by the late John Simmons between 1830 and 1835, and soon after taken up on a large scale by Edward Locke, John Gove, Andrew Carney, and others. It gradually extended until it gave employment to 28,935 persons in the year 1875 within the State, of whom about 15,000 were employed in what may be called the clothing factories of Boston. .
It has been one of the most complex branches of industry, and it now requires a high order of organizing ability for its successful working. The masters of this art are obliged to inform themselves of the physical charac- teristics of the inhabitants of each section of the country, in order that they may adapt the material and the shape and size of the garments to the dif- ferent conditions of the trade, - the tall and spare lumbermen of Maine requiring an entirely different set of shapes, sizes, and materials from the heavy-built descendants of the Dutch farmers of Pennsylvania; the Scan- dinavian settlers of the Northwest calling for still different kinds of work; and so on throughout the country. When the freedman of the South began to prosper, a demand appeared for yet new and different shapes, sizes, and materials. The work of the clothier does not appeal to the imagination, like the great factory; it is conducted mainly in the upper stories of our high city buildings, and a stranger would only know of its existence as one of the most important applications of capital to manufacturing, if he hap- pened to walk through the streets where the work is done, and witnessed the great crowd of well paid working men and women scattering to their homes at six o'clock in the afternoon. It is a great error to assume that this work is one in which any large number of the operatives are forced to be satisfied with insufficient wages. The poor sewing-woman sews poorly, and receives all that her work is worth. Skilful sewers earn much higher wages than factory operatives, and many enjoy even better conditions of life.
Another beneficent feature of this application of capital is in the distri- bution of the work over a very wide area. Garments, which have been cut and prepared by the application of most ingenious mechanism, are dis- tributed over the whole area of New England, to be made up and finished ; and in the homes of the people, the wives and daughters of the farmers apply their skill to the operation of the sewing-machine, and have developed a true home manufacture which is of great service to them in earning their subsistence.
Although the first invention of the sewing-machine may not be claimed by Boston, the development of one of the first and most successful of these
1 [See the chapter on " The Industries of the last Hundred Years," by Messrs. Wright and Wadlin. - ED.]
99
1
BOSTON AS A CENTRE OF MANUFACTURING CAPITAL.
machines was accomplished here by Messrs. Grover & Baker, who now make beneficent use of the capital which they accumulated in their work.1 To their inventions, and those of their coadjutors, has been mainly due the possibility of developing the manufacture of clothing in its present phase.
The change in the method of making boots and shoes, from the old fashion of the cobbler to the modern factory, has also been greatly pro- moted by the application of the skill and capital of Boston. The Mckay and Wickersham sewing-machines, and the Sturtevant pegging machinery are examples of Boston inventions which have been of the utmost influence. The revolution began however in 1850, with the application of the Howe and Singer sewing-machines to stitching the upper leather. By these and other applications of science this art has been developed. To what extent Boston capital has been employed in this branch of the modern factory system it is impossible to define. The masters of the craft have changed from city to country, and from country to city, and with each new invention the conditions have changed. The art is singular in this, - that while it is at present, and has long been, the leading industry of the State, it has always · been conducted by individual enterprise, and never with success under the corporate system. It requires the close application of personal interest, constant and most intelligent personal direction ; and in every branch, from the preparation of the skin and tanning of the hide to the finish of the boot or shoe, there is a necessary combination of mechanism and manual dexterity essential to success. Hence there has always been a marked in- tellectual activity in the working people in this art, which has distinguished them from many of their associates. In the old Abolition days, when it cost something to be true to the principles of liberty, the shoemakers furnished more than their quota of energetic and aggressive men, and in the final struggle they were not wanting. This branch of industry has had its centre in Boston. It has grown by a process of evolution from the handicraft of the shop, until it has become a rare combination of mechanism and manual skill in the great factory. It is in one respect an example of the greatest efficiency of capital, the amount required for its establishment being very small in ratio to the annual product, and the earnings of the operatives being higher than in any other branch of work that nearly approaches it in magnitude.
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