Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/775

 Manufactures in the Miami Country 765 Pittsburgh, however, was the leading industrial centre west of the Alleghenies before the War of 1812, and continued to be so for a few years after. In 181 1, a large number of artisans were follow- ing some forty different occupations at this place; the principal industrial establishments were one steam flour-mill four stories high, two cotton factories, three glassworks, three breweries, three distilleries, two air furnaces, two steam-engine factories, four nail factories, one white-lead factory and seven tan-yards.' It is worthy of note that, although Cincinnati's list of artisans was long, as shown by previous enumeration, still we have no record of so large an out- put as was produced by Lexington; nor were the industries so varied and extensive as those of Pittsburgh. By 1814 the rising tide of immigration, the difficulty of obtain- ing manufactured goods in the East, the great cost of the long haul, and the necessity of creating a home market to save the cost of ex- porting the increasing surplus of agricultural products, caused west- ern people to think seriously of encouraging manufactures in their own region ; and thus was ushered in the second industrial period of Cincinnati. At this point it may be pertinent to our subject to consider the two-fold effect of the War of 1812 on the United States. In the first place, it gave us commercial independence, and from that time American interests were not considered from a European stand- point. No longer hampered by British Orders in Council nor by French decrees, we became interested in the internal development of our country rather than in our relations to England and France. On the other hand the long Embargo and the war had destroyed our commerce ; and the Convention of 1815 left the United States imable to favor American shipping, and at the same time gave Great Britain full privilege to exclude us from the carrying trade of the West Indies. As a result of these conditions, trade was at a standstill, shipping was idle, and men were out of work. Since the Embargo capital that had previously been engaged in commerce had found employ- ment in the establishment of manufactures. The Embargo and the war had given them full protection, but in 1815 Great Britain was again free to flood American markets with British goods. Our infant manufactures could not compete with the cheap labor of Europe ; and economic conditions combined with patriotism in ask- ing for a protective tariff. In response to this demand, the Tariff of 1816 was passed, but it did not furnish the desired relief, for just I Palmer. Travels in the Unllcct Slates aitd Canada, pp. 48, 49. AM. HIST. KEY., VOL. XII.— 50.