15 lines
3.4 KiB
TeX
15 lines
3.4 KiB
TeX
\section{America}
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Glassmaking in America began at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608. The English Board of Trade decided that glass making would be an ideal use for the limitless forests of the New World. As we have seen, England at this time was running out of forests, forced to switch to coal, and domestic glassmaking was struggling with the conversion.
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So a glass factory was founded in Jamestown, operating in the nearby forest a little over a year after the first colonists arrived in England. This "tryal of glasse" sent back to England that year was the first 'manufactured' product of any kind, so it can be truly said that glass was America's first industry. (Glass had already been made in the Western Hemisphere by Spanish craftsmen in Mexico around 1535.)\footnote{Harrington, 3} It's likely this first venture came to a close in the fall of 1609, and certainly came to a halt during 'The Starving Time' in 1609 to 1610 when all but 60 of the 500 inhabitants at Jamestown died.\footnote{Harrington, 9} Another venture was attempted in 1621 (less than a year after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth) but was abandoned in 1624. The record suggests that little, if any glass was made.\footnote{Harrington, 10}
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A lack of technical knowledge on the part of the English financiers, the terrible hardships of the New World (including weather, famine, and the Indians), the quarrelsome natures of the glassblowers sent to Jamestown (good glassblowers had no reason to leave the 'Old World', where demand for their skills was high) and the sheer distance to the markets in England all combined to make these first attempts at glass production in the colonies a failure, in spite of the abundance of fuel and good sand. Throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries the colonists were forced to import glass for their windows and glassware.\footnote{Spillman, 7}
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Official British policy forbade all manufacture in the colonies: the colonies were to produce raw materials for factories in England and provide a market for the finished goods. This included glassmaking. There were a few attempts at defying this policy. Caspar Wistar, a Philadelphia brass-button manufacturer who had immigrated from Germany, imported German glassblowers in 1739 and established a factory in southern New Jersey to make bottles and windows. This venture was successful enough to be left to his son, who however closed in 1781, probably because of the Revolution.\footnote{Spillman, 8}
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Another was by Henry William Stiegel, also a German. Like Wistar he also imported workmen (no other way to get them), like Wistar he had problems keeping them (some of whom wanted to start their own factories). Both Wistar and Stiegel appealed uncessfully to the patriotism of their fellow citizens to buy American instead of imported glass. Stiegel so overextended himself financially with his three factories that he eventually went to debtor's prison in 1774. \footnote{Spillman, 8}
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After the Revolution there were no more restrictions against manufacture, but British mercantile policies still made it difficult for American manufacturers to compete. Finally, after 1790, Britian signed trade agreements with the new country; when the Acts of embargo and the ware of 1812 cut off the supply of British-made goods, American glassmakers were for the first time free of ruinous competition. There were setbacks to be sure, but glass production increased during every decade throughout the nineteenth century.\footnote{Spillman, 12}
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