Industrial Ventures in the Chesapeake Region, 1720-1820
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‘A PROFOUND SECRET IN THE BREAST OF A VERY FEW’: INDUSTRIAL VENTURES IN THE CHESAPEAKE REGION, 1720-1820 by SOLOMON K. SMITH (Under the Direction of PETER CHARLES HOFFER) ABSTRACT My dissertation demonstrates the importance of industrial and manufacturing ventures to the development of the Chesapeake region in terms of economic growth, social structure formation, and the emergence of geographic infrastructure. It is a collection of five case studies exploring the development of industrial activities in the Chesapeake region from 1720 until 1820. Although organized chronologically, each work confronts the same set of questions: How were individual Chesapeake industrial endeavors organized? What did it take to succeed in an industrial activity? What led some individuals to succeed in industrial activities while others failed? How much could industrial ventures contribute to the wealth of individuals in the Chesapeake region? How did they spend their industrial income? Finally, how did industrial activities contribute to the development of urban areas in the Chesapeake region? INDEX WORDS: INDUSTRY, MANUFACTURING, ENTREPRENUERS, BUSINESS, CHESAPEAKE ‘A PROFOUND SECRET IN THE BREAST OF A VERY FEW’: INDUSTRIAL VENTURES IN THE CHESAPEAKE REGION, 1720-1820 by SOLOMON K. SMITH M.A, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2000 B.A., College of William and Mary, 1998 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2009 © 2009 SOLOMON K. SMITH All Rights Reserved ‘A PROFOUND SECRET IN THE BREAST OF A VERY FEW’: INDUSTRIAL VENTURES IN THE CHESAPEAKE REGION, 1720-1820 by SOLOMON K. SMITH Major Professor: Peter Charles Hoffer Committee: Michael Winship Stephen Mihm Stephen Berry Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2009 iv DEDICATION To Sarah and Abigail, my inspiration for everything. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Colonials who sought after industrious pursuits understood better than any that no task is complete without the assumption of debts, and that sometimes those debts are greater than the task completed. My own debts are large, but I am happy to have the pleasure to thank publicly some of those who helped me bring this project to completion. Peter Hoffer is my greatest creditor; more than any other scholar and friend, Peter has sustained his faith in me and pushed me to complete this project, even when others had abandoned all hope. It has been a privilege to collaborate with Peter so early in my writing career, both with coursework and in this project. I have benefited greatly from his sage counsel, and can only hope that one day I will write half as many books as he has written. Allan Kulikoff must also be recognized. For a long time, too long really, he methodically provided criticism and advice to me when, as a graduate student, I first began to scour the sources of the Chesapeake region. His inspired seminars provided me with the foundation for all of my efforts regarding this project. Over subsequent years, other scholars (especially those who sat upon this committee or allowed me to grace the tables of their classrooms) as well as several friends have lengthened my list of debts. Some offered comments on drafts, some remarked on papers and articles, some indulged me on discussions about theories of historical understanding or the significance of colonial American history. All were patient and yet critical colleagues. Each has left a vi mark on the pages that follow and all of have become invisible underpinnings for this project. Archivists and librarians at several institutions have made countless trips to the manuscript storage facility to bring me crumbling yellowed materials; some have even guided me to information I might never have found otherwise. Many manuscript curators, special collections librarians, and interlibrary staffs tirelessly fetched, copied, phoned and nagged at my behest. Especially important were those at the Library of the University of Georgia, the Library of Virginia, the Rockefeller Library of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Virginia Historical Society, the Special collections department at the University of Virginia, the Maryland Historical Society, and the Maryland State Archives. I am also grateful to the many institutions that have provided me with financial assistance; without your untiring assistance, no graduate student, or professional scholar for that matter, would ever accomplish anything. And finally, my wife Sarah has done more to help me with this project than any other. She has helped me track down books, taken notes, listened to my ravings about things for which she has little interest, and pushed me to finish a project so long in coming to completion. She has tolerated the ebbs and flows of my research and writing over the years, endured poverty and uncertainty, but still saw fit to give me the greatest gift I have ever received: our daughter Abigail. I hope they both always know that they bring me the greatest joy. To them I lovingly dedicate this work. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...............................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................................viii INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 “With his upmost Skill and Industry employ”: Business Structure and the Industrial Management of the Principio Company.........................................14 2 “Though ultimately our profits may be large”: The Tayloe Family & the Spending of Industry Profits ............................................................................55 3 “Where there is the Least Hindrance”: Risk & Industry in the Chesapeake Region.............................................................................................................104 4 “Business is dangerous in the extreme”: Using of Innovation to Manage Risk in the Chesapeake Coal Industry....................................................................146 5 “There is now a considerable Trade carried on”: Industrial Pursuits and the Development of Urban Centers in the Chesapeake ........................................183 CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................228 ABBREVIATIONS ...........................................................................................................243 BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................................................244 viii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: The seasonality & transaction values of Mt. Airy blacksmiths, 1775-1781........85 Table 2: Frequency of blacksmithing activities at Mt. Airy, 1773, 1775-17811 ...............87 Table 3: Average price per ton, in Pounds Sterling, received for Pig iron, 1754-1774.....89 Table 4: A Comparison of Tayloe Family Tobacco and Iron Production, 1751-1774......91 Table 5: Harry Heth’s Coal Business, 1810-1817 ...........................................................181 1 Tayloe’s blacksmithing activities at Mt. Airy comes from the John Tayloe Account Book, 1776-1786, TFP, VHS. 1 Introduction Unable to find work in Vermont or the north after graduating from university in 1839, Jason Niles headed south to find a teaching position. While at a hotel in Nashville for several days, Niles overheard several conversations between two local patrons. The men argued in a friendly manner for several hours nearly every day about the comparative virtues of a career in agriculture and industrial or business enterprises. In the end, Niles believed the dialogs between the two men offered the quintessential points why Southerners focused on agricultural pursuits rather than other endeavors. Although much of the conversation was of interest, one participant summed up the discussion by finally declaring that he strove to be an independent farmer because they were more aristocratic than businessmen. “The merchant lived by being complacent and simple to all; and when he ceased to be so he starved; while the farmer who is not dependent on others for his living, could be as aristocratic and haughty as he pleased with perfect impunity.”2 Businessmen in the South did not have the social prestige of their northern counterparts despite their wealth, ranking well beneath planters, politicians, military officers, and professionals as a social group. As a result, Niles surmised that the agrarian focus of Southerners reflected a general disdain for businessmen as unprincipled men who lusted after money. Such a notion led most successful businessmen in the South to purchase plantations as soon as they could afford them, and thereby attain the status of planter within society. For Niles, it also clearly explained the reluctance of intelligent 2 Diary of Jason Niles, November 23, 1839, quoted in Clement Eaton, The Growth of Southern Civilization, 1790-1860 (New York: Harper and Row, 1961), p. 244. 2 young men in the South to enter into a business career of any sort outside of agricultural production.3 To be important in the South one needed to pursue an agricultural career and become a planter. While one could suggest that Niles’ experience in Nashville only reflected the ideals of the nineteenth century, it would not