e farmers of
Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey raised for export did not much
exceed that of tobacco alone.

The return of peace brought relief also to the shipping industry of New
England. Vessels which the embargo and the restrictive policy and the
hazards of war had kept in port now put to sea again. But the European
conditions which had created such immense profits for the Yankee skipper
in 1805, 1806, and 1807 had passed away. Foreign ships now bid for the
carrying trade of the Atlantic, and their competition cut down freight
rates to a point which caused melancholy forebodings in the homes of
Boston and Salem shipowners.

The long period of commercial restriction followed by three years of war
caused a dislocation of industry in New England. Capital which had been
invested in shipping now sought larger returns in the manufacture of
those commodities hitherto supplied by British factories. When the
embargo was laid, only fifteen cotton mills were in operation,
representing a capital of about $500,000. Two years later, capital to
the amount of $4,000,000 had been invested in factories which employed
nearly 4000 hands. At the close of the war, $40,000,000 were invested in
cotton mills which consumed 27,000,000 pounds of raw cotton and gave
employment to 100,000 men and women. Hitherto much of the weaving had
been done on hand looms in the farmhouses of New England: only the
spinning had been done by machinery. In 1814, Francis Lowell introduced
the power loom into his mill at Waltham, Massachusetts, and brought the
various processes of cotton manufacturing under one roof. The foundation
of the New England factory system was thus laid before the end of the
war. In the following decade the famous factory towns on the Merrimac
came into existence. The metamorphosis of the section had begun.

The woolen industry received a great impetus in this same period of
artificial stimulation, but it failed to expand with the same rapidity,
owing to the scarcity and cost of the finer grades of wool.
Nevertheless, in the year 1816, about $12,000,000 were invested in the
manufacture of woolen fabrics. Like the cotton industry, this owed its
development to the policy of Presidents from Virginia. It is one of the
ironies of history that Jefferson and Madison should have unwittingly
sacrificed Southern planters to build up industries in the North, and
that New Englanders should have excoriated those worthies for policies
which b