check
them lest they injure English trade. At these Philadelphia factories
hard porcelain with a good quality of glaze was turned out; also much
blue and white stone-china in the form of jars, butter-pots, bowls,
and plates. Some mortars and pestles such as Wedgwood himself made
were also manufactured, so what wonder that he was disturbed at the
thought of losing the monopoly? In a letter to a friend he speaks of
pottery being made in the Carolinas as well, and declares it would be
a great calamity were the colonies to begin making their own dishes."

"The idea!" burst out Theo.

"It was business," replied Mr. Croyden. "Of course England would far
rather ship her wares to America and collect the revenue than to have
the colonists learn to do without her. For a long time, as the early
papers assure us, crates of Queen's ware and the coarser brown
earthenwares, as well as quantities of stone-china continued to be
shipped to America, and advertised for sale. In the meantime,
however, the new settlers were contriving to make earthenware jars,
jugs, flasks, mugs, and teapots of their own, and supplemented by the
pewter dishes they had brought with them from England, they were
managing to get on very well without outside aid. Not only was salt
glaze pottery manufactured in Philadelphia along with a small amount
of real porcelain, but in such Connecticut towns as Norwalk, Hartford,
and Stonington experiments with earthenware were also being made. By
1810 the Secretary of the Treasury reported great progress in the
manufacture of Queen's ware, and it is evident from what he says that
by this time the coarser varieties of earthenware were being very
generally manufactured; he also mentions four factories for the finer
types of porcelain-making."

"I think we did pretty well to get to making so much chinaware in such
a short time," Theo observed.

"We did do well for a new country," agreed Mr. Croyden, "but you must
remember we had the whip-lash of necessity at our backs. The wares
imported from England were very expensive, and dishes we were forced
to have; especially the simpler utensils for household use. People
made their own butter, and needed crocks to keep it in; they needed
jugs for milk or water; bowls for cooking. Of course no growing
country could continue to import such every-day articles from across
the sea. Therefore, although England tried very hard to cater to
American tastes and demands by sending over blue