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land easy disposition of its surplus products, and the two ex-
tensive rivers at the northern and southern extremities of
Maryland promised control of the trade of neighboring states
and the Western territory. 4
Some wanted manufacturing in America as a means - of
bringing an end to importation of foreign goods. An argu-
ment especially prevalent in the depression-ridden mid-1780's
was that lack of manufacturing in the United States hastened
the country's " ruin." b Another newspaper writer proposed a
complete system to establish American prosperity in the
'eighties:
I conceive it to be the policy of every- nation, to encourage their
own manufactory as much as possible and lay very heavy duties,
or totally prohibit all foreign produce.-By -this means, our young
empire would increase rapidly in improvements, and our public
debt to be paid principally by strangers."
Imports had not only beggared the United States financially,
so the argument went, but had made Americans, particularly
women, " too fond of dress," and not fond enough of other
employment." Others wanted importation checked by home
manufacturing so that, " useless men [merchants and impor-
ters] would be obliged to turn to some more useful employ " r
and specie would remain in the country.
It was the duty of every citizen of the state, according to
"A Merchant of Maryland," to promote the state's " opulence
and aggrandisement," which included establishing useful man-
ufactures. To others it was the state's duty to add to its own
wealth and power by promoting manufacturing:
While our sister state Pennsylvania is laying out her hundred thou-
sands, and is almost road and canal mad, and Virginia -is led off
by building bubbles around bubbles; let Maryland be not alto-
gether inattentive to her interest, but improving, in a more sub-
stantial way, by attending to her manufactories, by which she
may, add to her citizens ten, 1 had almost said twenty fold, and the
Ibid, Nov. 22, 1792, " A Friend to Agriculture and Manufactures," p. 2.
6 Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, Aug. 15 ,1786, " To the Trades-
men arid Manufacturers of Baltimore." Hereafter cited as Md. J.
e B. Md. Gaz., Aug. 20, 1784, p. 2, "A Plain Dealer."
7 Md. J. Feb. 28, 1794 " Queries "; B. Md. Gaz., Sept. 26, 1786.
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