| 100 MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE
England-many of which Maryland and the other states were
already manufacturing -and the constant drainage of specie
from the country to pay -for those imports, the manufacturers
and artisans in 1785 appointed a committee of Baltimore
tradesmen to correspond with tradesmen in other cities of the
confederation on the means of protecting and promoting
American manufacturing."
In 1785 the Boston manufacturers' society, the Association
of the Tradesmen and Manufacturers of the Town of Boston,
had persuaded Massachusetts to erect a protective tariff against
foreign goods. Elated by their success, they wrote that sum-
mer to artisans in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, and
other towns, recommending similar organizations and similar
methods of protecting domestic manufacturing.'5 These early
tradesmen's and mechanics' organizations were interested in
promoting American manufacturing by means of protective
tariffs against European, particularly English, goods.
Joseph Davis, in Essays in the Earlier History of American
Corporations, states that the Baltimore tradesmen's association
was formed in the autumn of 1785,48 probably soon after re-
ceiving the circular letter from Boston. The Baltimore Asso-
ciation of Tradesmen and Manufacturers in turn passed the
Boston letter to other Maryland towns,", and at least one town,
Frederick, " impressed with the alarming state of [trade]," ap-
pointed a committee of correspondence and circulated a peti-
tion to be transmitted to the 1785 session of the General As-
sembly.4$
" Thomas W. Griffith, Annals o f Baltimore (Baltimore, 1824) , p. 115. An
idea of the number and variety of trades and manufactures in Baltimore at
about this time can be obtained from those marching in the parade to
celebrate
Maryland's ratification of the new Constitution in May 1788.-Among those
par-
ticipating were " millers, butchers, bakers, brewers, Distillers,
blacksmiths, house-
carpenters, painters and glaziers, bricklayers, plasterers, Cabinet makers,
coacb
makers, wheelwrights and turners, coopers, tanners and curriers, shoemakers,
saddlers, and harnessmakers, leather-dressers and glovers, hatters,
tailors, stay-
makers, comb makers, barbers, silversmiths and watch makers, coopersmiths,
brassfounders, nailors and gunsmiths, tallow-chandlers, Printers, draymen,
ship
carpenters, ship joiners, carvers and gilders, mast makers, ropemakers,
riggers,
blockmakers, mathematical instrumentmakers, ship chandlers, boat-builders';
B. Md. Gaz. May 2, 1788, p. 8.
'6 Merrily Jensen, The New Nation: A History of the United States During
the Confederation, 1781-1789 (New York, 1950) , p. 296.
'811, 257.
11° Jensen, p. 296.
•e B. Md. Gaz., Oct. 28, 1785, Letter from "Manufacturers and Gentlemen of
Frederick-town."
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