| THE STATE IN THE MARYLAND ECONOMY, 1776-1807 103
privately sponsored organizations. The promotional tradesmen
and manufacturers' societies that were established and the pri-
vate financial aid extended to immigrants were examples of
this. But these actions must not be construed to indicate a
decision that private rather than governmental aid was the
answer to the manufacturers' problem. -Rarely, if ever, did an
article advocate private resources be used for such a purpose.
Instead, such private impulses seem to be just temporary aid
until the Maryland General Assembly could be persuaded to
assume or resume its rightful responsibilities. These private
associations also served as centers for lobbying activities to help
convince the state of its duty toward the manufacturing inter-
ests of Maryland.
2
STATE Am
Maryland state aid to manufacturing and business in gen-
eral took many forms, from the indirect method of tax exemp-
tion to direct state participation in private business compa-
nies. During the thirty year period after 1777 the state relied
primarily on three methods of encouraging business and busi-
nesmen. It established monopoly privileges in the form of
patent rights for inventors and monopoly franchise privileges
in certain fields of transportation. Occasionally loans of state
funds were made to Maryland businessmen. However the most
striking post-Revolutionary method of aiding business was the
extention of corporate privileges to private business companies.
Although the Maryland Declaration of Rights of 1776 dis-
tinctly stated that monopolies were " odious, contrary to the
spirit of a free government and to the principles of commerce;
and ought not to be suffered," 58 the General Assembly offered
certain Maryland businessmen exclusive privileges for limited
periods of time in an effort to promote the state's industry and
commerce. These monopolistic privileges fall into two broad
categories: patent rights to protect and encourage inventors,
and franchises-exclusive rights to do business in certain por-
tions of the state or to collect tolls for public services.
The first inventor to benefit by a Maryland patent, James
sa Article 39.
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