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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
AGRICULTURAL development was the chief economic interest of
New Jersey during the early period of its existence as a Colony.
Small farms were intensively cultivated in the eastern section and large
plantations, operated mainly by Negro slaves, flourished in the west. Al
though the isolation of farm people contributed to the establishment of
home industry, it likewise stunted commercial manufacturing.
The self-supporting farm was the standard unit of the Colony's economy for the two earliest generations at least. Even the small towns clustered at the head of tidewater regions on the eastern shore or along the
Delaware were largely devoted to agriculture. Soap, candles, textiles, even
tools were manufactured in the home by the pioneer women and children.
Trade, however, began to flourish almost as soon as the Colonists sighted
the Indians. Furs, skins, and tobacco found a ready market in England;
oil and fish in Spain, Portugal, and the Canary Islands; and agricultural
products in neighboring Colonies and the West Indies.
Gradually manufacture spread from the home to the community. The
miller, almost invariably first on the scene, was soon joined by the weaver,
fuller, tanner, shoemaker, and carpenter. Newark had a commercial gristmill in 1671, and the earliest sawmill was established in Woodbridge in
1682. Tanning, which had been started as a business in Elizabeth in 1664
by the Ogden family, quickly led to saddlery and harness making.
The fine forests in southern New Jersey yielded their lumber to ship
carpenters of Burlington, Salem, Newton, and Cape May, where shipbuilding became a leading industry. Equally significant was the development of whaling from Cape May and Tuckerton ; in many respects these
towns rivaled the more celebrated New England ports of the Colonial
period. Tar and turpentine were also important exports from the southern
part of the Colony.
Toward the close of the seventeenth and opening of the eighteenth centuries, several industries were founded in New Jersey that were destined
to become not only leading sources of wealth but traditional occupations
as well. An abundant supply of beaver, raccoon, and sheep furnished the
materials for hat manufacturing, which attained its greatest strength in the
southern area. At the same time, the Colony was rapidly becoming distinguished for its brewing skill. Hoboken, still identified with beer drinking,
had the first brewery in 1642. Beer was a major interest in Burlington in
1698. Two years later, Newark made more than 1,000 barrels of cider, and
Jersey applejack seems to have been as renowned among the Colonies as it
was throughout the East during the recent prohibition era.
In several spurs of the Appalachian range, running through the northern and central sections of the State, lay mineral deposits unusual for their
richness and variety. The State's earliest iron works were established at
Shrewsbury in 1676 by Colonel Lewis Morris, a merchant of the Barbadoes. Forges, furnaces, and bloomeries began to appear all over the northern part of the State, with a concentration at Boonton, the center of seven
rich mines in Morris County which supplied most of the Nation's iron.
These mines were a mainstay to Washington's army during the Revolution.
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