The disagreeable state of our commerce has been the effect of extravagant and injudicious importation. During the war, our ports were in a great measure blocked up. Imported articles were scarce and dear; and we felt the disadvantages of a stagnation in business. Extremes frequently introduce one another.
When hostilities ceased, the floodgates of commerce were opened; and an inundation of foreign manufactures overflowed the United States: we seemed to have forgot, that to pay was as necessary in trade as to purchase; and we observed no proportion between our imports, and our produce and other natural means of remittance.
What was the consequence? Those who made any payments made them chiefly in specie; and in that way diminished our circulation. Others made no remittances at all, and thereby injured our credit. This account of what happened between the European merchants and our importers, corresponds exactly with what happened between our importers and the retailers spread over the different parts of the United States.15
The depression hit New England the hardest because the region’s entire economy depended upon merchants who suffered grievously from the slump. The influx of cheap foreign manufactured goods also drove many artisans to ruin, and by the late 1780s one-third of Philadelphia workingmen needed help from poor relief to support families, a thousand homes lacked occupants, and poorhouses were inundated with requests for aid.16 Paul Revere therefore received a double dose of economic injury: the glut of goods and collapse of credit crushed his mercantile ambitions, and his artisan shop also felt the pinch when customers cut back their purchases.
Revere’s setback had implications for both his bank balance and his societal identity. Incomplete surviving records do not reveal Revere’s profits or losses from these merchant activities, though it seems clear that he failed to turn a profit in the early years of the 1780s. The fact that he continued importing and reselling occasional shipments of goods until his retirement shows that he could secure some income through retail sales, particularly when the economic crisis abated. Revere also entertained hopes of joining the prestigious merchant elite and possibly parlaying that into a political career. In the 1780s he started signing his name “Paul Revere, Esquire,” a gentleman’s title, and referred to himself as a merchant instead of a goldsmith on all official documents.17 Because America’s social classes operated in a flexible manner, no one had the authority or inclination to prevent him from giving himself the title of Esquire or highlighting his merchant identity on legal documents. Regardless of how he chose to sign his name, circumstances informed all observant parties that Revere, in spite of all his hopes and dreams, remained an artisan manufacturer.
As his new official signature suggested, Revere attempted to distance himself from members of the artisan trades although the attempt amounted to little. After the war, artisans in New England formed organizations to promote their interests, though they remained courteous to the merchants who continued to dominate the intertwined political and economic spheres. Boston artisans formed the Association of Tradesmen and Manufacturers in 1785 to successfully lobby for a tariff to protect them against cheap foreign imports.18 Revere avoided participating in this group while pursuing his merchant aspirations, and also refrained from involving himself in other artisan activities in spite of his earlier leadership role among Boston’s tradesmen. He ended his vacation from manufacturing the decade after his merchant career had flopped by returning to join and lead mechanics’ organizations. Regardless of his organizational memberships, Revere’s politics never wavered: he always agreed with Federalist artisans who supported the integration of domestic manufacturing and commerce.19
Paul Revere’s political activities reflected his shifting prioritization of mercantile and manufacturing goals. Tellingly, he produced the most tangible political impacts whenever he embraced his artisan roots. The most striking example of his influence among artisans, and indeed, among even wider circles of Boston society, took place during the constitutional ratification process. In response to the many weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, the delegates of the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention submitted the new Constitution in September 1787 to the Articles of Confederation Congress, which sent it to the thirteen states. The Constitution would take effect, and subsequently dissolve the Articles of Confederation Congress, if nine of the states voted to ratify it. Heated public debates immediately took place in Massachusetts and other states between pro-ratification Federalists and opposition Anti-Federalists. An Anti-Federalist coalition of mechanics led by Benjamin Austin Jr., a member of a mercantile family who based his artisan standing on the fact that he owned a ropewalk, began exerting its influence in late 1787 to urge rejection of the Constitution. Anti-Federalist activities prompted a larger coalition of Federalist mechanics to support the Constitution, and Revere became one of the three artisan leaders of this action along with baker John Lucas and publisher Benjamin Russell. These three artisans wrote resolutions urging support and ratification of the Constitution, which a group of Boston’s “Tradesmen and Mechanicks” unanimously adopted on January 7, 1788, in a mass meeting at the Green Dragon Tavern, their old alehouse from Revolutionary days. The annals of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association recorded the outcome of this meeting in a poetic form that, while almost certainly fictional, reflects the emotions of the day:
When the question of the adoption of the Federal Constitution was agitated, there was found to be great opposition to it in many of the States, and the course of Massachusetts was watched with anxiety. It was a time for prompt and decisive action, for her example might turn the scale. The mechanics of Boston sent a large committee of their number, headed by Paul Revere, to urge its adoption upon the convention then in session.
The president, Samuel Adams, asked Mr. Revere, “How many mechanics were present when these resolutions were adopted?”
“More than the Green Dragon could hold,” was the reply.
“And where were the rest, Mr. Revere?”
“In the streets, sir.”
“And how many were there in the streets?”
“More, sir, than there are stars in the sky.”
Their mission was successful.20
Whether or not the intervention of Paul Revere and the mechanics had a major impact, Samuel Adams and John Hancock did shift their stance from an Anti-Federalist position to one of qualified support of the new Constitution, and the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention eventually ratified it on February 6 by the slim vote of 187 to 168. The Federalists celebrated this victory several days later with a massive parade that symbolically featured all three branches of the balanced economy: large numbers of foresters, cattle, sowers, reapers, and other farming trades symbolized agriculture; a huge contingent of 250 merchants marched with the model ship Federal Constitution to signify commerce; and a column of artisans from forty crafts represented manufacturing. Paul Revere and the other artisan leaders enjoyed a position of honor in a sleigh pulled by four horses. All members of America’s society needed to establish their places in the new political, economic, and social order, and Revere and the artisans had to appreciate the results of this early negotiation.21
Influence among artisans did not fully compensate for his failure to ascend into the merchant class, but Revere did not lose hope. In the years after ratification he tried his best to secure a federal appointment to a position of influence in spite of a well-meant warning from his friend Congressman Fisher Ames: “The number of expectants, however, will be considerable, and many have merit and powerful patronage.” In 1791 he attempted to become the first director of the National Mint, a position of great prestige. Revere did not have the slightest chance of receiving this appointment due to his lack of gentleman status, intellectual credentials, and influential government contacts. Fisher Ames again tried to let him down easy, writing, “However your own ingenuity might qualify you for it, the circumstances will not much encourage the hope of an appointment.”22 Revere tried again, lobbying for an ap
pointment as a federal customs inspector, and again failed to make any progress. In an exact parallel to his earlier attempts to receive an officer’s commission in the Continental army, when he failed at the national level he turned to state and local endeavors with far more success. He eventually served the public by holding positions as county coroner, president of the board of health, and a member of the Boston Library Society, Boston Humane Society, and Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society. He continued his leadership in his Masonic lodge, including a three-year term as the grand master of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, the highest Masonic office in the state.23
In light of his inability to enter the merchant class, Revere redirected his efforts into other ventures, a process that eventually ended where it began, in the operations of his silver shop. But Revere had dramatically changed his methods and goals since his prewar silverworking, and new technological adventures lay just around the corner.
Return to Silver: Products, Methods, and the Shift toward Standardization
In spite of his intentions, Revere’s involvement in his silver shop expanded, eventually becoming a lengthy continuation of his prewar career. His second silverworking period lasted approximately from 1779 to as late as 1800, occupying him from age 44 into his early sixties. While his first (prewar) silverworking period clearly began with his entry into the business and ended when he devoted his full attention to Patriot activities, this second phase is more nebulous. After producing a small number of silver items in 1779 and 1780, Revere resumed full management of his silver shop in 1781 while dealing with fallout from his inglorious militia exit. Silverworking competed with many other endeavors: he initially divided his efforts between the silver shop and mercantile activities, and added iron and bronze casting to his repertoire in 1788. In spite of these diversions he continued to work personally on some silver objects at least until 1795 and supervised or helped produce many others. Revere’s postwar silverworking practices represented his first and most significant step away from artisan traditions into the manufacturing paradigms of the future, and his shifting practices therefore offer a valuable window into the evolution of a proto-industrial mode of production. More specifically, he decided to increase his sales volume by developing more standardized products, adopting new business practices, changing his labor policies, and bringing in new equipment.
Several underlying factors put an end to the economic weaknesses of the mid-1780s and set the stage for eventual growth. By the late 1780s, the market economy had expanded to the point where most people turned the goods they produced into commodities for exchange, producing sweeping changes across most aspects of American life. Farms produced surpluses such as agricultural produce and household manufactures for sale, and used the income to buy manufactures. The expansion of America’s market economy during the 1780s and 1790s corresponded with a much greater demand for goods; the extension of transportation networks; increasing numbers of corporations, banks, and factories; larger quantities of money in circulation, typically in the form of bank notes; and bigger and more numerous businesses in all fields. These remarkable changes affected every American citizen.24
Ambitious, forward-looking craft masters such as Revere realized they could benefit from America’s rising consumerism by emphasizing production quantity, replacing personal trade and barter networks with monetary transactions, and introducing machinery and wage labor to cut production costs. All types of manufacturing expanded in the 1780s and the booming market economy paved the way for industrialization thanks to the division of labor and mechanization, two technological advances that used managerial supervision and discipline to ensure coordination and consistency among the labor force. Mechanization usually preceded the division of labor in labor-scarce America, and machinery increased manufacturing precision while also boosting productivity through the application of alternative power sources such as water or steam. The division of production into smaller subtasks enabled manufacturers to decrease their costs and increase the quantity and consistency of their output, which fostered standardization. As illustrated by Revere’s example, some artisans already had extensive experience with these concepts before the Revolution, and further expanded their production in the late 1780s.25
Revere greatly expanded his shop’s output from 1,145 prewar items made from 1761 through 1775, to 4,210 objects finished between 1779 and 1797 (see Table 3.1).26 While he made more items in every category of silverware, by far the highest increases and largest overall production of silver pieces occurred in the category of flatware, referring to simple, flat items such as spoons or buckles. Revere made fourteen different types of spoons alone, including standard varieties for teaspoons, tablespoons, and salt spoons as well as rarer versions of marrow, capers, ragout, and dessert spoons. He also entered the field of harness fittings, which primarily consisted of buckles and other flat pieces. Simple, inexpensive flat items could be manufactured quickly and consistently by less experienced workers, and their production benefited from new equipment. Therefore they represented the perfect candidates for standardization.27
Revere did not neglect elaborate silver items after the war even though his emphasis shifted to cheaper ones. He produced thirty different categories of hollowware (large and usually cylindrical objects such as teapots, cups, and bowls) items after the war and thirty-four before it, a minor decrease. Similarly, the variety of unusual custom-made hollowware forms decreased as Revere focused his production on a subset of his preferred items. Revere’s versatility peaked in the early years of his career, probably because he most desperately needed new work and most eagerly hoped to augment his reputation. In later years, after he had become more established, he less frequently agreed to make atypical objects requiring a substantial time investment, indicating the start of his shift toward the ideals of mass production and standardization.28 Even though Revere’s variety of complex silver products declined, his overall output rose, as illustrated in Table 3.1.
Revere’s formidable networking skills contributed to his increased sales and production. His postwar customers included carryover clients from before the war, colleagues from his many organizations and affiliations, a moderate number of merchants, and a relatively large number of craftsmen who either bought his silver for their own uses or purchased items from Revere in order to resell them to other customers. He also forged new business relationships with people in different trades who might diversify and increase his sales. Beginning in 1787, he formed profitable business relationships as a supplier to four saddle and harness makers. By 1793, he switched to new alliances with a hat maker for whom Revere printed thousands of customized “maker’s labels,” and with a buckle maker in Newburyport who made buckles for Revere to sell in exchange for Revere’s help in acquiring a rolling mill of his own. By broadening his product line, Revere was able to establish relationships that offered him security against the fluctuating post-Revolutionary economy. His postwar records show fewer income lows and fewer gaps in sales than his earlier silver-working, though this partly reflects his improved recordkeeping.29
Table 3.1. Revere’s Silver Production before and after the War
Revere adopted several new administrative practices that aided his shift toward standardized mass output. The clearest example of how he embraced and implemented the ideal of standardization appears in a new advertising technique. In addition to continuing to use print ads, beginning in 1783 Revere produced more than 117 pounds’ worth of representative items such as buckles, buttons, and spoons for display in his shop window. This modern technique represented an impressive investment of material and labor in the eighteenth century, underlying Revere’s views of his business: hopefully, visible examples of some of his pre-selected styles and most common objects might help create a demand for these items, orienting customers toward the patterns his shop could most efficiently produce. At the same time, Revere adopted newer accounting and payment practices and his daybook entries increasingly portrayed monetary exchanges,.
The shift from barter to cash transactions spread across America, reflecting the increasing availability of cash, the desire to regularize payment methods, and the increased reliance on wage laborers who also expected payment in cash rather than bartered items.30
In spite of Revere’s increased production of relatively standard items, he reached the pinnacle of his artistic success under a new style that gained popularity in America in the decades after independence, combining technical mastery and aesthetic beauty. Following the dominance of the ostentatious rococo style prior to the Revolution, fresh excavations of artifacts at Pompeii and Herculaneum inspired English artisans to develop a new “classical” style of silver that emphasized straight structural lines and unbroken curves. Americans equated this new style with Federalist ideals, and the “federalist” (or federal) style of silver featured straight parallel structural lines, beaded or reeded molding, oval and elliptical shapes, and plain, fluted, and urn-shaped finials. The federal style’s emphasis upon simplicity and order supposedly represented a return to scientific principles, which might partially explain its popularity in America during the pragmatic self-improvement era that followed the Revolution. The federal style also might have lent itself to standardization more than earlier, more elaborate silverwork. Revere’s own skills seemed to fit federal silver better than earlier types: his methodical, measured approach enabled him to integrate and balance the different forms. Unlike in New York and Philadelphia, where there were a large number of competitive and equally skilled silversmiths, in Boston Revere completely dominated the postwar silver scene and mastered the federal style. For example, one prominent craft specialist considers Revere’s fluted teapot “brilliant” and “pristine,” adding, “In its sophistication and purity of form, it is one of the masterpieces of design in the classical period.” Other experts echo this praise, often describing the 1790s as the pinnacle of Revere’s artistic mastery.31
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