ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the many obstacles including English opposition, a number of industries did prosper in the colonies. However, that these industries consisted of relatively simple processing of the products of the forest, the sea, or the earth. Mercantilist theory mandated that the mother country was to be the supplier of manufactured goods to its colonies. Although the search for raw materials was the primary motive for colonization and competitive industrialization was strictly forbidden, the English government did hope to develop in the colonies certain industries which were not found in the mother country. Artisans were sent to Jamestown from its inception, and the Virginia Company had plans for an ironworks, a naval stores industry, and the manufacture of glass. The milling industry was extremely important in colonial America. The forest-based industry was the production of potash, which was used in England and in the colonies to make soap, glass, and fertilizers, and as bleach in the woolen industry.
