is also first. Four-fifths of all the loft-dried paper manufactured in the United States from 1860 to 1897 was made within fifteen miles of Springfield. As early as 1728 a Colonial grant was made for the encouragement of the industry. In Cambridge was done the first printing in the Colonies, and all the printing in the Colonies for nearly forty years was done at Cambridge and Boston. The manufacture of lumber and its products, especially furniture, is important; the gain for the latter for the decade 1890 to 1900 was 82.3 per cent. The slaughtering and meat-packing industry is acquiring considerable importance, as are also the refining of sugar and molasses and the production of malt liquors.
Massachusetts has an unusual number of important manufacturing centres. Boston ranks first distinctly, with a manufactured product of over $206,000,000. Its superiority is due largely to the excellence of its transportation facilities. From 1890 to 1900 there was a slight decrease in its total product, although there was a very large gain in the suburban towns—for instance, 198 per cent. in Somerville. The location of a number of the other large centres has been determined by their accessibility to water power—for instance, Lowell and Lawrence on the Merrimac, and Fall River, supplied with water power from Watuppa Pond, each of these being an important cotton manufacturing centre. Lawrence is also a very large producer of worsteds. Holyoke, the largest producer of paper and wood pulp, derives its power from the Connecticut River. New Bedford, another important cotton manufacturing centre; Lynn, a great boot and shoe manufacturing town; and Gloucester, a fish canning and preserving centre, all have advantages of coast navigation, while Haverhill, another leading boot and shoe manufacturing town, is at the head of navigation of the Merrimac River. Among the important centres not located on the coast or on rivers are Worcester, whose largest establishments are foundries and machine shops, and Brockton, another large producer of boots and shoes. Omitting the towns already referred to near Boston, those having the largest gains from 1890 to 1900 were Lawrence, 68.4 per cent.; New Bedford, 50.8 per cent.; Gloucester, 61.7 per cent.; Fall River, 32.4 per cent.; and Brockton, 25.2 per cent.
The table on following page shows the development for the twenty-one leading industries from 1890 to 1900. It will be seen that while the total product for these industries increased greatly, there was an actual decrease in the number of establishments, the tendency toward centralization being most marked in the boot and shoe industry.
Transportation and Commerce. A majority of the many railway lines centre in Boston, and the mileage for the eastern end of the State is greatly in excess of that of the other parts. The first railroad in the United States was the Quincy Railroad, three miles long, constructed in 1826-27 to convey granite from the Quincy quarries for the Bunker Hill Monument. It was not, however, operated by steam. The Boston and Lowell steam railroad was opened in 1835. About the same time roads were built to Providence and to Worcester, and by 1842 the latter line bad been extended to Albany. In 1860 the total mileage for main and branch lines amounted to 1264 miles; in 1880, 1915; in 1890, 2096; and in 1900, 2108. This was equivalent to 26.40 miles for every 100 square miles of the State's area, a rate higher than that of any other State except New Jersey. In 1900 forty-six railroad corporations had lines located wholly or in part within the limits of Massachusetts. However, only eleven of these were engaged in actual railroad operations, the roads of the other thirty-five being operated by certain of the eleven companies. Four of these eleven companies—the Boston and Albany; Boston and Maine; Fitchburg; and New York, New Haven and Hartford railroads—operated over 97 per cent. of the total railroad mileage. The average passenger fare per mile decreased from 2.51 cents in 1871 to 1.75 cents in 1900, and the average freight rate per ton mile was reduced from 3.11 to 1.71 cents. The striking feature in the transportation of to-day, however, is the great rapidity with which electric car lines are being constructed. At the present rate this mileage will soon exceed that of steam railroads.
Massachusetts has followed the example if New Jersey in providing State aid in the construction of public highways, and the policy has resulted in a superior quality of roads.
Maritime commerce dates from the first days of the colony. As early as 1631 Governor Winthrop launched, for coast trade, a bark called the Blessing of the Bay, and a few years later vessels were plying regularly between the various ports. Early in the eighteenth century there was a large West India trade. Many ships were also built for the French and Spaniards, who paid for them largely in rum and molasses. After the Revolution an immense trade with the East Indies and with the African Coast was developed. In fact, the commercial interests of Massachusetts and other New England States played an important part in the formation of the United States Constitution and in the subsequent political life of the States, being especially prominent during the period of the War of 1812. (See History.) Still later, notably between the years 1840 and 1860, the clippers built at East Boston and Newburyport were the fastest ships then known, and carried on no small share of the world's freighting. Forty-four of them were built in 1855 alone, and the tonnage owned in Boston in that year was over five hundred thousand tons. But the outbreak of the Civil War nearly paralyzed the commerce of American shipowners, and it has never been fully revived. Boston (q.v.) is second only to New York in its shipping interests. Steamships and sailing vessels connect it with the principal ports on both sides of the Atlantic. The ports of entry in the State are Barnstable, Boston, and Charlestown; Fall River, Gloucester, Marblehead, New Bedford, Salem, and Beverly; Newburyport, Plymouth, and Edgarton. (See Topography above for an account of the harbors in the State. )
Banks. The first commercial bank in the Colonies is said to have been established in Boston in 1686. The Massachusetts Land Bank was started in 1739, but all colonial banks were prohibited in 1740. The Massachusetts Bank, organized in Boston in February, 1784, was the first local bank in the State and the second in the Union. The Union Bank of Boston was chartered in 1792. By the beginning of the nineteenth century five banks had been incorporated in the State. Massachusetts was the first State to re-
