The history of American commodities, like the history of the nation, is no longer a brief one. Three hundred and fifty years have now passed since the first adventurous Englishman, with musket in hand and ears alerted to the sound of moccasined feet, searched the wilderness area up and down the James River for New World wealth. As time permitted, he worked in his small shop making utilitarian things out of clay, wood, sand, and metal--objects not entirely lacking in beauty. Busy as he was with these tasks, he still found time to tend his small vineyard and tobacco field. As he worked he may have dreamed of the day when his hogs-heads of sweet-scented tobacco and casks of red wine would reach England safely and be sold for a profit. Trying to better his condition in a new land, he never dreamed that the seeds of his incessant labors, which he was unconsciously planting, would some day flower into a great industrial and agricultural nation. CONTENTS Introduction iii Boatbuilding 1 Timbering 4 Barrels and Casks (Coopering) 8 Potash and Soap-Ashes 11 Pitch and Tar 14 Iron 16 A Jamestown Blacksmith Shop 18 Glassmaking 23 Furs and Hides 26 Building 30 Tobacco 40 Wine 42 Silk 46 Pottery 48 Metalworking 52 Fishing 56 Brewing 60 Herbs and Medicinal Plants 64 Furniture 68 The Box-Maker and Turner 71 Carriages and Wheeled Vehicles 72 Spinning 73 Bread-Baking 74 "Harvesting" Ice 76 A Happy Home in Jamestown 77 Selected Bibliography 78 BOATBUILDING On April 27, 1607, the day after the Jamestown colonists landed at Cape Henry, some of the settlers began to build or assemble a small boat. George Percy, one of the original colonists, reported that it was completed and launched on April 28. It appears, therefore, that 350 years ago--on the sandy beach near Cape Henry--the Jamestown bound colonists made their first important commodity by hand in the New World. Contemporary records reveal that many small boats were built at Jamestown from the earliest years of the settlement. They afforded the best means of transportation through the uncharted wilderness, and were used for fishing, trade, and exploration. The conjectural illustration shows colonists building a small boat at Jamestown Island--near Back River--about 1650. [Illustration: Research on painting by author. _Photo courtesy National Park Service._