There were several reasons for this. A market for machinery must of necessity be a wide one, for no single community, not even a large modern city, can alone support a great manufacturing enterprise. Machinery building can thrive only in a settled country having a large purchasing power and good transportation facilities. The colonies lacked all of these conditions; the people were widely scattered and poor, and there were practically no facilities for heavy transportation, at least by land. The colonial mechanics were often ingenious and skilled, but they had few raw materials and they could supply only their immediate neighborhood. Any approach to specialization and refinement was therefore impossible. The second cause for delayed development was England’s industrial policy toward her American colonies. The colonists had hardly gained a foothold when they began to show a manufacturing spirit and an industrial independence which aroused the apprehension of the manufacturing interests in England. The first importations of iron into England from the colonies came from Virginia and Maryland, about 1718.[107] The importations for a few years thereafter are not known, as no records are available. They were sufficient, however, to arouse the jealousy of the English iron masters, for, although there was plenty of iron ore in England, they were beginning to feel seriously the shortage in wood which was then used for its reduction. They felt that the abundance of iron ore, fuel and water power in America constituted a serious menace, and they vigorously opposed the growth of any kind of manufacture in the colonies. This resulted in a prohibition of the manufacture of any form of ironware and of bar or pig iron by forges or other works. In spite of these repressive measures, a report on manufactures in the colonies, made to the House of Commons in 1731, indicated that New England had six furnaces, nineteen forges, one slitting mill and one nail factory.[108] These could, however, have supplied only a small part of the materials required even for colonial use. By 1737 much discussion had arisen respecting the policy of encouraging importation of American iron, and petitions in favor of doing so were presented to Parliament. England imported at that time about 20,000 tons of foreign iron, 15,000 from Sweden and 5000 from Russia, most of which was paid for in money.[109] It was urged that if this could be obtained from the colonies it could be paid for in British manufactures, at a saving of £180,000 annually. The annual production of bar iron in England was about 18,000 tons, and on account of the shortage of wood this could not be materially increased. To encourage colonial exportation of pig and bar iron to England would, it was urged, be the best means of preventing such further manufacturing as would interfere with their own. It was, therefore, proposed that a heavy duty be laid on all iron and manufactured products imported into