Tradition points to many a house, in the region originally settled by the Dutch, as having been built with bricks imported from Holland. That such was not the rule, but only an exception, in the days of the West India Company’s rule, is proved by the frequent allusion to brick-kilns on the Hudson, near Albany and Esopus, and on the Lower Delaware. For the convenience of transportation, the trade has centred in these localities to this day. The making of salt, either by the solar process or by other means, was a necessity which appealed to the colonists at an early period. The Onondaga salt-springs had been discovered by a Jesuit about 1654, but, being then in the heart of the Indian country, they could not be worked by the French or Dutch. Coney Island had been selected in 1661 as a proper place for salt-works, but the political dissensions of the day did not allow operations to go on there. The Navigation Act of 1663, prohibiting the importation into the colonies of any manufactures of Europe except through British ports, made an exception in favor of salt. The result was that this industry was carried on in the middle colonies during the colonial period only in a few small establishments, furnishing not enough for local consumption. When the palatines began to emigrate, and there was fear that they would carry with them the art of making woollens, Parliament in 1709 forbade such manufactures in the colonies. In 1715 the towns-people of New York and Albany, probably also of Perth Amboy, Burlington, and Philadelphia, are reported as wearing English cloth, while the poor planters are satisfied with a coarse textile of their own make. Nearly two thirds of such fabrics used in the colonies were made there, and the Lords of Trade were afraid that, if such manufacture was not stopped, “it will be of great prejudice to the trade of this kingdom.” Governor Hunter very sensibly opposed any legislation which would force the people to wear English cloth, as it would be equivalent to compelling them to go naked. A report of the Board of Trade, made in 1732, tells us that “they had no manufactures in the province of New York that deserve mentioning;... no manufactures in New Jersey that deserve mentioning.” “The deputy-governor of Pennsylvania does not know of any trade in that province that can be considered injurious to this kingdom. They do not export any woollen or linen manufactures; all that they make, which are of a coarse sort, being for their own use.”