His wife made soap and candles, spun yarn and dyed it, wove cloth and made the clothes the family wore, to mention only a few of the tasks of the women of the eighteenth century.
The organization of industry, however, was beginning.

Here and there were small paper mills, glass factories-though many houses in the back country were without glass windows--potteries, and iron foundries and forges.

Capitalists, in some places, had brought together a few handloom weavers to make cloth for sale, and the famous shoemakers of Massachusetts commonly worked in groups.
The mineral resources of the United States were practically unknown.

The country seems to have produced iron enough for its simple needs, some coal, copper, lead, gold, silver, and sulphur.

But we may say that mining was hardly practiced at all.
The fisheries and the shipyards were great sources of wealth, especially for New England.