Rug making in English colonies

Manufacturing on a large scale has never been encouraged by England in any of her colonies. The foundation of her whole economy demands that the mother country fabricate the raw materials which are produced in her empire.

So the factory-made carpets for American homes—Brussels, Wilton, ingrain, and Axminster—were largely imported from England until after the Revolution.

Probably the first carpet factory of any importance in the United States was started by William Peter Sprague in 1791, in Philadelphia.

When he reproduced the coat of arms of the young republic as one of his early designs, it won him fame.

Alexander Hamilton believed this new industry held so much promise that he put the first protective tariff in American history on carpets.