of our fathers. Agriculture formed the basal industry, especially in the
Southern colonies; yet in New England and Pennsylvania both manufactures
and commerce thrived. Pennsylvania's yearly foreign commerce exceeded
1,000,000 pounds sterling, requiring 500 vessels and more than 7,000
seamen. From Pennsylvania, in 1750, 3,000 tons of pig-iron were
exported. The annual production of iron in Maryland just before the
Revolution reached 25,000 tons of pig, 500 of bar. The business of
marine insurance began in this country at Philadelphia in 1721, fire
insurance at Boston in 1724. New England produced timber, ships, rum,
paper, hats, leather, and linen and woollen cloths, the first three for
export.

In country places houses were poor save on the great estates, south, but
in the cities there were many fine mansions before 1700. From this year
stoves began to be used. Glass windows and paper hangings were first
seen not far from 1750.

The colonists ate much flesh, and nearly all used tobacco and liquor
freely. Finest ladies snuffed, sometimes smoked. Little coffee was
drunk, and no tea till about 1700. Urban life was social and gay. In the
country the games of fox and geese, three and twelve men morris, husking
bees and quilting bees were the chief sports. Tableware was mostly of
wood, though many had pewter, and the rich much silver. The people's
ordinary dress was of homemade cloth, but not a few country people still
wore deerskin. The clothing of the rich was imported, and often gaudy
with tasteless ornament. Wigs were common in the eighteenth century, and
all head-dress stupidly elaborate.

William Lang, of Boston, advertises in 1767 to provide all who wish with
wigs "in the most genteel and polite taste," assuring judges, divines,
lawyers, and physicians, "because of the importance of their heads, that
he can assort his wigs to suit their respective occupations and
inclinations." He tells the ladies that he can furnish anyone of them
with "a nice, easy, genteel, and polite construction of rolls, such as
may tend to raise their heads to any pitch they desire."

"Everybody wore wigs in 1750, except convicts and slaves. Boys wore
them, servants wore them, Quakers wore them, paupers wore them. The
making of wigs was an important branch of industry in Great Britain.
Wigs were of many styles and prices. Some dangled with curls; and they
were designated by a great variety of names, such as tyes, bobs, majors,
spencers, fox