Alexander Hamilton: A Manufacturing Visionary

December 5, 2016 marked the 225th anniversary of Alexander Hamilton’s report on manufacturing to Congress. In 1791, the Secretary of the United States Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, submitted his Report on Manufactures: Communication to the House of Representatives. Hamilton’s report passionately and thoroughly laid out how the United States could gain specific economic advantages by encouraging the growth of manufacturing in the newly formed United States of America. Hamilton asserted that manufacturing would bring the added diversity of employment opportunities with increased productivity from using machinery and employment of technical skills. He saw manufacturing as a way of helping the country become “independent of foreign nations for military and other essential supplies.” Hamilton specifically called out the need for government to nurture a fledgling manufacturing sector. He compellingly outlined how manufacturing alongside a strong agrarian economy would make the United States of America the greatest economy in the world!

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Publication Date: December 5, 2016