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The Hardware Trade
by Edward C. Simmons
In 1895 Chauncey M. Depew published a Historical Overview of "1795
- 1895, One Hundred Years of American Commerce". It
consists of one hundred original articles on commercial topics
describing the practical development of the various branches of
trade in the United States within the past century and showing
the present magnitude of our financial and commercial
institutions. The article presented
here was written by Edward C. Simmons, founder and president
of Simmons Hardware Company, St. Louis, Missouri.
The Hardware Trade by Edward C. Simmons, President,
Simmons Hardware Company.
 Hardware is essentially a business that belongs to a new section
of country. It has been pertinently said by the pioneer, going
into a new and unsettled district, that the first thing he wants
is grub, and simultaneously with that something in the hardware
line with which to cut and cook it. Following this line of
thought, it can readily be seen that the larger distributing
centers for the hardware business would naturally be in the
central western country, where for the past twenty years the
United States has been so rapidly growing. In the eastern part
of our country, on the contrary, the necessity has been for
improvement and enlargement rather than for pioneer development. At the present time it is safe to say that there are larger
distributors of hardware in the cities of Chicago and St. Louis
than anywhere else in the world. There is no other branch of manufacturing in this country which
is so distinctly impresses itself: no other line that is so
entirely free from imitation of the ideas of the Old World; no
other line that has so quickly asserted its claim to its own
birthright and turned the universal import trade into a great
and constantly increasing export business.
All this has been done within the brief period of the last
half-century.
Prior to that, the American hardware trade was but
in its swaddling cloths, struggling against the flood of cheap
and ill constructed foreign goods, but with victory already in
its grasp. For, with far seeing ken, it had been founded on
broad and deep principles of success. Knowing well the temper of
the people, it laid wake at night inventing and scheming for
better and more economical methods, while the slow going makers
of the Old World were content with the ways that their
grandfathers knew.
Hardware is very comprehensive, for, at the present time, it
embraces almost everything that is not, strictly speaking,
assignable to any other specific line of trade. At the beginning
of this century it meant chiefly mechanics’ tools and builders’
hardware, whereas at this time it includes so vast a variety of
goods as to make it difficult to enumerate them correctly. Comprising, as it does, almost all the small articles made of
metal that are patented and used in the construction of houses
or for household purposes. As well as tools for all classes of
mechanics or professional men, it simplifies farm labor and
economizes the time of the housewife; it covers all that could
be classes as house furnishing goods for kitchen and dining room
service, the product of the tin shop and of stamped ware
manufactories, as well as tin plate, sheet iron, barbed wire,
etc., and has within its range sporting goods, such as guns,
rifles, pistols, ammunition, baseball supplies, in fact goods
for all kinds of outdoor sports, not least among which are found
bicycles. An idea of its vast range is conveyed by the fact that
one hardware house in this country alone has in its catalogue
about 45,000 kinds and sizes of articles, all of which it
carries regularly in stock. Before the first commercial treaty with England, in 1795, all of
our supplies in this line, substantially speaking, came from
England and Germany. Emigrants could frequently be seen bringing
with them their hoes, rakes, and forks upon which were strung
their bundles of clothing. Later the German goods made great
gain over the English. As will be seen by a more specific
reference later on in this article, these goods were, as a rule,
very crude, poorly made, and at all to be compared with the
articles that were manufactured even at first in this country.
The genesis of hardware in the United
States was undoubtedly in
Connecticut, where the village blacksmith was the manufacturer
of such goods (chiefly implements and tools) as were wanted,
which he fashioned to order as best as he could. A very
important individual was this same village blacksmith. He was,
so to speak, an autocrat in the community; without him it was
impossible to obtain the necessary implements for the
cultivation of the soil. But little progress was made in this line of manufacture until
the last half century, so slowly did this industry take root in
America. In 1850 the manufacture of hardware, speaking
generally, was commenced in the United States. Until that time
it is safe to say that an exceedingly large percentage-say,
perhaps, four fifths of all that was used in this country-was
imported from England and Germany. The goods were still
practically the same crude and rough products they were a
hundred years ago. No change worth noting had been made in the
method of manufacture of these goods in Germany. At the present time this country excels the rest of the world
immeasurable in the manner and method of putting up hardware, as
well as in the superiority of the goods in style, finish,
quality, temper, and durability. Who that was in business during
the decade of 1850-60 cannot remember the spear and Jackson
handsaw, made in Sheffield, England, the only then recognized
only good saw in the world; and the stiff English paper in which
these goods were wrapped, three of them constituting a shipping
package; and what an ungainly seeming bundle it made after one
had been taken out, leaving the remaining two to be done up as
best as they could in this unmanageable paper?
Who can forget
the old, and at that time the only good, horse nail, “Griffin,”
with the letter G stamped upon the head of each nail, which came
to us in twenty five pound sacks, with almost as many points
sticking through the bags to lacerate our hands as there were
nails in the package? As who fails to recall the Butchers file,
which came in paper bundles, three dozen in a package, with the
sharp point of every file peeping out of its cover, as if trying
to see what America looked like? Small goods, such as padlocks, door locks, screwdrivers,
scissors, and rules, etc. were all put up in rough but strong
English paper, which, while substantial, was very clumsy and
inconvenient. All these goods, and many more, have long since
ceased to be imported, and are made in this country of a quality
so superior to foreign manufactures as to leave no room for
comparison.
It must be borne in mind, however even at the risk
of repetition, that the manufactures of this country
particularly excel in their method of packing and putting up for
the convenience of the retailer. Files we put in half dozen or
dozen wooden boxes, with dovetail corners and slide lids, an
immense convenience to the retailer. Handsaws come in compact
pasteboard boxes (four in a package), and the box looks as well
on the customers shelf when partly empty or entirely so, as when
filled. |
