The Census of Manufactures: A History
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(micro)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
The cache is not at the posted coordinates.
The Census of Manufactures: A History
The Census Bureau is mainly known for its constitutionally-mandated population census every decade, as well as a number of other household surveys, such as the annual American Community Survey. Less well known are the many surveys and censuses it conducts of businesses, which underlie much of what we know about the U.S. economy.
The desire to collect such data existed at the time of the very first population census, in 1790, conducted under the direction of Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State. James Madison, a Founding Father and, at the time, a Congressman from Virginia, proposed that the census also enumerate those employed in 30 occupations, mainly manufacturing, including the making of ships, ropes & sails, cotton & woolen cloth, leather & shoes, nails, arms, gunpowder, tin, brass & copper, clocks & watches, glass, earthenware, paper, printing & bookbinding, hats, carriages, tobacco, beer, sugar, and so on.
Madison's 1790 proposal was ultimately rejected. However, in 1810, in an era of heightened interest in domestic manufacturing, due at least in part to concerns about supply disruptions stemming from the Napoleanic Wars, Madison, then our 4th President, signed an act instructing federal marshals to also collect manufacturing data at the same time as the upcoming census of the population.
This effort reportedly did not go so well, and there were serious concerns about the quality and completeness of the data collected. Nevertheless, the resulting report contained the nation's first statistics on the quantity and value of hundreds of manufactured goods, tabulated by state (or territory) and county. For example, in the Fairfax County of 1810, 9 wheat mills produced 10,180 barrels of flour worth $163,915; 3 distilleries produced 9,400 gallons worth $6,580; 1,600 pairs of shoes, boots, and slippers were produced, worth $4,800; and so forth.
A census of manufactures in 1820 collected even more data, including information on the number of employees (men, women, boys and girls); kind and quantity of machinery used; the kind, quantity, and cost of raw materials consumed; and various other expenditures (e.g., wages, capital investment). This manufacturing census hardly went better. No attempt at one was made at all in 1830.
In 1840, the scope of the “economic” portion of the census was broadened to include sectors beyond manufacturing, including mining, agriculture, fishing, forest products, and certain commercial activities. This effort was also deemed far from successful. A more organized effort in 1850, together with a number of methodological reforms, yielded the best data yet, though far less was tabulated and published than could have been. The Civil War meant a shortage of experienced clerks, negatively impacting the quality that could be achieved from the data collected in 1860.
The next decades saw increasingly professional efforts. In 1880, instead of using federal marshals, specially trained field supervisors and enumerators would now be responsible for enumerating the population, as well as manufacturers located in remoter areas. Meanwhile, specially appointed "experts and special agents" were tasked with collecting, compiling, and analyzing the manufacturing data for 279 cities and towns (containing roughly 90% of U.S. manufacturing activity). For Washington DC, the assignment went to Chief Special Agent William H. Boyd and three assistants, George S. Boudinot, John T. Powell, and John C. Wall, who each worked 50 days and were each paid $200-$250 for their efforts.
In 1880, Washington DC was found to be the 32nd largest manufacturing city in the country, with 0.33% of the nation’s net value of manufactured product, produced in 971 manufacturing establishments. (It was at the time the 14th most populated city, with 147,293 people, or 0.29% of the U.S. total.) It was 40th in manufacturing employment, with 7,146 workers, each making an average of $549 per year, of which 16.0% were foreign born (the national average for manufacturing at that time was 32.0%). Its two biggest manufacturing industries were printing & publishing (where it ranked 11th in the nation) and brick & tile manufacturing (where it ranked 7th).
Meanwhile, in 1880, Alexandria had 35 manufacturers in ten different industries with almost 500 manufacturing employees, 60% of which were in the brick & tile industry. Fairfax County had 20 establishments with just 43 manufacturing employees, engaged in flouring & grist-mill products and lumber.
By this time, the manufacturing census had expanded to 29 general questions, plus 49 industry-specific questionnaires, for a total of more than 2,000 inquiries, 700 of which were unique. The 1880 questionnaire for cotton manufacturers, for example, had 141 questions.
Up through and including 1900, the censuses were performed by essentially ad hoc entities that were established and then disbanded. In 1902, a permanent Census Office was established in the Department of the Interior, soon transferred to the newly-established Department of Commerce and Labor, and then a part of the renamed and recast Department of Commerce, where it has been since 1913. This permanent agency – today called the Census Bureau – permitted better retention of knowledge and expertise across censuses.
A permanent agency also allowed for the collection of data between decennial censuses, satisfying the needs of government decision-makers, business leaders, and others who demanded more – and more frequent – data than was being supplied. In particular, the Permanent Census Act of 1902 also promulgated the additional collection and compilation of manufacturing statistics in 1905 and every 10 years thereafter, thereby making it a quinquennial activity (i.e., every five years). A number of other regularly-occurring and special surveys were subsequently established and conducted as well.
The quinquennial collection of the Census of Manufactures continued from 1900-1920, when World War I and other factors highlighted the need for even more frequent manufacturing data. At this point the Census of Manufactures was made a biennial activity – to be conducted in all odd-numbered years. This pattern continued from 1921-1939, when World War II brought a halt in these manufacturing censuses in favor of war-related surveys.
The Census of Manufactures picked up again in 1947, after which it was again to be a quinquennial effort, supplemented by the new Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM), which satisfied the need for higher frequency data. (The ASM, which began in 1949 and continues to this day, includes all large manufacturing plants plus a representative sample of smaller ones, sufficient to produce relatively accurate statistics on the items covered by the CM.) Subsequent Census of Manufactures were conducted for 1954, 1958, 1963, 1967, and (ever since then) all years ending in 2 and 7, including 2017.
Today, the Census of Manufactures is considered part of the larger quinquennial Economic Census which, over the decades, has come to also cover retail trade, wholesale, services (professional & technical, health, education, food, accommodation, recreation, etc.), transportation, communications, utilities, construction, agriculture, mining, finance, insurance, real estate, and governments.
In addition to the quinquennial Economic Census, the Census Bureau conducts numerous annual, quarterly, and monthly surveys of businesses, which further contribute to our understanding of the U.S. economy, and some of which underlie a number of official economic indicators, including the well-known gross domestic product (GDP).
The Puzzle
This puzzle will require you to locate the correct volume(s) from the 1958 Census of Manufactures and find two specific numbers, which will complete the coordinates for this cache's location. Your research can and should be done from the comfort of your own computer; it does not require any visits to a (physical) archive and it does not involve any paywalls. Archive.org is where I would begin.
North 38. An industry called "Finishers of Broad Woven Fabrics of Man-Made Fiber and Silk" -- or "Finishing plants, synthetics" (SIC 2262) for short -- consisted of "establishments primarily engaged in finishing purchased man-made fiber and silk broad woven fabrics or finishing such fabrics on a commission basis. These finishing operations include bleaching, dyeing, printing (roller, screen, flock, plisse); and other mechanical finishing such as preshrinking, calendering, and napping." In 1958, there were 197 plants in this industry nationwide, 39 of which had an average of 100-249 employees. How much adjusted value added did these 39 manufacturing plants collectively produce? (The published number is in thousands of dollars, and therefore the actual number is in the millions of dollars. It will probably be obvious what you need to do to get coordinates.)
West 77. An industry called "Cane sugar refining" (SIC 2062) consisted of "establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing raw sugar, sirup, or finished (granulated or clarified) cane sugar from sugar cane." In 1958, there were 28 plants in this industry nationwide, 6 of which were in New York. These 6 plants collectively had 3,636 employees, 2,641 of which were production workers. What were the total wages paid to these 2,641 production workers? (The published number is in thousands of dollars, and therefore the actual number is in the millions of dollars. It will probably be obvious what you need to do to get coordinates.)
The Solution Checker has been enabled on the cache's webpage. The hide itself is not meant to be tricky. The solved coordinates will bring you to within feet of a very typical hide location.
Congratulations
Serrabou was FTF, 4 hours and 19 minutes after publication.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)