This paper argues that country storekeepers played an important,
but as yet unexamined, role in the complicated economy of the mid-Atlantic
during the early national period. One of these storekeepers was Samuel
Rex, whose daybooks, ledgers, receipts and correspondence survive to provide
a case study of a business operating in this era. In focusing on Rex's
relationship with the regional iron industry, the paper demonstrates that
iron plantations were not self-sufficient communities, but were dependent
on middlemen such as Rex for goods and provisions to run the furnaces and
forges and to compensate and feed their workers. This examination of Rex's
business adds complexity to the Market Revolution model and also illuminates
the economy of the mid-Atlantic, a region that has not yet received the
scholarly attention afforded the Chesapeake and New England.
In December 1790, Rex opened his store in Schaefferstown, Pa., a crossroads village 75 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The location was a good one for a country merchant because of its proximity to regional iron works, including just a few miles to the east, Cornwall Furnace and "mine holes," the richest iron ore deposit in America. Also, within one day's ride were Elizabeth, Mount Hope, and Berkshire Furnaces, and Hopewell, Speedwell, Charming, and Schuylkill Forges. Teamsters driving to and from these sites with loads of ore and bar iron traveled through Schaefferstown often stopping for provisions at the town's stores and taverns.
Rex was one of the town merchants who benefited from this trade, selling such items as tobacco, tea, linen, curry combs, whiskey, and lanterns to the teamsters for their own use or for the iron plantation. But, Rex's relationship with the ironworks went beyond the occasional sale to the workers or ironmasters. He presided over a network of credit and debt that enabled the ironmasters to get the goods they needed to operate the iron works and also pay and feed their workers, while spending little of their scarce cash. Rex served as an auxiliary company store for these ironmasters, allowing them to pay their workers with store goods and repay the storekeeper with bar iron, the commodity that was most readily available to them. Rex also supplied the iron sites each year with considerable quantities (over 20,000 pounds annually) of meat that he gathered from local farmers. This system was mutually beneficial to all parties. In exchange for their fresh pork or bacon, farmers received cash or credit at the Rex store and the ironmasters received meat to feed the plantations. Rex received as payment for the meat, some cash but, mainly bar iron that he resold at a profit locally or in Philadelphia.