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This article uses American merchants' papers to identify the leading English textile exporters to New York and Philadelphia (1750–1805). It shows that Yorkshire and Lancashire took the initiative from London after 1783. The north's ascendancy stemmed from refinements to a well-functioning trading system rather than from the creation of wholly new channels of trade. The emergent exporters of Leeds and Manchester were driven as much by the dictates of sales as of manufacturing; their factory investments were just one component of a series of connections with production. American importers retained their role as intermediaries between English exporters and backcountry retailers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the childhood and the early youth of theorist Henry George. He was born to Richard Samuel Henry George and his wife on September 2, 1839, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In due course was taken to St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, by his father R.S.H. George. The father had him baptized "Henry." In the year 1839, Philadelphia was the second busiest spot in the United States, With a population of two hundred and fifty-eight thousand, it was only fifty thousand behind the brash young metropolis, New York, and had but recently conceded its place as capitol to the newly-planned city of Washington. His father, son of a sea captain, had been born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, but had settled in Philadelphia. There he had occupied a clerical post in the Customs House. He had married Miss Louise Lewis and by her had two sons. But wife and children had died, leaving him with a young adopted daughter, whom he placed in a small private school conducted by Catharine and Mary Vallance.