What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

“The Fishermen who made trial of his Hooks last season, found them to correspond with his former advertisement.”
Even before thirteen colonies declared independence from Great Britain, entrepreneurs encouraged consumers to support American industry. Abraham Cornish, for example, marketed “New England COD and MACKREL FISH HOOKS” produced at “his Manufactory at the head of Hutchinson’s wharf, North End, Boston” in the early 1770s. When he commenced advertising in the Massachusetts Spy in March 1772, Cornish proclaimed that his hooks were “warranted in every respect equal to any, and superior to most.” In particular, he singled out hooks “marked IP” to declare that every fisherman who tried his hooks and “every impartial person on examining” them “will soon discover their superiority.” Nearly a year later, Cornish reported that “the Fishermen who made trial of his Hooks last season, found them to correspond with his former advertisement,” that they were indeed “superior to those imported from England.”
Cornish’s hooks, however, were not produced from start to finish in the colonies. Instead, he imported the “best STEEL WIRE” from London and then used that material to make the hooks at his manufactory in Boston. What mattered, Cornish asserted to prospective customers, was the final stage of production combined with the superior quality of his hooks and his low prices. He confidently boasted that he made “the best Cod and Mackerel Hooks.”
In his effort to supply the fishing industry with hooks, Cornish simultaneously ran the same advertisement (with variations in spelling) in the Essex Gazette, promoting his product to prospective customers in Salem and other maritime communities served by that newspaper. He added two notes, one identifying William Vans as the local agent who carried his hooks. Customers did not need to visit or contact Cornish in Boston if they found it more convenient to deal with Vans in Salem. Given that those buyers would not interact directly with Cornish, he advised that his hooks “are all marked A.C. on the Flat of the Stem of each Hook.” That helped customers verify their authenticity when they acquired the hooks from sellers beyond Cornish’s manufactory. Such maker’s marks served as perpetual advertisements for the hooks.