®Ijf i.H. Itll ©brari} 
 
 TS1565 
 G7B2 
 
 1 i>> 
 
TV.- u , 81793 
 
 inis book may be kept out TWO WEEKS 
 ONLY, and is subject to a fine of FIVE 
 CENTS a day thereafter. It is due on the 
 day indicated below: 
 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
Eni-V-i'.-vl V J-.TfrnktUs. 
 
 ■SIR RHII.MID AUK\\ Hie. IIT 
 
 /^ ^2^ U^ryjO--^ 
 
 FISHER. SOWfc C? lOJfDON, 18»6. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OP THR 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURE 
 
 IN GREAT BRITAIN: 
 
 WITH A NOTICE OF ITS EARLY HISTORY IN THE EAST, AND IN ALL 
 THE QUARTERS OF THE GLOBE ; 
 
 A DESCRIPTION OF 
 
 THE GREAT MECHANICAL INVENTIONS, 
 
 WHICH HAVE CAUSED ITS UNEXAMPLED EXTEySION IN BRITAIN ; 
 AND A VIEW OF THE 
 
 PRESENT STATE OF THE MANUFACTURE, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 COVDITION OF THE CLASSES ENGAGED IN ITS SEVERAL DEPARTMENTS. 
 
 BY EDWARD BAINES, Jun. Esq. 
 
 EMBEHISHED AND ILtUSTBATED WITH 
 
 PORTRAITS OF INVENTORS, DRAWINGS OF MACHINERY, ETC. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 H. FISHER, R. FISHER, AND P. JACKSON. 
 
TO THE 
 
 RIGHT HON. C. POULETT THOMSON, M. R 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, 
 
 AS A TBIBUTE OF ADMIRATION 
 
 FOR THE EMINENT SERVICES HE HAS RENDERED 
 
 TO THE INTERESTS OP TRADE IN GENERAL, 
 
 AND TO THE COTTON MANUFACTURE IN PARTICULAR, 
 
 BY 
 
 HIS ABLE AND ENLIGHTENED ADVOCACY OP 
 
 Jfree JCraDe; 
 
 BY HIS MEASURES AS VICE-PRESIDENT AND 
 PRESIDENT OP THE BOARD OF TRADE, 
 
 IN REPEALING THE MISCHIEVOUS DUTY ON 
 COTTON PRINTS, 
 
 IN LOWERING THE TAXATION 
 
 ON MANY ARTICLES CONSUMED IN MANUFACTURES, 
 
 IN SIMPLIFYING AND CONSOLIDATING THE 
 
 (ITomnurcial (ffoUe, 
 
 AND IN 
 
 OPENING NEW MARKETS FOR BRITISH MANUFACTURES 
 ABROAD ; 
 
 FOR WHICH SERVICES HE HAS BEEN 
 
 TWICE ELECTED TO REPRESENT THE TOWN OF 
 
 MANCHESTER, 
 
 THE METROPOLIS OP THE COTTON MANUFACTURE, 
 
 IN PARLIAMENT ; 
 
 AND FOR WHICH 
 
 THIS MARK OF RESPECT IS PAID BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 81793 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The history of civilization consists greatly in the history 
 of the USEFUL ARTS. Thcse arts form the basis of social 
 improvement. By their means men are raised above abject 
 want, become possessed of comforts and luxuries, and acquire 
 the leisure necessary to cultivate the higher departments 
 of knowledge. There is also an intimate connexion between 
 the arts and natural science. Mutually aiding each other, 
 they go hand in hand in the course of improvement. The 
 manufactory, the laboratory, and the study of the natural 
 philosopher, are in close practical conjunction. Without 
 the aid of science, the arts would be contemptible : without 
 practical application, science would consist only of barren 
 theories, which men would have no motive to pursue. 
 
 These remarks apply with peculiar force to the arts by 
 which clothing is produced, and, above all, to the Cotton 
 Manufacture of England, which is the very creature of 
 mechanical invention and chemical discovery, and which 
 has, in its turn, rendered the most important service to 
 science, as well as increased the wealth and power of the 
 country. 
 
 The subject of this volume may therefore claim attention 
 fi-om tlie man of science and the political philosopher, as 
 well as fiom the manufacturer and merchant. To trace the 
 origin and progress of so great a manufacture, with the 
 causes of that progress, is more worthy the pains of the 
 student, than to make himself acquainted with the annals of 
 
 5 
 
 k 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 wars and dynasties, or with nineteen-twentieths of the matters 
 which fill the pages of history.* 
 
 The Cotton Manufacture of England presents a spectacle 
 unparalleled in the annals of industry, whether we regard 
 the suddenness of its growth, the magnitude which it has 
 attained, or the wonderful inventions to which its progress 
 is to be ascribed. Within the memory of many now living, 
 those machines have been brought into use, which have made 
 as great a revolution in manufactures as the art of printing 
 effected in literature. Within the same period, the Cotton 
 Manufacture of this country has sprung up from insignificance, 
 and has attained a greater extent than the manufactures of 
 wool and linen combined, though these have existed for 
 centuries. 
 
 Sixty years since, our manufacturers consumed little more 
 than THREE million lbs. of raw cotton annually; the annual 
 consumption is now two hundred and eighty million lbs. 
 In 1750 the county of Lancaster, the chief seat of the trade, 
 had a population of only 297,400; in 1831, the number of 
 its inhabitants had swelled to 1,336,854. A similar increase 
 has taken place in Lanarkshire, the principal seat of the 
 manufacture in Scotland. The families supported by this 
 branch of industry are estimated to comprise a million and 
 A HALF of individuals; and the goods produced not only 
 furnish a large part of the clothing consumed in this king- 
 dom, but supply nearly one-half of the immense export trade 
 of Britain, find their way into all the markets of the world, 
 and are even destroying in the Indian market the competition 
 
 * So thought Pliny, when he said — " Mira humani ingenii peste, sanguinem 
 et caedes condere annalibus juvat, ut scelera hominum noscantur mundi ipsius 
 ignaris." — Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. ii. c. 9. Locke's opinion on the study of the useful 
 arts was thus expressed — " There is a large field of knowledge, proper for the use 
 and advantage of men in this world ; viz. to find out new inventions of despatch, 
 to shorten or ease our labour ; or applying sagaciously together several agents and 
 materials, to procure new and beneficial productions fit for our use, whereby our 
 stock of riches, (i. e. things useful for the conveniences of our life,) may be 
 increased, or better pieserved." — Lord King's Life of Locke, 8vo. edition, vol. J. 
 p. 1G3. 
 
 6 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 of the ancient manufacture of India itself, the native country 
 of the raw material, and the earliest seat of the art. 
 
 The causes of this unexampled extension of manufacturing 
 industry are to be found in a series of splendid inventions 
 and discoveries, by the combined effect of which a spinner 
 now produces as much yarn in a day, as by the old processes 
 he could have produced in a year ; and cloth, which formerly 
 required six or eight months to bleach, is now bleached in a 
 few hours. 
 
 It is the object of this volume to record the rise, progress, 
 and present state of this great manufacture ; — briefly to notice 
 its ancient history in the East, and its sluggish and feeble 
 progress in other countries, until the era of invention in 
 England; — to point out the advantages of this country for 
 manufacturing industry ; — to state, more fully and accurately 
 than has hitherto been done, the origin and authorship of 
 the great mechanical inventions, including the fly-shuttle.^ 
 the spinning by rollers, the carding machine, the jenny, the 
 mule, the steam-engine, the power-loom, the dressing-machine, 
 the cylinder printing machine, and mechanical engraving ; — 
 to mention the important chemical discoveries in the art of 
 bleaching, and the various and beautiful processes of calico- 
 printing ; — to shew the combined effect of these inventions and 
 discoveries, in the astonishing extension of the manufacture; — 
 to give the natural history of the raw material, cotton-wool; — 
 to shew how far the trade has been interfered with by legis- 
 lative enactments and fiscal regulations; — to describe and 
 illustrate the present state of the manufacture, and the condi- 
 tion of the vast population engaged in its various depart- 
 ments ; — and, finally, to weigh the probabilities in favour of, 
 or against, the continued pre-eminence of the English Cotton 
 Manufacture. 
 
 Thus extensive and interesting is the field which I have 
 aspired to occupy. In the greater part of it I have had no 
 predecessor. The want of a comprehensive and accurate 
 history of the Cotton Manufacture has often been lamented, 
 and has been justly considered discreditable to the literature 
 b 7 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 of the country which is the birth-place of so many admirable 
 inventions, and where the most extraordinary branch of 
 manufactures and commerce ever known has sprung up with 
 marvellous rapidit}'. 
 
 In executing my task, I have received valuable assistance 
 from gentlemen, who combine a thorough practical knowledge 
 of the manufacture with the best information as to its history. 
 I have been fortunate enough to meet with evidence as to the 
 real authorship of the greatest inventions in cotton spinning, 
 never before published, and as decisive as it is novel. I have 
 also had the advantage of the evidence recently given before 
 the Commission to inquire into the condition of children 
 working in Factories, and before the Select Committees of 
 the House of Commons on INIanufactures, Commerce, and 
 Shipping, and on Hand-loom Weavers; by which much light 
 is cast on the actual state of the Cotton Manufacture, and on 
 the condition of all classes of persons engaged in it. I have 
 been favoured by the Factory Inspectors with a body of 
 valuable statistical information, altogether original, shewing 
 the number of cotton mills in each county, town, &c. of 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland, with the number of operatives 
 engaged in them, and the amount of steam and water power 
 by which the mills are moved. 
 
 To the following gentlemen I offer my grateful acknow- 
 ledgments, for their kind assistance in obtaining the mate- 
 rials for this work; some of whom have bestowed an 
 amount of time and pains in aiding my inquiries, which, 
 as I had no claim to it on personal grounds, I must attribute 
 to their zeal for the diffusion of knowledge : — The Right Hon. 
 C. Poulett Thomson, M. P., late President of the Board of 
 Trade; Geo. Richardson Porter, Esq., of the same office; 
 John Kennedy, Esq., of Manchester; James Thomson, Esq. 
 F. R.S., of Ciitheroe; John Shuttleworth, Esq., Distributor 
 of Stamps, Manchester; John BowTing, Esq. LL.D. and 1\I.P.; 
 Rd. Guest, Esq. of Leigh ; Wm. Willock, Esq., Distributor 
 of Stamps, Leeds ; Sir Chas. Wilkins, Librarian of the East 
 India Company ; Thos. Thornely, Esq. M. P. of Liverpool ; 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Edward Strutt, Esq., M. P., of Derby ; Dr. Cleland, of Glas- 
 gow; John Crosby, Esq. of Nottingham; J. Garnett, Esq. 
 of "the Manchester Guardian;" Joseph Lockett, jun. Esq., 
 of Manchester; and the four Factory Inspectors, Robert 
 Rickards, Esq., Leonard Horner, Esq., Robert J. Saunders, 
 Esq., and Thos. Jones Howell, Esq. Whenever I was in 
 want of information, I repaired at once to the fountain-head 
 in each department ; and such were the courtesy and liberality 
 of the gentlemen applied to, that in every case I received all 
 the attention I could have desired. 
 
 An outline of the present work was published nearly two 
 years since, in the " History of the County Palatine of 
 Lancaster, by Edward Baines, Esq." — an extensive work in 
 course of publication. I contributed this portion towards my 
 father's History of the County where that manufacture chiefly 
 flourishes. It was thought, however, by persons eminently 
 qualified to judge, that the History of the Cotton Manu- 
 facture ought to be published in a separate volume, such a 
 work being greatly needed. Among these, Mr. M'Culloch, 
 in an article in No. 117 of the Edinhiirgh Hevietv, 
 having quoted from the work, referred to it in the following 
 manner: — 
 
 " See the excellent Histoiy of the Cotton Manufacture, by Mr. 
 " Baines, jun. of Leeds, in the ' History of Lancashire.' We hope that 
 " this valuable article may be detaciied from the work in which it 
 " has appeared, and published separately." 
 
 J have complied with this suggestion ; and, having bestowed 
 much labour, not unsuccessfully, in obtaining additional 
 materials to elucidate both the early history and the actual 
 state of the manufacture, I am now enabled to present to the 
 public a far more complete and more accurate portraiture of 
 the largest and most extraordinary branch of manufacturing 
 industry existing in the world. The work has swelled to 
 nearly three times its original dimensions. I hope the 
 interest has not been diminished, but increased, by the 
 enlargement. 
 
 'Leeds, January 28^ 18^35. 
 
 9 
 
ORDER OF ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 PLATE. PACK. 
 
 1 . Portrait of Sir Richard Arkwright. Frontispiece. 
 
 2. Lewis Paul's Spinning Machine — Patent, 1758 .... 139 
 
 3. Patent Machines — Lewis Paul's Carding Cylinder, 1748; 
 
 Sir Richard Arkwright's Spinning Machine, 1769 . 152 
 
 4. Hargreaves's Spinning Jenny 158 
 
 5. Carding Engine and Drawing Frame 179 
 
 6. View of Carding, Drawing, and Roving 182 
 
 7. Cotton Factory of Messrs, Swainson, Birley, & Co., near 
 
 Preston, Lancashire 185 
 
 8. Hall-in-the-Wood, near Bolton 199 
 
 9. Portrait of Samuel Crompton 203 
 
 10. Throstle, Mule, and Self-Acting Mule 207 
 
 11. View of Mule Spinning 211 
 
 12. Power-Loom 235 
 
 13. View of Power-Loom Weaving 239 
 
 14. Portrait of Sir Robert Peel 263 
 
 15. View of Calico printing 267 
 
 16. The Exchange, Manchester 360 
 
 17. Cotton Factories, Union Street, Manchester 395 
 
 18. Microscopic View of Fibres of Cotton and Flax .... 537 
 
 WOOD CUTS, 
 
 1. Cotton Pod and Flower 13 
 
 2. Ancient Figure of a Female spinning with the Distaff . , 49 
 
 3. Ancient Figure of a Female weaving 61 
 
 4. Indian Hand-mill for cleaning cotton 66 
 
 5. Indian Bow for opening Cotton 67 
 
 6. Indian Spinning Wheel 68 
 
 7. View of Indian Cotton Weaving 70 
 
 8. Woman spinning on the One-thread Wheel 118 
 
 9. Herbaceous Cotton ? . . . . 289 
 
 10. Shrub Cotton 291 
 
 11. Cotton Tree 292 
 
 10 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 India the birth-place of the Cotton Manufacture. — England its second birth- 
 place. — Early history and spread of the manufacture. — Effects of machinery. — 
 Scanty materials for the history. — The principal materials of human clothing 
 cotton, flax, wool, and silk. — Cotton-wool, its appearance and qualities. — 
 Its recommendations for clothing, compared with linen, both in hot and cold 
 climates 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 Spinning and Weaving invented at a very early period ; known to the Egyptians 
 in the time of Joseph. — Linen the national manufacture of Egypt ; Cotton, that 
 of India. — Antiquity of the cotton manufacture in India. — Testimony of Hero- 
 dotus ; of Nearchus, Arrian, and Strabo — Growth and manufacture of cotton 
 spread to Persia and Egypt. — Testimony of Pliny. — Curious etymology of 
 Cotton. — Ancient commerce in Indian cottons. — Testimony of the Periplus. — 
 Early excellence of the manufacture. — Indian cottons and muslins imported 
 sparingly into Rome and Constantinople. — The use of silks much more rapidly 
 extended than that of cottons 15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MANUFACTURE IN ASIA, AFRICA, AND AMERICA. 
 
 Introduction of cotton clothing in Arabia. — Spread of the manufacture by the 
 Mohammedan conquests. — Known throughout western Asia in the middle 
 ages. — Testimony of William de Rubruquis and Marco Polo. — Late introduction 
 of the Cotton Manufacture in China; its prevalence there. — Nankeens. — Japan 
 and the Indian islands. — The growth and manufacture of cotton throughout 
 Africa. — Cotton indigenous in America. — Beautiful fabrics of the Mexicans. — 
 Cotton clothing worn by the natives in the West Indies and South America, on 
 their discovery by Columbus 27 
 
 11 C 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MANCFACTLRE IN ErROPE. 
 
 The Cotton Manufacture introduced late into Europe. — First introduced by the 
 Moors into Spain, in the tenth centurj" — Flourished in Andalusia ; in Cata- 
 lonia. — Cotton Paper. — The Cotton Manufacture introduced into Italy in the 14th 
 century. — Never flourished in that country. — Carried on in Flanders and Ger- 
 many. — Much cotton grown and manufactured in Turkey 36 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 StJMMARY OF THE EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 Slow extension of the Cotton Manufacture, and its low state in Europe. — Owing to 
 the defectiveness of the machines and tools. — No improvement made in any 
 country till the age of invention in England. — The distaff. — The spinning 
 wheel. — The loom — Cotton more difficult to spin than linen. — Great mechanical 
 inventions in England. — The want of any history of those inventions. — This 
 work an attempt to supply it 46 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TflR COTTON MANDFACTHRE OF INDIA. 
 
 Unrivalled excellence of Indian muslins. — Testimony of ancient Mohammedan 
 travellers, of Marco Polo, Barbosa, Frederick, Tavernier, and Rev. W. Ward. — 
 Dacca muslins. — Specimen brought by Sir Charles Wilkins; compared with 
 English muslins. — Decline of the manufacture of Dacca muslins ; accounted 
 for. — Indian cotton, both annual and perennial. — Its defects, owing chiefly to 
 negligent cultivation and imperfect cleaning. — Evidence on the subject before 
 Parliamentary Committees. — Processes of the manufacture in India. — Rude 
 Implements. — Roller gin. — Bow. — Spinning wheel. — Spinning without wheel. — 
 Loom. — Mode of weaving. — Habits and remuneration of spinners, weavers, 
 &c. — Factories of the East India Company. — Marvellous skill of the Indian 
 workmen accounted for ; their physical organization, training, &c. — Principal 
 cotton fabrics of India, and where made. — Indian commerce in cotton goods. — 
 Extensive importations into England in the 17th century. — Alarm created by 
 them in English woollen and silk manufacturers. — Extracts from publications 
 of the day. — Indian fabrics prohibited in England and most other countries of 
 Europe. — Surprising commercial revolution caused by English machinery. — 
 Proved by a petition from Calcutta merchants. — Extract from M. Dupin on 
 English and Indian cotton manufactures 55 
 
 12 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE COTTON MANDFACTURE IN KNGLAND. 
 
 England among the latest of all countries to receive the Cotton Manufacture. — The 
 natural advantages of England, and especially of Lancashire, for manufactures, 
 unequalled by any other country ; water-power, coal, iron ; communication 
 with the sea ; inland navigation ; railways ; commercial position of the country. — 
 Political and moral advantages of England. — Adventitious advantages. — The 
 woollen and linen manufactures prepared the way for the cotton manufacture in 
 Lancashire. — Notice of the woollen manufacture. — The ancient " Manchester 
 cottons" a woollen fabric. — "Cottons" and "fustians" made of wool, in 
 imitation of the foreign goods bearing those names. — Early importation of 
 cotton-wool into England ; then used chiefly for candlewicks ; imported from 
 Genoa, Sicily, the Levant, and Flanders. — Mercantile commission to Turkey. — 
 The cotton manufacture probably introduced at the close of the 16th century 
 by Protestant refugees from Flanders. — First mention of the English cotton 
 manufacture, by Lewes Roberts, in 1641. — Humphrey Chetham a dealer in 
 fustians before this time. — Fustians manufactured chiefly at Bolton and the 
 neighbourhood, and bought by the Manchester merchants. — Species of cotton 
 goods made at Manchester. — Modes of doing business. — Calico printing com- 
 menced in England. — Rapid increase of the town and trade of Manchester 
 at the beginning of the 18th century. — Testimony of Stukely and De Foe. — 
 Extensive consumption of linen yarn as warps for cotton goods. — Extent of the 
 manufacture in 1740 and 1760. — Official returns of the imports of cotton wool, 
 and exports of British cotton goods, from 1697 to 1764. — Contrast between 
 that period and 1833. — Comparison of the cotton and woollen exports in 1700 
 and 1833 84 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 THE EK.\ OF INVENTION. 
 
 Remarks on inventors and inventions. — Obstacles to the extension of the manu- 
 facture, from the rudeness of the machinery. — Invention of the fly-shuttle by 
 John Kay, in 1738; and of the drop box by Robert Kay. — The one-thread 
 spinning wheel. Invention of spinning by rollers, by John Wyatt, of 
 Birmingham. — Description of the process of spinning. — Patent for spiiniing by 
 rollers taken out, in 1738, in the name of Lewis Paul. — Proofs that Wyatt was 
 the author of this great invention. — Cotton spinning mills at Birmingham and 
 Northampton. — Extracts from Wyatt's MS. book on cotton spinning, and prices 
 of yarn. — Letter of Mr. Charles Wyatt on his father's invention. — Paul's second 
 patent for a spinning machine in 1758. — Probability that Sir Richard Arkwright 
 knew of Wyatt's invention. — Claims of Thomas Highs to the invention of 
 
 spinning by rollers 113 
 
 13 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 INVENTIONS IN SPINNING MACHINES 
 
 Sir Richard Arkwrigiit ; his humble origin ; his construction of a machine for 
 spinning by rollers ; his settlement at Nottingham ; partnership with Messrs. 
 Strutt and Need ; his first patent for the spinning machine. — James 
 Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny; his machine broken by a mob; 
 riots against machinery ; Hargreaves retires to Nottingham ; his subsequent 
 history. — Effects of the spinning machines on the cotton manufacture. — Calicoes 
 first manufactured in England by Arkwright. — Opposition of the Lancashire 
 manufacturers to Arkwright, and to the new manufacture. — Parliament sanctions 
 British calicoes. — Other improvements in the spinning machinery. — Carding; 
 the old methods; the carding cylinder invented by Lewis Paul in 1748. — 
 Subsequent improvements in the carding engine by Arkwright and others. — 
 Drawing frame. — Roving frame. — Arkwright's second patent for carding, 
 drawing, and roving machines. — Great extension of the manufacture. — 
 Rise of ■ the factory system ; its advantages. — Dr. Darwin's poetical description 
 of a cotton-mill. — Arkwright's great success stimulates envy and opposition. — 
 His patent infringed. — Trial. — Arkwright's " Case." — Second and third trials. — 
 The patent declared null. — Arkwright's subsequent career ; he is knighted ; his 
 death; his character 147 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SPINNING MACHINERY (CONTINUED.) 
 
 Invention of the Mule by Samuel Crompton. — Description. — Powers of the mule. 
 — Improved by others. — William Kelly applies water-power to drive the mule. — 
 Crompton takes out no patent; receives a grant from parliament: notice of his 
 life. — Self-acting mule invented by Mr. W. Strutt; also by W. Kelly and 
 others. — The self-acting mule of Roberts ; its great success. — Improvements on 
 the water-frame. — The throstle. — The fly frame. — The tube frame. — Retro- 
 spective glance at the inventions and improvements in cotton spinning. — The 
 great importance of these inventions. — Unparalleled progress of the Cotton 
 Manufacture. — Cotton wool imported from 1771 to 1790; from 1701 to 1800. — 
 Exports of British manufactured cottons from 1701 to 1800. — Comparative 
 rates of progression in the manufacture before and after the mechanical inven- 
 tions. — Estimated value of the manufacture, and number of cotton mills, mules, 
 jennies, and spindles, in 1787 197 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 the STEAM-ENGINE, POWER-LOOM, ETC. 
 
 Disadvantages of water-power. — The steam-engine. — History of the steam-engine; 
 Solomon de Caus, David Ramseye, Marquis of Worcester, Captain Savery, 
 Newcomen, Beighton. — James Watt studies to remedy the defects of the steam- 
 engine ; succeeds. — His patent in 1769. — Brilliant era of British science and 
 invention — Watt connects himself with Boullon. — Act to secure his patent for 
 
 14 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 25 years.-^His improvements described. — First reciprocating engine erected in 
 1782. — Applied to cotton spinning. — Great importance of the steam-engine — 
 Improvements in weaving. — History of the power-loom. — Rev. Dr. Cartwright. 
 — Dressing machine of Johnson and Radciiffe. — Power-loom succeeds. — Number 
 of power-looms in Great Britain. — The willow, scutching machine, and spreading 
 machine. — Review of the processes of manufacturing. — The cotton mill a grand 
 triumph of science 220 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BLEACHING AND CALICO PRINTING. 
 
 Ancient modes of bleaching. — Improvement suggested by Dr. Home. — Grand 
 improvement in the application of chlorine (oxymuriatic acid,) discovered by 
 Scheele, and applied to bleaching by Berthollet. — Introduced into England 
 by James Watt, and into Lancashire by Thomas Henry. — Improvements by 
 Mr. Tennant, of Glasgow. — The processes of bleaching described. — Extent and 
 admirable management of bleach works — Calico printing. — First practised 
 by the Indians. — Cotton and linen more difficult to dye than woollen and silk j 
 their chemical composition.- — Pliny's description of calico printing in Egypt. — 
 Oriental modes of calico printing. — Introduction of the art into Europe and 
 England. — Excise duties early laid on printed goods. — The printing of calicoes 
 prohibited. — Legislation on the subject. — Calico printing first practised in Lan- 
 cashire about 1764. — Greatly extended and improved by Mr. Robert Peel, and 
 his son. Sir Robert Peel : notice of the Peels of Church, and the Peels of Bury. 
 — Block printing. — Important invention of cylinder printing. — Mechanical 
 engraving invented in Manchester. — Etching of cylinders by a remarkable 
 apparatus. — Manchester celebrated for its engraving — Improvement in the con- 
 struction of blocks. — Surface printing by engraved wooden rollers. — Union or 
 mule machine. — Chemical improvements in calico printing. — Use of mordants. 
 — Discharge work. — Resist work. — Dyeing of cloth Turkey red, and discharging 
 the pattern. — Bronze style. — Legislative interference with the printing business. 
 — New duties in 1784: repealed in 1785: duties fixed in 1785 and 1787. — 
 Repeal of the duties on printed goods in 1831: its beneficial effects. — Tables 
 of calicoes and muslins printed in Great Britain. — Statistical view of the 
 extent of the printing business. — Extent and beauty of the print works in 
 Lancashire 245 
 
 CHAPTER XIH. 
 cotton-wool. 
 
 Natural history of cotton-wool. — Annual herbaceous cotton. — Mode of cultivation, 
 in America and India. — Shrub cotton ; its varieties; countries where found.— 
 Tree cotton. — The silk cotton tree. — Dwarf cotton. — Cotton requires a dry and 
 sandy soil. — The best grown on the sea-coast — Sea Island cotton. — Salt a chief 
 cause of its excellence. — American Report concerning the growth of this cotton. 
 — Selection of seed. — First introduction of long-stapled cotton into the United 
 States. — Short-stapled cotton, called Upland and Bowed Georgia. — Modes of 
 
 15 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 separating the cotton from the seeds. — Roller mill, — Mr. Whitney's saw-gin. — 
 Extensive cultivation of cotton in the United States. — Exports from that 
 country. — Growth from 1S19 to 1832. — Different sources from which England 
 is supplied. — Bourbon cotton ; West Indian ; Demerara ; Pernambuco. — 
 Recent and successful cultivation of long-stapled cotton in Egypt ; imports of 
 Egyptian cotton from 1S23 to 1833; Egyptian cotton manufacture. — Indian 
 cotton. — Imports of cotton-wool from different countries from 1820 to 1S33. — 
 Distinguishing qualities of cotton. — Prices of different kinds from 1782 to 1833. 
 — Tables of import, consumption, &c. — Great fall in the price of cotton. — Its 
 principal cause, the extended cultivation in America. — Mutual dependence of 
 the English spinner and the American planter. — Freight. — Mode of consign- 
 ment. — Mode of selling and buying cotton at Liverpool 287 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 COMMERCIAL HISTORY. 
 
 The Cotton Manufacture owes nothing to legislative protection. — View of the 
 different kinds of legislative interference ; 1st. Restrictions on the importation 
 of foreign cottons; 2d. Duties on cotton- wool; 3d. Excise duties on printed 
 goods ; 4th. Miscellaneous laws intended to benefit the manufacture. — The 
 various statutes quoted. — Clamour against the admission of Indian cottons, in 
 1787. — High duties afterwards imposed; reduced in 1825. — Insignificant 
 importation of foreign cottons. — Entire repeal of the duty recommended. — 
 Improvements in the cotton manufacture by Mr. John Wilson, of Ainsworth. — 
 Introduction of the manufacture of British calicoes and muslins. — Charge in 
 the dress of the people. — Radcliffe's description of the growth of the manufac- 
 ture. — The Lace manufacture ; its extent and value. — The Stocking manu- 
 facture ; its extent and value. — Sewing thread. — Table of the Imports of Cotton 
 Wool, and of the Exports of British Cotton Goods, from 1697 to 1833. — 
 Explanation of the apparent decline in the value of the exports. — Reduction in 
 the price of the raw material ; mechanical improvements; rise in the value of 
 money. — Mr. Kennedy's table of comparative cost of English and Indian yarn 
 in 1812 and 1830. — Tables of prices of warp, weft, cotton-wool, and calico, 
 from 1814 to 1833: of prices of cotton yarn from 1786 to 1833. — Great national 
 advantage from the cheapness of clothing. — Fluctuations in the manufacture : 
 Mr. Kirkman Finlay's testimony concerning them, and on the present state of 
 the trade. — Effect of the cotton manufacture in multiplying the population of 
 Lancashire, &c. — Amazing effects of Machinery. — Comparison between the 
 periods of 17C0 and 1833 320 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE MANUFACTURE. 
 
 The Statistics of the Cotton Manufacture very imperfect. — Difficulty of obtaining 
 accurate accounts of its extent and value. — Some valuable information collected 
 by the Factory Commissioners. — Cotton-wool imported and entered for consump- 
 tion in 1S33. — Mr. Burn's statement of cotton yarn spun in England and 
 
 16 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Scotland. — Number of spindles. — Mr. Kennedy's estimate in 1817 of cotton- 
 spinning. — Mr. S. Stanway's estimate of the number of persons employed in the 
 cotton-mills of England in 1832, their ages, sex, earnings, kinds of occupation, 
 and length of day's work. Tables from the Report of the Factory Commission. 
 — Examination of this estimate. — Number of power-loom weavers and power- 
 looms in Great Britain ; of hand-looms. — Valuable statistical information 
 obtained from the Factory Inspectors : Tables of the cotton mills, number of 
 persons employed, and steam and water power, in Lancashire and other counties 
 of England, Scotland, and Ireland. — Number of calico-printers, lace and 
 cotton-stocking makers. — Other employments connected with the cotton manu- 
 facture. — Mr. M'CuUoch's estimate of the number of hands and capital 
 employed, wages, &c. — Mr. Burn's estimate made on different principles : he 
 neglects the evidence of the '* real or declared value" of the exports : state- 
 ment to shew that that value is worthy of reliance. — Mr. Burn's estimate of 
 the yearly value of the cottons exported. — Mr. Kennedy's estimate of the value 
 of the manufacture. — Objections to both, as too low. — Value of the manufac- 
 ture in Scotland and Ireland. — Table of the estimated yearly value of the 
 British Cotton Manufacture. — Capital employed in the Cotton Manufacture. — 
 Exports of British cottons to foreign countries. — Topography of the manu- 
 facture ; descriptions of cotton goods made in Lancashire, and at what places. — 
 The great print-works and bleach-works, where situated. — Information ex- 
 tracted from the Population Returns of 1831, relative to the cotton manufac- 
 ture in Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Cumberland, 
 Lanarkshire, and Renfrewshire. — Table of inhabitants, and their occupations. 
 — Observations. — Other parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland where the 
 manufacture exists. — Conclusion from the whole. — Table of the extent and 
 value of the British Cotton Manufacture in 1833. — Illustrations of its vast 
 magnitude 363 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES. 
 
 Inquiry into the physical and inoral condition of the Operatives in the Cotton 
 Manufacture. — The Factory Operatives. — Their Wages. — Tables of Wages, 
 Prices of Provisions, &c. at Manchester and Glasgow ; at the mills of Mr. Tho- 
 mas Houldsworth, of Manchester, and Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Hyde. — High 
 wages of the factory classes. — Account of Mr. Ashton's establishment. — Objec- 
 tions made to factory labour as unhealthy, severe, and destructive to morals and 
 life, especially to children. — These objections grossly exaggerated. — Popular 
 agitation on the subject. — Factory labour very light, though long continued ; 
 not nearly so injurious as many indispensable and common employments. — 
 Prejudices concerning the effect of the steam-engine combated. — Mr. Thack- 
 rah's opinion on the unhealthiness of cotton mills: Dr. Kay's. — Evidence to the 
 contrary. — Tables of health of mill operatives. — Medical evidence received by 
 the Factory Commission. — Evidence of the operatives themselves : tables of 
 health of fine spinners. — Testimony of the Factory Inspectors to the health and 
 comfort of the work-people. — Legislative interference to protect children in 
 
 17 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 factories. — Factories Regulation Act of 1S33. — Some of its provisions found to 
 be impracticable. — State of morals in factories. — Influence of masters. — Im- 
 provements of which the factory system is susceptible. — Other classes of opera- 
 tives in the manufacture. — Hand-Loom Weavers. Their deplorably low 
 wages : hours of labour. — Tables shewing the decline of weavers' waiges at 
 Bolton, Burnley, and Glasgow, from 1795 to 1833. — Occasions and immediate 
 causes of the decline — historical review. — Permanent causes — 1st. Easy nature 
 of the employment; 2d. Less confining than factory labour; 3d. Surplus of 
 labour — qualified and ejsplained ; 4th. The power-loom. — Proposed Boards 
 of Trade to regulate wages — impracticable ; proposed tax on power-looms 
 — absurd. — Desirable to facilitate the abandonment of the hand -loom. — 
 Evils and advantages of large towns. — Intelligence of the manufacturing 
 classes 433 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Critical period at which the Cotton Manufacture arose in England. — Vast exporta- 
 tions of cottons. — National importance of the manufacture. — Inquiry whether 
 England is likely to maintain her superiority in the manufacture. — Some 
 advantages possessed over her by other countries : greatly overbalanced by the 
 pre-eminent advantages of England, which remain unimpaired. — No symptom of 
 a decline, but the reverse. — Disadvantages of other countries where the manu- 
 facture exists, compared with England. — The cotton manufacture of the United 
 States : advantages and disadvantages of the Americans : they can compete with 
 England only in plain and heavy goods. — Progress and extent of the American 
 manufacture. — The cotton manufacture of France : great natural and political 
 disadvantages of that country : alarm of the French spinners and manufacturers 
 at the proposition to admit English goods under any rate of duty. — Slight and 
 partial relaxation of the French tariff. — Statements shewing the comparative 
 cost of cotton spinning and manufacturing in France and England. — French 
 manufacture of bobbin-net. — Estimates of the value and extent of the cotton 
 manufacture in France ; population engaged in it ; their wages : imports of cotton- 
 wool ; exports of cotton goods. — The cotton manufacture of Switzerland ; of 
 Belgium ; of Prussia, Austria, Saxony, and Lombardy ; of Hindoostan. — Inquiry 
 into the policy of allowing the exportation of cotton yarn: reasons against it; 
 answered : the exportation shewn to be desirable. — Concluding remarks on the 
 cotton manufacture, as a source of prosperity to England, and as a main support 
 of her universal commerce ; the moral advantages which that commerce may be 
 the means of imparting to other nations 503 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 On the Byssus of the Ancients 533 
 
 On the Mummy Cloth of Egypt; with observations on some Manufactures of 
 the Ancients. By James Thomson, Esq., F.R. S. (illustrated with a Micro- 
 scopic View of the Fibres of Cotton and Flax 534 
 
 18 
 
THE HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 India the birth-place of the Cotton Manufacture. — England its second birth-place. 
 — Early history and spread of the manufacture. — Effects of machinery. — 
 Scanty materials for the history. — The principal materials of human clothing, 
 cotton, flax, wool, and silk. — Cotton-wool, its appearance and qualities. — 
 Its recommendations for clothing, compared with linen, both in hot and cold 
 climates. 
 
 The birthplace of the Cotton Manufacture is India, 
 where it probably flourished long before the date of 
 authentic history. But so rude are the implements of 
 the Indian spinner and weaver, that no people pos- 
 sessing a physical organization less exquisitely adapted 
 to give manual dexterity than that of the Oriental, 
 have been able to work cotton into a fine cloth by the 
 same processes. The mechanical inventions which 
 have enabled the western nations to compete with, and 
 in some respects greatly to surpass the Hindoos, and 
 which have suddenly given to the cotton manufacture 
 an unparalleled extension in Europe and America, have 
 had their origin in England, and within the last age. 
 England, therefore, is the second birth-place of the art ; 
 and it is the principal object of this volume to record 
 the origin, progress, and present state of this important 
 branch of industry in our o\m country. 
 
 6 
 
 D. H. HILL IJZT».A.RY 
 North - ^ z - : • o.!-oa 
 
10 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Before entering, however, upon the liistory of the 
 manufacture in England, it mil be proper to inquire 
 into its ancient existence, and to trace its course from 
 East to West ; — not merely because this is a subject of 
 natural and legitimate curiosity, and one which has 
 been strangely neglected, but also because the result of 
 the inquiry affords, by contrast, the strongest possible 
 proof of the utility of macliinery, and of the importance 
 of those particular inventions which are afterwards to 
 be described. It will be found that the manufacture of 
 cotton was introduced into Europe at a comparatively 
 late period, and existed there like a tropical plant in 
 northern latitudes, degenerate and sickly, till, by the 
 appliances of modern science and art, it suddenly shot 
 forth in more than its native luxuriance, and is now 
 rapidly overspreading the earth with its branches. 
 Within one age, by the aid of machinery, the manu- 
 facture has made greater progress than it had pre- 
 viously made in many centuries. 
 
 Mechanical knowledge has taught man to substitute 
 for the labour of his own hands, the 2X)tent and inde- 
 fatigable agency of nature. The operations which he 
 once performed^ he now only directs. Iron, water, 
 steam, all mechanical powers, and all chemical agents, 
 are his faithful drudges, and not merely yield their 
 mighty forces to his command, but execute works much 
 more subtle and delicate than his own dexterity could 
 accomplish. By this means, manufactures of every kind 
 have undergone a transformation scarcely less impor- 
 tant than that which takes place in the caterpillar, when 
 it is changed from a creeping into a winged insect. 
 The new power given to the cotton manufacture will 
 be best appreciated, by contrasting with the lofty flight 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 11 
 
 it has recently taken, its craAvling progress in all 
 former times. 
 
 The review of the early history of the manufacture 
 will necessarily he brief. No materials exist for making 
 it otherwise. Whilst the writers of antiquity, both 
 sacred and profane, abound in allusions to clothing made 
 of wool and flax, there are scarcely a dozen sentences 
 to be found in the whole body of Greek and Latin 
 literature, and not one in Hebrew, referring to cotton. 
 The reason is, that the gi'owth and manufacture of 
 cotton were confined to those populous regions lying 
 beyond the Indus, which were an unknown world to 
 the nations bordering on the Mediterranean. To come 
 to later times; — the writers of the middle ages, and 
 those who lived during the revival of arts and letters, 
 in describing the progress of commerce, or the spoil 
 of captured cities, or the garments of both sexes, con- 
 tinually mention stuff's of woollen, linen, silk, and gold, 
 in all their varieties ; but such a manufacture as that 
 of cotton appears to have been unknown to them. 
 Until modern times, therefore, nearly all the evi- 
 dence is negative, with the exception of the reports 
 brought by adventurous travellers, or gleaned by inqui- 
 sitive naturalists. 
 
 Of the four great raw materials which furnish the 
 clothing of men — cotton, flax, wool, and silk — the first 
 two belong to the vegetable world, and the last two to 
 the animal. Cotton, flax, and wool, having short and 
 slender filaments, require to be spun into a thi-ead 
 before they can be woven into cloth ; silk needs only 
 that the threads spun by the worm should be twisted 
 together, to give them the requisite strength. 
 
 Whilst the bounty of the Creator has furnished these 
 
12 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 materials in inexhaustible abundance, his wisdom has 
 given them in such forms as to exercise the industry 
 and ingenuity of men in applying them to useful pur- 
 poses, and in such situations as strongly to encourage 
 the intercourse of diflFerent nations. Flax appears to 
 have been indigenous in Egypt, and probably in other 
 countries ; the sheep is supposed to be a native of the 
 mountainous ranges of Asia ;* the silk-worm was given 
 to China; and the cotton-plant to India and America. 
 
 Among all the materials which the skill of man con- 
 verts into comfortable and elegant clothing, that wliicli 
 appears likely to be the most extensively useful, though 
 it was the last to be generally diffused, is the beautiful 
 produce of the cotton-plant. Tliis material bears so 
 much resemblance to the earlier-known article of sheep's 
 wool, that among the ancients it was called the " 7vool 
 of trees;'' by the Germans it is called baumwoUe, or 
 tree-wool ; and in our own language it bears the name 
 of cotton-wool ; though the properties of this vegetable 
 substance differ greatly fi'om those of the animal fleece. 
 Cotton is a white substance, and in some of its varieties 
 cream-coloured, or of a yellow hue ; it possesses downy 
 softness and warmth, and its delicate fibres are suffi- 
 ciently long, flexible, and tenacious, to admit of being 
 spun into an extremely fine thread. It grows upon the 
 plant enclosed within pods, which protect it from injury 
 by dust or weather, until it is ripe and fit to be gathered, 
 when the heat of the sun causes it to expand, and burst 
 open the pod. 
 
 The following is a drawing of the cotton pod and 
 flower belonging to the Annual Herbaceous Cotton 
 Plant, (Gossypium Herhaceum) — 
 
 * Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, vol. iv. p. 312. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 13 
 
 The fibres of cotton are shewn, by the microscope, 
 to be somewhat flat, and two-edged or triangular, and 
 to be not straight but contorted ; — a construction which 
 causes the fibres to adhere to each other, and which 
 gives warmth to cotton clothing. The fibres of flax, on 
 the other hand, are straight tubes, with a smooth 
 surface. 
 
 Cotton is produced both from annual plants and from 
 trees, of which there are many varieties ; and, under 
 proper cultivation, it is raised in such abundance as to 
 be the cheapest of all the materials of clothing.* 
 
 • The natural history of the cotton plant will be given in a subsequent chapter. 
 
14 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The properties of cotton strongly recommend it for 
 clothing, especially in comparison with linen, both in 
 hot and cold countries. Linen has, indeed, in some 
 respects, the advantage ; it forms a smooth, firm, and 
 beautiful cloth, and is very agi'eeable Aveai' in temperate 
 climates ; but it is less comfortable than cotton, and less 
 conducive to health, either in heat or in cold. Cotton, 
 being a bad conductor of heat, as compared with 
 linen, preserves the body at a more equable temperature. 
 The functions of the skin, through the medium of 
 perspiration, are the great means of maintaining the 
 body at an equable temperature amidst the vicissitudes 
 of the atmosphere. But linen, like all good conductors 
 of heat, freely condenses the vapour of perspiration, 
 and accumulates moisture upon the skin : the wetted 
 linen becomes cold, chills the body, and checks per- 
 spiration, thus not only producing discomfort, but endan- 
 gering health. Calico, on tlie other hand, like all bad 
 conductors of heat, condenses little of the perspiration, 
 but allows it to pass off in the form of vapour. ]\Iore- 
 over, when the perspiration is so copious as to accumu- 
 late moisture, calico will absorb a greater quantity of 
 that moisture than linen. It has therefore a double ad- 
 vantage, — it accumulates less moisture, and absorbs more. 
 
 From the above considerations, it is evident, that in 
 cold cHmates, or in the nocturnal cold of tropical cli- 
 mates, cotton clothing is much better calculated to pre- 
 serve the warmth of the body than linen. In hot cli- 
 mates, also, it is more conducive to health and comfort, 
 by admitting of freer perspiration.* 
 
 * Another advantage of calico over linen has been mentioned to me by a scien- 
 tific gentleman, as important ; calico, being a worse conductor of electricity than 
 linen, does not so easily allow the body to be deprived of its due supply of the 
 electric fluid ; and this, I am assured, has no small influence on the warmth and 
 comfort of the body. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 Spinning and Weaving invented at a very early period ; known to the Egyptians 
 in the time of Joseph. — Linen the national manufacture of Egypt ; Cotton, 
 that of India. — Antiquity of the cotton manufacture in India. — Testimony of 
 Herodotus ; of Nearchus, Arrian, and Strabo. — Growth and manufacture of 
 cotton spread to Persia and Egypt.— Testimony of Pliny.— Curious etymology 
 of Cotton. — Ancient commerce in Indian cottons. — Testimony of the Periplus. — 
 Early excellence of the manufacture. — Indian cottons and muslins imported 
 sparingly into Rome and Constantinople. — The use of silks much more rapidly 
 extended than that of cottons. 
 
 The arts of spinning- and weaving, which rank next 
 in importance to agriculture, having been found among 
 ahnost all the nations of the old and new continents, 
 even among those little removed from barbarism, are 
 reasonably supposed to have been invented at a very- 
 early period of the world's history * They evidently 
 existed in Egypt in the time of Joseph, 1700 years 
 before the Christian era, as it is recorded that Pharaoh 
 " arrayed him in vestures of fine linen." (Genesis 
 
 • According to Pliny, Semiramis, the Assyrian queen, was believed to have 
 been the inventress of the art of weaving. Minerva is in some of the ancient sta- 
 tues represented with a distaff, to intimate that she taught men the art of spin- 
 ning ; and this honour is given by the Egyptians to Isis, by the Mohammedans to 
 a son of Japhet, by the Chinese to the consort of their emperor Yao, and by the 
 Peruvians to Mamaoella, wife to Manco-Capac, their first sovereign. These tradi- 
 tions serve only to carry the invaluable arts of spinning and weaving up to an 
 extremely remote period, long prior to that of authentic history. 
 
 k 
 
16 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 xli. 42.)* Two centuries later, the Hebrews canied 
 with them, on their depai-ture from that ancient seat of 
 ci^'iIization, tlie arts of weaving, spinning, dyeing, and 
 embroidery ; for w]ien Moses constructed the taberaacle 
 in the wilderness, " the women that were wise-hearted 
 did spm with their hands, and brought that which they 
 liad spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, 
 and of fine Hneu." (Exod. xxxv. 25.) They also 
 *' spun goats' hair ;" and Bezaleel and Aholiab " worked 
 all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cun- 
 ning workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in 
 pui'ple, and in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the 
 weaver." (35.) These passages contain the earliest 
 mention of woven clothing, which was linen, the na- 
 tional mauufactui'e of Egypt. Tlie prolific borders of 
 the Nile furnished from the remotest periods, as at the 
 present time, abundance of the finest flax ;t ^^d it 
 appears, from the testimony both of sacred and profane 
 history, that linen continued to be almost the only kind 
 of clothing used in Egypt till after the Christian era.;}: 
 The Egyptians exported their " linen yarn,'' and " fine 
 linen," to the kingdom of Israel, in the days of Solo- 
 mon, (2 Chron. i. 16 ; Prov. vii. 16 ;) their " fine linen 
 witli broidcred work," to Tp-e, (Ezek. xxvii. 7 j) and 
 
 • It is conjectured by the President de Goguet and other learned men, that the 
 Hebrew word translated in cur version, " fine linen," really signifies cotton. A 
 passage in Herodotus, (book ii. chap. 86,) has also been understood as intimating 
 that the Egyptians wrapped their mummies in cotton cloths. Both these conjec- 
 tures seem to me destitute alike of proof and probability; but as the discussion 
 would be too long for a note, I shall state the reasons for the conclusion I have 
 come to in the Appendix, A. 
 
 t Paintings representing the gathering and preparation of flax have been found 
 on the walls of the ancient sepulchres at Eleithias and Beni Hassan, in Upper 
 Egypt, and are described and copied by Hamilton — " Remarks on several parts of 
 Turkey, and on ancient and modern Egypt," pp. 97 and 287, plate 23. 
 
 X Herodotus, book ii. c. 37, 81. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 17 
 
 tlie same kind of cloth to Greece, in tlie clays of Hero- 
 dotus.* They were still noted for tlieir manufacture 
 of linen, and their export of flax, under the Roman 
 emperors. t Linen, in fact, continued to he the prin- 
 cipal article of clothing worn hy all the nations west 
 of the Indus ; and to the present day it is most exten- 
 sively used in the East, and in every part of the world. 
 The fleece of the sheep was probably one of the first 
 materials made into cloth : wool is distinctly mentioned, 
 along with linen, in the books of Moses and Solomon ;| 
 and though little used in the warm climate of Egypt, 
 woollen garments were common in the cooler regions 
 of Europe and Asia Minor. Manufactures both 
 of linen and woollen existed in Greece in the days 
 of Homer. 
 
 It is in the highest degree probable, that cotton was 
 manufactured in India, as early as linen in Egypt. If 
 the opinion is correct, that the arts of spinning and 
 wea\'ing were known to the founders of all the Eastern 
 nations, the Indians would be quite as likely to make 
 cloth of the woolly produce of their cotton plant, as the 
 Egyptians of the fibrous bark of their flax. In the 
 days of Herodotus, the father of liistory, who wrote 
 about the year 415 B.C., it is evident that cotton was 
 the customary wear of the Indians ; for among the par- 
 ticulars which his keen and universal curiosity gleaned 
 concerning that remote nation, he records, as one of the 
 beautiful and Avondrous things that distinguished them, 
 — " They possess likewise a kind of plant, wliich, 
 
 * Herodotus, book ii. c. 105. 
 
 f Gibbon's Roman Empire, vol. 1, c. 10, p. 444, 8vo. edition. 
 
 X Deuteronomy xxii. 11. — " Thou slialt not wear a garment of divers sort, as of 
 woollen and linen together." And Proverbs xxxi. 13. — " She seeketh wool and 
 flax, and worketh willingly with her hands." 
 
 C 
 
18 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 instead of fruit, produces ivool, of a finer and better 
 quality than that of sheep : of this the Indians make 
 their clothes.''* If, then, at tliat period, cottons were 
 the common clotliing- of the people, it may with strong 
 probability be inferred that they had been so for cen- 
 turies, as the most striking characteristic of the Inchans, 
 arising out of the spirit of their institutions, has always 
 been their extreme indisposition to change.^ It should 
 be remarked, that the Greek historian mentions this 
 plant as peculiar to India. He gives no hint of a vege- 
 table wool being made into clothing elsewhere. Of the 
 Babylonians he says, distinctly, that their di'ess was 
 of linen and of wool, (book i. c. 195 ;) and of the 
 Egyptians, that their dress was only of linen, except 
 that the priests wore a white woollen shawl when not 
 engaged in their ministrations, (book ii. c. 37, 81.) It 
 may therefore be concluded with certainty, that at this 
 time the cotton manufacture prevailed generally in India, 
 and also that it existed in no other country westwai'd of 
 tlie Indus. 
 
 We are led to the same conclusion by the statements 
 of Nearchus, the admiral whom Alexander the Great 
 employed (327 B.C.) to descend the Indus, and to 
 navigate tlie coast of Persia to the river Tigiis. From 
 the interesting and obviously faithful narrative of this 
 observant navigator, substantially preserved in Arrian's 
 History of Alexander, we learn that, " the Indians wore 
 linen garments, the substance whereof they were made 
 growing upon trees; and this," he says, "is indeed 
 
 * Herodotus, book iii. c. 106. 
 
 t In India, " the manners, the customs, and the dress of the people are almost 
 as permanent and invariable as the face of nature itself." — Robertson's Historical 
 Disquisition concerning Ancient India, sect. i. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 19 
 
 flax, or rather something much whiter and finer than 
 flax. They Avear sliirts of the same, which reacli clo\vn 
 to the middle of their legs ; and veils, which cover 
 their head and a gi'eat part of then* shoulders."* He 
 likewise says, that the Indian name for the cotton tree 
 was tala, and he describes its pods.t The accurate 
 Strabo, in his account of the Indians, mentions, on the 
 authority of Nearchus, their flowered cottons, or 
 chintzes, {(nvcovaQ EvavQeiQ-,) and also celebrates the vaii- 
 ous and beautiful dyes with which their cloths were 
 figured. This learned geographer states, that in his 
 own day, (and he died A.D. 25,) cotton grew, and 
 cotton cloths were manufactured, in Susiana, a province 
 of Persia, at the head of the Persian Gulf.]: 
 
 In the time of Pliny, who lived fifty years later than 
 Strabo, the cotton plant was known in Upper Egypt, 
 and also in the island of Tylos, in the Persian Gulf. He 
 says — " In Upper Egypt, towards Arabia, there grows 
 a slu*ub, Avhich some call gossypium, and others xylon,^ 
 from which the stuff's are made whicli we call xijlina. 
 It is small, and bears a fruit resembling the filbert, 
 within which is a downy wool, which is spun into thread. 
 There is nothing to be prefen-ed to these stuflFs for white- 
 ness or softness : beautiful garments are made from them 
 for the priests of Egypt."|l In his description of the 
 
 * Arrian's Indian History, c. xvi. 
 
 t Ibid. c. 7. 
 
 X Strabo, lib. xv. 
 
 § Gossypium was the Latin name; xylon (SiiXov) the Greek. Julius Pollux, in 
 his Onomasticon, vii. 17. also describes the cotton plant as growing in Egypt in his 
 day, A.D. 186. 
 
 II Plin. Hist. Nat, lib. xix. c. 1. (Delph. Ed. c. 2.) " Superior pars ^Egypti in 
 Arabiam vergens gignit fruticem, quern aliqui gossipium vocant, plures xylon, et 
 ideo Una inde facta, xylina. Parvus est, similemque barbatae nucis defert fructum, 
 cujus ex interiore bombiee lanugo netur; nee ulla sunt iis candore moUitiave 
 praeferenda. Vestes inde sacerdotibus iEgypti gratissimae." 
 
20 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 island of Tvlos, the same writer, following the Greek 
 naturalist, fheophrastus, enumerates among its remark- 
 able productions " wool-bearing trees," with leaves ex- 
 actly like those of the vine, but smaller; these trees, he 
 says, " bear a fi-uit like a gourd, and of the size of a 
 quince, which, bursting when it is ripe, displays a ball of 
 downy wool, from which are made costly garments of a 
 fabric resembling linen."* The original is as follows — 
 " Ejusdem insulse excelsiore suggestu lanigerae ai'bores 
 alio modo quam Serum. His folia iufcecunda : quae, ni 
 minora essent, vitium poterant videri. Ferunt cotonei 
 mali amplitudine cucurbitas, quae maturitate ruptae osten- 
 dunt lanuginis pilas, ex quibus vestes pretioso linteo 
 faciunt: arbores \ ocnnt gossymjjinos." 
 
 This passage is not only valuable as containing an 
 exact description of the cotton plant, but also curious as 
 offering at least a plausible derivation of the word cotton. 
 Pliny says, that the pod of the cotton plant was of the 
 size of a quince, a small fruit of the ^e^ genus; the Latin 
 name of this fruit was cotoneum malum, or cydonium,^ 
 {kvI^viov,) from Cydon, a city of Crete, from which the 
 quince is said to have been first brought; and it is sup- 
 posed by Dr. Vincent and others, that the resemblance 
 in size, thus pointed out, led to the name, cotoneum, 
 being applied to the wool-bearing plant and its produce.| 
 There is, however, another point of resemblance between 
 the quince and the gossypium, or cotton plant, which is 
 more likely to have occasioned a transference of the 
 name ; one species of quince, the malifornia, has leaves 
 
 • Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xii. c. 10. 
 
 t Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xv. c. 11. " Mala quae vocamus cotonea, et Graeci 
 cydonea." Hence the Italian name for this fruit, cotogna ; the French, coin; the 
 English, quince; and the botanical name, cydonia. 
 
 X Dr. Vincent's Voyage of Nearchus, p. 13. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 21 
 
 covered on the upper side with downy wool;* and this, 
 according to the etymologist Skinner, who is followed by 
 Johnson, led to the application of the name cotoneum-\ to 
 cotton. It is possible that the name of one plant wliicli 
 bore wool, may have been given to another plant bearing 
 wool, or rather to its produce, by persons ignorant of the 
 very wide difference between the two; and Pliny's com- 
 parison of the cotton-pod to the quince may either have 
 arisen from the resemblance having previously been 
 pointed out, though on another ground, or it may have 
 helped to cause the name of cotoneum to be given to the 
 produce of the gossypium. It must be admitted, that if 
 this is not the source of the word cotton, the verbal coin- 
 cidences presented here are extremely remarkable. Yet, 
 on the other side, it is extraordinary that the word should 
 not have come down by the accustomed channels, the 
 Latin or Greek, in which languages I am not aware that 
 cotoneum was ever applied to cotton, f — but by the very 
 circuitous route of Arabia. Our word cotton is evidently 
 
 derived from the Arabic u which m European 
 
 characters is Tcotdn, and is ]y\:o\\o\\Ticedi goottn. Hence the 
 
 * Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xv. c. 17. " Necnon aliqui in floccis capsisque, quas Into 
 paleato illinunt." 
 
 t Skinner's Etymologicon, voce '' Cotton, a Fr. Cotton, Ital. Cottone, C. Br. 
 Cottwn, Lana Xylina. Sic autem dicitur a similitudine lanuginis quae adhaeret 
 malis cydoniis, quae Ital. Cotogni appellantur. Cotogni autem k Cydonio manifeste 
 ortum ducit." 
 
 X I have examined Facciolati's Lexicon, Salmasius' Exercitationes Plinianae, &c. 
 without finding any application of the word cotoneum to cotton. The earliest use 
 of the word in a Latin form, applied to the substance cotton, which I have been 
 able to discover, is in a charter of Roger, king of Sicily, dated A. d. 1145, in which 
 mention is made of a former charter, dated A. d. 1102, and stated to be written on 
 cotton paper (" charta ciittunea") But as the Europeans both learned the art of 
 making cotton paper from the Arabs, and received their cotton-wool from countries 
 where the Arabic language was spoken, the word was probably adopted from them, 
 and not found in the classical Latin. 
 
22 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Italians and tlie Spaniards, both of wliom first received 
 cotton and the cotton manufacture from the Arabs, 
 took their names for the substance, the Italians calling 
 it cotone* and the Spaniards algodon, i. e. godon, with 
 the article cd prefixed.f From the Italian the name has 
 been taken by the English and French, unless they also 
 drew it direct from the Arabic, as they may have done 
 during the crusades. But it is possible that the Arabs 
 themselves may have adopted the word from the Latin or 
 Greek, and thus it may have reached Europeans by this 
 eccentric course. I confess myself unable to form a 
 decided opinion on so nice a question of etymology .J 
 
 The first mention of cottons as an article of trade, is 
 in that valuable record of ancient commerce, " Tlie Cir- 
 cumnavigation of tlie Erythraean Sea," (Periplus Maris 
 Erythrcei,) by Arrian, an Egyptian Greek, who lived in 
 the first or second century of the Christian era. This 
 writer, who was himself a merchant and a navigator, 
 sailed round the coasts of the Erythraean Sea, which com- 
 prehends that part of the ocean from the Red Sea to the 
 
 * The Italians also call cottor,' hamhagia, and the cotton tree bambagio, the 
 origin of which word is doubtless correctly given by Montfaucon, in speaking of 
 cotton paper: — " This paper is called in Greek x^prtjc f3onj3vKivog, or (Safipd- 
 Kivoq, that is, cotton paper. For though fSo/ijSvS, in Pliny, and some other writers, 
 signifies silk, yet it means also cotton, especially in the later writers, as well as 
 /3ajU/8a?, and therefore it is that the Italians still call cotton bambacio." Montfau- 
 con's Supplement to Antiquity Explained, vol. iii. book ix. c. 5. — Pliny sometimes 
 confounds together the natural history of silk and cotton, which is not to be won- 
 dered at, as he wrote by report concerning the prpductions of distant countries : he 
 heard that both silk and cotton grew upon trees ; — a report probably originating in 
 the fact, that the silk- worm feeds on the leaves of the mulberry tree, which is culti- 
 vated for the sole purpose of raising silk. 
 
 t From the Arabs also Europeans adopted the under-garment now universally 
 worn, the shirt, the Arabic name for which is camees, whence the Italian camiscia, 
 and the French chemise. 
 
 X An Oriental scholar, whom I have consulted on the subject, offers the conjec- 
 ture that the word may possibly have originated in the Chaldee word JT'JJOp (kit- 
 nith,) a pod, or seed-vessel. * • 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 23 
 
 furthest extremity of India; and he particularly describes 
 the imports and exports of several Indian towns, in their 
 trade with the Arabs and Greeks. From this work it 
 appears, that the Arab traders brought Indian cottons to 
 Aduli, a port of the Red Sea ; that the ports beyond the 
 Red Sea had an established trade Avith Patala, (on the 
 Indus,) Ariake, and Barygaza, (the modern Baroche, 
 on the great river Nerbuddah, near the north-western 
 coast of India,) and received from them, among other 
 things, cotton goods of various kinds ; that Barygaza 
 exported largely the calicoes, muslins, and other cottons, 
 both plain and ornamented with flowers, made in the 
 provinces of which this was the port, and in the interior 
 and more remote provinces of India ;* that Masalia (the 
 modern Masulipatam) was then, as it has been ever 
 since, famous for the manufacture of cotton piece goods;! 
 and that the muslins of Bengal were then, as at the pre- 
 sent day, superior to all others, and received from the 
 Greeks the name of Gangitiki, indicating that they were 
 made on the borders of the Ganges.^ 
 
 * Periplus, p. 28. The author also mentions Plithana, which is shown by Lieut. 
 Wilford to be the modern Pultanah, on the southern bank of the Godavery, two 
 hundred and seventeen miles south of Baroche ; and Tagara, which is shown to be 
 the modern Dowlatabad. The high grounds across which the author of the Peri- 
 plus says that goods were conveyed from Tagara to Barygaza, are the Ballagaut 
 mountains. — Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 369. 
 
 f Periplus, p. 35. Vincent, vol. ii. p. 523. 
 
 t " '2ivS6viq cu Sia(popwTaTai, al TayjiTiKai Xeyo/ifi/at." The mention of the 
 superiority of the Bengal muslins is a proof both of the accurate information con- 
 tained in the Periplus, and of the wonderfully stationary condition in which the 
 arts of India have remained, even as to their particular localities, from the date of 
 the earliest records. The other names given in the Periplus to cotton goods, are 
 KapiraaoQ — fine muslins; MoXoxiva — coarse cottons; 'O96viov — muslin; Movaxv 
 — wide muslins of the finest kind ; Xu^aTov— coarse muslins or cottons. — See Dr. 
 Vincent's Periplus, Appendix, vol. ii. pp. IS, 58, 75, 76. — At the town of Baroche, 
 in Guzerat, (mentioned in the text,) Forbes describes the manufacture as being 
 now in nearly the same state as when the Periplus was written. He says — " The 
 cotton trade at Baroche is very considerable, and the manufactures of this valuable 
 
24 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 From the evidence of Strabo, Pliny, and the Periplus, 
 quoted above, it appears that the growth and manu- 
 facture of cotton had, at the Christian era, extended to 
 Persia and Egypt; and also that the delicate fabrics of 
 India, incluchng muslins and calicoes, both plain and 
 figured, were brought by Greek na^dgators to the ports 
 of Egypt and Arabia, w^hence, it may be presumed, they 
 would reach the capital of the Roman world, and some 
 of the wealthy cities of Greece. Yet cotton goods could 
 not have been imported into Rome or Greece to any 
 considerable extent, or even regularly, since there is no 
 distinct mention of them as ai'ticles of importation or 
 consumption by any of the \vriters of those countries, 
 though the other produce af the East, gold, spices, pre- 
 cious stones, and even silk, are often specified. Tlie 
 same conclusion is still more decisively dra^n from the 
 fact, that the various kinds of cotton goods are not enu- 
 merated in the Roman law de Puhlicanis et Vectiga- 
 lihus* whicli included the different articles of merchan- 
 dise imported, with the duties chargeable upon them. 
 But as a very extensive trading intercourse existed 
 between Italy and Egypt, it is certain tliat cotton goods 
 would have been imported into Italy if they had been 
 
 plant, from the finest muslin to the coarsest sail-cloth, employ thousands of men, 
 women, and children, in the metropolis and the adjacent villages. The cotton 
 clearers and spinners generally reside in the suburbs, or poorahs, of Baroche, which 
 are very extensive. The weavers' houses are mostly near the shade of tamarind 
 and mango trees, under which, at sun-rise, they fix their looms, and weave a 
 variety of cotton cloth, with very fine baftas and muslins. Surat is more famous 
 for its coloured chintzes and piece goods. The Baroche muslins are inferior to 
 those of Bengal and Madras, nor do the painted chintzes of Guzerat equal those of 
 the Coromandel coast." — Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 222. 
 
 * Robertson's Disquisition on India, note xxv. Dr. Robertson is of opinion that 
 the Romans imported the cotton piece-goods of India, but he says — " As far as I 
 have observed, we have no authority that will justify us in stating the ancient 
 importation of them to be in any degree considerable." sect. 2. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 25 
 
 largely manufactured in Egypt. It is probable that the 
 use of cotton clotliing was introduced very slowly in 
 that country, and did not become general for some 
 centuries. 
 
 To those who have observed the rapid spread of the 
 cotton manufacture in the present generation, it may 
 appear beyond measure extraordinary that a branch of 
 industry so apt to propagate itself should have lingered 
 thirteen hundred years on the coast of the Mediter- 
 ranean, before it crossed that sea into Greece or Italy. 
 It may also appear remarkable, tliat the exquisite fabrics 
 of India should not, when known, have been eagerly 
 desired in the Roman empire, and been largely imported. 
 Such was the case with silks, which, though more costly, 
 and fetched from the more remote region of China, were 
 sought with avidity by the ladies of Rome, and still more 
 by those of the eastern capital, Constantinople. Silk, 
 both raw and manufactured, became an important article 
 of commerce through India and Persia, and even by the 
 route of the Oxus, the Caspian, and the Volga : and it is 
 justly commemorated as an important event, that silk- 
 worms, with the art of manufacturing tlieir produce, 
 were brought from China to Constantinople, by two 
 Persian monks, in the reign of Justinian, a.d. 552.* It 
 appears that Indian cotton goods were imported into the 
 Eastern empire in the same age, as they are found in 
 the list of goods charged with duties in Justinian's digest 
 of the laws it but being scarcely mentioned by any 
 
 * Procopius, de Bello Gothico, lib. iv. c. 17. 
 
 t Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or a complete Collection of 
 Voyages and Travels; by John Harris, D.D. F.R.S. In an introductory account of 
 the " Discovery, Settlement, and Commerce of the East Indies," the author says — 
 " We find amongst the rest of the Indian commodities charged vfith duties (in the 
 public laws of the empire, collected by Justinian,) all sorts of silk and cotton 
 manufactures, which they brought, as we do, from those countries, and probably 
 
 D 
 
 D. H. HILL LfSRARY 
 
 North La o;.na Sta::, College 
 
26 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 writer, whilst silks are pei-petually meutioned, it must be 
 infeiTcd that cottons were held in very subordinate esti- 
 mation, and probably introduced only in small quantities. 
 Left to conjectui'e to account for this fact, I can only 
 suppose that the soft textui*e, glossy surface, and bril- 
 liant hues of silk, so different from woollen, linen, or 
 cotton, and so much superior, captivated general admii'a- 
 tion ;* and that muslins and chintzes could not vie with 
 silks as articles of luxmy, whilst they were too dear to 
 compete with the manufactures of wool and flax as the 
 materials of ordinaiy wesQ-. 
 
 for the same reason, because they found that method cheaper than bringing the 
 commodity and working it up at home." vol. i. p. 506. It is evident that Dr. 
 Harris wrote before the invention of the spinning machines in England. See 
 also Vincent's Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, vol. ii. Appendix. 
 
 • Silk is the only material used for human clothing, which Mohammed intro- 
 duces among the luxuries of Paradise. See the Koran, chap. 35. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 27 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MANUFACTURE IN ASIA, AFRICA, AND AMERICA. 
 
 Introduction of cotton clothing in Arabia. — Spread of the manufacture by the 
 Mohammedan conquests. — Known throughout western Asia in the middle 
 ages. — Testimony of William de Rubruquis and Marco Polo. — Late introduction 
 of the Cotton Manufacture in China ; its prevalence there. — Nankeens. — Japan 
 and the Indian islands. — The growth and manufacture of cotton throughout 
 Africa. — Cotton indigenous in America. — Beautiful fabrics of the Mexicans. — 
 Cotton clothing worn by the natives in the West Indies and South America, on 
 their discovery by Columbus. 
 
 In Arabia and the neighbouring countries, cottons and 
 muslins came gi-adually into use ; and the manufacture 
 was spread, by the commercial activity and enterprise of 
 the early followers of Mohammed, throughout the ex- 
 tended territories subdued by their arms. It is recorded 
 of the fanatical Omar, the immediate successor of the 
 Arabian impostor, that " he preached in a tattered cotton 
 gown, torn in twelve places ;" and of Ali, his contem- 
 porary, who assumed the caliphate after him, that '• on the 
 day of his inauguration, he went to the mosque dressed 
 in a tliin cotton gown, tied round him mth a girdle, a 
 coarse turban on his head, his slippers in one hand, and 
 his bow in the other, instead of a walking staff."* From 
 these circumstances we should infer, that cottons had 
 then become, in every sense, an ordinary article of 
 clotliing in Arabia. 
 
 In that lively picture of Eastern manners, the " Ara- 
 bian Nights' Entertainments," muslins are occasionally 
 
 Crichton's History of Arabia, vol. i. pp. 397, 403. 
 
28 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 mentioned; but it appeal's that the fabrics which first 
 received the name of muslins, from being made at Mosul, 
 in Mesopotamia, were not of cotton, or, at least, not ex- 
 clusively so ; as Marco Polo says — " All those cloths of 
 gold and silk, which we call muslins (mossoulijii,) are of 
 the manufactiu'e of Mosul."* It must not be supposed 
 that cotton fabrics have at any time wholly superseded 
 the use of linen in Mohammedan countries, or that they 
 were esteemed as compai'able in beauty with silks. 
 Linen is still extensively used in Egypt and Arabia, as 
 is shown bv many passages in the works of Pococke, 
 Niebulu', and Burck]iardt;t but it is also e^-ident fi'om 
 the travels of Thevenot, Burckhardt, Hamilton, Buck- 
 ingham, and many others, that cotton is the principal 
 article of clothiuo: even in those two countries, and still 
 more in Sviia, Mesopotamia, Pema, and Asia Minor .J 
 
 From the travels of William de Rubruquis, a monk 
 sent by Louis IX. as his ambassador to sevei-al courts 
 of the East, in the year 1252, we learn that at that time * 
 cottons were articles both of trade and dress in the 
 Crimea and southern Russia; they were brought from 
 Turkistan. The same traveller informs us, that cotton 
 cloths were worn in the southern provinces of Tartary, 
 though by no means generally, and were imported from 
 Persia, and other countries of the East.§ 
 
 The interesting^ naiTative of IMarco Polo, the Vene- 
 
 • Travels of Marco Polo, translated by Wm. Marsden, F.R.S. book i. chap. 6. 
 
 t See Pococke's Description of the East, vol. i. p. 174. Burckhardt"s Travels 
 in Arabia, pp. 37, 3S, 1S3, 184. 
 
 J Thevenot's Travels, in Harris's Collection, vol. ii. pp. 824, 895, &c. Burck- 
 hardt's Travels in Arabia, pp. 183, 184. Hamliton's Remarks on several parts of 
 Turkey and Egypt, pp. 388, 427. Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia, vol. J. 
 pp. 145, 294, 302 ; vol. ii. pp. 29, 37. (8vo. edit.) 
 
 § Travels of William de Rubruquis, in Harris's Collection, vol. i. pp. 558, 560, 
 561 ; translated from Ramusio. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 29 
 
 tian traveller, who visited neai-ly all the countries of 
 Asia at the latter part of the thirteenth century, and who 
 observed the dress of different nations with mercantile 
 minuteness, enables us to trace pretty accurately the 
 extent to which the manufacture had spread in that part 
 of the globe. It appears that at that period there was a 
 manufacture of very fine cotton clotli at Arzingan, in 
 Armenia Major;* that cotton was abundantly gi-o\\Ti and 
 manufactured in Persia,^ and all the pro\dnces border- 
 ing on the Indus;! that in all parts of India tliis was 
 the staple manufacture, and that it flourished particu- 
 larly in Guzerat, Cambay, Bengal, Masulipatam, and 
 Malabar.§ Polo also mentions that at Kue-lin-fu (Kien- 
 iung-fu, in the province of Fokien,) in China, " cottons 
 were woven of coloured tlu-eads, which were carried for 
 sale to every part of the proAince of Manji."|| But in 
 no other place does he mention cotton as being growTi or 
 made into cloth in China, whilst he continually speaks 
 of the inhabitants as being clothed in silks. 
 
 From tliis might be inferred tlie curious fact, estab- 
 lished by the Chinese annals, that that early-civilized, 
 ingenious, and industrious people, to whom the world is 
 indebted for the important manufactures of silk, paper, 
 and sugar, and who practised the art of printing, and 
 knew the properties of the magnet and the composition 
 
 * Travels of Marco Polo, book i. c. 4. 
 
 t Ibid, book i. c. 6, 11, 29. 
 
 X Ibid, book i. c. 25. Polo says, that the women of Balashan (in Caubul) 
 " wear below their waists, in the manner of drawers, a kind of garment, in the 
 making of which they employ, according to their means, a hundred, eighty, or 
 sixty ells of fine cotton cloth, which they also gather and plait, in order to increase 
 the apparent size of their hips ; those being accounted the most handsome who are 
 the most bulky in that part." 
 
 § Ibid, book iii. c. 21, 22, 28, 29, 31. 
 
 11 Ibid, book ii. c. 74. 
 
30 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 of o-unpowder, before any other nation, should have re- 
 mained without the cotton manufacture until the end of 
 the thirteenth century, when it had flourished among 
 their Indian neighbours probably three thousand years. 
 It appears, indeed, from Chinese history, that the cotton 
 plant had been known in tlie country for many centuries 
 before that time, but that it had only been cultivated in 
 gardens, and manufactured as a rarity. We learn from 
 other authority, that in the ninth century the inhabitants, 
 from the prince to the peasant, were clothed in silks.* 
 The facility with wliich the plant is propagated, the com- 
 mercial intercourse which existed from the earliest times 
 between India and China, and the suitableness of cotton 
 clothins: to the climate, combine to render it wonderful 
 that the manufacture should have been introduced at so 
 late a period. Tlie fact affords a powerful presumption, 
 that China had long remained in a stationary condition. 
 It was after the conquest of tliat empire by the Tartars, 
 that the cotton plant first began to be cultivated for com- 
 mon use. A formidable resistance was made to the 
 mtroduction of the new manufacture by the artisans 
 engaged in fabricating woollens and silks : but in Cliina, 
 as elsewhere, the new art was found to be too valuable 
 for its opponents to succeed in crushing it; the cheap- 
 ness with wliich the raw material could be grown, and 
 consequently the cloth fabricated, was an all-powerful 
 recommendation; and about the year 1368 it triumphed 
 over every resistance, and began to prevail throughout 
 the empire. 
 
 * " Les Chinois s'habillent de soye durant I'hyver et durant I'est^. Cette 
 maniere de s'habiller est commune aux princes, aux soldats, et a toutes les autres 
 peisonnes de moindre quality." — Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine, de 
 deux Voyageurs Mahometans, qui y allerent dans le neuvieme siecle ; traduite 
 d'Arabe par I'Abb^ Renaudot, p. 16. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 31 
 
 The cottons of China, especially the nankeens,* 
 have attained considerable celebrity, though no improve- 
 ment has been made on the rude and simple ma- 
 chines so long used in the manufacture in India. At the 
 present time, as we are assured by Sir George Staunton, 
 cottons, dyed of a blue colour, are universally worn by 
 both sexes among the lower orders of the Chinese,t 
 though the upper classes are still habited in silks. A 
 
 • It has been much disputed whether the nankeens are made from a cotton of 
 their peculiar colour, or are dyed to that colour. Sir George Staunton, who 
 travelled with Lord Macartney's embassy through the province of Kiangnan, to 
 which province the nankeen cotton is peculiar, distinctly states, that the cotton is 
 naturally " of the same yellow tinge which it preserves when spun and woven into 
 cloth." He also says that the nankeen cotton degenerates when transplanted to 
 any other province. — Embassy to China, by Sir George Staunton, vol. ii. p. 425. — 
 Sir George Thomas Staunton (son of the above) has translated an extract from a 
 Chinese Herbal, " on the character, culture, and uses of the annual herbaceous 
 cotton plant," in which the plant producing " dusky yellow cotton," of very fine 
 quality, is mentioned as one of the varieties. — Narrative of the Chinese Embassy to 
 the Khan of the Tartars, p. 252. — Van Braam, who travelled in China with a 
 Dutch embassy at the close of the last century, and who had been commissioned by 
 European merchants to request that the nankeens for their markets might be dyed 
 of a deeper colour than those last received, says — " La toile de Nam-king, qu'on 
 fabrique fort loin du lieu du mSme nom, est faite d'un coton roussdtre : la couleur 
 de la toile de Nam-king est done naturelle, et point sujette Jl palir." — Voyage 
 de I'Ambassade de la Compagne des Indes Orientales HoUandaises, vers I'Em- 
 pereur de la Chine, vol. i. p. 322 — A modern navigator says, " Each family (at 
 Woosung) appears to cultivate a small portion of ground with cotton, which I here 
 saw of a light yellow colour. The nankeen cloth made from that requires no 
 dye." — Voyage of the ship Amherst to the N. E. coast of China, 1832 : published 
 by Order of the House of Commons, p. 80 — A nankeen-coloured cotton grows at 
 Puraniya (Purneah,) near the banks of the Ganges, in India, and is mentioned 
 by Dr. F. Hamilton, in an unpublished account of that district, in the library of 
 the India House in London. A similar cotton grows in small quantities in the 
 southern states of the American Union, as I learn from Mr. G. R. Porter's 
 " Tropical Agriculturist," and from M. Malte Brun, vol. v. p. 193. The colour of 
 the cotton seems to depend on some peculiarity in the soil. 
 
 t Sir George Staunton's Embassy to China, vol. ii. p. 380. — The same testi- 
 mony is borne by the Catholic missionary, Fernandez Navarette, who wrote in the 
 latter part of the seventeenth century, and who says — " It is prodigious what a 
 quantity of coarse, finer, and most delicate cotton webs there are in China, and all 
 very lasting."— Collection of Voyages, edited by Locke, vol. i. chap. xiv. 
 
32 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 sufficient quantity of cotton is not gro^^Ti within the 
 empire for the liome consumption, and large importa- 
 tions are regularly made from Sui'at, Bomhay, and other 
 parts of Incha.* In the empire of Japan,-)' in Java, 
 Borneo, and the numberless islands of the Indian and 
 Chinese archipelagoes, cotton is the ordinary apparel of 
 the natives. 
 
 Tlie gi'owth of the cotton plant and the manufacture 
 of its wool were spread, probably by the Mohammedans, 
 at an early period, into every part of the continent of 
 Africa north of the equator. In the year 1590, cotton 
 cloth, of native manufacture, was brought to London 
 from Benin, on the coast of Guinea.;]: Many centuries 
 before, the manufacture had flourished gi-eatly in Mo- 
 rocco and Fez.§ Modern travellers in central and west- 
 ern Africa represent the cotton plant or tree as gi-owing 
 plentifully on the borders of the Senegal, the Gambia, 
 and the Niger, at Timbuctoo, Sierra Leone, in the Cape 
 
 • From Bengal alone the export of cotton to China averages fifty thousand bales 
 per annum ; but much of this cotton comes originally from Surat and Bombay. 
 The following is an oflScial return, presented to the Committee of the House of 
 Commons in 1832, of the quantity of cotton shipped at the port of Calcutta for 
 China : — 
 
 Years. Bales. Maunds. 
 
 1820-4 
 
 1824-5 . . 
 
 . . 01,0/* . . 
 
 . . 54,793 . . 
 
 . iio,:;ov; 
 . . 199,324 
 
 1825-6 , . 
 
 . . 48,250 . . 
 
 . . 177,266 
 
 1826-7 . . 
 
 . . 83,131 . . 
 
 . . 314,052 
 
 1827-8 . . 
 
 . . 55,074 . . 
 
 . . 197,500 
 
 1828-9 . . 
 
 . . 50,815 . . 
 
 . . 185,029 
 
 1829-30 . . 
 
 
 . . 126,613 
 
 The average of the seven years is 187,976 maunds per annum, which, at SOlbs. per 
 maund, is 15,03S,0S01bs. The exports from the presidency of Bombay to China 
 are stated to be 40,000,0001bs. per annum. 
 
 t Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 108. 
 
 X Ibid. vol. ii. p. 193. 
 
 § De Marias Hist, de la Domination des Maures en Espagne, torn. i. p. 468. 
 Ramusio's Viaggi, tom. i. p. 30. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 33 
 
 de Verd islands, on the coast of Guinea, in Abyssinia, 
 and throughout the interior j and the barbarous or semi- 
 barbarous natives, as being every where clothed in their 
 own cotton manufactures, often dyed and figured, and 
 sometimes interwoven with silk, and of exquisite work- 
 manship.* 
 
 Cotton, indeed, as has already been shewn, is, of all 
 the materials of clothing, best suited to the torrid zone. 
 In hot climates, likewise, the cotton plant grows so 
 abundantly, that this is the cheapest material of which 
 cloth can be made. With such recommendations, it 
 cannot fail to continue the staple and universal manu- 
 facture of Africa. 
 
 Before coming to the inti'oduction of the cotton manu- 
 facture into Europe, it may be well to mention, that 
 it was found existing in considerable perfection in 
 America, on the discovery of that continent by the 
 Spaniards. Cotton formed the principal article of cloth- 
 ing among the Mexicans, as they had neither wool, 
 hemp, nor silk ; nor did they use the flax wliich they 
 possessed for purposes of clothing ;f and their only ma- 
 terials for making cloth, besides cotton, were feathers, the 
 wool of rabbits and hares, (known in commerce as coneys' 
 wool,) and the fibrous plant called the maguei. 
 
 We are informed by the Abbe Clavigero, that " of 
 cotton the Mexicans made large webs, and as delicate 
 and fine as those of Holland, A\'hich were with much 
 
 * See the Travels of Mungo Park, p. 17 ; Rene Caillie, vol. i. p. 426 ; vol. ii. 
 pp. 62, 63, 67 ; Richard and John Lander, vol. i. pp. 32, 90, 91 ; vol. ii. pp. 3, 4, 
 316. Histoire G^nerale des Voyages, vol. x. liv. 7. pp. 282, 228; vol. xii. liv. 9. 
 p. 471. Bruce's Travels to the Source of the Nile, book vi. c. 19 ; book vii. c. 5. 
 Clapperton's Second Expedition, p. 57- 
 
 t Clavigero's Hist, of Mexico, book i. sect. 7. 
 
34 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 reason highly esteemed in Europe. They wove their 
 cloths of different figures and colours, representing dif- 
 ferent animals and flowers. Of feathers interwoven with 
 cotton, they made mantles and bed curtains, carpets, 
 o-owns, and other things, not less soft than beautiful. 
 With cotton also they interwove the finest hair of the 
 belly of rabbits and hares, after having made and spun 
 it hito thread : of this they made most beautiful cloths, 
 and in particular winter waistcoats for the lords."* 
 Among the presents sent by Cortes, the conqueror of 
 Mexico, to Charles V., were " cotton mantles, some 
 all white, others mixed with white and black, or red, 
 green, yellow, and blue ; waistcoats, handkerchiefs, 
 counterpanes, tapestries, and carpets of cotton ;" and 
 " the colours of the cotton were extremely fine,"t as the 
 Mexicans had both indigo and cochineal among their 
 native dyes. They also used cotton in making a spe- 
 cies of paper; J one of their kinds of money consisted 
 in small cloths of cotton ;§ and their warriors wore 
 cuirasses of cotton, covering the body from the neck to 
 the waist-ll 
 
 Columbus also found the cotton plant growing -wdld, 
 and in great abundance, in Hispaniola, and other West 
 India islands, and on the continent of South America, 
 where the inhabitants wore cotton dresses, and made 
 their fishing nets of the same material ;** and when 
 
 * Clavigero's History of Mexico, book vii. sect. 57, 66. 
 t Ibid, book vii. sect. 58. 
 X Humboldt's Researches, vol. i. p. 162. 
 § Clavigero, book vii. sect. .36. 
 !l Humboldt, vol. i. p. 202. 
 
 ** Sommario dell' Indie Occidentali del S. Don Pietro Mavtire, in Ramusio's 
 Collection, torn. ii. pp. 2, 4, 16, 50. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 35 
 
 Magellan went out on his circumnavigation of the globe, 
 in 1519, the Brazilians were accustomed to make their 
 beds of this vegetable down.* 
 
 It can scarcely be doubted that the cotton and indigo 
 plants are indigenous in Americajf as well as in India ; 
 but the arts of spinning and weaving were probably 
 carried over by the wanderers, whoever they may have 
 been, by whom that continent was first peopled. The 
 manufacture of cotton must therefore be supposed to be 
 coeval with the original settlement of America ; but 
 learned men are much divided as to the date of this 
 event, — some carrying it nearly as high as the deluge,! 
 and others contending for a much later period. The 
 American manufacture may, at all events, claim a high 
 degree of antiquity 
 
 * Vicentino's Viaggio atorno il Mondo, (with Ferd. Magellan,) in Ramusio, 
 torn i. p. 353. 
 
 f " Cotton was found among the indigenous productions of Mexico at the time 
 of the conquest, and furnished almost the only clothing used by the natives. 
 The cultivation has since been much neglected, and the art of imparting to it the 
 brilliant colours so common among the Aztecs, entirely lost. In the tierra cali- 
 ente of Mexico, the cotton-tree propagates itself" Ward's Mexico in 1827, vol. i. 
 pp. 79, 80.' The native American cotton is therefore produced from the tree, not 
 from the annual herbaceous plant. 
 
 X This is the opinion of the Abbe Clavigero. Dr. Robertson offers no opinion 
 on the subject, owing to its extreme difficulty. 
 
36 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MANUFACTURE IN EUROPE. 
 
 The Cotton Manufacture introduced late into Europe. — First introduced by the 
 Moors into Spain, in the tenth century. — Flourished in Andalusia ; in Cata- 
 lonia. — Cotton Paper. — The Cotton Manufacture introduced into Italy, in the 
 fourteenth century. — Never flourished in that country. — Carried on in Flanders 
 and Germany. — Much cotton grown and manufactured in Turkey. 
 
 Having thus noticed the existence and progress of the 
 cotton manufacture in three quarters of the globe, Asia, 
 Africa, and America, I am now to shew its introduction 
 into Europe, where, though its entrance was later than 
 in the other three, it has received, from the inventive 
 genius of Englishmen, a new and nobler existence. 
 In Asia, the spirit of invention, so early developed, has 
 lain nearly dormant for thousands of years ; the rich 
 soil has degenerated into poverty, from the pei'petual 
 sameness of the crops raised upon it ; whilst the intel- 
 lect of Europe, as though invigorated by the fallow of 
 centuries, has received the seeds of Oriental arts and 
 sciences, and brought them to far higher perfection than 
 their native earth. 
 
 It is customary to look to Italy as the country where 
 the arts, sciences, and manufactures first reappeared 
 after the night of the middle ages, and from whence 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 37 
 
 they were diffused to the rest of Europe. Most of the 
 European nations unquestionably owe this debt to the 
 ItaHans. Yet it was neither in Italy nor Greece that 
 the European cotton manufacture had its rise. We 
 search the records of commerce in Christendom from 
 the tenth to the fourteenth century, without finding a 
 trace of this branch of industry, till we arrive at the 
 latter period, and then only the faintest marks of its 
 existence. Descriptions remain of the flourishing ma- 
 nufactures of silk, woollen, and linen, in Greece, in the 
 tenth century ;* of the silk manufactures of Sicily, 
 Lucca, Venice, and other parts of Italy, in the twelfth, 
 thii'teenth, and fourteenth centuries ; of the great extent 
 and perfection of the woollen manufacture in Flanders, 
 Lombardy, Tuscany, and Romagna, at the same peri- 
 ods ;t and of the extensive trade carried on by the 
 Italian states, the Hanse towns, Flanders, and France, 
 on the re\dval of commerce and the arts. But in the 
 records of all these branches of industry in different 
 parts of Christendom, the manufacture of cotton finds 
 no place. 
 
 In Spain, however, where science, letters, and every 
 
 * Legatio Liutprandi ad Nicephorum Phocam, in Muratori's Scriptores Rerum 
 Italicarum, vol. iii. part 1. Gibbon's Roman Empire, c. liii. 
 
 t Denina, Rivoluzioni d'ltalia, lib. xii. c. 6 ; and lib. xiv. c. 11. It is remark- 
 able that this writer, who gives a particular account of the introduction, progress, 
 and extent of the silk and woollen manufactures in various parts of Italy, and of 
 other branches of industry, does not in his whole work mention the cotton manu- 
 facture, from which it may be safely inferred that that manufacture never rose to 
 any considerable extent or reputation in that country. See also the very learned 
 review of the commerce of the middle ages, in Robertson's Hist. Disq. on India, 
 sect. iii. where many of the early writers collected by Muratori are quoted ; 
 Hallam's Europe during the Middle Ages, c. ix. part 2 ; Macpherson's Annals of 
 Commerce, vol. 1 ; and Sismondi's Republiques Italiennes. All these works con- 
 tain accounts of the woollen, silk, and linen manufactures at the period in ques- 
 tion, but I have examined them in vain for any notice of the cotton. 
 
38 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 kind of industry, flourished under the dominion of the 
 Mohammedan caliphs whilst the rest of Europe was 
 involved in intellectual darkness, we find that the cot- 
 ton plant was cultivated, and its produce was manufac- 
 tui'ed into clothing, at least as early as the tenth cen- 
 tury. In the reign of Abderalunan III., justly styled 
 the Great, who ruled in Cordova from 912 to 961, a. d. 
 many of the natm-al productions and arts of tlie East 
 were introduced, and those which had been previously 
 introduced were cultivated to the highest point. The 
 cotton plant, the sugar cane, rice, and the silk worm 
 were naturalized ; and the first flourished on the fertile 
 plains of Valencia, where it still grows \\ild in these 
 days of Spanish degeneracy.* Manufactures of every 
 kind were carried on at Cordova, Granada, and Seville, 
 as successfully as in the Eastern seats of Mohammedan 
 splendour, Bagdad and Damascus. 
 
 Masdeu says, " Our fabrics of wool, linen, cotton, 
 and silk were greatly esteemed throughout Europe, as 
 is evident from the numerous articles of clotliing 
 which went from Spain to Rome in the ninth century, 
 and from the cloth wliich the king IMahomad Abu 
 Abdalla sent as a present to Charles the Bald, king of 
 France, in the year 865, a. d."| This passage is some- 
 what ambiguous ; it does not distinctly assert, though 
 it seems to imply, that each of the manufactures men- 
 tioned existed in Spain in the ninth centiuy. De 
 
 * The cotton plant, or rather the cotton tree, was chiefly cultivated at Oliva 
 andGandia. History of the JNIahometan Empire in Spain, by Professor Shakspeare 
 and the Rev. T. Hartwell Home, p. 263. — " En Valencia, (says a modern natu- 
 ralist,) vi muchos algodoneros, y no concibo por qu^ poi no se cultiva en Espaiia 
 esta planta tan 6til, como se cultiv6 en otros tiempos." Introduccion a la Historiu 
 Natural de Espafia, por D. Gul. Bovyles, p. 225. 
 
 t " Historia Critica de Espaiia," torn. xiii. p. 131. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 39 
 
 Marias positively states that the cotton manufacture was 
 introduced by the Moors in the reign of Abderahman 
 III., in the tenth century : he says, " The Moors, who 
 were mingled with the Arabs, or who came to settle 
 after the conquest — those whom the protection of Ab- 
 derahman attracted thitlier — expert, ingenious, and 
 active, introduced their manufactures, and taught the 
 Spaniards many things of which they were before igno- 
 rant. The Moors excelled in the arts of tanning and 
 preparing leather, of weaving cotton, linen, and hemp, 
 and, above all, in the manufacture of silk stuffs. The 
 Arabs devoted themselves more particularly to the 
 manufacture of woollen cloth, and that of arms." " It 
 was the Moors who brought into Spain the cultivation 
 of rice and cotton, of the mulberrv tree and the sugar 
 cane."* 
 
 Abu Zacaria Ebn el Awam, a native of Seville, who 
 wrote in the twelfth century his " Libro de Agiicul- 
 tura," which gained him the title of " prince of rustic 
 economy," gives a very full account of the mode of 
 culture proper for the cotton plant. He also states, that 
 the plant was cultivated in Sicily, which island had 
 been in the possession of the Saracens from the ninth to 
 the eleventh century .f In the fourteenth century the 
 manufacture of cotton was in a state of great perfection 
 and prevalence in Granada, as the Spanish-Arabic his- 
 torian of that kingdom, Ebn Alkhatib, declares in his 
 description of the country : — " Here you find also the 
 
 * De Maries " Histoire de la Domination des Arabes et des Maures en Espagne, 
 redig^e sur I'Histoire traduite de I'Arabe en Espagnol, de M. Joseph Cond^," 
 torn. i. pp. 468, 469. 
 
 t Libro de Agricultura, de Abu Zacaria Ebn el Awam, traducido por Don J. A 
 Banqueri, torn. ii. c. xxii. p. 103. 
 
40 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 COCCUS, with which the cotton stuffs are dyed ; for there 
 is a "Teat abundance of cotton, as well for commerce as 
 for use in manufactures ; and the cotton garments made 
 here are said to be far superior to those of Assyria, in 
 softness, delicacy, and beauty."* 
 
 Notwithstanding the repugnance between the Moor- 
 ish and Christian inhabitants of Spain, and the indispo- 
 sition of the latter to receive any thing from the former, 
 (most strikingly illustrated by the fact that the silk 
 manufacture, which flourished in Andalusia in the tenth 
 century, was not known in Catalonia till ihe fifteenth,) 
 we find the celebrated commercial city of Barcelona 
 had earlv received the cotton manufacture, which had 
 become one of its most flourishing branches of industry 
 in the middle of the thirteenth century. Capmany, the 
 historian of the commerce of Barcelona, informs us that 
 " among the various trades wliicli anciently distinguished 
 Barcelona, one of the most famous and most useful was 
 that of the cotton manufacturers, who were an incorpo- 
 rated company from the thirteentli century, and gave 
 name to two separate streets, cotonei^s veils and coto7iers 
 nous, which still preserve the memory of tlie ancient 
 demarcation of their workshops. These artisans pre- 
 pared and spun the cotton, for the wea'vdng of various 
 stuffs used in those times, and principally for the manu- 
 facture of cotton sail-cloth, which was always a very 
 considerable branch of industry in a mercantile city, 
 that for more than five hundred years was the station of 
 tlie Spanish squadrons (armadas. y'''\ Again — " The 
 
 • Casiri — Bibiiotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis, torn. ii. p. 248. 
 t Capmany — " Memorias Historicas sobre la Marina, Comercio, y Artes de 
 la antigua ciudaS de Barcelona," torn. i. part iii. p. 25. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 41 
 
 trade known by the name of fustian manufacturers, 
 (fustaneros,) that is, weavers of cotton goods, was so 
 ancient in Barcelona, that, in the year 1255, Veguer, 
 on the representation of the municipal magistrate, owing 
 to the annoyance caused by the vicinity of the dyers 
 and embroiderers of those manufactures, ordained that 
 no person should exercise the said trade except in the 
 extremities and suburbs of the city." " The company 
 consisted of weavers, dyers, and embroiderers."* And 
 the historian proceeds to enumerate many minute regu- 
 lations as to the kinds of goods they were allowed to 
 make, the width, quality, &c. of the pieces, from which 
 our English legislation on the woollen manufacture 
 might have been implicitly copied. It appears, how- 
 ever, that in Barcelona, the cotton goods made were 
 chiefly sail-cloth and fustians, — the latter being a strong- 
 fabric used to line garments, and which derives its name 
 from the Spanish ^\OY(\.fuste, signifying " substance. "f 
 
 The Spanish Arabs made paper of cotton, before that 
 most useful article was known in any other part of 
 Europe. Paper was first made by the Chinese, of waste 
 silk; the Saracens acquired .the art on their capture of 
 Samarcand, in the seventh century; and by them the 
 manufacture of paper, from the cheaper and better mate- 
 rial of cotton, was introduced into Spain, probably soon 
 after the conquest of that country, and was carried on at 
 Salibah. But the Spanish Arabs, finding linen to be still 
 cheaper and better than cotton for this purpose, made paper 
 of linen at Xativa, the modern San Felipe, in the kingdom 
 
 * Capmany, torn. i. part iii. p. 50. 
 
 t " Fuste, so called because it is as the substance of cloth or silk, which they 
 line with it." — Diccionario de la Real Acad. Espan. 
 
 F 
 
42 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 of Valencia, and the fabric was celebrated in the twelfth 
 century; though, according to Tu'abosclii, linen paper 
 was first invented in Italy, in the middle of the four- 
 teenth!* 
 
 The arts and civilization of Mohammedan Spain did 
 not, however, spread to Chiistiau Eui-ope. Extensive 
 as was the commerce of Andalusia, it was all with Africa 
 and the East. Between the Mussulmans and the Cluis- 
 tians there was as gi'eat a repugnance as between oil 
 and water. Reciprocal hatred and scorn, and, not less, 
 the ignorance and poverty of the Christian nations, 
 formed insurmountable bars to intercourse. Even the 
 Spanish Christians, as we have seen, leanit little from 
 the invaders with whom they were for eight centuries in 
 fierce contention ; and when at length the Mohammedans 
 were expelled, their arts disappeared with them, or re- ' 
 mained in as ruinous a state as their castles and mosques. 
 Instead of an inland sea, the Atlantic might have rolled 
 between the Spanish and Italian peninsulas, so little did 
 the latter receive from the former. Venice, Genoa, and 
 Pisa carried on nearly all theu' foreign commerce with 
 Greece, Constantinople, and the Syrian and Phenician 
 towns conquered by the Crusaders; and thus the 
 Italians received from the East, arts which had long 
 flourished in Spain. 
 
 The eai'liest date at which I have been able to discover 
 
 * Casiri, torn. ii. p. 9. Masdeu, torn. xiii. p. 132. Montfaucon supposed that 
 cotton paper was not known in the Eastern ennpire before the ninth century; and 
 the earliest mention that he found of " charta cuttuneo" was in the charter of 
 Roger, king of Sicily, in 1145, mentioned in p. 21. But he found a MS. on cotton 
 paper in the King's Library at Paris, with the date of 1050, and others without 
 dates, but which from the writing he judged to be of the tenth century He there- 
 fore concluded, that cotton paper might have been made as early as the ninth cen- 
 tury, or in the beginning of the tenth- — Supplement to Antiquity Explained, 
 book ix. chap. 5. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 43 
 
 the existence of the cotton manufacture in Italy, is the 
 beginning of the fourteenth century, which is assigned 
 by a historian of Venetian commerce as tlie period of its 
 introduction into Venice.* There is strong reason to 
 believe, as has already been argued, from the silence of 
 Denina and other historians, that the manufacture never 
 attained any reputation, or considerable extent, in Italy. 
 Cottons of a strong and heavy fabric, as fustians and 
 dimities, were made at Venice and Milan; and it is pro- 
 bable that even those were woven, as afterwards in 
 England, with linen warp and cotton weft; or that they 
 were made entirely of cotton yarn imported from Syria 
 and Asia Minor, whence the Italians and French in later 
 times regularly drew supplies of that article. 
 
 In Hakluyt's Collection of Voyages there is a curious 
 old poem, entitled, " The Processe of the Libel of Eng- 
 lish Policie," originally published in 1430, in which 
 fustians are mentioned as an article of export from Flan- 
 ders to Spain, and even of import into Flanders from 
 the Easterlings, Prussia, and Germany. The following 
 passages will amuse — 
 
 " Fine cloth of Ypre that named is better than ours, 
 Cloth of Curtrike, fine cloth of all colours, 
 Much Fustian, and also Linen cloth.' 
 
 Of the commodities of Prussia, the High Dutch, and the 
 Easterlings, the author enumerates — 
 
 " Nowe Beere and Bakon bene fro Pruse ybrought 
 Into Flanders, as loued and farre ysought: 
 Osmond, copper, bow-staues, Steele, and wexe, 
 Peltreware and grey pitch, terre, board, and flexe : 
 
 * Storia civile e politica del commercio de' Vcneziani, di Carlo Antonio Marino, 
 torn. V. lib. ii. c. 4; as quoted by P. Daru, in his Histoire de la Republique de 
 Venise, vol. iii. p. 154. Daru mentions the fact in half a dozen lines, and says 
 nothing more of this manufacture. 
 
44 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 And Colleyne threed, Fustian, and Canuas, 
 Card, bukeram: of olde time thus it was."* 
 
 The names by wliicli the fustians imported into Eng- 
 land were known — Jen fustians, Augsburg fustians, and 
 Milan fustians, which Dr. Fuller, who wrote in 1662, 
 calls " their old names,"f • — shew tliat the manufacture 
 existed in Saxony and Suabia, as well as in Italy, at an 
 early period. The use of this article existed in England 
 even at an earlier date than the above. Our own poet, 
 Chaucer, who wrote between 1370 and 1380, clothes his 
 knight in it: — 
 
 " Oi Fustian he wered a Gipon, 
 
 All besmotrid with his Habergion." 
 
 Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. 
 
 On this Dr. Fuller remarks, that fustians " anciently Avere 
 creditable wearing in England for persons of the primest 
 quality," and that " they were all foreign commodities." 
 
 Guicciardini, in his Description of the Low Countries 
 in the year 1560, mentions that Antwerp imported from 
 Venice " the finest and richest wrought silks, camblets, 
 grograms, carpets, cottons, and great variety of merce- 
 ries;" and from Milan " gold and silver thread, various 
 wrought silks, gold ^iwK^, fustians, and dimities of many 
 fine sorts; scarlets, tammies, and other fine and curious 
 draperies." Here the dimities are said to be " of many 
 fine sorts," yet this article itself is a rather strong fabric, 
 .and its fine qualities are not comparable indelicacy to many 
 other kinds of cotton goods. " Venetian fustians" are 
 among the articles enumerated as e.vported by the Eng- 
 lish Society of Merchants Adventurers in 1645; and the 
 low export duty fixed on them, 3d. per piece, would lead 
 us to conclude that their value must have been small, as 
 the rates of export duty at the same time on English 
 
 * Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. i. p. 208, 21.3 ; edition of 1809. 
 t Fuller's Worthies of England, vol. i, p. 5;i7 ; edit. 1811. 
 
THE COTTONMANUFACTURE. 45 
 
 woollens were as high as 2s. to 4s. 6d. per piece.* — 
 From Guicciardini we learn that Antwerp imported from 
 Germany "such a quantity oi fustians as amounted to six 
 hunch-ed thousand crowns ayear ;" and exported to the north 
 of Europe "spices, drugs, saffron, sugar, salt, English and 
 Netherland cloths and ^iwEs, fustians, linens, wrought sillis, 
 gold stuffs, grogi'ams, camblets, tapestries," &c.; and to 
 England, amongst other things, cottons and cotton-wool, 
 the latter of wliich the merchants of Antwerp brought 
 from Portugal and other countries. In enumerating the 
 various kinds of clotli made at different towns in the 
 Low Countries, Guicciardini only twice makes mention 
 of a cotton fabric, namely, fustians, which were manu- 
 factured " in gTeat quantities" at Bruges, and also at 
 Ghent.t This same article appears in a list of foreicm 
 goods, imported by the English Society of Merchants 
 Adventurers, in 1601, from Holland and Germany, J 
 and it is said to be of the manufacture of Nuremburo-h. 
 Guicciardini asserts, that fustians were first made in 
 Flanders ; but he gives no date, so that it is difficult to 
 judge of the probable correctness of his assertion. The 
 fact is not probable, though the Flemings, during the 
 crusades, received many arts, and a great stimulus to 
 industry, commerce, and luxury, from their intercourse 
 with Syria, and they may in this manner have obtained 
 tlie cotton manufacture. But it has been shewn that 
 fustians were made extensively in Barcelona in the thir- 
 teenth century, and that their name indicates a Spanish 
 origin. 
 
 * I state these facts on the authority of a pamphlet published in 1645, and 
 which I have seen in the British Museum. 
 
 t Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi, p. 408, 401. edition of 1581. 
 
 { A Treatise of Commerce ; by John Wheeler, Secretary of the Society of Mer- 
 chants Adventurers : (1601,) p. 23. 
 
46 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 I have not been able to ascertain at what time cotton < 
 began to be manufactured in Turkey in Europe; but 
 there seems no reason to think that it was before the 
 conquests of the Turks in Romania, in the fourteenth 
 century; nor could it be much after, as the victorious 
 settlers would naturally bring with them their own arts, 
 and tlie use of cotton garments was then common in 
 Asia Minor. The cotton plant found a congenial soil 
 and climate in Romania and Macedonia,* where it is 
 now cultivated to a great extent ; and the spinning and 
 weaving of the wool forms one of the most important 
 branches of industry in that country .t 
 
 * The district of Seres (in Macedonia) is more fruitful in cotton than any other. 
 The value of this article in Macedonia alone amounts to 7,000,000 of plasters." — 
 Malte Brun's Geography, vol. vi. p. 156. 
 
 t " La Romanic s'occupe principalement de la filature du coton." Encyclopedic 
 Methodique. — " On evalue la r^colte du coton dans les Etats du Grand Seigneur 
 (Asiatic as well as European) a cent mille baUes, dont les nations suivantes n'en 
 levent que douze mille, savoir — Les Francois 4500, les Hollandais 3500, les 
 Anglois 2000, les Venitiens et Italiens 2000. Les quartre-vingt huit mille balles 
 de surplus sont consomm^es par les manufactures de Turquie mSme." — Encycl. 
 Method. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 47 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 Slow extension of the Cotton Manufacture, and its low state in Europe. — Owing to 
 the defectiveness of the machines and tools. — No improvement made in any 
 country till the age of invention in England. — The distaflF. — The spinning 
 wheel. — The loom. — Cotton more difficult to spin than linen. — Great mecha- 
 nical inventions in England. — The want of any history of those inventions. — 
 This work an attempt to supply it. 
 
 The spread of the Cotton Manufacture has thus been 
 traced, from its native seat in India, across the breadth 
 of the old continent, to Japan eastward, and the mouths 
 of the Tagus and the Senegal westward; and the use of 
 cotton clothing has been shewn to have prevailed in 
 America before the discovery of that continent by Euro- 
 peans. If the progress of this branch of industry is faintly 
 marked, I believe it must be ascribed rather to the ex- 
 treme scantiness of the materials furnished by history, 
 than to want of diligence in the search made for them.* 
 
 The inquiry yields some clear and satisfactory 
 conclusions. 
 
 It is obvious that the use of cotton clothing spread 
 very slowly, except when it was borne onward by the 
 
 * In this search I have had no predecessor; I am not aware, at least, that any 
 account, even of the most meagre kind, has before been written of the early history 
 of the Cotton Manufacture. The preceding sketch, as will be seen, is drawn from 
 a great variety of unconnected sources. 
 
48 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 impetuous tide of Mohammedan conquest and coloniza- 
 tion. The manufacture was general in India, and had 
 attained high excellence, in the age of the first Greek 
 historian, that is, in the fifth century before Christ, at 
 wliich time it had already existed for an unknown period; 
 yet eighteen centuries more elapsed before it was intro- 
 duced into Italy or Constantinople, or even secured a 
 footing in the neighbouring empire of China. Though 
 so well suited to hot climates, cottons were known rather 
 as a curiosity than as a common article of dress in 
 Egypt and Persia, in the first century of the Christian 
 era, five centuries after the Greeks had heard of the 
 " wool-bearing trees" of India: in Egypt tlie manufac- 
 ture has never reached any considerable degree of excel- 
 lence, and the muslins worn by the higher classes have 
 always been imported from India. In Spain the manu- 
 facture, after flourisliing to some degi'ee, became nearly 
 extinct. In Italy, Germany, and Flanders, it had a 
 lingering and ignoble existence. It would be altogether 
 a mistake to suppose that the same manufacture ever 
 existed in any other part of Europe, which now exists in 
 England. A coarse and heavy article was indeed fabri- 
 cated, probably half of cotton and half of linen ; but it 
 was of too little importance to attract the notice of his- 
 torians ; and calicoes, muslins, and the more delicate 
 cotton goods were never made in Europe, except pos- 
 sibly by the Moors in the south of Spain, until the inven- 
 tion of the spinning machinery in England. 
 
 The next fact worthy of observation is, that during 
 the lengthened period which has been under review, no 
 material improvement took place, in any country, in the 
 implements by which cotton was span and woven. The 
 instrument used for spinning in all countries, from the 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 49 
 
 earliest times, was the clistafF and spindle. Tliis simple 
 appai-atus was put by the Greek mythologists into the 
 hands of Minerva and the Parcae; Solomon employs 
 upon it the industry of the virtuous woman ; to the pre- 
 sent day the distaff is used in India, Egypt, and otlier 
 countries; its early use in France is attested by its being 
 figuratively mentioned in one of the old constitutional 
 maxims of the Idngdom;* and our own poets often 
 introduce it in speaking of the occupations of women. 
 Montfaucon gives a figure of a female spinning mth the 
 distaff, which, he says, is of the fourth or fifth century ,| 
 and of which the following is a copy : — 
 
 * " Le royaume de France ne tombe point en quenouille" — " the crown of 
 France never falls to the distaff," i. e. never descends to a woman." Dryden alludes 
 to this saying in the lines — 
 
 " See my royal master murder'd, 
 His crown usurp'd, a distaff \n the throne." 
 t Antiquity Explained, vol. iii. part ii. book v. c. 8: the plate is in p. 219 of 
 
 that volume. 
 
 G 
 
50 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The only advance made in this depai'tment was in 
 changing the distaff for the one-thread spinning wheel, 
 which has long been used in India for the coarse quali- 
 ties of thread, and which has also obtained in China and 
 in all European countries. But the wheel is an instru- 
 ment not much more expeditious tlian the distaflf, and 
 therefore it does not greatly cheapen the article pro- 
 duced. 
 
 Tlie apparatus for weaving underwent as little im- 
 provement as that for spinning. 
 
 The Indian loom will be described, and illustrated by 
 a drawing, in the next chapter. That machine was 
 probably in the same state four thousand yeai's ago as 
 at the present day: it contains all that is absolutely 
 essential to the wearing of cloth, but put together in a 
 rude, loose, and slovenly manner, and with the coarsest 
 workmanship. The woollen loom was probably always 
 more strongly made than the cotton loom, and there are 
 slight differences in the mode of working among different 
 nations; as, for example, we learn from Herodotus, that 
 " the Eg}^tians shoot the woof beneath, and other 
 nations above;"* and the Indians sit at their work, wliilst 
 the old custom in Europe, as shown by a drawing of the 
 fourth century, was for the weaver to stand. But the 
 loom used up to the eighteenth century contained 
 scarcely any essential improvement on the ancient In- 
 dian loom, though it was constructed \\ith gi-eater firm- 
 ness, neatness, and compactness. In Montfaucon's 
 " Antiquity Explained"t there are two figures of fe- 
 males wea-sing in a standing posture; they are taken 
 from the illuminations of books, which the learned anti- 
 quarian pronounces to be of the date of tlie fourth or 
 
 * Book ii. c. 35. t Vol. iii. p. 219, 225. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 51 
 
 fifth century. One of these figures is engraved below ; 
 the frame-work of the loom differs little from that of the 
 modern hand-loom. 
 
 The loom used in this country at the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century was a more perfect machine, but 
 upon the same principle as the ancient loom ; a prniciple 
 of achnu-able ingenuity, yet susceptible, as has of late 
 been practically shewn, of very gi-eat improvement, espe- 
 cially in respect to the quantity of work produced. 
 
 When the two facts above mentioned, namely, the 
 slow progress of the manufacture, and the absence of, 
 any material improvement in the machines employed 
 
52 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 are ^dewed together, it appeal's liighly probable that the 
 foiTaer was the effect of the latter. But when we ob- 
 serve the sudden and marvellous extension of the trade 
 since the invention of the spinning machines, not only 
 in England, but throughout Eui'ope and in the United 
 States, there cannot remain a doubt that that which so 
 long impeded the progress of the Cotton Manufacture 
 was, the rudeness and tediousness of the modes of work- 
 ins^. The cost of the raw material, in countries where 
 the cotton plant did not grow, was unquestionably 
 another hinderance; for the transport of so bulky an arti- 
 cle, when there were not the present contrivances for 
 compressing it, and when navigation was much more 
 tedious and hazardous, must have been expensive. 
 These two causes, but the first far more than the se- 
 cond, effectually prevented the manufacture from attain- 
 ing to any degree of importance in Europe. From their 
 combined effect, cotton yarn was considerably deai'er 
 than linen yai-n. At the same time, it was greatly in- 
 ferior in tenacity; because cotton, from having a sliorter, 
 feebler, and more elastic fibre than flax, needs to be 
 much more finnly twisted, in order to make a strong 
 thread. Owing to the imperfection of the spin- 
 ning machine, therefore, it was impossible, at least for 
 Europeans, to make cotton yarn combining strength 
 with fineness. Tlie yarn, when spun fine, was loose 
 and flimsy; it could not be made strong, without being 
 heavy. 
 
 The conclusion we have arrived at impai'ts gi'eat in- 
 terest to the inquiry which is to be conducted in the 
 following pages. For several thousand years no im- 
 provement was made in the ai't of fabricating cotton- 
 wool into cloth. The art was in consequence depressed, 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 53 
 
 aud extended itself sluggishly. A brilliant series of 
 mechanical inventions, made during the last age, so 
 economized labour, as to enable one man to do the work 
 of a hundred. By this revolution in its processes the 
 manufacture received an astonishing impulse, and in a 
 single age eclipsed the greatest phenomena in the annals 
 of commerce. These inventions were made in England : 
 and they form at once the most splendid triumph of 
 science applied to the useful arts, and an abundant 
 source of wealth to the nation. It is not extravagant to 
 say, that the experiments of the humble mechanist have 
 in their results added more to the power of England, 
 than all the colonies ever acquired by her arms. 
 
 To trace the origin of these inventions, then, must be 
 an inquiry of national interest. What could be more 
 discreditable to the literatui'e of the country, than that it 
 should fail to preserve a record of such high achieve- 
 ments in science and art, — of so great a boon to the 
 world and to posterity ? Yet the age in which they 
 were actually made, has passed over without even an 
 attempt to perform this duty. The inventors themselves 
 were too busy, and too unaccustomed to the use of the 
 pen, to commemorate the fruits of their genius \ and the 
 Avi'iters of the day were unconscious of the great revo- 
 lution in industry that was silently jn'oceeding. The 
 very few authors who have since touched upon the sub- 
 ject, finding tlie materials so scanty, have compiled brief 
 and most unsatisfactory notices, containing many serious 
 errors. They have given exaggerated praise to some 
 individuals concerned in the improvements, whilst the 
 real authors of the most important inventions have been 
 absolutely unknown to them, and therefore unnoticed. 
 To repair this injustice, and to write, as fairly as tlie 
 
54 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 materials allow, this striking page in the annals of 
 our national industry, is the intent of the present 
 work. 
 
 But before proceeding to the English manufacture, it 
 will be right to devote a single chapter * to some brief 
 notice of the cotton manufacture in the country where it 
 originated, and where the fabrics have so long main- 
 tained an unrivalled celebrity. This will be proper, 
 not only because the subject is one of considerable curi- 
 osity, but also because the past and present state of the 
 manufacture in India furnishes important points of com- 
 pai'ison, or rather of contrast, with the past and present 
 state of the same manufacture in England. The com- 
 mercial history of the two is also connected. Nor can 
 it be a matter of trivial interest to the inhabitants of 
 this country to know the state of a branch of industry 
 which is almost universal in our vast Eastern dependen- 
 cies, and which, after having flourished for three or four 
 thousand years in unapproached excellence, is now 
 withering under the competition of a manufacture as 
 matchless in the rapidity of its gi'owth, as that of India 
 has been singular in the length of its duration. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 55 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE COTTON MANUFACTURE OF INDIA. 
 
 Unrivalled excellence of Indian muslins. — Testimony of ancient Mohammedan 
 travellers, of Marco Polo, Barbosa, Frederick, Tavernier, and Rev. W. Ward. 
 — Dacca muslins. — Specimen brought by Sir Charles Wilkins ; compared with 
 English muslins. — Decline of the manufacture of Dacca muslins ; accounted 
 for. — Indian cotton, both annual and perennial. — Its defects, owing chiefly to 
 negligent cultivation and imperfect cleaning. — Evidence on the subject before 
 Parliamentary Committees. — Processes . of the manufacture in India. — Rude 
 Implements. — Roller gin. — Bow. — Spinning wheel. — Spinning without wheel. 
 — Loom. — Mode of Weaving. — Habits and remuneration of spinners, weavers, 
 &c. — Factories of the East India Company. — Marvellous skill of the Indian 
 workmen accounted for ; their physical organization, training, &c. — Principal 
 cotton fabrics of India, and where made. — Indian commerce in cotton goods. — 
 Extensive importations into England in the 17th century. — Alarm created by 
 them in English woollen and silk manufacturers. — Extracts from publications 
 of the day. — Indian fabrics prohibited in England and most other countries of 
 Europe. — Surprising commercial revolution caused by English machinery. — 
 Proved by a petition from Calcutta merchants. — Extract from M. Dupin on 
 English and Indian cotton manufactures. 
 
 The antiquity of the cotton manufacture in India has 
 already been noticed, and all that is known of it in clas- 
 sical times has been stated in the brief quotations from 
 Herodotus, Arrian, Strabo, Pliny, and the Periplus. 
 The present chapter will give some account of the re- 
 markable excellence of the Indian fabrics, — the pro- 
 cesses and machines by which they are wrought, — the 
 condition of the population engaged in this department 
 of industry, — the extensive commerce formerly carried 
 on in these productions to every quarter of the globe, — 
 and the decisive check given to that commerce by the 
 manufactures of England. 
 
56 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The Indians have in all ages maintained an unap- 
 proached and almost incredible perfection in their fabrics 
 of cotton. Some of their muslins might be thought the 
 work of fairies, or of insects, rather than of men ; but 
 these are produced in small quantities, and have seldom 
 been exported. In the same province from which the 
 ancient Greeks obtained the finest muslins then known, 
 namely, the province of Bengal, these astonishing 
 fabrics are manufactured to the present day. 
 
 We learn from two Arabian travellers of the ninth 
 century, that " in this country (India) they make gar- 
 ments of such extraordinary perfection, that no where 
 else are the like to be seen. These garments are for 
 the most part round, and wove to that degree of fineness 
 that they may be drawn through a ring of moderate 
 size."* Marco Polo, in the thirteenth century, men- 
 tions the coast of Coromandel, and especially Masuli- 
 patam, as producing " the finest and most beautiful cot- 
 tons that are to be found in any part of the world ;"t 
 and this is still the case as to the flowered and glazed 
 cottons, called chintzes, though the muslins of the Coro- 
 mandel coast are inferior to those of Bengal. 
 
 Odoardo Barbosa, one of the Portuguese adventurers 
 who visited India immediately after the discovery of the 
 passage by the Cape of Good Hope, celebrates " the 
 great quantities of cotton cloths admirably painted, also 
 some white and some striped, held in the highest esti- 
 mation," which were made in Bengal.| Cajsar Fre- 
 derick, a Venetian merchant, who travelled in India in 
 
 * Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs Mahomet- 
 ans, qui y allevent dans le neuvi^me siecle, p. 21. 
 t Travels of Marco Polo, book iii. c. 21, 28. 
 t Ramusio's " Raccolto delle Navigationi et Viaggi," torn. i. p. 315. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 57 
 
 1563, and whose narrative is translated by Hakluyt, 
 describes the extensive traffic carried on between St. 
 Tliome (a port 150 miles from Negapatam) and Pegn, 
 in " bumhast (cotton) cloth of every sort, painted, which 
 is a rare thing, because this kind of clothes shew as 
 they were gilded Avitli divers colours, and the more they 
 be washed, the livelier the colours will shew ; and there 
 is made such accompt of this kinde of cloth, that a small 
 bale of it will cost 1000 or 2000 duckets."* 
 
 Tavernier, who, like Marco Polo, Barbosa, and Fre- 
 derick, was a merchant as well as a traveller, and there- 
 fore accustomed to judge of the qualities of goods, and who 
 travelled in the middle of the seventeenth century, says 
 — " The white calicuts," (calicoes, or rather muslins, 
 so called from the great commercial city of Calicut, 
 whence the Portuguese and Dutch first brought them) 
 " are woven in several places in Bengal and Mo- 
 gulistan, and are carried to Raioxsary and Baroche 
 to be wliitened, because of the large meadoAvs and plenty 
 of lemons that gi-ow thereabouts, for they are never so 
 white as they should be till they are dipped in lemon- 
 water. Some calicuts are made so fine, you can hardly 
 feel them in your hand, and the thread, when spun, is 
 scarce discernible y'\ The same writer says, " There is 
 made at Seconge (in the province of Malwa) " a sort 
 of calicut so fine that when a man puts it on, his skin 
 shall appear as plainly through it, as if he was quite 
 naked; but the merchants are not permitted to trans- 
 port it, for the governor is obliged to send it all to 
 the Great Mogul's seraglio and the principal lords of 
 
 * Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 366. Edition of 1809. 
 
 t Tavernier's Travels, contained in Dr. Harris's Collection of Voyages and 
 Travels, vol. i. p. 811. 
 
 H 
 
58 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 the court, to make the sultanesses and noblemen's wives 
 sliifts and gannents for the liot weather ; and the king 
 and the lords take great pleasure to behold them in 
 these shifts, and see them dance with notliing else upon 
 them."* Speaking of the turbans of the Mohammedan 
 Indians, Tavernier says, "The rich have them of so 
 fine cloth, that twenty -five or thirty ells of it put into a 
 turban will not weigh four ounces. "f 
 
 An English writer, at the end of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, in a remonstrance against the admission of India 
 muslins, for which, he says, the liigh price of thirty 
 sliillings a yard was paid, unintentionally compliments 
 the delicacy of the fabric by stigmatizing it as " only the 
 shadow of a commodity."]; 
 
 The late Rev. William Ward, a missionary at Seram- 
 pore, informs us that " at Shantee-pooru and Dhaka, 
 muslins are made which sell at a hundred rupees a 
 piece. The ingenuity of the Hindoos in this branch of 
 manufacture is wonderful. Persons with Avhom I have 
 conversed on this subject say, that at two places in 
 Bengal, Sonar-ga and Vikriun-pooru, muslins are made 
 by a few families so exceedingly fine, that four months 
 are required to weave one piece, which sells at four 
 or five hundred rupees. Wlien this muslin is laid on 
 the grass, and the detv has fallen upon it, it is no longer 
 discernible J" ^ 
 
 After such statements as the above, from sober and 
 creditable witnesses, the Oriental hyperbole which desig- 
 nates the Dacca muslins as " tvebs of woven wind,'^ 
 seems only moderately poetical. 
 
 • Ibid. vol. i. p. 829. t Ibid. vol. i. p. 833. 
 
 t The Naked Truth, in an Essay upon Trade, p. 11. 
 
 § View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos, by William 
 Ward ; vol. iii. p. 127. 3d edition. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 59 
 
 I have been favoured by sir Charles Wilkins, the 
 learned librarian of the East India Company, with a 
 specimen of Dacca muslin, brought by himself from In- 
 dia in the year 1786, and presented to him by the prin- 
 cipal of the Company's factory at Dacca, as the finest 
 then made there. Like all Indian muslins, it has a yel- 
 lowish hue, caused by imperfect bleaching. Though the 
 worse for many years' exposure in a glass case, and the 
 handling of visiters, it is of exquisite delicacy, softness, 
 and transparency; yet the yarn of which it is woven, 
 and of which sir Charles also brought a specimen, is not 
 so fine as some which has been spun by machines in this 
 country. The following minute, made by su* Joseph 
 Banks on a portion of this yarn, twenty or thirty years 
 since, appears at the India House in his own writing, 
 together with a specimen of the muslin : — 
 
 " Tlie portion of skein which Mr. Wilkins gave to me 
 weighed 34fo grains: its length was 5 yards 7 inches, and 
 it consisted of\ 96 threads. Consequently, its whole length 
 was 1018 yards and 7 inches. This, with a small allow- 
 ance for fractions, gives 29 yards to a grain, 203,000 to 
 a pound averdupoise of 7000 grains ; that is, 115 miles, 
 2 furlongs, and 60 yards.'' 
 
 Cotton yarn has been spun in England, making three 
 hundi'ed and fifty hanks to the lb. weight, eacli hank 
 measuring 840 yards, and the whole forming a thread 
 of 167 miles in length. This, however, must be re- 
 garded merely as showing how fine the cotton can pos- 
 sibly be spun by our machines, since no such yarn is or 
 could be used in the making of muslins, or for any other 
 purpose, in this country. The extreme of fineness to 
 which yarns for muslins are ever spun in England is 
 250 hanks to the lb., which would form a thread measur- 
 
(^0 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 iiig 119^ miles ; but it is very rarely indeed that finer yarn 
 is used than 220 hanks to the lb., wliich is less fine than 
 the specimen of Dacca muslin above mentioned. The In- 
 dian hand-spun yai'n is softer than the mule-yarn of Eng- 
 land, and the muslins made of the former are much more 
 durable than those made of the latter. In point of ap- 
 pearance, however, the book-muslin of Glasgow is very 
 superior to the Indian muslin, not only because it is 
 better bleached, but because it is more evenly woven, 
 and from yam of uniform tliickness, whereas the tlireads 
 in the Indian fabric vary considerably. 
 
 It is probable that the specimen brought by sir Charles 
 Wilkins, though the finest then made at the city of 
 Dacca, is not equal to the most delicate muslins made 
 in that neighbourhood in former times, or even in the 
 present. The place called by the Rev. Mr. Ward 
 Sonar-ga, and, by Mr. Walter Hamilton, Soonergong, 
 a decayed city near Dacca, has been said to be unri- 
 valled in its muslins. Mr. Ward's testimony has been 
 quoted above. Mr. Ralph Fitch, an English traveller, 
 in 1583, spoke of the same place when he said — " Sin- 
 nergan is a towne sixe leagues from Serrapore, where 
 there is the best and finest cloth made of cotton that is 
 in all India."* Mr. Hamilton says — " Soonergong is 
 now dwindled down to an inconsiderable village. By 
 Abul Fazel, in 1582, it is celebrated for the manufac- 
 ture of a beautiful cloth, named cassas (cossaes,) and 
 the fabrics it still produces justify to the present genera- 
 tion its ancient renown."']" But it seems that there has 
 been a great decline in the manufacture of the finest 
 
 * Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 390 ; edit. 1809. 
 
 t A Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of Hindostan, by 
 Walter Hamilton, Esq. vol. i. p. 187— (1820.) 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 61 
 
 muslins, which is both stated and accounted for by Mr. 
 Hamilton in the following passage on tlie district of 
 Dacca Jelulpoor: — 
 
 " Plain muslins, distinguished by different names, according to 
 the fineness or closeness of the texture, as well as flowered, striped, 
 or chequered muslins, are fabricated chiefly in this district, where 
 a species of cotton named the banga grows, necessary, although 
 not of a very superior quality, to form the stripes of the finest 
 muslins, for which the city of Dacca has been so long celebrated. 
 The northern parts of Benares furnish both plain and flowered 
 muslins, which are not ill adapted for common use, though inca- 
 pable of sustaining any competition with the beautiful and inimi- 
 table fabrics of Dacca. 
 
 " The export of the above staple articles has much decreased, 
 and the art of manufacturing some of the finest species of muslins 
 is in danger of being lost, the orders for them being so few that 
 many of the families who possess by hereditary instruction the art 
 of fabricating them have desisted, on account of the difficulty they 
 afterwards experience in disposing of them. This decline may 
 partly be accounted for from the utter stagnation of demand in the 
 upper provinces since the downfall of the imperial government, 
 prior to which these delicate and beautiful fabrics were in such esti- 
 mation, not only at the court of Delhi, but among all classes of 
 the high nobility in India, as to render it difficult to supply the 
 demand. Among more recent causes also may be adduced the 
 French revolution, the degree of perfection to which this peculiar 
 manufacture has lately been brought in Great Britain, the great 
 diminution in the Company's investment, and the advance in the 
 price of cotton." 
 
 With respect to the peculiar species of cotton of 
 which the Dacca muslins are made, the following state- 
 ment was given to a committee of the House of Com- 
 mons, in 1830-31, by Mr. John Crawfurd, for many 
 years in the service of the East India Company, 
 and author ol the " History of the Indian Archipe- 
 lago :"— 
 
62 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 " There is a fine variety of cotton in the neighbourhood of 
 Dacca, from which I have reason to believe the fine muslins of 
 Dacca are produced, and probably to the accidental discovery of 
 it is to be attributed the rise of this singular manufacture ; it is 
 cultivated by the natives alone, not at all known in the English 
 market, nor, as far as I am aware, in that of Calcutta. Its growth 
 extends about forty miles along the banks of the Megna, and about 
 three miles inland. I consulted IMr. Colebrook respecting the 
 Dacca cotton, and had an opportunity of perusing the manuscripts 
 of the late Dr. Roxburgh, which contain an account of it ; he 
 calls it a variety of the common herbaceous annual cotton of 
 India, and states that it is longer in the staple, and affords 
 the material from which the Dacca muslins have been always 
 made." 
 
 India produces several varieties of cotton, both of 
 the herbaceous and the tree kinds. Marco Polo men- 
 tions that " cotton is produced (in Guzerat) in large 
 " quantities from a tree that is about six yai*ds in height, 
 " and bears during twenty years ; but the cotton taken 
 " from trees of this age is not adapted for spinning, 
 " but only quilting. Such, on the contrary, as is taken 
 *' fr'om trees of twelve years old, is suitable for muslins 
 " and other manufactures of extraordinary fineness."* 
 Sir John JMandeville, on the other hand, who travelled 
 in the fourteenth century, fifty years later than Polo, 
 mentions the annual herbaceous cotton as cultivated in 
 India : he says — " In many places the seed of the cot- 
 *' ton, (cothon,) which we call tree-wool, is sown every 
 " year, and there spiing up from it copses of low shrubs, 
 " on wliich this wool gi-ows."f Forbes also, in his Ori- 
 ental ]\Iemoii-s, thus describes the herbaceous cotton of 
 Guzerat : — " The cotton shnib, wliich gi'ows to the 
 
 * Book iii, chap. 29. 
 
 t Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 169. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 63 
 
 *' height of three or four feet, and in verdure resembles 
 " the currant bush, requires a longer time than rice 
 " (which grows up and is reaped in three months) to 
 " bring its delicate produce to perfection. The shrubs 
 *' are planted between the rows of rice, but do not im- 
 " pede its growth, or prevent its being reaped. Soon 
 *' after the rice harvest is over, the cotton bushes put 
 " forth a beautiful yellow flower, with a ciimson eye in 
 " each petal ; this is succeeded by a gi-een pod, filled 
 " with a white stringy pulp ; the pod turns brown and 
 " hard as it ripens, and then separates into two or three 
 " divisions containing the cotton. A luxuriant field, 
 " exhibiting at the same time the expanding blossom, 
 " the bursting capsule, and the snowy flakes of ripe 
 " cotton, is one of the most beautiful objects in the agii- 
 " culture of Hindostan."* 
 
 The following general statement concerning the cot- 
 ton of India, is from the geographical work of Malte 
 Brun : — " The cotton tree grows on all the Indian 
 " mountains, but its produce is coarse in quality : the 
 " herbaceous cotton prospers chiefly in Bengal and on 
 ** the Coromandel coast, and there the best cotton goods 
 " are manufactured. Next to these two provinces, Ma- 
 " dure, Marawar, Pescaria, and the coast of Malabar, 
 " produce the finest cotton."! He elsewhere says — 
 " Cotton is cultivated in every part of India : the finest 
 " grows in the light rocky soil of Guzerat, Bengal, 
 " Oude, and Agra. The cultivation of this plant is 
 " very lucrative, an acre producing about nine quintals 
 " of cotton in the year."| 
 
 • Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 405. 
 t Make Brun, vol. iii. p. 30. 
 i Ibid. vol. iii. p 303. 
 
04 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The cotton of India is generally inferior in quality, 
 and still more in condition when brought to market, to 
 the cotton of North and South America : but tliis, in 
 the opinion of botanists who have had experience of 
 Indian agriculture and soils, and in that of other atten- 
 tive observers, is almost entirely owing to the neglect 
 of the cultivators, who, from want of capital, and still 
 more from constitutional indolence and apathy, omit to 
 change the seed sow it in the most careless manner, 
 take little care of the rising crop, gather it so that the 
 cotton is made dirty, separate it from the seeds by the 
 rudest machinery, and pack it for a distant market in 
 such a manner that it comes to hand foul, oily, and 
 mouldy.* 
 
 * The evidence given before the parliamentary committees on Indian affairs 
 establishes all these points. The following is extracted from a digest of the evi- 
 dence taken by the Lords' committee, in 1830 : — " Indian cotton is usually at two- 
 thirds the price of American of the same staple ; it is shorter stapled than the 
 short-stapled American. It is inferior, from the use of the native seed, and from 
 its dirty state. Some of the best Surat cotton is nearly as good in quality as 
 Georgia, but it is forty per cent, worse in price, from the American being better 
 grown and cleaner. Very clean Indian cotton would approach nearly to the price 
 of American. It is very possible to improve the growth of cotton in India, by im- 
 proved cultivation and selection of seed. Bombay cotton might be grown as good 
 as Sea Island." A digest of the evidence in the Commons' reports of 1830, 
 1830-1, and 1831, yields the following statements: — "Cotton is not sown in 
 drills as in America, but broad-cast ; there is no care taken of it afterwards, except 
 to keep the cattle out of it. The cotton plant at Bombay is almost entirely an 
 annual, a green seed, and short stapled. The ordinary cottons cultivated are for 
 the most part the coarsest, because they are the most easy to rear ; the finer varie- 
 ties are very rare, because the people have not skill to keep them up ; they are, 
 in fact, delicate plants in comparison. The Indian cotton is short in the fibre, 
 and strong in the staple, coarse, and always very dirty." The evidence received 
 by the Commons' committee in 1832 informs us that " the cotton of India is bad, 
 but from experiments lately made, there is no doubt that if good seed were pro- 
 cured, beautiful cotton might be produced abundantly (Mackenzie, Bracken, 
 Wallick.) The failure of the natives in producing superior cotton is not so much 
 to be attributed to their want of skill, as to that extraordinary feature in their cha- 
 racter, that they will not do that at a greater advance of capital, or with greater 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 65 
 
 The cotton manufacture in India is not carried on in 
 a few large towns, or in one or two districts ; it is uni- 
 versal. The growth of cotton is nearly as general as 
 the growth of food ; every where the women spend a 
 portion of their time in spinning ; and almost every vil- 
 lage contains its weavers, and supplies its own inhabit- 
 ants with the scanty clothing they require.* Being a 
 
 exertion, which would give them a better return, if they can get it for less trouble 
 by the use of less capital : they are the most improvident of the whole human race 
 in this respect. India produces of itself every variety of cotton. The justly cele- 
 brated Sea Island cotton is actually in cultivation in several places in India, but 
 owing to the manner of husbandry among the natives, it very soon loses all its 
 principal characters for goodness, and returns to the quality of the original wild 
 species. Proximity to the sea appears to be a necessary condition for continuing 
 the excellence of cotton, but the miserable husbandry is quite sufficient to deterio- 
 rate any cotton. That brought home is extremely foul. From the manner in 
 which the cotton is cleaned, parts of the oily substance of the seed are allowed to 
 remain in ; that not only discolours the cotton, but gives it a peculiar liability to 
 become mouldy. It is conveyed to Calcutta in badly constructed boats, without 
 any sufficient protection from the weather ; and after lying on board four or five 
 months, it arrives, as might be expected, in a dirty and filthy state. It is then 
 put into cotton screws, which are not worked in a proper manner, and is subjected 
 to an unequal pressure. With a quantity of seed screwed in it, and in the state 
 of dampness and mouldiness in which it is imported into Calcutta, it is sent on 
 board ship for England. It is impossible that the finest cotton could, under such 
 treatment, arrive here in better state than the Bengal cottons do." 
 
 Dr. Wallick, the superintendent of the botanical garden at Calcutta, gives the fol- 
 lowing encouraging statement in a letter to the Hon. H. George Tucker, Esq. dated 
 12th October, 1828 : — " That there is a sort of cotton, the produce of the West 
 Indies, rather of Barbadoes, which has been cultivated with complete success in 
 the Company's territories, I can assert with confidence, because I am in possession 
 of an extract of a general commercial letter from the court, transmitted to me offi- 
 cially from the board of trade at Calcutta, in which it is pronounced equal, if not 
 superior, to any kind procurable in the London market. I cultivated it in the gar- 
 den at Tittygheer, near Borrackpore, during several years in which that establish- 
 ment continued attached to the botanic garden at Calcutta." Dr. W. adds, that in 
 asserting the high capabilities of the Company's territories for the growth of the 
 finest cotton, " experience, and not theory, is the ground on which he has pro- 
 ceeded." 
 
 * Orme, in his Historical Fragments of the Mogul Empire, says, " On the coast 
 of Coromandel and in the province of Bengal, when at some distance from the 
 high road or a principal town, it is difficult to find a village in which every man, 
 
 1 
 
06 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 domestic manufacture, and carried on Avith tlie rudest 
 and cheapest api^ai-atus, it requires neither capital, nor 
 mills, nor an assemblage of various trades. The cotton 
 is separated from the seeds by a small rude hand-mill, 
 or gin, tm'ned by women, of which the following is 
 a representation : — 
 
 The mill consists of two rollers of teak wood, fluted 
 longitu(Unally with five or six gi'ooves, and revolving 
 nearly in contact. The upper roller is turned by a 
 handle, and the lower is carried along with it by a per- 
 petual screw at the axis. The cotton is put in at one 
 side, and drawn through by the revoldng rollers ; but 
 
 woman, and child is not employed in making a piece of cloth. At present, much 
 the greatest part of the whole provinces are employed in this single manufacture." 
 (p. 409.) " The progress of the linen (cotton) manufacture includes no less than 
 a description of the lives of half the inhabitants of Indostan." (p. 413.) It is 
 curious that Mr. Orme invariably mistakes cotton for linen ; where he uses the 
 latter word, the former is always to be understood. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 67 
 
 the seeds, being too large to pass through the opening, 
 are torn off, and fall down on the opposite side from 
 the cotton. 
 
 The next operation is that of bowing tlie cotton, to 
 clear it from dirt and knots. A large bow, made elastic 
 by a complication of strings, is used; this being put hi 
 contact with a heap of cotton, the workman strikes the 
 string with a heavy wooden mallet, and its vibrations 
 open the knots of the cotton, shake from it the dust and 
 dirt, and raise it to a downy fleece. The hand-mill and 
 the boAV have been used immemorially tlu'oaghout all the 
 countries of Asia, and have their appropriate names in 
 the Arabic and other languages: they were formerly 
 used in America, Avhence the term, still applied in com- 
 merce, " bowed Georgia cotton.''' The hatters of our 
 own country still raise their wool by the bow. The fol- 
 lowing is the Indian bow : — 
 
68 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Tlie cotton being thus prepared, without any carding, 
 it is spun by tlie women; the coarse yarn is spun on a 
 heavy one-thread wheel, of teak-wood, and of the rudest 
 cai*pentry — 
 
 The finer yarn is spun with a metallic spindle, some- 
 times with and sometimes without a distaff; a bit of clay 
 is attached as a weight to one end of the spindle, which 
 is turned round with the left hand, whilst the cotton is 
 supplied with the right; the thread is wound up on a 
 small piece of wood. The spinster keeps her fingers 
 diy by the use of a chalky powder. In this simple way 
 the Indian women, whose sense of touch is most acute 
 and delicate, produce yarns which are finer and far 
 more tenacious than any of the machine-spun yarns of 
 Europe. 
 
 The yarn, having been reeled and warped in the aim- 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 69 
 
 plest possible manner, is given to the weaver, whose 
 loom is as rude a piece of apparatus as can be imagined. 
 It is thus described: — " The loom consists merely of two 
 " bamboo rollers, one for the warp and the other for the 
 " web, and a pair of geer. The shuttle performs the 
 " double oflfice of shuttle and batten, and for this purpose 
 " is made like a large netting needle, and of a length 
 " somewhat exceeding the breadth of the piece.* This 
 " apparatus the weaver carries to a tree, under which he 
 " digs a hole large enough to contain his legs and the 
 *' lower part of the geer. He then stretches liis warp 
 " by fastening his bamboo rollers at a due distance from 
 " each other on the turf by wooden pins. The balances 
 " of the geer he fastens to some convenient branch of the 
 " tree over his head: two loops underneath the geer, in 
 " which he inserts his great toes, serve instead of trea- 
 " dies; and his long shuttle, which also performs the 
 " office of batten, draws the weft through the warp, and 
 " afterwards strikes it up close to the web."t " There 
 " is not so much as an expedient for rolling up the warp : 
 "it is stretched out at the full length of the web, wliich 
 " makes the house of the weaver insufficient to contain 
 " him. He is therefore obliged to work continually in 
 " the open air; and every return of inclement weather 
 " interrupts him."| 
 
 The following is a representation of the Hindoo 
 weaver and his loom : — 
 
 * The shuttle is not always of this length. Hoole, in his "Mission to India," 
 represents it as requiring to be thrown, in which case it must be short ; and a 
 drawing of a Candyan weaver, in the Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of 
 Useful Knowledge, shews the shuttle of the same size as an English shuttle. 
 
 f Martin's Circle of the Mechanical Arts, p. 239. 
 
 X Mill's History of British India, book ii. ch. 8. 
 
70 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Forbes describes the weavers in Guzerat, near 
 Baroclie, as '' fixing- tlieir looms at sun-rise under the 
 " shade of tamarind and mango trees." In some parts 
 of India, however, as on the banks of the Ganges, the 
 weavers work under the cover of their sheds, fixing 
 the geer of their looms to a bamboo in the roof. They 
 size their warps with a starch made from the root called 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 71 
 
 kandri. When chequered muslins are wrought, three 
 persons are employed at each loom : the lun^ri pulls the 
 tlireads to form the pattern, the doharah twists the 
 thread, and the binkarai weaves. 
 
 Some authentic particulars concerning the habits and 
 remuneration of the Hindoos engaged in the making of 
 cotton cloth, are contained in an unpublished account of 
 the districts of Puraniya (Purneah,) Patna, and Dinaj- 
 pur, by Dr. Francis Hamilton, better known as Dr. F. 
 Buchanan, (he having taken the name of Hamilton,) the 
 author of the " Journey from Madras through Mysore, 
 Canara, and Malabar." This account of the above- 
 named provinces near the Ganges is in several manu- 
 script volumes in the library of the India House, in 
 London. I learn from his elaborate survey that the 
 spinning and weaving of cotton prevails throughout these 
 provinces. The fine yarns are spun with an iron spin- 
 dle, and without distaff, generally by women of rank; no 
 cast is disgraced here by spinning, as in the south of 
 India;* the women do not employ all their time at this 
 work, but only so much as is allowed by their domestic 
 occupations. The coarse yarns are spun on " a small 
 " miserable wheel turned by the hand." The hand-mill 
 is used to free the cotton from its seeds, and the bow to 
 tease it. " The following capital is required for the 
 " weaver's business: a loom, 2| rupees; sticks for warp- 
 " ing and a wheel for winding, 2 anas; a shop, 4 rupees; 
 " thread for two ready money pieces, worth 6 rupees 
 
 * In his work on Mysore, Dr. Buchanan says — " The women of the Brahmans 
 are averse from spinning as their husbands are from holding the plough." But 
 Mr. Orme says — " A weaver among the Gentoos is no despicable cast ; he is next 
 to the scribe, and above all the mechanics ; he would lose his cast were he to 
 undertake a drudgery which did not immediately relate to his work." 
 
72 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 "each, 5 rupees; — total 11 nipees 10 anas; to which 
 " must be added a month's subsistence. The man and 
 '* his wife warp, wind, and weave two pieces of this kind 
 " in a month, and he has 7 rupees (14 shillings) profit, 
 " deducting, however, the tear and weai* of liis apparatus, 
 " wliich is a trifle. A person hu'ed to weave can in a 
 " month make three pieces of this kind, and is allowed 
 " 2 anas in the rupee of their value, which is 2^ rupees 
 " (4s. 6d.) a month. Tlie finest goods cost 2 rupees a 
 "■ piece for wearing." In his observations on another 
 district. Dr. Hamilton states the average profit of a 
 loom engaged in weaving coarse goods to be 28 rupees 
 (£2. 16s.) a yeai% or sometliing less than 13d. a week. 
 At Pm'aniya and Dinajpur the journeymen cotton- 
 weavers " usually made from 2 to 21 rupees (from 4s. to 
 5s.) a month." At Patna a man and liis wife made 
 from 3 to 4 rupees (from 6s. to 8s.) a month by beating 
 and cleaning cotton; and each loom employed in making 
 chequered muslins, and therefore employing three per- 
 sons, has a profit of 108| rupees a year (£10. 16s.), 
 that is. Is. 4d. a week for each person. The average 
 earnings of a jounie}'man weaver, therefore, appear to 
 be from Is. to Is. 4d. per week. At Bangalore, and in 
 some other parts of southern India, tliis author states 
 that weavers earn from 3d. to 8d. a day, according as 
 they are employed on coai'se or fine goods;* but this is 
 so very much above the usual remuneration for labour 
 in India, that, if the statement is not eiToneous, it must 
 be of extremely limited application. On the same autho- 
 rity, a woman spinning coarse yam can earn in the same 
 parts lid. per day.-f 
 
 • Buchanan's Journey through Mysore, vol. i. pp. 216 — 218. 
 t Ibid. vol. iii. p. 317. 
 
THE COTTON fli A N U F A C T U R E . 73 
 
 A fact is mentioned by Dr. Hamilton, in his unpub- 
 lislied account of Patna, which ajQTords a striking indica- 
 tion as to the national character of the Hindoos — " All 
 " Indian weavers, who weave for common sale, make the 
 " woof of one end of the cloth coarser than that of the 
 " other, and attempt to sell to the unwary hy the fine 
 " end, although every one almost, who deals with them, 
 " is perfectly aware of the circumstance, and although 
 " in the course of his life any weaver may not ever have 
 " an opportunity of gaining by this means." 
 
 The East India Company has a factory at Dacca, and 
 also in other parts of India, — not, as the modern English 
 use of the word " factory" might seem to imply, a mill, 
 for the manufacture is entirely domestic — but a com- 
 mercial establishment in a manufacturing district, where 
 the spinners, weavers, and other workmen are chiefly 
 employed in providing the goods which the Company 
 exports to Europe. This establishment is under the 
 management of a commercial resident, who agi-ees for 
 the kinds of goods that may be required, and super- 
 intends the execution of the orders received from the 
 presidencies. Such is the poverty of the workmen, and 
 even of the manufacturers who employ them, that the 
 resident has to advance beforehand the funds necessary 
 in order to produce the goods. The consequence of this 
 system is, that the manufacturers and their men are in 
 a state of dependence almost amounting to servitude. 
 The resident obtains their labour at his own price, and, 
 being supported by the civil and military power, he esta- 
 blishes a monopoly of the worst kind, and productive of 
 the most prejudicial effects to industry. The Act of 
 1833, which put an end to the commercial character of 
 
 K 
 
74 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the Company, will of course abolisli all tlie absurd aud 
 oppressive monopolies it exercised. 
 
 It cannot but seem astonishing, that in a department 
 of industry, where the raw material has been so grossly 
 neo-lected, where the machinery is so rude, and where 
 there is so little division of labour, the results should be 
 fabrics of the most exquisite delicacy and beauty, unri- 
 valled by the products of any other nation, even those 
 best skilled in^ the mechanic ai'ts. This anomaly is ex- 
 plained by the remarkably fine sense of touch possessed 
 by that effeminate people, by their patience and gentle- 
 ness, and by the hereditary continuance of a particular 
 species of manufacture in families through many gene- 
 rations, which leads to the training of children from their 
 very infancy in the processes of the art. Mr. Orme 
 observes — " The women spin the thread destined for the 
 " clotli, and then deliver it to the men, who have fingers 
 " to model it as exquisitely as these have prepared 
 " it. The rigid, clumsy fingers of a European w^ould 
 " scarcely be able to make a piece of canvas with the 
 " insU-mnents which are all that an Indian employs in 
 " making a piece of cambric (muslin.) It is further 
 " remarkable, that every distinct kind of clotli is the 
 '' production of a particular district, in which the fabric 
 *' has been transmitted perhaps for centuries from father 
 ** to sou, — a custom which must have conduced to the 
 " perfection of the manufacture."* The last mentioned 
 fact may be considered as a kind of division of labour. 
 
 Mr. IMill thus explains the unequalled manual skill of 
 the Indian weaver: — " It is a sedentary occupation, and 
 '* thus in hai-mony with his predominant inclination. It 
 
 * Orine's Historical Fragments of the Mogul Empire, p. 413. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 76 
 
 " requires patience, of which he has an inexhaustible 
 " fund. It requires little bodily exertion, of which he 
 *' is always exceedingly sparing; and the finer the pro- 
 " duction, the more slender the force which he is called 
 " upon to apply. But this is not all. The weak and 
 " delicate frame of the Hindu is accompanied with an 
 " acuteness of external sense, particularly of touch, Avhich 
 " is altogether unrivalled; and the flexibility of his fin- 
 '* gers is equally remarkable. The hand of the Hindu, 
 *' therefore, constitutes an organ adapted to the finest 
 *' operations of the loom, in a degree wliicli is almost or 
 *' altogether peculiar to himself."* 
 
 It is, then, to a physical organization in the natives, 
 admirably suited to tlie processes of spinning and weav- 
 ing; to the possession of the raw material in tlie greatest 
 abundance ; to the possession also of the most brilliant 
 dyes for staining and printing the cloth; to a climate 
 which renders the colours lively and durable; and to the 
 hereditary practice, by particular casts, classes, and 
 families, both of the manual operations and chemical 
 processes required in the manufacture; — it is to these 
 causes, witli very little aid from science, and in an 
 almost barbarous state of the mechanical arts, that India 
 owes her long supremacy in the manufacture of cotton. 
 
 Bengal is celebrated for the production of the finest 
 muslins; the Coromandel coast, for the best chintzes and 
 calicoes; and Surat, for strong and inferior goods of 
 every land. The cottons of Bengal go under the names 
 of casses, amchis, and garats; and the handkerchiefs are 
 called Burgoses and Steinkirkes. Tablecloths of supe- 
 rior quality are made at Patna. The hasins, or basinets, 
 come from the Northern Circars. Condaver furnishes 
 
 • Mill's History oi' British India, book ii. c. S. 
 
76 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 the beautiful handkerchiefs of Masulipatam, the fine 
 coloui's of which are partly obtained from a plant called 
 chage, which gi'ows on the banks of the Krishna, and on 
 the coast of the Bay of Bengal. The chintzes and ging- 
 hams are chiefly made at Masulipatam, Madi'as, St. 
 Thome, and Paliamcotta. The long cloths and fine pul- 
 licats are produced in the presidency of Madi'as. The 
 coarse piece-goods, under the names of baftas, doutis, 
 and pullicats, as well as common muslins and chintzes, 
 are extensively manufactured in the district of wliicli 
 Surat is the port. Besides all these, there is an endless 
 vai'ietv of fabrics, many of which are known in the 
 markets of Europe, Asia, and Africa. 
 
 The commerce of the Indians in these fabrics has 
 been extensive, from the Christian era to the end of the 
 last century. For many hundred years, Persia, Arabia, 
 vSyria, Egypt, Abyssinia, and all tlie eastern parts of 
 Africa, were supplied with a considerable portion of their 
 cottons and muslins, and with all which they consumed 
 of the finest qualities, from the marts of India. Tliis 
 commerce existed in the last age, and is described by 
 the Abbe Raynal* and Legoux de Flaix. The blue 
 calicoes of Guzerat were long bought by the English and 
 Dutch for theii' trade with Guinea. The great marts of 
 this commerce on the west coast of India were Surat 
 and Calicut, the former of which is near to Bai'oche, the 
 manufacturing capital of Guzerat, in which province a 
 considerable part of the exported cottons of Intha were 
 made; and on the east coast, JNIasulipatam, Madi-as, and 
 St. Thome, whence the varied and extensive j)roducts of 
 the Coromandel coast are exported. 
 
 * Histoire Philosophique et Politique des Establissements et du Commerce des 
 Europ^ens dans les deux Indes, tom. ii. liv. iv. ch. 4. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 77 
 
 Owing to the beauty and cheapness of Indian muslins, 
 chintzes, and " calicoes, there was a period when the 
 manufacturers of all the countries of Europe were ap- 
 prehensive of being ruined by their competition. In the 
 seventeenth century, the Dutch and English East India 
 Companies imported these goods in large quantities; 
 they became highly fashionable for ladies' and cliildren's 
 dresses, as well as for drapery and furniture, and the 
 coarse calicoes were used to line garments. To such an 
 extent did this proceed, that as early as 1678 a loud 
 outcry was made in England against the admission of 
 Indian goods, which, it was maintained, were ruining 
 our ancient woollen manufacture, — a branch of industry 
 which for centuries was regarded with an almost super- 
 stitious veneration, as a kind of palladium of the national 
 prosperity, and which was incomparably the most ex- 
 tensive branch of manufactures till the close of the 
 eighteenth century. A few extracts from pamphlets 
 published in the seventeenth and at the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century, will not only afford amusement, but 
 will shew the wonderful commercial revolution wliich 
 has since been effected by the machinery of England. 
 In the year 1678, a pamphlet was issued under the 
 title — " The Ancient Trades Decayed and Repaii*ed 
 again," in which the author thus bewails the interference 
 of cotton with woollen fabrics : — 
 
 " This trade (the woollen) is very much hindered by our own 
 people, who do wear many foreign commodities instead of our 
 own ; as may be instanced in many particulars ; viz. instead of 
 green sey, that was wont to be used for children's frocks, is now 
 used painted and Indian- stained and striped calico ; and instead 
 of a perpetuana or shalloon to lyne men's coats with, is used some- 
 times a glazened calico, which in the whole is not above 12d 
 cheaper, and abundantly worse. And sometimes is used a Ban- 
 
78 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 gale, that is brought from India, both for lynings to coats, and 
 for petticoats too ; yet our English ware is better and cheaper 
 than this, only it is thinner for the summer. To remedy this, it 
 would be necessary to lay a very high impost upon all such com- 
 modities as these are, and that no callicoes or other sort of linen 
 be suffered to be glazened." — pp. 16, 17. 
 
 The writer, with equal wisdom, recommends the pro- 
 hihitiou of stage coaches, on account of their injuring 
 the proprietors of the inns on the road, bv conveying 
 the passengers too quicldv, and at too little expense to 
 themselves. A pamphlet entitled " The Naked Truth, 
 in an Essay upon Trade," published in 1696, informs 
 us that — 
 
 " The commodities that we chiefly receive from the East Indies 
 are callicoes, muslins, Indian wrought silks, peper, salt-petre, 
 indigo, &c. The advantage of the Company is chiefly in their 
 muslins and Indian silks, (a great value in these commodities 
 being comprehended in a small bulk,) and these becoming the 
 general wear in England.'^ — p. 4. " Fashion is truly termed a 
 witch ; the dearer and scarcer any commodity, the more the mode ; 
 30s. a yard for muslins, and only the shadow of a commodity when 
 procured." — p. 11. 
 
 So sagacious and far-siorhted an author as Daniel De 
 Foe did not escape the general notion, that it was not 
 merely injurious to our woollen and silk manufactures, 
 but also a national evil, to have clothing cheap from 
 abroad rather than to manufacture it dear at home. In 
 his Weekly JRevieiv, which contains so many opinions on 
 trade, credit, and cun-ency far beyond the age, he thus 
 laments the large importations of Indian goods : — 
 
 " The general fansie of the people runs upon East India goods 
 to that degree, that the chints and painted calicoes, which before 
 were only made use of for carpets, quilts, &c., and to clothe chil- 
 dren and ordinary people, become now the dress of our ladies; 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 79 
 
 and such is the power of a mode as we saw our persons of quality 
 dressed in Indian carpets, which but a few years before their 
 chambermaids would have thought too ordinary for them : the 
 chints was advanced from lying upon their floors to their backs, 
 from the foot-cloth to the petticoat ; and even the queen herself 
 at this time was pleased to appear in China and Japan, I mean 
 China silks and callico. Nor was this all, but it crept into our 
 houses, our closets, and bed-chambers ; curtains, cushions, chairs, 
 and at last beds themselves, were nothing but callicoes or Indian 
 stuffs ; and in short, almost every thing that used to be made of 
 wool or silk, relating either to the dress of the women or the furni- 
 ture of our houses, was supplied by the Indian trade." 
 
 " Above half of the (woollen) manufacture was entirely lost, 
 half of the people scattered and ruined, and all this by the inter- 
 course of the East India trade." — Weekly Review, January 
 31st, 1708. 
 
 However exaggerated and absurd De Foe's estimate of 
 the injury caused to the woollen manufacture, as mani- 
 fested by the small value of the whole importations of Indian 
 fabrics, at that time, as well as (much more decisively) by 
 the experience of recent times, when the woollen manu- 
 facture has sustained the incomparably more formidable 
 competition of the English cotton manufacture, it is 
 evident from his testimony, and that of other writers, 
 that Indian calicoes, muslins, and chintzes, had become 
 common in England at the close of the seventeenth 
 century. De Foe's complaint was not of an evil exist- 
 ing in 1 708, when he wrote, but of one a few years 
 earlier ; for he says in anotlier place, that the prohibi- 
 tion of Indian goods had averted the ruin of our manu- 
 factures, and revived their prosperity. This prohibition 
 took place by the Act 11 and 12 William III. cap. 10., 
 (1700,) wliich forbad the introduction of Indian silks 
 and printed calicoes for domestic use, either as apparel 
 or furniture, under a penalty of £200 on the wearer 
 
80 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 or seller : and as tliis Act did not prevent the continued 
 use of tlie goods, whicli were probably smuggled from 
 the contment of Europe, other Acts for the same pur- 
 pose were passed at a later date. 
 
 A volume published in the year 172S, and entitled 
 " A Plan of the English Commerce," shows that the 
 evil of a consumption of Indian manufactures still pre- 
 vailed, and that it was asciibed to a cause for which the 
 writer saw no remedy, namely, the will of the ladies, 
 or, in his own words, then* " passion for their fashion." 
 Tlie other couutiies of Europe are represented as 
 equally suffering from Indian competition and female 
 perverseness, and as attempting in the same way to find 
 a remedy in legislative proliibition. Holland was an 
 honourable exception. The author says — 
 
 " The callicoes are sent from the Indies by land into Turkey, by 
 land and inland seas into Muscovy and Tartary, and about by 
 long-sea into Europe and America, till in general they are become 
 a grievance, and almost all the European nations but the Dutch 
 restrain and prohibit them." — p. 180, 
 
 " Two things," says the writer, " among us are too ungovernable, 
 viz. our passions and our J'ashio7is. 
 
 " Should I ask the ladies whether they would dress by law, or 
 clothe by act of parliament, they would ask me whether they were 
 to be statute fools, and to be made pageants and pictures of? — 
 whether the sex was to be set up for our jest, and the parliament 
 had nothing to do but make Indian queens of them ? — that they 
 claim English liberty as well as the men, and as they expect to do 
 what they please, and say what they please, so they will wear what 
 they please, and dress how they please. 
 
 " It is true that the liberty of the ladies, their passion for their 
 fashion, has en frequently injurious to the manufactures of 
 England, auv '<o still in some cases ; but I do not see so easy a 
 remedy for tha for some other things of the like nature. The 
 ladies have suffer^ some little restraint that way, as in the wearing 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 81 
 
 East India silks, instead of English; and callicoes and other things 
 instead of worsted stufFs and the like ; and we do not see they are 
 pleased with it." — p. 253. 
 
 It appears, then, tliat not more than a century ago, 
 the cotton fahrics of India were so beautiful and cheap, 
 that nearly all the governments of Europe thought it 
 necessary to prohibit them, or to load them with heavy 
 duties, in order to protect their own manufactures. 
 How surprising a revolution has since taken place ! 
 The Indians have not lost their former skill ; but a 
 power has arisen in England, which has robbed them of 
 their ancient ascendancy, turned back the tide of com- 
 merce, and made it run more rapidly against the Ori- 
 ental than it ever ran against the English. Not to 
 dwell upon a poiut which will afterwards be illustrated, 
 the following document furnishes superabundant proof 
 how a manufacture which has existed without a rival 
 for thousands of years, is withering under the compe- 
 tition of a power which is but of yesterday : it would 
 be well if it did not also illustrate the very different 
 measure of protection and justice which governments 
 usually afford to their subjects at home, and to those of 
 their remote dependencies : — 
 
 " PETITION OF NATIVES OF BENGAL, RELATIVE TO 
 DUTIES ON COTTON AND SILK. 
 
 " Calcutta, \st. Sept. 1831. 
 
 "To THE Right Honourable the Lords of His Majesty's 
 Privy Council for Trade, &c. 
 
 " The humble Petition of the undersigned M? ticturers and 
 Dealers in Cotton and Silk Piece Goods, the fab ^J Bengal ; 
 
 " Sheweth — That of late years your Pet' ners have found 
 their business nearly superseded by the introduction of the fabrics 
 
 L 
 
82 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 of Great Britain into Bengal, the importation of which augments 
 every year, to the great prejudice of the native manufactures. 
 
 " That the fabrics of Great Britain are consumed in Bengal, 
 without any duties being levied thereon to protect the native 
 fabrics. 
 
 '' That the fabrics of Bengal are charged with the following 
 duties wlien they are used in Great Britain — 
 
 " On manufactured cottons, 10 per cent. 
 " On manufactured silks, 24 per cent. 
 
 " Your Petitioners most humbly implore your Lordships' con- 
 sideration of these circumstances, and they feel confident that no 
 disposition exists in England to shut the door against the industry 
 of any part of the inhabitants of this great empire. 
 
 " They therefore pray to be admitted to the privilege of British 
 subjects, and humbly entreat your Lordships to allow the cotton 
 and silk fabrics of Bengal to be used in Great Britain ' free of 
 duty,' or at the same rate which may be charged on British fabrics 
 consumed in Bengal.* 
 
 " Your Lordships must be aware of the immense advantages 
 the British manufacturers derive from their skill in constructing 
 and using machinery, which enables them to undersell the un- 
 scientific manufacturers of Bengal in their own country : and, 
 although your Petitioners are not sanguine in expecting to derive 
 any great advantage from having their prayer granted, their minds 
 would feel gratified by such a manifestation of your Lordships' 
 good will towards them; and such an instance of justice to the 
 natives of India would not fail to endear the British government 
 to them. 
 
 " They therefore confidently trust, that your Lordships' righteous 
 consideration will be extended to them as British subjects, without 
 exception of sect, country, or colour. 
 
 " And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray." 
 
 [Signed by 117 natives of high respectability.] 
 
 • This reasonable request hats not been complied with, the duty on India 
 cottons being still 10 per cent. The extra duty of Sjd. per yard on printed cottons 
 was taken off when the excise duty on English prints was repealed, in 1831. 
 English cottons imported into India only pay a duty of 2 J per centl 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 83 
 
 It is the object of the present work to show the means 
 and the steps by which this surprising commercial revo- 
 hition has been effected ; and to that I now proceed, — 
 concluding the notice of the Indian manufacture witli a 
 passage from the writings of an enlightened foreigner, 
 who has shown the extent of the triumph gained over 
 tliat manufacture, by English skill, in the following just 
 and eloquent terms :— 
 
 " Watt improves the steam-engine, and this single improvement 
 " causes the industry of England to make an immense stride. 
 " This machine represents, at the present time, the powrer of three 
 " hundred thousand horses, or of tv^f0 millions of men, strong and 
 " well fitted for labour, who should work day and night without 
 " interruption, and without repose, to augment the riches of a 
 " country not two-thirds the extent of France. A hair-dresser 
 " invents, or at least brings into action, a machine for spinning 
 " cotton ; this alone gives to British industry an immense superi- 
 " ority. Fifty years only after this great discovery, more than one 
 " million of the inhabitants of England are employed in those ope- 
 " rations, which depend, directly or indirectly, on the action of 
 " this machine. Lastly, England exports cotton, spun and woven 
 " by an admirable system of machinery, to the value of four hun- 
 " dred millions of francs yearly. The Indies, so long superior to 
 " Europe — the Indies, which inundated the west with her products, 
 " and exhausted the riches of Europe — the Indies are conquered in 
 " their turn. The British navigator travels in quest of the cotton 
 " of India, — brings it from a distance of four thousand leagues, — 
 " commits it to an operation of the machine of Arkwright, and of 
 " those that are attached to it, — carries back their products to 
 " the East, making them again to travel four thousand leagues ; — 
 " and, in spite of the loss of time, in spite of the enormous ex- 
 " pense incurred by this voyage of eight thousand leagues, the 
 " cotton manufactured by the machinery of England becomes less 
 " costly than the cotton of India spun and woven by the hand near 
 " the field that produced it, and sold at the nearest market. So 
 " great is the power of the progress of machinery."* 
 
 * Address of M. Charles Dupin to the Mechanics of Paris. 
 
84 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE COTTON MANUFACTURE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 England among the latest of all countries to receive the Cotton Manufacture. — 
 The natural advantages of England, and especially of Lancashire, for manufac- 
 tures, unequalled by any other country ; water-power, coal, iron ; communication 
 with the sea ; inland navigation ; railways : commercial position of the country. 
 — Political and moral advantages of England. — Adventitious advantages. — The 
 woollen and linen manufactures prepared the way for the cotton manufacture in 
 Lancashire. — Notice of the woollen manufacture. — The ancient " Manchester 
 cottons" a woollen fabric. — "Cottons" and "fustians" made of wool, in imitation 
 of the foreign goods bearing those names. — Early importation of cotton-wool 
 into England ; then used chiefly for candlewicks ; imported from Genoa, Sicily, 
 the Levant, and Flanders. — Mercantile commission to Turkey. — The cotton 
 manufacture probably introduced at the close of the sixteenth century, by Pro- 
 testant refugees from Flanders. — First mention of the English cotton manufac- 
 ture, by Lewes Roberts, in 1641. — Humphrey Chetham a dealer in fustians 
 before this time. — Fustians manufactured chiefly at Bolton and the neighbour- 
 hood, and bought by the Manchester merchants. — Species of cotton goods made 
 at Manchester. — Modes of doing business. — Calico printing commenced in 
 England. — Rapid increase of the town and trade of Manchester at the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century. — Testimony of Stukely and De Foe. — Extensive 
 consumption of linen yarn as warps for cotton goods. — Extent of the manufacture 
 in 1740 and 1760. — Official returns of the imports of cotton wool, and exports 
 of British cotton goods, from 1697 to 1764. — Contrast between that period and 
 1833. — Comparison of the cotton and woollen exports in 1700 and 1833. 
 
 England was among tlie latest of all countries to 
 receive the cotton manufacture. This species of 
 industry was kno^Ti in each of the other quarters of tlie 
 globe earlier than in Europe ; and in Spain, Italy, the 
 Low Countries, Bavaria, Saxony, Prussia, and Turkey, 
 before it was introduced into England. That a country 
 wliich started almost last in the race should have so far 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 85 
 
 outstripped every competitor may appear surprising, but 
 admits of satisfactory explanation ; and it will be desir- 
 able here to glance at the principal causes which have 
 given the English a pre-eminence in manufactures over 
 all other nations. 
 
 The natural and physical advantages of England for 
 manufacturing industry are probably superior to those 
 of every other country on the globe. The district where 
 those advantages are found in the most favourable com- 
 bination, is the southern part of Lancashire, and the 
 south-western part of Yorkshire, the former of wliich 
 has become the principal seat of the manufacture of 
 cotton. In the counties of Chesliire, Derbyshire, and 
 Nottinghamshire, and in Renfrewshu'e and Lanarkshire, 
 in Scotland, all of wliich districts are likewise seats of 
 this branch of industry, advantages of a similar nature 
 are found, though not in such close concentration as in 
 Lancashire. 
 
 Three things may be regarded as of primary import- 
 ance for the successful prosecution of manufactures, 
 namely, water-power, fuel, and iron. Wherever these 
 exist in combination, and where they are abundant and 
 cheap, machinery may be manufactured and put in 
 motion at small cost; and most of the processes of 
 making and finishing clotli, whether chemical or me- 
 chanical, depending, as they do, mainly on the two 
 gi'eat agents of water and heat, may likewise be per- 
 formed with advantage. 
 
 The tract lying between the Ribble and the Mersey 
 is surrounded on the east and north by high ranges of 
 hills, and has also hills of some magnitude in the hun- 
 di-eds of Blackburn and Salford ; owing to whicli cause 
 the district is intersected by a gi*eat number of streams, 
 
86 THEHISTOR'YOF 
 
 which descend rapidly from their sources towards the 
 level tract in the west. In the early part of their 
 course, these streams and streamlets furnish water-power 
 adequate to turn many hundred mills :* they afford 
 the element of water, indispensable for scouring, bleach- 
 ing, printing, dyeing, and other processes of manu- 
 facture : and when collected in theu' lai-ger channels, or 
 employed to feed canals, they supply a superior inland 
 navigation, so important for the transit of raw materials 
 and merchandise. 
 
 Not less important for manufactures than the copious 
 supply of good water, is the great abundance of coal 
 found in the very same district. Beds of tliis invaluable 
 mineral lie beneath almost the whole surface of Black- 
 burn and Salford hundreds, and run into West Derby 
 to -R-ithin a few miles of Liverpool ; and being near the 
 surface, so as to yield tlieir treasures easily, they are 
 incomparably more fertile sources of wealth than mines 
 of silver and gold. It is superfluous to remark that 
 this mineral fuel animates the thousand arms of the 
 steam-engine, and furnishes the most powerful agent in 
 all chemical and mechanical operations. 
 
 Of the equally indispensable metal, iron, the southern 
 part of Lancashire is nearly destitute ; but being at no 
 
 * On the river Irwell, from the first mill near Bacup, to Prestolee, near Bolton, 
 there is about 900 feet of fall available for mills, 800 of which is occupied. On 
 this river and its branches it is computed that there are no less than three hundred 
 mills. A project is in course of execution to increase the water-power of the 
 district, already so great and so much concentrated, and to equalize the force of 
 the stream, by forming eighteen reservoirs on the hills, to be filled in times of 
 flood, and to yield their supplies in the drought of summer. These reservoirs, 
 according to the plan, would cover 270 acres of ground, and contain 241,300,000 
 cubic feet of water, which would give a power equal to 6,600 horses. The cost 
 is estimated at £59,000. One reservoir has been completed, another is in 
 course of formation, and it is probable that the whole design will be carried into 
 effect. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 87 
 
 great distance from the iron districts of Staffordshire, 
 Warwickshire, Yorkshire, Furness, and Wales, \vith all 
 of which it lias ready communication by inland or coast- 
 ing navigation, it is as abundantly and almost as cheaply 
 supplied ^\'ith tliis material, as if the iron was got within 
 its own boundaries. 
 
 In mentioning the advantages which Lancashire 
 possesses as a seat of manufactures, we must not omit 
 its ready communication with the sea by means of its 
 well-situated port, Liverpool, thix)ugh the medium of 
 whicli it receives, from Ireland, a large proportion of the 
 food that supports its population, and whose commerce 
 brinsrs from distant shores the raw materials of its mana- 
 factures, and again chstributes them, converted into usefid 
 and elegant clothing, amongst all the nations of the 
 earth. Through the same means a plentiful supply of 
 timber is obtained, so needful for building purposes. 
 
 To the above natural advantages, we must add, the 
 acquired advantage of a canal communication, which 
 ramifies itself through all the populous parts of tliis 
 county, and connects it with the inland counties, the 
 seats of other flourishing manufactures, and the sources 
 whence u'on, lime, ' salt, stone, and other articles in 
 which Lancashire is deficient, ai'e obtained. By this 
 means Lancasliire, being already possessed of the pri- 
 mary requisites for manufactm'es, is enabled, at a very 
 small expense, to command tilings of secondary im- 
 portance, and to appropriate to its use the natural 
 advantages of the whole kingdom. The canals, having 
 been accomplished by individual enterprise, not by 
 national funds, were constructed to supply a want already 
 existing : they Avere not, therefore, original sources of 
 the manufactures, but have extended together with 
 
88 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 them, and are to be considered as having essentially 
 aided and accelerated that prosperity from whose begin- 
 nino-s they themselves arose. The recent introduction 
 of railways will have a great effect in making the opera- 
 tions of trade more intensely active, and perfecting the 
 division of labour, already carried to so high a point. 
 By the railway and the locomotive engine, the extre- 
 mities of the land will, for every beneficial purpose, be 
 united. 
 
 In comparing the advantages of England for manu- 
 factures with those of other countries, we can by no 
 means overlook the excellent commercial position of the 
 country — intermediate between the north and south of 
 Europe ; and its insular situation, which, combined with 
 the command of the seas, secures our territory from 
 invasion or annoyance. The German ocean, the Baltic, 
 and the Mediterranean are the regular highways for 
 our ships; and our western ports command an un- 
 obstructed passage to the Atlantic, and to every quarter 
 of the world. 
 
 A temperate climate, and a hardy race of men, have 
 also gi*eatly contributed to promote the manufacturing 
 industry of England. 
 
 The political and moral advantages of this country, as 
 a seat of manufactures, are not less remarkable than its 
 physical advantages. The arts are the daughters of 
 peace and liberty. In no country have these blessings 
 been enjoyed in so high a degi'ee, or for so long a 
 continuance, as in England. Under the reign of just 
 laws, personal liberty and property have been secure ; 
 mercantile enterprise has been allowed to reap its 
 rewai'd ; capital has accumulated in safety ; the work- 
 man lias " gone forth to his work and to his labour until 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 89 
 
 the evening;" and, thus protected and favoured, the 
 manufacturing prosperity of the country has struck its 
 roots deep, and spread forth its branches to the ends of 
 the earth. 
 
 England has also gained by the calamities of other 
 countries, and the intolerance of other governments. 
 At different periods, the Flemish and French pro- 
 testants, expelled from their native lands, have taken 
 refuge in England, and have repaid the protection given 
 them by practising and teaching branches of industry, 
 in which the English were then less expert than their 
 neisfhbours. The wars which have at different times 
 desolated the rest of Europe, and especially those which 
 followed the French revolution, (wlien mechanical in- 
 vention was producing the most wonderful effects in 
 England,) checked the progress of manufacturing im- 
 provement on the continent, and left England for many 
 years without a competitor. At the same time, the 
 English navy held the sovereignty of the ocean, and 
 under its protection the commerce of this country ex- 
 tended beyond all former bounds, and established a firm 
 connexion between the manufacturers of Lancashire 
 and their customers in the most distant lands. 
 
 When the natural, political, and adventitious causes, 
 thus enumerated, are viewed together, it cannot be 
 matter of surprise that England has obtained a pre- 
 eminence over the rest of the world in manufactures. 
 
 The woollen and linen manufactures have existed in 
 this country from a very early period, and both of them 
 were carried on in Lancashire before the cotton manu- 
 facture, for which they prepared the way. England has 
 been immemorially famous for its wool, of which it pro- 
 duced abundance before any woollens, except of the 
 
 M 
 
90 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 coarsest kind, were made here : the wool was then cliiefly 
 exported to Flanders, wliere that manufacture was in an 
 extremely flourishing state. Manchester was a seat of 
 the woollen manufacture as early as the reign of Edward 
 II. In a suryey of that town in the time of John 
 Delawar, the eighth bai'on, about the year 1313, I find 
 the follo^nng entry — "A mill for the dyers on the banks 
 of the Irk, [yalued] at xiijs. iiijd. per annum."* And in 
 an extent of the manor of Manchester, in the year 1322, 
 mention is made of a fidUng mill turned by the same 
 riyer.f 
 
 Tlie woollen manufacture, howeyer, was rude and 
 insignificant in England until the reign of Edward III., 
 who, haAdng married Philippa of Hainault, found means 
 to brino: oyer a considerable number of woollen manu- 
 facturers from Flanders,! gi'anting them letters of pro- 
 tection, and tempting them with well-founded hopes of 
 large profits and good Hying. The Flemings were 
 settled in York, Kendal, Halifax, Manchester, the dis- 
 
 * MS. History of Manchester, in the possession of James Thomson, esq. of 
 Clitheroe. 
 
 t Kuerden's MS. fo. 274. 
 
 X " Hitherto," says Fuller, "the English were ignorant of that art, as knowing 
 no more what to do with their wool than the sheep that weare it, as to any arti- 
 ficial curious drapery ; their best clothes then being no better than friezes, such 
 was their coarseness for want of skill in making. But soon after followed a great 
 alteration." Edward III. having married the daughter of the earl of Hainault, 
 sent emissaries among the Dutch, to tempt over their workmen, whose slavish and 
 degraded condition made them anxious to find a better country. " Early up and 
 late in bed," says our author, " and all day hard work and harder fare — a few 
 herrings and mouldie cheese, and all to enrich the churls their masters, without 
 any profit to themselves. But, oh ! how happy," said the emissaries of Edward, 
 " should they be, if they would but come over to England, bringing their mystery, 
 which would provide them welcome in all places ! Here they should feed on fat 
 beef and mutton till nothing but their fullness should stint their stomach ; yea, 
 they should feed on the labours of their own hands, enjoying a proportionable 
 profit of their pains to themselves : their beds should be good, and their bed- 
 fellows better; seeing the richest yeomen in England would not disdain to marry 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 91 
 
 tricts of Rossendale and Pendle, Norwich, Essex, Kent, 
 and the west of England. Nothing is distinctly known 
 of the progress of the woollen manufacture in Lan- 
 casliire until the reign of Henry VIII., at which time 
 it had evidently grown into considerable importance. 
 Hollin worth mentions, that about the year 1520, " there 
 were three famous clothiers living in tlie north countre, 
 viz. Cuthbert of Kendal, Hodgkins of Halifax, and 
 Martin Brian (some say Byrom) of Manchester. 
 Every one of these kept a great number of servants at 
 work, carders, spinners, weavers, fullers, dyers, sheer- 
 men," &c.* Leland, tlie antiquary, who visited Man- 
 chester about the year 1538, speaks of the town in the 
 following terms : — " Mancestre, on the south side of the 
 Irwell river, stondeth in Salfordshiret, and is the fairest, 
 best builded, quickhest, and most populus tounne of al 
 Lancastreshire." Nor was it then the only seat of 
 maimfactures in this county. The same writer says — 
 " Bolton-upon-Moore market stondith most by cottons; 
 divers villages in the moores about Bolton do make 
 cottons.'' It will afterwards be seen, that the goods here 
 called " cottons" were really woollens. 
 
 The most important testimony to the extent and 
 
 their daughters unto them. Persuaded by their promises, many Dutch servants 
 leave their masters, and make over for England. With themselves they brought 
 over their trade and their tools. The king, having gotten this treasure of foreigners, 
 thought not fit to continue them all in one place, but bestowed them through all 
 parts of the land, that cloathing might thereby be the better dispersed. Those 
 yeomen in whose houses they harboured, soon preceded gentlemen, gained great 
 estates to themselves, and arms and worship to their estates. Here they found 
 fuller's earth, a precious treasure, whereof England hath better than all Christen- 
 dom besides. And now was the English wool improved to the highest profit, 
 passing through so many hands, every one having a fleece of the fleece, — sorters, 
 combers, carders, spinners, weavers, fullers, dyers, pressers, packers; and these 
 manufactures have been heightened to the highest degree of perfection." — Fuller's 
 Church History, p. 110. 
 
 * Hollinwortli's Mancuniensis. 
 
92 T H E H I S T O R Y O F 
 
 nature of the manufactures of Mancliester at this period, 
 is contained in the statute of 33 Henry VIII. c. xv. for 
 remo\'ing the privilege of sanctuary ; from which it 
 appears that the inhabitants carried on a considerable 
 manufacture both of linens and woollens, by wliich they 
 were acquiring wealth ; that many strangers from other 
 parts of England, and from Ireland, resorted thither 
 with linen yarn and wool, to have them made into cloth ; 
 and that a system of credit was established : on all which 
 accounts it was found desu-able to transfer the mis- 
 cliievous privilege of " sanctuaiy%" wliich was a power- 
 ful atti'action for tliieves, from Manchester to a place 
 where there was less property to be stolen. 
 
 This act mentions so many particulars concerning the 
 trade of Manchester at that time, that the introductory 
 pai't ouglit not to be omitted : — 
 
 Whereas, the saide towne of Manchester is and hath of long tyme 
 been a towne well inhabited, and the kinges subiectes inhabit- 
 auntes of the same towne are well set a worke in makinge of 
 clothes, as well of lynnen as of woollen, whereby the inhabitauntes 
 of the saide towne haue obteyned gotten and come vnto riches and 
 welthy lyuings, and haue kepte and set manye artificers and poore 
 folkes to worke within the said towne, and by reason of the great 
 occupienge good order strayte and true dealing of the inhabitantes 
 of the said towne, many strangers, as wel of Ireland as of other 
 places within this realrae, haue resorted to the saide towne with 
 lynnen yarne, woolles, and other necessary wares for makinge of 
 clothes, to be solde there, and haue vsed to credit & truste the 
 poore inhabitantes of the same towne, which were not able and 
 had not redy money to paye in hande for the saide yarnes wolles 
 and wares vnto such time the saide credites with their industry 
 labour and peynes myght make clothes of the said wolles yarns 
 and other necessary wares, and solde the same, to contente and 
 paye their creditours, wherein hath consisted much of the common 
 welth of the said towne, and many poore folkes had lyuynge, and 
 children and seruants there vertuously brought up in honest and 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 93 
 
 true labour, out of all ydlenes. And for as niuche as of neces- 
 sitie the said lynnen yarne must lye without as well in the night as 
 in the day cotinually for the space of one halfe yere to be whited, 
 before it can be made clothe, and the wollen clothes there made 
 must hange vppon the taynter, to be dryed before it can be dressed 
 up, and for the saulfegarde therof it is and shalbe expediet and 
 necessary, that substanciall honest iuste true and credible persons 
 be and shuld dwell in the sayd towne, and no maner of lyght per- 
 sone or persons there to be inhabytauntes. And where also many 
 straungers inhabytinge in other towneshyps and places, haue vsed 
 customably to resorte to the sayd towne of Manchester with a 
 great number of cottons, to be vttered & solde to the inhabitantes 
 of the same towne, to the great profit of all the inhabitantes of 
 the same and therby many poore people haue ben well set a worke, 
 as wel with dressyng & frisyng of the sayd cottons, as with put- 
 tyng to sale the same," — &c. 
 
 From the mention of " cottons" in this statute, and in 
 Leland's account of Bolton, it has been supposed that 
 the cotton manufacture has existed at least three cen- 
 turies in England. But this is certainly a mistake, as, 
 however curious the fact may be, there is undoubted 
 evidence that the " cottons" of Manchester, like the 
 Kendal and Welsh " cottons" of the present day, were 
 a coarse kind of woollens. A decisive proof of this is 
 afforded by the statute above quoted, in Avhich it is said 
 that the cottons were " di-essed and frised,'' — frising 
 being a process only applicable to woollens, as it consists 
 in the raising and curling of the woolly nap. Another 
 proof of the same fact is found in an act of the 5th and 
 6th Edward VI. (1552) entitled, "for the true making 
 of woollen cloth," in which it is ordered, that " all the 
 cottons called Manchester, Lancashire, and Cheshire 
 cottons, full wrought to the sale, shall be in length 
 twenty-two yards, and contain in breadth three-quarters 
 of a yard in the water, and shall weigh thh'ty pounds in 
 
94 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 the piece at least." Another still more conclusive proof 
 is contained in the act of the 8th Elizabeth, c. xi. (1566) 
 for reo-ulating the aulnegers' (measurers') fees, and the 
 leno-th, breadth, and weight of cottons, fiizes, and rugs, 
 made in the county of Lancaster ; in which it is enacted 
 that " every of the said cottons, being sufficiently milled 
 or thicked, clean scoured, well wrought and fully diied, 
 shall weigh 2 libs, at the least." The process of milling, 
 like that of frising, is only applicable to woollen fabrics. 
 The application of the teiTa "cottons" to a woollen 
 manufacture is also expressly mentioned by Camden, 
 who, speaking of Manchester in 1590, says — " This 
 town excels the towns immediately around it in hand- 
 someness, populousness, woollen mamifacture, market- 
 place, church and college; but did much more excel 
 them in tlie last age, as well by the glory of its woollen 
 cloths, (laneoriim pannonim honore,) which they call 
 Manchester cottons, as by the privilege of sanctuary, 
 wliich the authority of parliament, under Henry VIII. , 
 transfeiTed to Chester." 
 
 It is not a little singular, that a manufacture des- 
 tined afterwards to eclipse not merely " the glory" of 
 the old " Manchester cottons," but that of all other 
 manufactures, should thus have existed in name long 
 before it existed at all in fact. It has been conjectured, 
 that the word "■ cottons" was a coiTuption of " coat- 
 ings ;" but it is very e^ddent that the name was adopted 
 from the foreign cottons, which, being fustians and 
 other heavy goods, were imitated in woollen by our 
 manufacturers. 
 
 The word " fustians" was in the same manner 
 applied to a certain kind of woollen or worsted goods 
 made at Norwich and in Scotland. Blomefield, the 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 95 
 
 historian of Norfolk, speaking of the rapid advances of 
 Norwich in the woollen manufacture, in the reian of 
 Edward III. (about the year 1336,) says, " Soon after 
 this, Norwich, in a very few years, became the most 
 flourishing city in all England, by means of its gi'eat 
 trade in worsteds, fustians, freezes, and other woollen 
 manufactures ; for now the English wool, being manu- 
 factured by English hands, an incredible profit ac- 
 crued to the people by its passing through and employ^ 
 ing so many."* 
 
 In an act passed in 1504, c. 17, for regulating the 
 company of shearmen, of Norwich, it is stated, that " in 
 Norwich, time out of mind, there had been used a cer- 
 tain craft called shearmen, for shearing as well worsteds, 
 stamius, imi\. fustians, as also all other woollen clothe 
 
 A sumptuary law of James I. passed in the parlia- 
 ment of Scotland, in 1621, (act 25 of 23 Pari. Jac. VI.) 
 enacts, " that servants shaU have no silk on their 
 deaths, except buttons and garters, and shall wear only 
 cloXh, fustians, canvas, and stuffs of Scotch manufac- 
 ture." There can be no doubt that the fustians here 
 mentioned, if a Scotch fabric, were made of sheep's wool. 
 
 A similar adaptation of the name of one manufac- 
 ture to another of a different material, made in imita- 
 tion of it, is found in our own day, when a description 
 of cotton goods, made in Scotland, has been named 
 cambric, — being an imitation of the linen fabric of that 
 name. 
 
 The exact period when the cotton manufacture was 
 introduced into England is unknown. The. article of 
 cotton-wool had for centuries been imported in small 
 
 • Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk ; by the 
 Rev. Francis Blomefield ; vol. ii. p. C2. 
 
96 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 quantities, to be used as candle-wicks, as appears from 
 an entry in the books of Bolton abbey, in Yorkshire, in 
 the year 1298 — "In sapo et cotoun ad candelam, 
 xviis. id."* The next mention of cotton-wool that I 
 have met with, is in " The Processe of the Libel of 
 English Policie," the old poem quoted at p. 43, origi- 
 nally published in 1430, and republished in Haklu}i;'s 
 Collection of early Voyages : the trade of the Genoese 
 with Enoland is thus described : — 
 
 o 
 
 " The Genuois comen in sundry wies 
 
 Into this land by diuers marchandises 
 
 In great Caracks, arrayed withouten lacke 
 
 With cloth of gold, silke, and pepper blacke 
 
 They bring with them, and of croodf great plentee, 
 
 WoU Gyle, Woad ashen, by vessel in the see, 
 
 Cotton, Rochalum, and good gold of Genne ; 
 
 And then be charged with woUe again I wenne, 
 
 And wollen cloth of ours of colours all." 
 
 At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the e\"i- 
 dences of a regular' importation of cotton become more 
 numerous. Hakluyt records that " in the yeeres of 
 our Lord 1511, 1512, Sac. till the year 1534, diuers tail 
 sliips of London, [he mentions five,] \ntli certaine other 
 ships of Southampton and Bristow, had an ordinary and 
 vsual ti'ade to Sicilia, Candie, Chio, and somewhiles to 
 Cyprus, as also to Tripolis and Bai'utti, in Syria. The 
 commodities which they carried thither were, fine ker- 
 sies of diuers colours, coui'se kersies, white Westeme 
 dozens, cottons, [no doubt, sti'ong woollens,] certain 
 clothes called statutes, and others called cardinal-whites, 
 
 • Dr. Whitaker's History of Craven, p. 3S4 (2d edition, 1812.) This anti- 
 quarian, whose prejudices against manufactures were violent and ridiculous, says, 
 in a note on the above extract — " This substance, (cotton,) of which the manu- 
 factory is become so extensive and so pernicious, was then imported in small quan- 
 tities from the Levant." 
 
 t Woad. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. / 91 ,y 
 
 and calueskiiis, which were well sold m Sicilie, &c. 
 The commodities Avhich they brought backe were silks, 
 chamlets, rubarbe, malmesies, muskudels and other 
 wines, sweete oyles, cotten wool, Turkic carj)ets, galles, 
 pepper, cinnamon, and some other spices."* 
 
 In the year 1569, " A Discourse of the Trade to 
 Chio" was published by Gaspar Campion, in which be 
 says--" There is cotton wooll, &c. and also course wooll 
 to make beds." " We had three kintals of cotten wooll 
 for a carsie, and soldo the wooll in England for 50 shil- 
 lings or 3 pound at the most ; whereas, now the Italians 
 sell the same to vs for 4 pound ten shillings and 5 pound 
 the hundred :" " And so all other commodities that the 
 Venetians do bring, they sell them to vs for the third 
 part more gaines then we ourselues in those dayes that 
 we traded in those parts."')' Cotton was also an article 
 of importation from Antwerp in the year 1560.]; 
 
 It is evident that cotton wool had long been in use, 
 but, in all probability, it was only for candle-wicks, and 
 other minor purposes, not at all for the manufacture of 
 cloth. No mention has yet been found of the cotton 
 manufacture earlier than the year 1641 ; and there are 
 good reasons for concluding that it could not have 
 existed very long before that period. In the act of the 
 43d of Elizabeth, (1601,) the celebrated Poor Law, 
 overseers of the poor are empowered to buy " a con- 
 venient stock of flax, hemp, wool, thread, iron, and 
 other necessary ware or stuff, to set the poor on work ;" 
 but in this enumeration of raw materials, comprising 
 those of all the principal manufactures then known, 
 cotton is not mentioned. Camden, who wrote in 1590, 
 
 * Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 206. f Ibid. vol. ii. p. 22S-9. 
 
 t Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 131. 
 
 N 
 
98 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 and the authors of several other works on the trade, 
 manufactures, and topography of the country, published 
 during the following half century, are silent as to any 
 manufacture of cotton. 
 
 In the year 1582, a commercial treaty having been 
 formed with Turkey, and a Levant company established, 
 a mercantile commission was sent from London to Con- 
 stantinople and otlier parts of Turkey, to learn any 
 secrets in manufacturing and dyeing that might be useful 
 to the domestic industry and foreign trade of England, 
 and thus tend to give employment to " our poor people 
 withall, and promote the general enriching of this 
 realme." Instructions of a very full and precise nature 
 were drawn up for this commission by Mr. Richard 
 Hakluyt, brother of the compiler of the Voyages ; and 
 the individuals sent, were " to note all kinds of clothing 
 in Turkic, and all degrees of their labour in the same." 
 It was prescribed to them, " If you shall find that they 
 make any cloth of any kind that is not made in tliis 
 realme, that is there of great use, then to bring of the 
 same into this realme some mowsters, that our people 
 may fall into the trade, and prepare the same for 
 Turkey." Yet the writer of the instructions makes not 
 the least allusion to cotton clothing, and evidently has 
 no view but to the improvement of the woollen manu- 
 facture, and the adaptation of the different kinds of 
 woollen goods to the taste of the Turks. If the cotton 
 manufacture had then been practised in England, even 
 on a small scale, it is highly probable that this com- 
 mission would have received directions either to observe 
 the processes of the manufacture in the East, or to 
 inquire concerning the supply of the raw material. 
 
 It is not impossible that this very commission, acting 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 99 
 
 on the general principle of its instructions, might 
 bring to England the art of making cotton cloth. But 
 I am more inclined to think that the art was imported 
 from Flanders, about the same time, by the crowd of 
 Protestant artisans and workmen who fled from Ant- 
 werp, on the capture and ruin of that great trading city 
 by the duke of Parma in 1585; and also from other 
 cities of the Spanish Netherlands. Great numbers of 
 tliese victims of a sanguinary persecution took refuge in 
 England, and some of them settled in Manchester ; and 
 there is the stronger reason to suppose that the manu- 
 facture of cotton would then be commenced here, as 
 there were restrictions and burdens on foreio^ners setting 
 up business as masters in England, in the trades then 
 carried on in this country, whilst foreigners commencing 
 a new art would be exempt from those restrictions.* 
 The warden and fellows of Manchester college had the 
 wisdom to encourage the settlement of the foreiffn 
 clothiers in that town, by allomng them to cut firing 
 from their extensive woods, as well as to take the 
 timber necessary for the construction of their looms, 
 on paying the small sum of four-pence yearly. 
 
 At that period of our history, when capital was small, 
 and the movements of trade comparatively sluggish, a 
 new manufacture would be likely to extend itself slowly, 
 and to be long before it attracted the notice of authors. 
 That a manufacture might in those days gradually take 
 root and acquire strength, without even for half a cen- 
 tury being commemorated in any book that should be 
 extant after the lapse of two centuries more, will be 
 easily credited by those who have searched for the 
 records of our modern improvements in the same manu- 
 
 * Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 17*5 
 
100 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 facture. If the gi*eatest mechanical inventions and the 
 most stupendous commercial phenomena have passed 
 almost unnoticed in a day when authors were so numer- 
 ous, tlie mere infancy of tlie cotton manufacture may 
 well have heen without record in an age when the press 
 was far less active. 
 
 We may decisively infer from the first mention that 
 has been discovered of the cotton manufacture in Eng- 
 land, that it had been growing up for a considerable 
 time before that account was written. Tliis passage, 
 memorable in the history of the manufacture, is found 
 in a little work by Lewes Roberts, called " The Treasure 
 of Traffic," published in 1641. It is as follows : — 
 
 " The town of Manchester, in Lancashire, (says he, ) 
 must be also herein remembered, and worthily for their 
 encouragement commended, who buy the yarne of the 
 Irish in great quantity, and, weaving it, returne the 
 same again into Ireland to sell : Neither doth their 
 industry rest here, for they buy cottori wool in London, 
 that comes first from Cyprus and Smyrna, and at home 
 worke the same, and perfect it iwio fustians, vermillions, 
 dimities, and other such stuffes, and then return it to 
 London, where the same is vented and sold, and not 
 seldom sent into forrain parts, who have means, at far 
 easier termes, to provide themselves of the said first 
 materials." (Orig, Edition, pp. 32, 33.) 
 
 The same author further says — 
 
 " The Levant or Turkey Company brings in return 
 thereof (i. e. of English woollens) great quantity of 
 Cotten and Cotten-yarne, Grogram yarne, and raw silke 
 into England, (which shewes the benefit accruing to 
 this kingdom by that Company) ; for here the said cloth 
 is first shipped out and exported in its full perfection. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 101 
 
 dyed and drest, and thereby the prune native com- 
 moditie of this kingdom is increased, improved, and 
 vented, and the cotten yarne and raw silk obtained." 
 (p. 34.) 
 
 From the above evidence it is manifest that the cotton 
 manufacture had in 1641 become Avell established at 
 Manchester. It not only then supplied the home trade 
 with several kinds of cotton goods, but furnished them as 
 a regular article of exportation from the metropolis to the 
 distant markets of the Levant ; and the importation of 
 cotton-wool and cotton-varn had also become regular 
 and considerable. Manchester still retained its manu- 
 facture of linen; and as linen-yarn was used as the 
 warp for fustians and nearly all other cotton goods in 
 this country down to the year 1773, it may be said that 
 the linen manufacture prepared the way for the cotton 
 manufacture, and long continued its auxiliary. It may, 
 therefore, from all the above facts, be regarded as in a 
 very high degree probable, that the cotton manufacture 
 was introduced into England toAvards the close of the 
 sixteenth century, by the Flemish protestant emigrants. 
 
 This view receives confirmation from a passage in 
 Fuller's "Worthies of England." Dr. Fuller, who 
 wrote in 1662, in his notice of Humphrey Chetham, 
 the celebrated founder of the Blue Coat hospital and 
 library at Manchester, who was born in the year 1580, 
 says — 
 
 " George, Humphrey, and Ralph (Chetham,) embarked in the 
 trade for which Manchester had for some time been distinguished, 
 the chief branch of which was the manufacture of cottons. Bolton 
 at that period was no less the market for fustians, which were 
 brought thither from all parts of the surrounding country. Of 
 these last especially the Chethams were the principal buyers, and 
 
102 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the London market was chiefly supplied by tliem with those ma- 
 terials of apparel, then in almost general use throughout the 
 nation.'' Humphrey Chetham, "when high-sherifFe of this county, 
 1635, discharged the place with great honour; inasmuch that very 
 good gentlemen, of birth and estate, did wear his cloth at the 
 assize, to testifie their unfeigned affection to him ; and two of 
 them (John Huntley, and H. Wrigley, esqs.) of the same pro- 
 fession with himself, have since been sheriffs of the county." 
 (Vol. i. p. 554.) 
 
 This passage shows that fustians were *'in ahnost 
 general use throughout the nation" whilst the Chethams 
 were in business ; and as Humphrey Chetliam was high- 
 sheriff in 1635, when he was fifty-five years of age, we 
 may conclude that he had then dealt in that article for 
 a number of years. Of course, fustians must have 
 been made at Manchester and Bolton for a consider- 
 able time before the publication of Lewes Roberts's 
 book. 
 
 The spread of the manufacture was afterwards by no 
 means rapid. The same obstacles which impeded its 
 growth in the other countries of Europe, impeded it in 
 England. Owing to the rudeness of the spinning ma- 
 chinery, fine yarn could not be spun, and of course 
 fine goods could not be woven. Fustians, dimities, and 
 other strong fabrics were made ; but calicoes and the 
 more delicate cotton goods were not attempted. 
 
 From "A Description of the towns of Manchester 
 and Salford," attached to a plan of the towns, taken 
 about the year 1650, the folio Aving information is derived 
 relative to trade :■ — " The trade is not inferior to that of 
 many cities in the kingdom, chiefly consisting in woollen 
 frizes, fustians, sacl-cloths, mingled stuffs, caps, inkles, 
 tapes, points, Sac, whereby not only the better sort of 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 103 
 
 men are employed, but also the very children, by then- 
 own labour, can mamtain themselves. There are, 
 besides, all kinds of foreign merchandise brought and 
 returned by the merchants of the town, amounting to 
 the sum of many thousands of pounds weekly."* 
 
 Dr. Fuller, whose authority has been already quoted, 
 and whose work was published in 1662, gives some 
 further information concerning the manufactures of 
 Manchester and Bolton. The passage will not be the 
 less acceptable, if we preserve the quahit conceits of the 
 old di^dne. After mentioning the names of the Jen, 
 Augsburgh, and Milan fustians, he says: — 
 
 " These retain their old names at this day, though 
 these several sorts are made in this country, whose inha- 
 bitants, buying the Cotton Wool or Yarne, coming from 
 beyond the sea, malie it here into fustians, to the good 
 imployment of the poor, and great improvement of the 
 rich therein, serving mean people for their outsides, and 
 their betters for the lineing of their garments. Bolton 
 is the staple-place for this commodity, being brought 
 thither from all parts of the country. 
 
 " As for Manchester, the Cottons'^ thereof carry away 
 the credit in our nation, and so they did an hundred and 
 fifty years agoe. For when learned Leland, on the cost 
 of king Henry the Eighth, with his guide, travailed 
 Lancasliire, he called Manchester the fairest and quick- 
 est town in this county; and sure I am, it hath lost 
 neither spruceness nor spirits since that time. 
 
 " Other commodities made in Manchester are so 
 
 * Aikin's " History of Manchester," in which the " Description" is said to 
 "abound in terms of exaggeration." p. 154. 
 
 ♦ There can be no doubt that these " cottons" were the woollen fabric of that 
 name, as they are said to have been famous one hundred and fifty years before. 
 
104 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 small in themselves, and various in their kinds, they 
 will fill the shop of an Haberdasher of small wares. 
 Being, therefore, too many for me to reckon up or 
 remember, it will be the safest way to wrap them all 
 tosrether in some Manchester -Tidiin, and to fasten them 
 witli the Pinns, (to prevent their falling out and scatter- 
 ing,) or tye them with the Tape, and also (because sure 
 bind, sure find) to bind them about with Points and 
 Laces, all made in the same place."* 
 
 From this passage we should infer, that fustians were 
 manufactured in many parts of Lancashire, and taken 
 for sale to Bolton market ; and that, although these and 
 other cotton goods were made at Manchester, yet the 
 species of manufacture for which that town was still 
 most remarkable, were its strong woollens and small 
 wares. As the mercantile metropolis of the county, 
 Manchester bought fustians and other goods, as they 
 came from the loom, in the neighbouring towns and vil- 
 lages, finished them for sale, and then sold them at its 
 variously-stored marts. f " The kinds of fustian then 
 made were herring-bones, pillows for pockets and out- 
 side wear, strong cotton ribs and barragon, broad-raced 
 lin thicksets and tufts, dyed, with white diapers, striped 
 dimities, and lining jeans. Cotton thicksets were made 
 
 * Fuller's Worthies of England, Vol. I. p. 537. edit. 1811. 
 
 t Dr. Aikin explains this more fully: — '' Fustians were manufactured about 
 Bolton, Leigh, and the places adjacent ; but Bolton was the principal market for 
 them, where they were bought in the grey by the Manchester chapmen, who 
 finished and sold them in the country. The Manchester traders went regularly 
 on market-days to buy pieces of fustian of the weaver; each weaver then procuring 
 yarn or cotton as he could, which subjected the trade to great inconvenience. To 
 remedy this, some of the chapmen furnished warps and wool to the weavers, and 
 employed persons on commission to put out warps to the weavers. They also 
 encouraged weavers to fetch them from Manchester, and, by prompt payment and 
 good usage, endeavoured to secure good workmanship." — History of Manchester, 
 p. 158. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 105 
 
 sometimes, but as frequently dropped for want of proper 
 finishing. When tufts ceased to be in demand, more 
 figured goods were made for whiting, and a greater 
 variety of patterns attempted, by weavers who had looms 
 ready mounted for the former purposes. But as figures 
 made with treadles are confined to a scanty range, be- 
 yond which they grow too complicated, the workmen 
 had recourse to the use of draw-boys, which gave name 
 to a new and important branch of trade."* 
 
 At this period, the extent of mercantile establishments, 
 and the modes of doing business, were extremely dif- 
 ferent from what they are at present. Though a few 
 individuals are found who made fortunes by trade, it is 
 probable that the capital of merchants was generally 
 very small, until the end of the seventeenth century, and 
 all their concerns were managed with extreme frugality. 
 Masters commonly participated in the labours of their 
 servants. Commercial enterprise was exceedingly limited. 
 Owins: to the bad state of the roads, and the entire ab- 
 sence of inland navigation, goods could only be con- 
 veyed on pack-horses, with a gang of which the Man- 
 chester chapmen used occasionally to make circuits to 
 the principal towns, and sell their goods to the shop- 
 keepers, — bringing back with them sheep's wool, which 
 was disposed of to the makers of worsted yarn at Man- 
 chester, or to the clothiers of Rochdale, Saddleworth, 
 and the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was only towards 
 the close of the seventeenth century, that trade became 
 sufiiciently productive to encourage the general erection 
 of brick houses in Manchester, in place of the old dwell- 
 ings, constructed of wood and plaster. So gi-eat was 
 the increase of the manufactures and trade of England 
 
 • Aikin's History of Manchester, p. 158. 
 
 
106 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 towards the close of this century, that the exports rose 
 from £2,022,812, in 1662, (and they were about the 
 same in 1668,) to £6,788,166, in 1699 * 
 
 In the latter part of the seventeenth century and the 
 beoinnino- of the eio^hteenth, such considerable importa- 
 tions of Indian calicoes, muslins, and chintzes were 
 made, as to excite the vehement opposition of our manu- 
 facturers, and to lead parliament to exclude those goods 
 by heavy penalties. This has already been shewn in 
 the chapter on the Indian cotton manufacture, page 77 
 to 81. The jealousy felt in England was not, however, 
 on behalf of our cotton manufacture, but of our woollen 
 and silk manufactures ; which sufficiently proves that 
 no cotton goods were then made in England of the fine 
 and light qualities of those from India. 
 
 Tlie business of calico printing was commenced in 
 London in the latter part of the seventeenth century ; 
 and for the sake of encouraging tliis branch of industry, 
 plain Indian calicoes were admitted under a duty. In 
 1712, the business had become sufficiently extensive to 
 lead parliament to impose an excise duty of 3d. per 
 square yard on caHcoes printed, stained, painted, or 
 dyed, (10 Anne, c. 19.); and in 1714, the duty was 
 raised to 6d. per square yard, (12 Anne, sec. 2, c. 9.) 
 But the history of the printing, and of the legislative 
 interferences with the cotton trade, will be given in a 
 subsequent part of this work. 
 
 In the twenty years from 1 720 to 1 740, wliich was a 
 period of almost uninterrupted peace, Manchester, as 
 well as many other commercial towns, continued to make 
 
 • Dr. Davenant's Report to the Commissioners of Accounts; and Anderson's 
 Origin and History of Commerce, Vol. II. pp. 227, 228. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 107 
 
 rapid strides in wealth, population, and manufacturing 
 eminence. 
 
 Dr. Stukely, who visited Manchester about 1720, 
 says, in his Itinerarium Curiosum, — " The trade, which 
 is incredibly large, consists much in fustians, girth- 
 webb, tukings, tapes, &c., which are dispersed all over 
 the kingdom, and to foreign parts." 
 
 Daniel de Foe, in his " Tour through the whole 
 Island of Great Britain;' published in 1727, speaking of 
 Manchester, says, " That within a very few years past, 
 here, as at Liverpoole, and also at Froome in Somer- 
 setshire, the town is extended in a surprising manner, 
 being almost double to what it was a few years ago. So 
 that, taking in all its suburbs, it now contains at least, 
 50,000 people. [This must have included the whole 
 parish.] The grand manufacture which has so much 
 raised tliis town is that of cotton in all its vai'ieties, 
 wliich, like all our other manufactures, is very much 
 increased within these thirty or forty years."* 
 
 De Foe says also, " About eight miles from Man- 
 chester, N.W., lies Bolton. We saw nothing remarkable 
 in it, but that the cotton manufacture reached hither, though 
 the place did not, like Manchester, seem increasing. We 
 turned east here, and came to Bury, a small market 
 town on the river Roch, which is the utmost bound of 
 the cotton manufacture, which flouiishes so well at 
 Manchester."! 
 
 * De Foe's Tour, Vol. III. p. 219. 
 
 t On the antiquity of the cotton manufacture, De Foe was extremely ill- 
 informed. He says, " The antiquity of the manufacture is indeed worth taking 
 notice of; which, though we cannot trace it by history, we have reason to believe 
 began something earlier than the woollen manufactures in other parts of England, 
 of which I have spoken so often; because the cotton might itself come from the 
 Mediterranean, and be known by correspondents in those counties, when that of 
 
108 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 As linen yam was used for tlie warps of cotton goods, 
 the progress of the cotton manufacture increased the 
 demand for linen jai'n to such an extent as to incon- 
 venience the linen weavers of Scotland and Ireland, 
 who complained of the yarn being bought out of their 
 hands, at a liigh price, to be sent to Manchester, and 
 there wrought up with cottons. Such complaints are 
 noticed in the reports of the Linen Boai'd of Dublin, in 
 the years 1 734, 1 736, and 1 738 ; in the first of which, 
 the ydlne of the yarn imported into England is estimated 
 at 40 or £50,000 a year. Tlie quantity of linen yam 
 imported from Ireland into Great Britain increased from 
 13,734 cwts. in 1731, to 18,519 cwts. in 1740, and 
 22,231 cwts. (2,489,872 lbs.) in 1750. The linen yarn 
 of Germany, called Hamburgh yam, was also imported 
 to make warps for the English cottons. 
 
 An article in the Daily Advertiser, of September 5, 
 1739, and which was also copied into the Gentleman's 
 Magazine, says — " The manufacture of cotton, mixea 
 and plain, is amved at so gi'eat perfection within these 
 twenty years, that we not only make enough for our 
 own consumption, but supply our colonies, and many of 
 the nations of Europe. The benefits arising from this 
 branch are such as to enable the manufacturers of Man- 
 chester alone to lay out above thirty thousand pounds a 
 year, for many years past, on additional buildings. 'Tis 
 computed, that two thousand new houses have been 
 
 wool was not pushed there, because our neighbours wrought the goods ; and though 
 they brought the wool from England, yet we did not want the goods ; whereas 
 without making the cotton goods at home, our people could not have them at all.'-" 
 vol. iii. p. 221. This speculation, which receives not the least support from 
 history, may, perhaps, have been suggested to De Foe by the old name of the 
 Manchester woollens, (" cottons,") by which other writers have been led into a 
 similar mistake. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 109 
 
 built in that industrious town within these twenty 
 years." 
 
 In a rapidly advancing country, the great things of 
 one age are insignificant in the eyes of the succeeding 
 age. Thus, the period of 1739, whose prosperity was 
 so much vaunted, is now looked back upon as the mere 
 feeble infancy of the cotton manufacture — a trickling 
 riU, compared with the mighty river to which that 
 manufacture has since swelled. At that time the con- 
 sumption of cotton wool did not exceed 1 -200th part 
 of the consumption at the present day. The following 
 returns, from the records of the Custom-house, for 
 which I am indebted to the kindness of the Right Hon. 
 Poulett Thomson, the President of the Board of Trade, 
 and which have never before been published, will show 
 how scanty were the imports of cotton wool and the 
 exports of British cotton manufactures, in the first half 
 of the last century : — 
 
 Quantity of Cotton Wool Imported. 
 
 Year 1697 1,976,359 lbs. 
 
 1701 1,985,868 
 
 1710 715,008 
 
 1720 1,972,805 
 
 1730 ...... 1,545,472 
 
 1741 1,645,031 
 
 1751 2,976,610 
 
 1764 3,870,392 
 
 (Signed) W. Irving. 
 
110 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Export of British Cotton Goods. 
 
 Official Value of British 
 Cotton Goods of all 
 Years. sorts exported. 
 
 1697 £5,915 
 
 1701 23,253 
 
 1710 5,698 
 
 1720 16,200 
 
 1730 13,524 
 
 1741 20,709 
 
 1751 45,986 
 
 1764 200,354 
 
 (Signed) W. Irving. 
 
 It has been repeatedly stated, in works of great 
 respectability, as on the authority of Dr. Percival, of 
 Manchester, that, " at the accession of George III., in 
 1760, the entire value of all the cotton goods manufac- 
 tured in great Britain was estimated to amount to only 
 £200,000 a year." Tliis great error could not have 
 been committed, if the returns of the exports had been 
 published : it now appeal's, from the second of the above 
 tables, that the value of the cotton goods exported in 
 1764 was £200,354; of course, the whole value of the 
 cottons manufactured must have greatly exceeded this, 
 as the domestic consumption is likely to have been much 
 greater than the export. 
 
 In all probability, Postlethwayt, the author of the 
 " Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce," ap- 
 proached to coiTectness, when, in the year 1766, he 
 estimated the annual value of the cottons made at 
 £600,000. He says — " The manufactures called Man- 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. Ill 
 
 Chester wares, such as fustians, cottons, tapes, incle, &c. 
 are sent on pack-horses to London, Bristol, Liverpool, 
 &c. for exportation, and also to the wholesale haber- 
 dasliers for home consumption; whence the other towns 
 of England are likewise served, or by the Manchester 
 men themselves, who travel from town to town through- 
 out the kingdom. Of these goods they make, at Man- 
 chester, Bolton, and the neighbouring places, above 
 £600,000 annually." 
 
 The following return of the quantities of cotton wool 
 imported and exported, is taken from a report of a 
 committee of the house of commons on the linen manu- 
 facture, published in Postlethwayt's Dictionary, under 
 the head " Linen :" — 
 
 Cotton Wool Imported and Exported. 
 
 
 
 
 Retained for home 
 
 
 Imported. 
 
 Exported. 
 
 consumption. 
 
 Years, 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1743 
 
 1,132,288 
 
 40,870 
 
 1,091,418 
 
 1744 
 
 1,882,873 
 
 182,765 
 
 1,700,108 
 
 1745 
 
 1,469,523 
 
 73,172 
 
 1,369,351 
 
 1746 
 
 2,264,808 
 
 73,279 
 
 2,191,529 
 
 1747 
 
 2,224,869 
 
 29,438 
 
 2,195,431 
 
 1748 
 
 4,852.,966 
 
 291,717 
 
 4,561,249 
 
 1749 
 
 1,658,365 
 
 330,998 
 
 1,327,367 
 
 Compare the above official returns of imports and ex- 
 ports, for the first half of the 18th century, with the present 
 imports of cotton wool and exports of cotton manufactures: 
 
 Cotton Wool Imported in 1833. 
 
 303,726,199 lbs. 
 
 British Cotton Manufactures Exported in 1833. 
 
 Real or Declared Value. 
 
 £18,486,400. 
 
112 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 In the year 1701, when the exportation of cotton 
 goods did not exceed <£23,253, (which appears to have 
 been above the average for the next forty years,) the 
 exportation of woollen goods (according to Dr. Davenant 
 and Mr. Gregory King) amounted to £2,000,000, 
 forming above a fourth of the whole export trade of the 
 kingdom. So great has been the change in the relative 
 proportions of these manufactures, that, wliilst the 
 woollen exports have increased only to £6,539,731 in 
 1833, the cotton exports amounted in the same year to 
 £18,486,400. The woollen maimfacture has continued 
 to extend, but its rate of increase bears no proportion 
 to that of the cotton manufacture, which mocks all that 
 the most romantic imagination could have previously 
 conceived possible under any cu'cumstances. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 113 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE ERA OF INVENTION. 
 
 Remarks on inventors and inventions. — Obstacles to the extension of the manu- 
 facture, from the rudeness of the machinery. — Invention of the fly shuttle by 
 John Kay, in 1738 ; and of the drop box by Robert Kay.— The one- thread 
 spinning wheel. — Invention of spinning by rollers, by John Wyatt, of 
 
 Birmingham Description of the process of spinning. — Patent for spinning by 
 
 rollers taken out, in 1738, in the name of Lev?is Paul. — Proofs that Wyatt was 
 the author of this great invention. — Cotton spinning mills at Birmingham and 
 Northampton. — Extracts from Wyatt's MS. book on cotton spinning, and prices 
 of yarn. — Letter of Mr. Chas. Wyatt on his father's invention. — Paul's second 
 patent for a spinning machine in 1758. — Probability that Sir Richard Arkwright 
 knew of Wyatt's invention Claims of Thomas Highs to the invention of spin- 
 ning by rollers. 
 
 We have now arrived at the era of invention ; and a 
 series of inventions is to be opened, which for ingenuity 
 and importance has never been equalled in any other 
 manufacture. 
 
 I cannot better introduce a history, which, however 
 splendid in its national results, is sometimes obscure as 
 to the claims of individuals, and more often melancholy 
 as to their fate, than by quoting the following excel- 
 lent remarks on inventors and inventions from an old 
 writer : — * 
 
 " Few new inventions were ever rewarded by a 
 monopoly; for altho' the Inventor, oftentimes drunk with 
 the opinion of his own merit, thinks all the world will 
 
 * A Treatise on Taxes and Contributions, published in 1679, and which I have 
 only seen in the British Museum. 
 
 P 
 
114 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 invade aud encroach upon him, yet I have observed 
 that the generality of men will scarce be liii-ed to make 
 use of tlie new practices, which themselves have not 
 throughly tried, and which length of time hath not vin- 
 dicated from latent inconvenience ; so as when a new 
 invention is first propounded, in the beginning every 
 man objects, and the poor inventor runs the Gantloop 
 of all petulent \\-its ; every man finding his several flaw, 
 no man approving it unless mended according to his 
 own de\'ice. Now not one of a hundred outlives tliis 
 torture, and those that do are at length so changed by 
 the various contrivances of others, that not any one man 
 can pretend to the invention of the whole, nor well 
 agree about their respective shares in the parts. And 
 moreover this commonly is so long a-doing, that the 
 poor inventor is either dead, or disabled by the debts 
 contracted to pursue his design ; and withal railed upon 
 as a projector, or worse, by those who joyned their 
 money in partnership with his wit ; so as the said 
 inventor and his pretences are wholly lost and vanisht." 
 — p. 53. 
 
 Every stage in the improvement of the cotton manu- 
 facture illustrates the truth of these remarks. It is 
 melancholy to contrast with the sanguine eagerness of 
 inventors, the slowness of mankind to acknowledge and 
 reward their merits, — to observe how, on many occa- 
 sions, genius, instead of realizing fame and fortune, has 
 been pursued by disaster and opposition, — how trifling 
 difficulties have frustrated the success of sjdendid 
 discoveries, — and how those discoveries, snatched from 
 the grasp of then* broken-hearted authors, have brought 
 princely fortunes to men whose only talent was in 
 making money. AVlien inventors fail in their projects, 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 115 
 
 110 one pities them ; when they succeed, persecution, 
 envy, and jealousy are their reward. Their means 
 are generally exhausted before their discoveries become 
 productive. They plant a vineyard, and either starve, 
 or are driven from their inheritance, before they can 
 gather the fruit. 
 
 Uj) to the year 1760, the machines used in the cotton 
 manufacture in England were nearly as simple as those 
 of India J though the loom was more strongly and 
 perfectly constructed, and cards for combing the cotton 
 had been adopted from tlie woollen manufacture. 
 
 The cotton manufacture, though rapidly increasing, 
 could never have received such an extension as to 
 become of great national importance, without the dis- 
 covery of some method for producing a greater quantity 
 and better quality of yarn with the same labour. None 
 but the strong cottons, such as fustians and dimities, 
 were as yet made in England, and for these tlie demand 
 must always have been limited. Yet at present the 
 demand exceeded the supply, and the modes of manu- 
 facture were such as greatly to impede the increase of 
 production. The weaver was continually pressing upon 
 the spinner. The processes of spinning and weaving 
 were generally performed in the same cottage, but the 
 weaver's own family could not supply him with a suf- 
 ficient quantity of weft, and he had with much pains to 
 collect it from neighbouring spinsters. Thus his time 
 was wasted, and he was often subjected to high demands 
 for an article, on which, as the demand exceeded the 
 supply, the seller could put her own price.* A liigh 
 
 • Dr. Aikin says, " The weavers, in a scarcity of spinning, have sometimes 
 been paid less for the weft than they paid the spinner, but durst not complain, 
 much less abate the spinner, lest their looms shoHld be unemployed." — Hist, of 
 
116 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 and sustained price of yam would indeed have attracted 
 new bands to the employment, but sucb bigb price would 
 itself bave tended to keep do\\'n tbe rising manufacture, 
 bv making tbe goods too costly in comparison witb other 
 manufactures. 
 
 This difficulty was likely to be further aggi-avated by 
 an invention which facilitated the process of weaving. 
 In the year 1 738, Mr. John Kay, a native of Bury, in 
 Lancashire, then residing at Colchester, where the 
 woollen manufacture vras at that time carried on, sug- 
 o-ested a mode of tlu'owing the shuttle, which enabled 
 tbe weaver to make nearly twice as much clotli as he could 
 make before. The old mode was, to throw tbe shuttle 
 with tbe hand, which required a constant extension of 
 the hands to each side of the warp.* By the ncAV plan, 
 the lathe (in which tbe shuttle runs) was lengthened a 
 foot at either end ; and, by means of two strings attached 
 to the opposite ends of the lathe, and both held by a peg 
 in the weaver's band, he, witb a slight and sudden 
 pluck, was able to give the proper impulse to tbe 
 shuttle. The shuttle thus impelled was called the fly- 
 shuttle, and tbe peg was called the picking-peg, (i. e. the 
 tliromng peg.) This simple contrivance was a great 
 savins: of time and exertion to the weaver, and enabled 
 
 Manchester, f. 167. Mr. Guest, in his "History of the Cotton Manufacture," 
 states, that " it was no uncommon thing for a weaver to walk three or four miles 
 in a morning, and call on five or six spinners, before he could collect weft to serve 
 him for the remainder of the day ; and when he wished to weave a piece in a 
 shorter time than usual, a new ribbon, or a gown, was necessary, to quicken the 
 exertions of the spinner." p. 12. 
 
 • In the first print of Hogarth's admirable series, '' Industry and Idleness" 
 where the two apprentices are seen at their looms, the old form of shuttle and 
 lathe is represented : the industrious apprentice has the shuttle in his hand, ready 
 to throw it ; and the shuttle of the idle apprentice hangs dangling by the thread at 
 the end of the lathe, affording a plaything for the cat, whilst the lad sleeps. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 117 
 
 one man to weave the widest cloth, which had before 
 required two persons. " Mr. Kay brought this in- 
 genious invention to his native town, and introduced it 
 among the woollen weavers, in the same year, but it 
 was not much used among the cotton weavers until 
 1760. In that year Mr. Robert Kay, of Bury, son of 
 Mr. John Kay, mvented the drop-hox, by means of 
 which the weaver can at pleasure use any one of three 
 shuttles, each containing a different coloured weft, 
 without the trouble of taking them from and replacing 
 them in the lathe."* 
 
 These inventions, like every other invention which 
 has contributed to the extraordinary advance of the 
 cotton manufacture, were opposed by the workmen, who 
 feared that they would lose their employment ; and such 
 was the persecution and danger to which John Kay was 
 exposed, that he left his native country, and went to 
 reside in Paris. 
 
 It has been seen, that the great impediment to the 
 further progress of the manufacture was the impossibility 
 of obtaining an adequate supply of yarn. The one- 
 thread wheel, though turning from morning till night in 
 thousands of cottages, could not keep pace either with 
 the weaver's shuttle, or with the demand of the 
 merchant. 
 
 The one-thread wheel, though much improved from 
 the rude teak-wood wheel used in India, (see p. 68,) 
 was an extremely slow mode of spinning; as may be 
 supposed from the subjoined representation of a spinster 
 at her work : — 
 
 * Guest, p. 8. Mr. Guest" derived his information on these points " from a 
 manuscript lent to him by Mr. Samuel Kay, of Bury, son of Mr. Robert Kay, the 
 inventor of the drop-box." p. 30. 
 
118 
 
 The yani was spun by two processes, called roving 
 and spinning. In the first, the spmner took the sliort 
 fleecy rolls in which the cotton was stripped off tlie 
 liand-cards, applied them successively to the spindle, 
 and, whilst wi.{\\ one hand she turned the wlieel, and 
 thus made the spindle revolve, with the other she di'ew 
 out the cardings, which, recei\4ng a slight twist from 
 the spindle, were made into tliick threads called rovings, 
 and Avound upon the spindle so as to form cops. In the 
 second process, the roving was spun into yarn : the 
 operation was similar, but the thread Avas di'awu out 
 finer, and received much more twist. It will be seen 
 that this instrument only admitted of one thread being 
 spun at a time by one pair of hands : and tlie slowness 
 of the operation, and consequent expensiveness of the 
 yarn, formed a great obstacle to the establishment of a 
 new manufacture. 
 
 Genius stepped in to remove the difficulty, and gave 
 wings to a manufacture which had been creeping on the 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 119 
 
 earth. A mecliaiiical contrivance was invented, by which 
 twenty, fifty, a hundred, or even a thousand threads 
 could be spun at once by a single pair of hands ! 
 
 Tlie authorship of this splendid invention, like that of 
 the art of printing, has been the subject of much doubt 
 and controversy ; and by far the gi'eater number of 
 wi'iters have subscribed the honour to an individual, who, 
 tliougli possessed of extraordinary talent and merit, was 
 certainly not the original inventor. Sir Richard Ark- 
 wright is generally believed, even to the present day, to 
 have invented the mode of spinning hy rollers. I shall 
 prove, by a piece of evidence the most unquestionable, 
 and which has never yet been published, that the inven- 
 tion was made, and was the subject of a patent, thirty 
 years before it is pretended that Arkwright had con- 
 ceived it. The inventor, it is true, did not succeed in 
 making his own fortune, or even introducing his macliine 
 into general use ; he wanted the primiim mobile, pecu- 
 niary means, and could not hold out long enough to 
 realize the success his genius had merited. The inven- 
 tion slumbered for nearly thirty years, till it was either 
 re-chscovered, or, what is more probable, tiU its principles 
 came accidentally to the knowledge of Arkwright, whose 
 keen sagacity appreciated its value, and whose perse- 
 verance, talent, and good fortune, enabled him, by its 
 means, to enrich liimself and his country. 
 
 The inventor of the mode of spinning hy rollers was 
 John Wyatt, of Birmingham. Before proceeding to 
 adduce the proof of this statement, I shall describe this 
 mode of spinning, as practised at the present day in the 
 cotton, the woollen, the worsted, and the flax manufac- 
 tures — for to all these branches has this invaluable 
 macliine been applied; and the reader will then be 
 enabled to perceive the identity of principle in the 
 
120 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 inveution of Wyatt, and the machine bronght into nse 
 by Arkwriglit, and now universally adopted. 
 
 In every mode of spinning, the ends to be accom- 
 plislied are, to draw out the loose fil)res of the cotton- 
 wool in a regular and continuous line, and, after 
 reducing the fleecy roll to the requisite tenuity, to twist 
 it into a thread. Pre^-ious to the operation of spinning, 
 the cotton must have undergone the process of carding, 
 the effect of which is to comb out, straighten, and lay- 
 parallel to each other its entangled fibres. The cotton 
 was formerly stripped off the cards in loose rolls, called 
 cardings or slivers ; and the only diiference between the 
 slivers produced by the old hand-cards and those pro- 
 duced by the present carding engine is, that the former 
 were in lengths of a few inches, and the latter are of 
 the length of some hundreds of yards. Let it be re- 
 marked, that the sliver or carding requires to be drawn 
 out to a considerably greater fineness, before it is of the 
 proper tliickness to be twisted into a thread. The way 
 in wliicli tliis is now accomplished is by two or more 
 pairs of small rollers, placed horizontally, — the upper 
 and lower roller of each pair revolving in contact : the 
 sliver of cotton, being put between the first pair of 
 rollers, is by their revolution di*awn through and com- 
 pressed : whilst still passing tlirough these rollers, it is 
 caught by another pair of rollers placed immediately in 
 front, which revolve with three, four, or five times the 
 velocity of the first pair, and which therefore draw out the 
 sliver to three, four, or five times its former length and 
 degi-ee of fineness : after passing through the second 
 pair of rollers,* the reduced sliver is attached to a 
 
 • Three or more pairs of rollers are now used, to draw out and reduce the 
 sliver more equally than could be done by two pairs ; but the principle is exactly 
 the same. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 121 
 
 spindle and fly, the rapid revolutions of which twist it 
 into a thread, and at the same time wind it upon a 
 bobbin. That the rollers may take hold of the cotton, 
 the lower roller is fluted longitudinally, and the upper 
 is covered with leather. 
 
 Such is the beautiful and admirable contrivance, by 
 which a machine is made to do what was formerly, in 
 all countries and ages, effected by the fingers of the 
 spinner. It is obvious that by lengthening or multi- 
 plying tlie rollers, and increasing the number of spin- 
 dles, all of which may be turned by the same power, 
 many threads may be spun at once, and the process 
 may be carried on with much greater quickness and 
 steadiness than hand-spinning. There is also the im- 
 portant advantage, that tlie thread produced will be of 
 more regular thickness and more evenly twisted. 
 
 This is the invention ascribed to sir Richard Ark- 
 wright, and on which his renown for mechanical genius 
 mainly rests. It will be found, however, that the pro- 
 cess had previously been described, with the utmost 
 distinctness, in tlie specification of the machine invented 
 by John Wyatt, and that cotton had for some years 
 been spun by those machines. The patent for the 
 invention was taken out, in the year 1738, in the name 
 of Lewis Paul, a foreigner, with whom Mr. Wyatt had 
 connected himself in partnership, and the name of John 
 Wyatt only appears as a witness ; but there is otlier 
 evidence to show that the latter was really the inventor. 
 The reason why Paul was allowed to take out the 
 patent can only be conjectured ; it may have been, that 
 Wyatt was then in embarrassed circumstances. 
 
 I proceed to give an attested copy of the patent and 
 specification alluded to : — 
 
 Q 
 
122 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 PATENT FOR SPINNING BY ROLLERS, IN 1738. 
 
 " Twentieth Part of Close Rolls, in the Twelfth Year of King 
 George the Second. 
 
 Paul, Lewis, "i " To all to whom these presents shall come. 
 Description f Lewis Paul, of Birmingham, in the County of 
 of Patent. C Warwick, gentleman, Sendeth Greeting : Whereas 
 (20) J j^jg present Majesty by his royall Letters Patents 
 
 under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Twenty- 
 fourth day of June, in the Twelfth year of his reign, Hath given 
 and o-ranted unto me, the said Lewis Paul, my executors, admi- 
 nistrators, and assigns, sole privilege and authority to make, use, 
 exercise, and vend a new invented Machine or Engine, /or the 
 Spinning of Wool and Cotton, in a manner entirely new. To have, 
 hold, exercise, and enjoy the said lycence, unto me, my executors, 
 administrators, and assigns, for the term of Fourteen Years from 
 the date of the said Letters Patents, according to the statute in 
 such case made and provided. In which said Letters Patents is 
 contained a provisoe that if I, the said Lewis Paul, shall not par- 
 ticularly describe and ascertain the nature and form of my said 
 Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an 
 Instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same 
 to be InroUed in the High Court of Chancery, within two Calendar 
 Months after the date of the said Patent, the same was to be void, 
 as by the said Letters Patents, relation being thereunto had, may 
 appear. Now know all men by these presents, that I, the said 
 Lewis Paul, do by this present writeing under my hand and seal 
 declare the nature and form of the said Invention to be, and the 
 manner the same is to be performed by, is as follows, to wit. The 
 said Machine, Engine, or Invention will spin Wooll or Cotton into 
 Thread, yarn, or worsted, which, before it is placed therein, must 
 be tirst prepared in manner following, (to wit) all those sorts of 
 Wooll or Cotton which it is necessary to Card must have each 
 Card-full, Batt, or Roll joyned together so as to make the mass 
 become a kind of a Rope or Thread of Raw Wooll : In that sort of 
 Wooll which it is necessary to combe, commonly called jarsey, a 
 strict regard must be had to make the Slivers of an equal thick- 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 123 
 
 ness from End to End : The Wooll or Cotton being thus prepared, 
 one end of the Mass, Rope, Thread, or Sliver, is put betwixt a 
 pair of Row lers, CilVmdeTs, or Cones, or some such movements, 
 which, being twined round by their motion, draws in the Raw 
 Mass of Wooll or Cotton to be spun, in proportion to the velocity given 
 to such Rowlers, Cillinders, or Cones : as the prepared mass passes 
 I'egularly through or betwixt these Rowlers, Cillinders, or Cones, a 
 succession 0/ OTHER Rowlers, Cillinders, or Cones moveing pro- 
 PORTiONABLY FASTER THAN THE FIRST, draw the Rope, Thread, or 
 Sliver, into any degree of fineness which may be required: sometimes 
 these successive Rowlers, Cillinders, or Cones (but not the first) have 
 another Rotation besides that which diminishes the Thread, yarn, 
 or worsted, (viz.) that they give it a small degree of Twist betwixt 
 each pair, by means of the Thread itself passing through the axis 
 and center of that Rotation. In some other cases only the first 
 pair of Rowlers, Cillinders, or Cones are used, and then the 
 Bobbyn, spole, or quill upon which the Thread, Yarn, or Worsted 
 is spun, is so contrived as to draw faster than the first Rowlers, 
 Cillinders, or Cones give, and in such proportion as the first 
 Mass, Rope, or Sliver is proposed to be diminished. In witness 
 whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this Twentieth day 
 of July in the year of our Lord Oiie thousand seven hundred and 
 thirty eight. 
 
 " LEWIS PAUL. 
 
 " Signed and sealed, (being first duly stamped) in the presence 
 of us, 
 
 " Saml. Guy, Jno. Wyatt." 
 
 " And be it remembered. That the Twentieth day of July, 
 in the year above written, the aforesaid Lewis Paul came before 
 our said Lord the King in his Chancery, and acknowledged the 
 description aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained 
 and specified, in forme above written ; and also the description 
 aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made in 
 the Sixth year of the Reign of the late King and Queen, William 
 and Mary of England, and so forth. Inrolled the Twentieth day of 
 July, in the year above written. 
 
 "Thomas Bennett. 
 
124 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 " This is a true copy from the original record remaining in the 
 Chapel of the Rolls, having been examined. 
 
 " John Kipling."* 
 
 This document proves, beyond all possible doubt, tliat 
 the mode of spinning by rollers was invented more than 
 thirty years before Arkwright took out his patent for a 
 similar machine, which was not till 1769. I proceed to 
 show that tlie inventor was John Wyatt, and not Lewis 
 Paul, in whose name the patent was taken out. The 
 first evidence is that of a letter from Mr. Wyatt himself, 
 written when a prisoner for debt, after the failure of liis 
 concern — for he shared the common fate of inventors — 
 and addressed to sir Leicester Holt, requesting him to 
 support a bill, then before parliament, for the relief of 
 insolvents. The original lies before me, and I make the 
 following: extract verbatim et literatim : — 
 
 " Sir, — Though I have not the honour to be personally known 
 to Sir Leicester Holt, yet as my characture and misfortunes are 
 pretty well known to some of the gentlemen in and about Birming- 
 ham, to whom Sir Leicester has vouchsafed his audience, I immagine 
 it possible my name may have fiU'd up some intervals of more 
 agreeable conversation. But whether the mention of my name 
 
 * I am indebted for the copy of this important and hitherto unpublished docu- 
 ment, to the kindness of Richard Guest, esq., author of the " History of the Cotton 
 Manufacture," who, though he has, both in his " History," and his " Reply to an 
 Article in the Edinburgh Review," advocated the claims of Thomas Highs to the 
 invention of spinning by rollers, yet communicated to me, with the utmost candour 
 and readiness, the proof that that invention has a considerably earlier date. 
 Mr. Guest was not acquainted with this piece of evidence when he published 
 either of his books, although he had made diligent search for it; the reason of his 
 search being baffled was, that the patent has always been referred to as Wyatt's 
 invention, which so far misled him in the search for it, that it was not procured 
 until after the sheets of his last work were printed off. The attention of 
 Mr. Guest was probably drawn to Wyatt's invention by a paper of John Kennedy, 
 esq., published in the Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical 
 Society, which will be mentioned more particularly. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 125 
 
 and behaviour can have done any credit to my person, Sir Leicester 
 will judge if he has heard my case. I am the person that was the 
 -principal agent in compileiyig the Spinning Engine, though I had 
 not the honour to wait upon Sir Leicester either of the times he 
 was to see it." &c. 
 
 I have also before me two hanks of cotton-yarn 
 spun about 1741, and wrapped in a piece of paper, on 
 which is written the following, in the hand-writing of 
 Mr. Wyatt :— 
 
 " The inclosed yarn, spun by the Spinning Engine (without 
 hands) about the year 1741. The movement was at that timo 
 turn'd by two [or more] Asses, walking round an axis in a large 
 warehouse, near the well in the Upper Priory, in Birmingham. 
 
 " It ow'd the condition it was then in to the superintendency of 
 John Wyatt. 
 
 " The above wrote June 3d, 1756."* 
 
 A manuscript book is remaining, composed, (as ap- 
 pears from internal evidence, as well as from the letter 
 of Mr. Wyatt's son, which will shortly be quoted,) by 
 Mr. John Wyatt, entitled, " A Systematical Essay on 
 
 •* John Kennedy, esq., of Manchester, well known for his scientific attainments, 
 and many years an extensive cotton-spinner, (to whose obliging courtesy 1 am 
 indebted for the loan of Mr. Wyatt's original papers, he having received them 
 from Mr. Wyatt's son,) has pronounced the following opinion on these specimens of 
 yarn, in a note to his paper " On the Rise and Progress of the Cotton Trade," pub- 
 lished in the Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1819, 
 (vol. iii. of the second series, p. 137.) — " From examining the yarn, I think it 
 would not be said by competent judges that it was spun by a similar machine to 
 that of Mr. Arkwright; for the fabric or thread is very different from the early pro- 
 ductions of Mr. Arkwright, and is, I think, evidently spun by a different machine, 
 the ingenuity of which we cannot appreciate, as the model mentioned in the paper 
 alluded to is unfortunately lost." When this was written, Mr. Kennedy had not 
 seen the specification of Wyatt's invention, as given in Paul's patent ; but when 
 he afterwards obtained it from the Patent-Office, no doubt was left on his mind 
 that the invention was identical in principle, though not in all its details, with the 
 machine of Arkwright. 
 
126 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the Business of Spiimmg; or the Manufacturing of 
 Cotton Wool into Yarn, for various uses ; without the 
 intermediate appHcation or intervention of the human 
 fingers : wrote in the year 1 743, for the private purposes 
 of its Author." This book contains many curious and 
 interesting particulars concerning the manufactory at 
 Birmingham in 1741-2, and also concerning another 
 manufactory, turned by water-power, at Northampton, 
 in which Mr. Cave, the editor of the Gentleman's Maga- 
 zine, was the monied partner, and a Mr. Yeomen was 
 the manager. The manuscript explains in part the 
 failure of the undertaking, as it appears that Mr. Wyatt 
 left the concern at Birmingham, and resided a great 
 deal in London, endeavouring to dispose of the yarn : 
 disorder, negligence, and mismanagement, were the 
 natural results of the absence of the principal. Wyatt 
 also seems to have been ignorant of the prices of yarns, 
 and, though possessing great abilities, he may not have 
 had the business talent requisite to make such an under- 
 taking succeed. 
 
 It appears from this MS. book, that Wyatt resided 
 principally in London, in the years 1739 and 1740, 
 during which time he was constantly inquiring about 
 yarns ; that he was at Birmingham in the beginning of 
 1741, observing the working of tlie manufactory, and 
 that at that time Paul was one of its superintendents ;* 
 that Wyatt left Birmingham again for London, in 
 March, 1741, but continued to take the interest of a 
 principal in the concern ; that at Michaelmas, 1 743, 
 
 • Some person in whose hands the MS. book has been, has taken the pains to 
 cross out with ink the name of " Mr. Paul," in the only two places where it is 
 mentioned ; but by a close inspection the name may be deciphered. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 127 
 
 both the concerns at Birmingham and Northampton 
 were at work, and Wyatt was endeavouring to dispose 
 of their yam, and to obtain cotton-wool to spin. 
 
 From the mention made of the macliinery, it appears 
 that the work at Nortliampton was moved by a water- 
 wheel; that the engines consisted of several frames, 
 bearing 250 spindles and bobbins ; that the bobbin re- 
 volved upon the spindle, and that each was moved by a 
 separate wheel and pinion, containing, the one sixty- 
 four teeth, and the other sixty-five.*" In one part of 
 the book, the cost of " the bobbins, with the frame and 
 appurtenances," is estimated at 20s. per bobbin, and 
 '* the wooden wheels, cards, &c." (including all the 
 other tools and machines for carding, spinning, and 
 reeling,) at 40s. per bobbin : and in another part of 
 the book it is estimated, that " 300 spindles (with the 
 license) could be purchased for £1,200." Wyatt makes 
 his calculations on the supposition of giving the yarn 
 " twenty twists in an inch ;" and he states, that " if the 
 work was designed to spin the sort of forty twists per 
 inch, it would take four times as much money to 
 set up all such spindles, as those of twenty twists per 
 inch." 
 
 The following page of Mr. Wyatt's Essay gives so 
 much insight into the spinning establishment at Nor- 
 thampton, that I present a literal copy : — 
 
 • It is probable that Wyatt adopted the idea of arranging a number of spindles, 
 with bobbins revolving upon them, in a frame, and of turning the spindles and 
 bobbins by distinct wheels, from the machines for throwing silk, introduced by Sir 
 Thomas Lombe, from Italy, and set up in a large mill at Derby. The introduc- 
 tion of the Italian silk-throwing machinery may have set Wyatt on considering 
 whether other materials, as cotton and wool, might not be spun by a similar appa- 
 ratus. The rollers, however, find no place in the silk machines. 
 
128 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 " Remarks on Mk. Cave's Work at Northampton, 
 
 Oct. 8th, 1743. 
 
 " 1. They have spun in all about 50,000 skeins, since they 
 first began. 
 
 " 2. They spin 90 skeins per day at each Frame, for a day's 
 work ; at least, they call that their day's work. 
 
 " 3. They have worn out but two Pinions since they began, and 
 not one wheel. 
 
 " 4. They have 5 frames up, but seldom hands to keep 4 at 
 work. 
 
 " 5. Tliey supose one of the Frames has done half the work 
 that has been done. 
 
 " 6. I don't apprehend that the Wheels and Pinions of that 
 Frame are half worn out : from whence I infer, that a set of 
 Wheels and Pinions would spin at least 35,000 skeins. That is 
 100 Wheels and 100 pinions. 
 
 " 7. The rest of the work belonging to that Frame, taken in 
 general, is not (in my opinion) one tenth part worn out. 
 
 " 8. Joseph Newton (a man that has always been employed in 
 the work since it first began at Birmingham) would undertake to 
 keep the 250 spindles in repair with his own hands ; i. e. metal 
 work, estimating at the rate they have worked. 
 
 " 9. The metal itself, and the wood-work, cannot, in my opi- 
 nion, exceed £20 per annum. 
 
 " 10. I call the insensible decay of the Mill, Building, and 
 Water Wheel, about £20 per annum more. 
 
 " 11. The repairs of Cards, they tell me, amounts to 18d. per 
 week : which is about eaqual to the wages of the Carders them- 
 selves, but much more than I think they cost at Birmingham : that 
 is, per week. 
 
 " 12. The cards, and carding, both extremely ill managed. 
 
 "13. The work never clean'd, till necessity forces a particular 
 spindle. 
 
 " 14. The dirt and cotton spread about the spinning-rooms, and 
 the pathways near the mill, is surprising. 
 
 " 15. The Agent there has his wife, and two other women, to 
 assist him ; whose salary's taken together, (I am told,) amounts to 
 about £88 per annum. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 129 
 
 '* 16. The Water Wheel is capable of making about 15 revo- 
 lutions in a minute ; but they generaly flood it, in tail, till it makes 
 but about 6 or 8 revolutions in a minute. 
 
 " 17. Their picking Gotten, and reeling Yarn, amounts to about 
 Id. per lb. 
 
 " 18. They have fifty Carders, Spinners, and Supernumerary 
 Girls in the work ; whose wages, last week, amounted to £2. 19s. 7d. 
 (which I will call £3.) 
 
 " 19. I apprehend they waste about one-tenth part of the 
 Gotten. 
 
 " 20. The sort of Yarn they spin is about 15 skeins per lb. 
 
 " Their Cards much to fine for the sort they spin. 
 " February, 1743-4. 
 
 " 22. Since the taking of the remarks above, I have been informed, 
 by an author that I can depend upon, that they have spun half 
 as much more in a week as they did when I was there ; and that 
 in particular the day before my letter's date, one pair of girls spun 
 36 skeins. 
 
 " 23. That the repairs of cards do still cost them about as much 
 as the carders that card with them." 
 
 In this MS. book tliere are some particulars con- 
 cerning the prices of Lancashire and East India yarns, 
 in 1739, 1740, 1742, and 1743, collected bj Mr. 
 Wyatt, during a residence in London, and in the course 
 of a journey into Lancashire, which will be read with 
 interest by all connected with the cotton trade, as 
 being the most distinct and authentic information now 
 existing on the subject. It shews that East India yarns 
 were then commonly used in this country for the finer 
 kinds of goods. The following is Mr. Wyatt's statement 
 of the results of his inquiries : — 
 
 " In the year 1739 and 1740, I was allmost daily at Mr. John- 
 son's, in Spittlefields,* London, where it was often necessary for 
 
 * " An eminent weaver there." 
 R 
 
130 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 him to shew me his yarns, of about 16, 20, or 24 skeins per lb., 
 some of which, he told me, cost him about 2id. per skein ; but 
 the lowest price that ever I remember to have heard him mention 
 was about seven farthings and half farthing. I remember, too, 
 that the lowest prised yarns was generaly toward the latter part of 
 the time that I was at his house. And likewise, that I sometimes 
 took the liberty, as oppertunity favour 'd, to ask the same question 
 of the stock-taker, as I had done of the master, and generaly 
 found that the man suppos'd a higher price upon the yarns than 
 the master himself. As there was various ways of buying yarn, 
 sometimes by the skein, sometimes by the lb., and sometimes by 
 the dozen, and sometimes by the bundles ; it seldom happened 
 that the [price of the] Lancashire skein would be in even 
 farthings. 
 
 " In June, 1742, Mr. Yeomen* introduced me to one Mr. King, 
 a cap-maker, in Aldersgate street, London, who told us, that he at 
 that time gave 3s. 9d. per lb. for yarn of about 20 skein per lb., 
 which yarn he shew'd us. About Michaelmas, 1743, Mr. Yeomen 
 and I paid him another visit : he now seem'd much inclin'd to 
 have some of our spinning, f or to let us have some wool to spin. 
 He now told us that he had lately bought a parcel of yarn for 
 seven farthings per skein ; but upon canvasing his words, he ex- 
 plained himself thus ; — I gave 3s. bateing a penny per lb., and 
 it runs from 16 to 20, but most of it is 20. Mr. Yeomen seem'd 
 perfectly well acquainted with him, and look'd upon him as a 
 mighty fair, honest man, and must own he appear'd so to me. He 
 is said to deal for about £50 per week. 
 
 " Birmingham, 1743 : — In conversation with Mr. Henry Morris,! 
 and Mr. Bourn, ^ at the Castle Inn, I haveing acknowledg'd my 
 deficiency in the price of yarns, and inquireing of Mr. Morris ; 
 he declin'd perticulars ; pretending he could not so well answer 
 me that, there were such great variety ; but I know, (says he,) 
 that we give a penny a hank for spinning. N.B. Hank is another 
 word for skein. 
 
 * " Who erected Mr. Cave's work at Northampton." 
 
 f " That is to be spun by the engine, either at Birmingham or North- 
 ampton." 
 
 t " A Lancashire dealer." 
 
 ^ " At this time negociating a partnership with Mr. Morris." 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 131 
 
 " By an enquiry of Mr, Rowe,* am told (at Xmas.) that coarse 
 yarns, vizt. of about 12 skein per lb. had very lately been ad- 
 vanced from lOd. per lb. to I4d., that is from 2d. under, to 2d. 
 above a penny a skein, spinning. 
 
 " Mr. Touchet, sen,,t tells me, that their people have, within 
 these two years, spun as much for 8d. as they now do for a shil- 
 ling ; adding, that they had had coarse yarns spun for three far- 
 things per skein. Though (continued he) we give a penny a hank 
 for all above twenty-four. I then asked him if they did not give 
 more than a penny a hank if it should be twice twenty-four ? He 
 answered no. Adding, but we seldom have any so fine, though I 
 have heard of some to sixty in the country. He thought their 
 yarn of 5s. per lb. spinning, was as fine as the East India 
 yarn of 12s, or 12s, 6d. per lb,, though he knew that Mr. John- 
 sonj had bought the last lott exceeding cheap. He tells me, they 
 allow Id. per lb. for reeling ; that the best cotton in the world is 
 that of Jamaica. 
 
 " Mr. James Livesey,§ the same day, tells me, that their people 
 could work twenty per cent, cheaper ; nay, he questioned, if they 
 would not work thirty per cent, cheaper, before they would loose 
 their business. — He declared he would answer me any question 
 that I could ask him. I then (or indeed immediately before his 
 declaration) signified my want of knowledge in the value of yarns. 
 He then told me that they now gave Id. per lb, more than they 
 did some time ago, 
 
 " Within this twelvemonth, they had course yarn spun for 2d, 
 per lb. abate ; and now they abate one penny per lb., of a penny 
 a skein, to about twenty skeins per lb. He could not, or pretended 
 he could not, tell me what they now gave for the finer sort, as from 
 twenty-four to forty, telling me they used but little of that. On 
 my desireing to see some of his yarn, he told me he had no yarn 
 by him, for that all their work was done in the country. But im- 
 mediately reached me several pieces of white goods, (not bleached,) 
 one of which he told me he sold for about £100 per pack, and he 
 supposed the weft to be about 40 hanks per lb. He could not tell 
 
 * " An eminent dealer in Birmingham." 
 
 f " An eminent dealer in Manchester." 
 
 i " Meaning the same Mr. Johnson as above." 
 
 § " Another very considerable dealer in Manchester." 
 
132 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 me to what character of fineness, was the finest he had ever heard 
 of ; but beheved that the East India Company had sold yarn for 
 40s. per lb. 
 
 " He acknowledged, that though they gave but a penny a skein 
 to the spinners, yet the great number of servants and agents that 
 they were obliged to have about the country, made their yarn stand 
 them in five farthings per skein. Mr. Morris likewise told me, 
 that they had yarn at a guinea per lb. spinning. And I think 
 Mr. Johnson used to tell me, that he gave about 13s. or 14s. per 
 lb. for a sort of East India yarn, of which he used great quantities. 
 It was not usual to reel this yarn ; but Mr. Johnson, senior, told 
 me, that he had sometimes reeled a little, for curiosity, and found 
 it to run about 60.* 
 
 " I apprehend it may reasonably be infer'd, from Mr. Johnson, 
 and Mr. King, &c.^ that the price of yarn of about 20 skein per 
 lb. may be generally about 2d. per skein. Tho my estimate sup- 
 poses the mean rate 6i per cent, cheaper, vizt. 7| farthings. 
 Without laying too much stress on Mr. Livesy's authority, that the 
 20 skein yarn stands the manufacturers in five farthings per skein, 
 I think it may be granted that they would be glad to give upwards 
 of a penny. That a penny a skein is near the general price given 
 to the spiners, is confirm'd to me by a great number of them, being 
 all in the same assertion. 
 
 " The price of fine yarns seems so unsettled among them, that it 
 in some measure pleads an excuse for Mr. Livesey's, and 
 Touchet's shyness, in their answers on that account ; for I found, 
 among the spiners, that the price of 40 skein yarn varied from 
 4s. 2d. to 6s. 8d. per lb. spining ; and, from about 50 ty's to 60 
 ty's, the price was from 8s. to about 13s. And one spiner I found 
 [Wiggan] that had had 20s. 6d. per lb. for some, which reel'd to 
 about 80 ty's. But these prices don't vairy according to certain 
 periods of time, as they seem to do in the course yarn ; but ac- 
 cording to places, and masters, and other circumstances, so that 
 when the coarse yarn may be dearer, the fine may be cheaper, 
 which seems in some measure the present case." 
 
 * " I apprehend (though I cannot perfectly recolect) that this yarn, which 
 reel'd to 60, was not the identical yarn which cost 13s. or 14s. per lb. ; but that it 
 was meant that this East India was not commonly reel'd." 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 133 
 
 If Wyatt could have applied himself as closely to 
 the perfecting and direction of liis machinery, and to the 
 arrangements in his mill, as Arkwright afterwards did 
 — finding some one to make known and dispose of his 
 yarn — the great unpetus to the cotton manufacture might 
 have heen given thirty years earlier. 
 
 We come now to quote the important testimony of 
 Mr. Charles Wyatt to his father's claims as the inventor 
 of the spinning machine. The letter contains a highly 
 interesting narrative, and it is characterised by a modesty 
 and candour which do honour to the writer. This 
 document was published in the " Repertory of Arts, 
 Manufactures, and Agriculture," for January, 1818, 
 then edited and published by his brother, Mr. J. 
 Wyatt :— 
 
 " Bedford Row, November \5th, 1817. 
 " Dear Brother, 
 
 " In compliance with your request, I send you some account of 
 the origin of the present method of spinning by machinery, for 
 insertion in the Repertory of Arts and Manufactures, which being a 
 receptacle of useful knowledge, nothing can with more propriety 
 fill up a part of its columns. Our chief view, however, in this is, 
 to rescue from oblivion, and affix the gratitude of a nation upon a 
 name dear to us, and unknown to those who are exalted, though 
 perhaps unconsciously, by his genius : our parent, John Wyatt, of 
 Birmingham. 
 
 " To produce something out of nothing is a greater effort of 
 excogitation, than to improve what is already produced. 
 
 " The production, then, of a system of machinery to supersede 
 the artless method of spinning with the fingers, may be justly 
 classed among the highest efforts of mechanical combinations ; and 
 this was accomplished early in the last century, by the individual 
 here spoken of. 
 
 " The brief history of the invention, which my superior years, 
 and the circumstance of my being in possession of his papers and 
 
134 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 memorandums on the subject, gives me an advantage over you, as 
 far as I am able to trace it, is this : In the year 1730, or there- 
 abouts, living then at a village near Litchfield, our respected father 
 ■first conceived the project, and prepared to carry it into effect ; 
 and in the year 1733, by a model of about two feet square, in a 
 small building near Sutton Coldfield, without a single witness to 
 the performance, was spun the first thread of cotton ever produced 
 without the intervention of the human fingers, — he, the inventor, 
 to use his own words, ' beiyig all the time in a pleasing hut 
 trembling suspense.' The wool had been carded in the common 
 way, and was passed between two cylinders,. from whence the bob- 
 bin drew it by means of the twist. 
 
 " This successful experiment induced him to seek for a pecu- 
 niary connexion equal to the views that the project excited ; and 
 one appeared to present itself with a Mr. Lewis Paul, which ter- 
 minated unhappily for the projector ; for Paul, a foreigner, poor 
 and enterprising, made offers and bargains which he never fulfilled, 
 and contrived, in the year 1738, to have a patent taken out in his 
 own name for some additional apparatus ; a copy of which I send 
 you :* and in 1741 or 1742, a mill, turned by two asses walking 
 round an axis, was erected in Birmingham, and ten girls were 
 employed in attending the work. Two hanks of the cotton then 
 and there spun are now in my possession, accompanied with the 
 inventor's own testimony of the performance. Drawings of the 
 machinery were sent, or appear to have been sent, to Mr. Cave, for 
 insertion in the Gentleman's Magazine. f 
 
 " This establishment, unsupported by sufficient property, lan- 
 guished a short time, and then expired : the supplies were ex- 
 hausted, and the inventor much injured by the experiment, but his 
 confidence in the scheme was unimpaired. The machinery was 
 sold in 1743, A work upon a larger scale, on a stream of water, 
 was established at Northampton, under the direction of a Mr. Yeo- 
 men, but with the property of Mr. Cave. The work contained 250 
 spindles, and employed fifty pair of hands. The inventor soon 
 after examined the state of the undertaking, and found great defi- 
 
 * The patent, though sent for publication, was not published in the " Reper- 
 tory," and to this it is probably owing that Mr. Charles Wyatt's letter produced 
 no effect on the public mind, being unaccompanied by the decisive proof contained 
 in the patent itself. 
 
 t They were not inserted. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 135 
 
 ciency and neglect in the management. At that time they had 
 spun about 33001bs. of cotton. On the observations which he then 
 made, he composed what he entitled ' A Systematic Essay on the 
 Business of Spinning,' which exhibits a clear view of the mechani- 
 cal considerations on which an undertaking of that nature, of what- 
 ever magnitude, must be established, and apparently confines his 
 humble pretensions to the profit on 300 spindles. It was not within 
 human foresight to calculate the richness of the harvest to come 
 from this little germ. 
 
 "This brings me to the conclusion of our father's connexion 
 with the spinning business. 
 
 " The work at Northampton did not prosper. It passed, I be- 
 lieve, into the possession of a Mr. Yeo, a gentleman of the law in 
 London, about the year 1764, and, from a strange coincidence of 
 circumstances, there is the highest probability, that the machinery 
 got into the hands of a person, wlio, with the assistance of others, 
 knowing how to apply it with skill and judgment, and to supply 
 what might be deficient, raised upon it by a gradual accession of 
 profit an immense establishment and a princely fortune. 
 
 *' In the year 1739, my father writes to one of his friends, ' that 
 by this method,' some new thought, ' the wool need be no more 
 carded than to break the knots or mix it well, as with scribbles 
 or stock cards, and being thus mixed, and -pressed down hard into 
 a box, it may, without any human touch, be picked out almost 
 hair by hair, and made ijito yarn.' 
 
 " In 1748, Mr, Paul procured another patent, the title of which 
 was 'for carding of wool and cotton ;' but whether this was com- 
 bined with the machinery then at Northampton, or where it was 
 introduced, I know not. Such, or nearly such, being the early 
 history of this invention, I thought the late Sir Richard Arkwright 
 would be gratified by possessing the very model to which I 
 have alluded ; and I accordingly waited on him at Cromford with 
 the offer, but my reception did not correspond with my expecta- 
 tions. 
 
 " To pretend, however, that the original machinery, without 
 addition or improvement, would alone have produced the prodigious 
 effects which we now behold, would be claiming improbable merit 
 for the inventor, and degrading the talents and sagacity of his 
 successors in the same field of enterprise ; for it cannot be denied, 
 
136 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 that a great fund of ingenuity must have been expended in bring- 
 ino- the spinning works to their present degree of perfection. The 
 number of spindles now in use is supposed to exceed five 
 millions. 
 
 " If the author of the humble establishment at Birmingham 
 gave birth to such a wonderful progeny, he ought at least to be 
 acknowledged as a benefactor to his country, and recorded amongst 
 the men who, from an attachment to the sciences and practice of 
 mechanics, open the paths of knowledge, and point out, but do not 
 pursue, those which lead to profit and prosperity, 
 
 " Connected with this subject, I might, with great propriety, 
 point out many eminent services that he rendered the public by 
 his mechanical talents ; but, being mostly local, and absorbed by 
 subsequent productions, they have lost their present interest. 
 
 " The machine, however, for weighing loaded carriages, coal 
 particularly, ought to be distinguished as one of known and 
 extensive utility. It was solely, and exclusively, his own ; he erected 
 the first at Birmingham, about fifty years ago, and his own 
 description of it is. That it would weigh a load of coal, or a pound 
 of butter, with equal facility, and nearly equal accuracy. 
 The present makers admit, that the principle is incapable of 
 improvement. . 
 
 "The late Mr. Boulton, a man too eminent and too amiable to 
 be mentioned without esteem and regret, nor on my part without 
 affection, set a high value both on my father's attainments and 
 virtues : for it was universally acknowledged, that he had the hap- 
 piness to give a lustre and an interest to his genius and his know- 
 ledge, by the purest probity, the most unaffected humility, urba- 
 nity, and benevolence. He was attended to his grave, in 1766, 
 by Mr. Boulton, Mr. Baskerville, the celebrated printer, (who, 
 from the peculiarity of his notions, arrayed himself on this occa- 
 sion, in a splendid suit of gold lace,) and four other gentlemen of 
 eminence in Birmingham. 
 
 " I am, dear Brother, yours affectionately, 
 
 " Charles Wyatt."* 
 
 * I learn from Mr. Kennedy the fact, that this letter was published in conse- 
 quence of the reading of his paper before the Literary and Philosophical Society 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 137 
 
 Mr. Boulton, of Solio, Birmingham, (who is men- 
 tioned in the last paragraph,) the celebrated partner 
 of James Watt in the mannfacture of the steam-engine, 
 had seen the spinning-machine at Birmingham, when a 
 boy, and assured Mr. Kennedy that he considered, 
 Wyatt as the inventor. I have further confirmation of 
 this fact from Mr. Walter Henry Wyatt, of Southwark, 
 (the gi'andson of Mr. John Wyatt,) who, on being 
 applied to by me for any further evidence the family 
 might have concerning the invention, wrote as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " I am convinced of the fact of the invention being 
 my grandfather's, from the evidence of the late Mr. 
 Matthew Boulton, wlio a short time previous to his 
 death, called on me — the first and only time I ever saw 
 that gentleman — and in the course of conversation up- 
 braided, or, I may rather say, condoled with me on the 
 neglect of his sons in claiming the invention." 
 
 Having thus proved that the principle of Wyatt's 
 invention was the same as that of the spinning frame 
 brought into use by Arkwright, I must add, that the 
 details of the Birmingham machine were far from being 
 perfect, and that the machine differed greatly from Ark- 
 
 of Manchester, " On the Rise and Progress of the Cotton Trade." It happened 
 that a young ladfy, a great-grandchild of Mr. Wyatt, was on a visit at Mr. Ken- 
 nedy's house at the time ; and, hearing of the subject of his paper after it had 
 been read, and finding, on perusal of tlie paper, that it contained no reference 
 whatever to her great-grandfather's claims as the inventor of the spinning- 
 machine, (which she knew by family tradition,) she informed her uncle, Mr. Charles 
 Wyatt, of the fact, and he in consequence published this important letter. Mr. 
 Kennedy copied a portion of the letter as a note to his paper, when published in 
 the Memoirs of the above Society, but (not having seen the patent itself) he was 
 not then, as will appear from an extract we have previously made from this Note, 
 fully convinced that Wyatt's machine was the original of Arkwright's. Subse- 
 quently, the perusal of the patent of 1738, and further inquiry, have convinced 
 him that the two machines are identical in principle. 
 
133 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 1 Wright's in its foiin and construction. That it was im- 
 P|)erfect appears manifest from its having failed to become 
 profitable. It was tried by Wyatt and Paul at Bir- 
 mingham between 1738 and 1743; an engine of a 
 similar kind was erected in the latter year at North- 
 ampton, Avith capitid supplied by Mr. Cave; and so late 
 as the year 1 758 we find Lewis Paul taking out a new 
 patent for the spinning machine, A^ith some improve- 
 ments; yet none of these succeeded. This lingering 
 existence of the invention leads me to suppose tliat it 
 was not uniformly unprofitable, but that tlie profits were 
 small, and generally more tlian swallowed up by the 
 expenses. The proprietors saw that they were in pos- 
 session of a gi-eat and valuable principle ; but, probably 
 from deficiency of capital, and from the want of continued 
 application on the part of AVyatt to the perfecting of the 
 details, it yielded no fruit to him whose happy genius 
 first conceived so admirable a process. 
 
 As the patent of 1738 contains no detailed descrip- 
 tion of the machine, and as tlie model spoken of by 
 Mr. Charles Wyatt has been lost or destroyed, we can- 
 not ascertain what was the construction of this first 
 machine for spinning by rollers. Paul's patent of 1758, 
 however, may materially help us in our conjectures, 
 especially as all the notices of the machinery contained 
 in the MS. book above quoted seem to indicate an engine 
 of the same kind. The latter patent is remarkably com- 
 plete in its di-awings and specification; and from a care- 
 ful inspection of them I think it highly probable that 
 the macliine was essentially the same as the original 
 spinning macliine of 1738, but included a supposed 
 improvement in the mode of applying tlie sliver of cotton 
 
i 
 
m 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 139 
 
 to the rollers, consequent upon Paul's improvement in 
 the carding process, hereafter to be described. 
 
 The specification of the patent of 1 758* contains the 
 following general description of tlie process : — 
 
 " The wool! or cotton to be spun by the said machine or engine 
 must be first carded upon a card made up of a number of parallel 
 cards, with intervening spaces between each ; and the matter so 
 carded must be taken off each card separately. The several rowes 
 or fillaments so taken off must be connected into one entire roll, 
 which, being put between a pair of rollers or cylinders, is by their 
 turning round delivered to the nose of a spindle, in such proportion 
 to the thread made as is proper for the particular occasions. From 
 hence it is delivered to a bobbin, spole, or quill, which turns upon 
 the spindle, and which gathers up the thread or yarn as it is spun. 
 The spindle is so contrived as to draw faster than the rollers or 
 cylinders give, in proportion to the length of thread or yarn into 
 which the matter to be spun is proposed to be drawn." 
 
 The annexed plate, (PI. 2.) which contains two views of 
 the machine, taken from the drawings accompanying the 
 specification, will assist the reader to form an idea of its 
 construction. It will be observed, that the machine 
 contains only one pair of rollers: the patent of 1738 
 expressly describes two pairs, the second moving faster 
 than tlie first; but it adds that in some cases only the 
 first pair of rollers was used. In the second patent, 
 the upper roller was called the " riband cylinder," from 
 the sliver, or carding, being wound upon it by means of 
 a riband : as the cylinder turned, tlie sliver came off, was 
 compressed between the tAvo cylinders, and tlien, being 
 
 * In this specification, the patentee is styled " Lewis Paul, of Kensington 
 Gravel Pitts, in the county of Middlesex, Esquire." One of the witnesses is 
 Mr. Thomas Yeo; probably the same gentleman into whose hands Mr. Charles 
 Wyatt states that the work at Northampton passed about the year 1764, 
 
140 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 delivered to the uose of the spindle, was at once drawn 
 out, (so as to reduce it in thickness,) twisted into a 
 thread, and wound upon the bobbin. The inteiior of the 
 macliine contained much ingenious and complex wheel- 
 work; — the larger wheels being of wood, and the smaller 
 of metal, finished like clock-work : tlie whole was 
 moved by the upright shaft in the centre, which was 
 tiu'ned by the water-wlieel. 
 
 A compaiison of tliis macliine with that of Arkwright, 
 of wliich the specification drawing "^ill shortly be given, 
 shows that there is a gi-eat difierence in the construction 
 of the two. So far is the one from being a copy of the 
 other, that that of Arkwright indicates great inventive 
 talent, even if we suppose that he had seen the former 
 machine ; but the mechanical details of the two have so 
 little in common, that I am induced to think, contrary to 
 the opinion of ]Mr. Charles Wyatt, that Arkwright had 
 not seen the macliine of Wyatt or Paul. It must, how- 
 ever, be admitted, that to contrive and adjust the details 
 of such a macliine, thougli of the gi'eatest practical im- 
 portance, is a merit very subordinate to that of him w]io 
 conceived the great principle. The latter is the glory of 
 Wyatt. How much Arkwright owed to his predecessor 
 can only be matter of conjecture 3 that he thus learnt the 
 principle of spinning by rollers, I am convinced ; and, 
 as will soon appear, another individual besides Wyatt 
 puts in liis claim to precedency of Arkwright. The 
 latter unquestionably knew of the attempts to spin cotton 
 by machineiy at Birmingham and Northampton, and of 
 the patent of 1738, which describes the two pairs of 
 rollers, as he himself declares as much in the '' Case" 
 wliich he drew up to be presented to parliament in 1782. 
 He says — " About 40 or 50 years ago, one Paul, and 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 141 
 
 otliers, of London, invented an engine for spinning of 
 cotton, and obtained a patent for such invention; after- 
 wards they removed to Northampton and other places. 
 They spent many years and much money in the under- 
 taking, but without success; and many families who had 
 engaged with them were reduced to poverty and dis- 
 tress." 
 
 Arkwright, therefore, knew the history of Paul and 
 Wyatt, and knew of the patent; and though it is not 
 certain that he had this knowledge before he con- 
 structed his own machine, yet the fact of his possessing 
 it at a later period strengthens the probability of his 
 having, at least, heard of the machine for spinning by 
 rollers, before he made his own. This conjecture is 
 still further favoured by the repulse which he gave to 
 Mr. Charles Wyatt, when the latter waited upon him 
 with the original model of the spinning machine.* 
 
 I have compared tlie doubts which hang over the his- 
 tory of the cotton spinning inventions, with those in 
 which the origin of tliat still nobler ai't, the art of print- 
 ing, is involved. The claims of Wyatt are indeed nearly 
 as well established as those of Gutenberg; and Paul may 
 have been auxiliary to the first cotton spinner, as Faust 
 was to the first printer. Yet, as a claim is set up for 
 Lawrence Coster to the invention of types and printing, 
 and supported by evidence which it is difficult wholly to 
 
 * When I first read the patent of 1738, I was so struck with its exact descrip- 
 tion of the process of spinning by two pairs of rollers, one pair moving faster than 
 the other, that I too hastily concluded the machine thus generally described to be 
 the original of Arkwright's, not only in its principle, but in its construction and 
 details. An attentive consideration of the machine for which a patent was ob- 
 tained in 1758, and of Wyatt's incidental notices of the first machine in his MS. 
 Essay on the Business of Spinning, together with a comparison between these and 
 the machine of Arkwright, considerably modified my opinion. 
 
142 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 invalidate or to account for; so there is another claimant 
 (besides Ai'kwright) to the honour of inventing the 
 spinning rollers, whose pretensions ought not to be 
 treated ^^^th contempt. I allude to Thomas Highs,* 
 reed maker, of Leigh, whose claims have been main- 
 tained with gi-eat zeal by Mr. Guest, in his History of 
 the Cotton Manufacture, and his Reply to an article in 
 the Edinburgh Review. This author contends that 
 Highs was the inventor not only of the water-frame 
 brought into use by Arkwright, but also, a few years 
 earlier, of the jenny, a spinning macliine on a different 
 principle, commonly ascribed to James Hargreaves.f As 
 I have been led by the order of events first to discuss 
 tlie invention of spinning by rollers, I shall at present 
 confine my remarks to the evidence that such a mode of 
 spinning was devised by Highs, and shall afterwards 
 retiu'u to the liistory of the spinning jenny. 
 
 In the trial which took place, in the court of King's 
 Bench, on the 25th of June, 1785, to try the validity of 
 Mr. Arkwright's patent, Highs gave evidence to the 
 following eff'ect: — That he himself made rollers, for the 
 purpose of spinning cotton, in the year 1767, (Ark- 
 wright's first patent being only taken out in 1769;) that 
 in his machine there were two pairs of rollers, the second 
 revoMng five times as fast as the first; that this was for 
 the puinpose of drawing the thread finer ; that it was used 
 both to spin and to rove; that he at first only used two 
 spindles; that he did not follow up his invention, from 
 the want of pecuniary means, but intended to keep it 
 
 • In Arkwright's Trial, and in several other works, the name is spelt Hays; but 
 Mr. Guest says it is written Highs in Leigh church register, and is so pronounced 
 by his family and the neighbourhood. — Reply, p. 18. 
 
 t Guest's Hist, of the Cotton Manufacture, pp. 12, 16. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 143 
 
 secret till he could procure assistance. He stated, that 
 he communicated his invention to one Kay, a clock- 
 maker, whose aid he required to make him a small 
 model of the machine Avith brass wheels. He also added, 
 that, having once met Arkwright at Manchester, after 
 the latter had taken out his patent for the Avater-frame, 
 he (Highs) reproached him with having got his inven- 
 tion, which Arkwright did not deny. 
 
 In confirmation of Highs' s claun, John Kay, the 
 clockmaker,* gave evidence to the court, that he made 
 the wheels and rollers for Highs at the time alleged; 
 that he the same year, or early in the year following, 
 communicated the plan to Arkwright, who was then a 
 poor man, and, at his request, he made him two models ; 
 that Ai'kwright engaged him (Kay) to accompany him, 
 first to Preston and afterwards to Nottingham, where he 
 remained in liis service four or five years, and then 
 quitted him, having been unjustly accused of felony. 
 Kay's wife spoke generally to the same facts, but Avith 
 so much vagueness, and such an utter confusion of dates, 
 that her testimony cannot be relied upon. 
 
 The claim thus distinctly made by Highs, and sup- 
 ported by Kay, is stated by Mr. Guest to be generally 
 received as true in Leigh, the town where Highs resided. 
 Mr. Bearcroft, the counsel against Arkwright on the 
 trial, said the same thing in 1785: " It is a notorious 
 story (said he) in the manufacturing counties; all men 
 
 * According to Mr. Guest, Kay lived at Leigh when he was employed by Highs, 
 but soon afterwards removed to Warrington, where he dwelt when Arkwright 
 called upon him. — Hist, of the Cotton Manufacture, p. 17. — This is confirmed by 
 the statement of Thomas Leather and other old persons, who knew Kay when 
 living at Leigh. 
 
144 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 that have seen Mr. Arkwright in a state of opulence, 
 have shaken their heads, and thought of these poor men. 
 Highs and Kay, and have tliought too that they were 
 entitled to some participation of the profits." The fact 
 that the clockmaker, who had made wheels for Highs, 
 was taken by Arkwright to Nottingham, and kept there 
 for some years, aifords considerable confirmation to the 
 story. Nor can any motive be conceived why Kay 
 should falsely set up a claim for a poor man like Highs, 
 unable to bribe him. It is also stated by those who per- 
 sonally knew Highs, that he was a conscientious and 
 religious man, very unlikely to perjure himself. His 
 mechanical ingenuity is proved by his having exchanged 
 his original trade of a reed-maker for that of a maker of 
 spinning machines ; and also by two facts stated by 
 Mr. Guest, namely, that he received a present of two 
 hundred guineas from the manufacturers of Manchester, 
 in 1772, for a very ingenious invention of a double 
 jenny, which was publicly exhibited in the Exchange ; 
 and that he afterwards went to construct spinning 
 machines at Nottingham, Kidderminster, and in Ire- 
 land.* 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that there are circum- 
 stances of great weight to oppose to the claim of Highs. 
 He not only took out no patent, (which his circumstances 
 prevented,) but he never completed any machine, so as. 
 to set it on work, till long after Arkwright had obtained 
 
 * Guest's Reply, pp. 203, 205, 206. Dr. Aikin also says — " The roller upon 
 which Mr. Heys's (Highs's) spindle-strings ran was immediately adopted after his 
 public exhibition of it ; his contrivance also of slipping his handle from a square to 
 a round, which checked the operation of spinning, and pushing on to an interior 
 contrivance to wind up the spun thread, is adopted in the machines for spinning of 
 twist." — Hist, of Manchester, p. 171. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 145 
 
 his j>atent. He never publicly laid claim to the inven- 
 tion till 1785,* eighteen years after he is said to have 
 made the machine. He never shewed the model made 
 for him by Kay, in proof of his being the inventor. No 
 witness but Kay speaks to liis having made such a 
 machine. No document attests it. Dr. Aikin and 
 Mr. Guest are the only authors who assert it.f Kay, 
 the only witness besides Highs himself, had quarrelled 
 with and quitted Arkwright, and was therefore pre- 
 judiced against him; to say nothing of the charge 
 of felony, as to the truth of which there is no 
 evidence. 
 
 Such a case is far from satisfactory. It is possible 
 that the imperfect invention of Highs included the prin- 
 ciples of the water-frame ; but if so, it is remarkable that 
 the evidence of it should be so scanty and defective. 
 When it is considered, too, how many projects have 
 floated through the brains or perished in the hands of 
 inventors, we naturally require strong proof in support 
 of Highs's claims to this important invention. Still 
 there is some evidence, which it is difficult to dispose of. 
 The case becomes more perplexed when it is remem- 
 bered that a machine on the same principle as that 
 
 * Highs and Kay were, however, in attendance at a previous trial in 1781, when 
 Arkwright brought an action against colonel Mordaunt for the invasion of his patent ; 
 but they were not called upon to give evidence, the plaintiff being defeated on 
 another ground. See Mr. Erskine's statement on the trial in 1785 — Trial, p. 66. 
 
 t Dr. Aikin appears to have taken his account from the evidence of Highs and 
 Kay on the trial. Highs's claim is not mentioned by Mr. Kennedy, by Mr. Dugald 
 Bannatyne, author of the able article on the " Cotton Manufacture" in the Supple- 
 ment to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, or by the author of the article on the same 
 subject in Rees's Encyclopaedia; and it is strenuously controverted by Mr. M'CuUoch 
 in his article on the " Rise, Progress, Present State, and Prospects of th3 British 
 Cotton Manufacture," in No. 91 of the Edinburgh Review. 
 
146 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 which was unfinished in the hands of Higlis, liad 
 beyond all question been completed, made the subject 
 of a patent, and set to work thirty years before by 
 Wyatt. 
 
 One conjecture may furnish a clew to extricate us 
 from the labyiinth : it is possible that Higlis may have 
 heard the rumour of Wyatt's invention, may have 
 imitated it, and may thus have become the channel 
 through wliich the knowledge of the invention was con- 
 veyed to Ark Wright. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 147 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 INVENTIONS IN SPINNING MACHINES. 
 
 Sir Richard ArkwrighT; his liumble origin; his construction of a macliine for 
 spinning by rollers ; his settlement at Nottingham ; partnership with Messrs. 
 Strutt and Need ; his first patent for the spinning machine. — James 
 Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny ; his machine broken by a mob ; 
 riots against machinery ; Hargreaves retires to Nottingham ; his subsequent 
 history. — Effects of the spinning machines on the cotton manufacture. — Calicoes 
 first manufactured in England by Arkwright. — Opposition of the Lancashire 
 manufacturers to Arkwright, and to the new manufacture. — Parliament sanctions 
 British calicoes. — Other improvements in the spinning machinery. — Carding; 
 the old methods; the carding cylinder invented by Lewis Paul in 1748. — Sub- 
 sequent improvements in the carding engine by Arkwright and others. — 
 Drawing frame. — Roving frame. — Arkwright's second patent for carding, 
 drawing, and roving machines. — Great extension of the manufacture. — 
 Rise of the factory system ; its advantages. — Dr. Darwin's poetical description 
 of a cotton mill. — Arkwright's great success stimulates envy and opposition.— 
 His patent infringed. — Trial. — Arkwright's " Case." — Second and third trials. — 
 The patent declared null. — Arkwright's subsequent career ; he is knighted ; his 
 death ; his character. 
 
 In pursuing the history of spinning by rollers, we come 
 now to the successful introduction of that invention by 
 sir Richard Arkwright, who, though not entitled to all 
 the merit wliich has been claimed for him, possessed 
 very high inventive talent, as well as an unrivalled 
 sagacity in estimating at their true value the mechanical 
 contrivances of others, in combining them together, per- 
 fecting them, arranging a complete series of machinery, 
 and constructing the factory system — itself a vast and 
 admirable machine, which has been the source of gi'eat 
 wealth, both to individuals and to the nation. 
 
148 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Richard Arkwriglit rose by the force of liis natural 
 talents from a very humble condition in society. He was 
 born at Preston on the 23d of December, 1732, of poor 
 parents : being the youngest of thirteen children, liis 
 parents could only afford to give liim an education of 
 the humblest kind, and he was scarcely able to write. 
 He was brought up to the trade of a barber at Kirkham 
 and Preston, and established himself in that business at 
 Bolton in the year 1 760. Having become possessed of 
 a chemical process for dyeing human hair,* wliicli in that 
 day (when wigs were universal) was of considerable 
 value, he travelled about collecting hair, and again dis- 
 posing of it when dyed. In 1761, he married a wife 
 from Leigh, and the connexions he thus formed in that 
 town are supposed to have afterwards brought him 
 acquainted with Highs's experiments in making spinning 
 machines. He himself manifested a strong bent for 
 experiments in mechanics, which he is stated to have 
 followed with so much devotedness as to have neglected 
 his business and injured liis circumstances. His natural 
 disposition was ardent, enterprising, and stubbornly per- 
 severing: his mind was as coarse as it was bold and 
 active, and his manners were rough and unpleasing. 
 
 In 1767, ArkAVi'ight fell in with Kay, the clockmaker, 
 at Warrington, whom he employed to bend him some 
 wires, and turn him some pieces of brass. From this it 
 would seem that Arkwright was then experimenting in 
 mechanics; and it has been said, that he was endeavour- 
 ing to produce perpetual motion. t He entered into 
 
 * I have no means of knowing whether this secret was a discovery of his own, 
 or was communicated to him. Mr. Guest says, he "possessed" the secret; 
 Mr. M'Culloch, that he " discovered" it. 
 
 t Aikin and Enfield's General Biography, Vol. I. p. 391. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 149 
 
 conversation mth the clockmakev, and called upon him 
 repeatedly; and at length Kay, according to his own 
 account, told liiin of Highs's scheme of spinning by 
 rollers. Kay adds, in liis evidence, that Arkwright 
 induced him to make a model of Highs's machine, and 
 took it away. It is certain that from this period Ark- 
 wright abandoned his former business, and devoted him- 
 self to the construction of the spinning machine ; and 
 also, that he persuaded Kay to go with him first to 
 Preston, and afterwards to Nottingham, binding him in 
 a bond to serve him at a certain rate of wages for a 
 stipulated term. The particulars of what passed between 
 Arkwright and Kay rest wholly on the evidence of the 
 latter; but there is no doubt that Kay was thus engaged 
 to accompany Arkwright, and that he worked for him 
 some time at Nottingham. . Those who believe in the 
 invention of Highs find in this fact, combined with 
 Highs's own evidence, a very strong presumption in its 
 favour: but those who disbelieve it may adopt the con- 
 jecture, that Arkwright, not being a practical mechanic, 
 engaged the clockmaker to construct the apparatus he 
 had himself contrived. The statement of Arkwright, in 
 the " Case" drawn up to be submitted to parliament, 
 was, that " after many years' intense and painful appli- 
 cation, he invented, about the year 1768, his present 
 method of spinning cotton, but upon very different prin- 
 ciples from any invention that had gone before it." It 
 is true that Arkwright had been experimenting in 
 mechanics, but there is no evidence to shew that he had 
 ever thought of making a spinning machine before his 
 interview with Kay at Warrington. 
 
 Kay appears not to have been able to make the whole 
 machine, and therefore " he and Arkwright applied to 
 
150 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Mr. Peter Atliertoii, afterwards of Liverpool," (then 
 probably an instrument maker at Wanington,) " to 
 make the spinning engine; but from the poverty of 
 Arkwright's appearance, Mr. Atherton refused to under- 
 take it, though afterwards, on the evening of the same 
 day, he agreed to lend Kay a smith and watch-tool 
 maker, to make the heavier part of the engine, and Kay 
 undertook to make the clockmaker's part of it, and to 
 instruct the workman. In this way Mr. Ark^vright's 
 first engine, for which he afterwards took out a patent, 
 was made."* 
 
 Being altogether destitute of pecuniary means for 
 prosecuting his invention, Arkwright repaired to his 
 native place, Preston, and applied to a friend, Mr. John 
 Smalley, a liquor-merchant and painter, for assistance. 
 The famous contested election, at which General Bur- 
 goyne was returned, occurring during his visit, Ark- 
 wright voted ; but the wardrobe of the future knight was 
 in so tattered a condition, that a number of persons sub- 
 scribed to put him into decent plight to appear at the 
 poll-room. His spinning machine was fitted up in the 
 parlour of the house belonging to the Free Grammar 
 School, which was lent by the head-master to Mr. Smal- 
 ley for the purpose.^ The latter was so well convinced 
 of the utility of the machine, that he joined Arkwright 
 with heart and purse. 
 
 In consequence of the riots which had taken place in 
 the neighbourhood of Blackburn, on the invention of 
 Hargi-eaves's spinning jenny in 1767, by which many of 
 
 * Aikin and Enfield's " General Biography," Vol. I. p. 391. The authors pro- 
 fess to have obtained some of these facts from private sources ; and Dr. Aikin's 
 opportunities were good, as he resided at Warrington. 
 
 t These facts are stated on the authority of Nicholas Grimshaw, Esq. several 
 times mayor of Preston, who has personal knowledge of them. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 151 
 
 the machines were destroyed, and the inventor was driven 
 from his native county to Nottingham, Arkwright and 
 Smalley, fearing similar outrages directed against their 
 machine, went also to Nottingham, accompanied by Kay. 
 This tomi, therefore, became the cradle of two of the 
 gi-eatest inventions in cotton spinning. Here the adven- 
 turers applied for pecuniary aid to Messrs. Wright, bankers, 
 who made advances on condition of sharing in the 
 profits of the invention. But as the machine was not 
 perfected so soon as they had anticipated, the bankers 
 requested Arkwright to obtain other assistance, and 
 recommended him to Mr. Samuel Need, of Nottingham. 
 This gentleman was the partner of Mr. Jedediah Strutt, 
 of Derby,* the mgenious improver and patentee of the 
 stocking-frame ; and Mr. Strutt having seen Arkwi'ight's 
 machine, and declared it to be an admirable invention, 
 only wanting an adaptation of some of the wheels to 
 each other, both Mr. Need and Mr. Strutt entered into 
 partnership with Arkwright. 
 
 Thus the pecuniary difficulties of tliis enterprising 
 and persevering man were terminated. He soon made 
 his machine practicable, and in 1769 he took out a 
 patent. In the specification, which was enrolled on the 
 15th of July in that year, he stated that he "had by 
 great study and long application invented a new piece 
 of machinery, never before found out, practised, or used, 
 
 • Mr. Strutt was brought up a farmer, but, having a passion for improvement 
 and a mechanical genius, he succeeded in adapting the stocking-frame to the 
 manufacture of ribbed stockings, for which improvement he obtained a patent. 
 He established an extensive manufacture of ribbed stockings at Derby, and, after 
 his connexion with Mr. Arkwright, he erected cotton works at Milford, near Helper: 
 he raised his family to great wealth. Some of the circumstances connected with 
 Arkwright's settling at Nottingham, were communicated by the late Mr. William 
 Strutt, the highly gifted and ingenious son of Mr. Jedediah Strutt, to the editor oi 
 the Beauties of England and Wales. See vol. iii. pp. 518, 541. 
 
152 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 for the making of weft or yarn from cotton, flax, and 
 wool ; which would be of gi'eat utility to a great many 
 manufacturers, as Avell as to his Majesty's subjects in 
 general, by employing a gi'eat number of poor people in 
 working the said machinery, and by making the said 
 weft or yarn much superior in quality to any ever here- 
 tofore manufactured or made." 
 
 The importance of this machine requires that Ark- 
 T\Tight's own description of it in his specification should 
 be given, which is illustrated bv the annexed plate, 
 (PL 3, fig. 2.) 
 
 " Now know ye that 1, the said Richard Arkwright, do hereby 
 describe and ascertain the nature of my said invention, and declare 
 that the plan thereof drawn in the margin of these presents is com- 
 posed of the following particulars, (that is to say) A, the Cogg 
 Wheel and Shaft, which receive their motion from a horse. B, the 
 Drum or Wheel which turns c, a belt of leather, and gives motion 
 to the whole machine. D, a lead weight, which keeps F, the small 
 drum, steady to E, the forcing Wheel. G, the shaft of wood which 
 gives motion to the Wheel H, and continues it to I, four pair of 
 Rollers, (the form of which are drawn in the margin,) which act by 
 tooth and pinion made of brass and steel nuts fixt in two iron 
 plates K. That part of the roller which the cotton runs through is 
 covered with wood, the top Roller with leather, and the bottom 
 one fluted, which lets the Cotton, &c. through it; by one pair of 
 Rollers moving quicker than the other, draws it finer for twisting, 
 which is performed by the spindles T. K, the two iron plates 
 described above. L, four large Bobbins with cotton rovings on, 
 conducted between Rollers at the back. M, the four threads carried 
 to the Bobbins and Spindles by four small wires fixt across the 
 frame in the slip of wood v. N, iron leavers with small lead 
 weights hanging to the Rollers by Pulleys, which keep the Rollers 
 close to each other, o, a cross piece of wood to which the leavers 
 are fixed. P, the Bobbins and Spindles. Q, Flyers made of wood, 
 with small wires on the side, which lead the thread to the bobbins, 
 R, small worsted bands put about the whirl of the bobbins, the 
 

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 S 
 
 "^ ^ 
 
 "' , 
 
 M 
 
 K ? 
 
 g 
 
 N 
 
 5^'- 
 
 g 
 
 Q 
 
 ■'"' ■^■ 
 
 ^ 
 
 M 
 
 5- 
 
 H 
 
 
 5^ 
 
 
 M 
 
 i 
 
 g 
 
 
 
 t: 
 
 ■^ 
 
 
 'A 
 
 n 
 
 
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 h 
 
 5 
 
 d 
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 ^ 
 
THE COTTON .MANUFACTURE. 153 
 
 screwing of which tight or easy causes the bobbins to wind up the 
 thread faster or slower, s, the four whirls of the spindles, t, the 
 four Spindles, which run in iron plates, v, explained in letter M. 
 w, a wooden frame of the whole machine." 
 
 Such is the original of the present water-frame and 
 throstle. It was afterwai'ds greatly improved by 
 Arkwright himself; and, when horse-poAver was ex- 
 changed for water-power, the number of spindles in the 
 frame was multipHed. The original machine was 
 adapted only to perform the last operation in spinning, 
 namely, reducing the rovings into yarn ; but it was 
 easily applicable to the process of roving itself, as will 
 subsequently appear. It is remai'kable that the inventor, 
 in his application for a patent, described himself as 
 *' Richard Arkwright, of Nottingham, clochnalcer.'"* 
 He and his partners erected a mill at Nottingham, 
 which was driven by horses ; but this mode of turning 
 the machinery being found too expensive, tliey built 
 another mill on a much larger scale at Cromford, in 
 Derbyshire, which was turned by a water wheel, and 
 from tliis circumstance the spinning machine was called 
 the water-frame. 
 
 The difficulty, delay, and expense which attended 
 the completing of the invention, prove, at the very least, 
 that Arkwright did not receive it from any other person 
 a perfect macliine. If he had seen either Wyatt's 
 machine, or the model of that of Highs, he had still to 
 perfect the details ; and the determined assiduity and 
 confidence with which he devoted himself to this under- 
 
 " This was certainly an untrue description, and Mr. Guest remarks upon it, 
 that Arkwright " did not scruple to masquerade in the character and trade of 
 John Kay." — Reply, p. 58. 
 
 u 
 
1,54 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 taking, before the machine had ever been made to 
 answer, show that he had sufficient mechanical capacity 
 to appreciate its vakie, and sufficient talent and energy 
 to make the invention practicable and profitable. 
 
 Having completed the history of the gi'eat invention 
 of spinning by rollers, it will be proper, before proceed- 
 ing to describe the further progress of Arkwright in 
 combining and improving the cotton machinery, to go 
 back in the order of time, and to mention another inven- 
 tion for the purpose of spinning, which came into use 
 before the water-frame, and which, though very different 
 in its principle, almost rivalled that machine in utility. 
 The great demand for yarn, while the one-tln-ead wheel 
 was the only instrument for spinning, set other wits on 
 contriving a substitute for it, besides those of Wyatt, 
 Highs, and Arkwright. 
 
 We learn from the " Transactions of the Society for 
 tlie Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Com- 
 merce," that in 1 783 the society had in its repositories 
 models of the following spinning machines : " A Spin- 
 ning Wlieel, by Mr. John Webb, invented 1761. A 
 Spinning Wheel, by Mr. Thomas Perrin, 1761. A 
 Horizontal Spinning Wheel, byMr. Wm. Harrison, 1 764. 
 A Spinning Wheel, by Mr. Perrin, 1765. A Spinning 
 Wlieel, by Mr. Garrat, 1766. A Spinning "^Vlieel, by 
 Mr. GaiTat, 1767."* Between the establishment of 
 the society in 1 754 and the year 1 783, it distributed 
 £544. 12s. in premiums "for impro\*ing several ma- 
 chines used in manufactures, ^iz. the comb-pot, cards 
 for wool and cotton, stocking frame, loom, machines for 
 winding and doubling, and spinning wheels."! None 
 
 • Transactions of the Society of Arts, vol. i. pp. 314, 315. 
 t Ibid. vol. i. p. 26. 
 
THE COTTON 31 A N U F A C T U RE. 155 
 
 of these inventions of spinning macliines, however, 
 succeeded. The compiler of the Transactions, writing 
 in 1783, says, "From the best information hitherto 
 obtained, it appears, that about the year 1764, a poor 
 man, of the name of Hargreaves, employed in the cotton 
 manufactory near Blackburn, in Lancashire, first made 
 a machine in that county, which spun eleven threads ; 
 and tliat in tlie year 1770 he obtained a patent for the 
 invention. The construction of this kind of machine, 
 called a Spinning Jenny, has since been much improved, 
 and is now at so high a degree of perfection, that one 
 woman is thereby enabled with ease to spin a hundred 
 threads of cotton at a time."* 
 
 James Hargreaves, a weaver of Stand-hill, near Black- 
 burn, was the author of the admirable invention noticed 
 in this extract.-j" It has been generally supposed that 
 the date of the invention was 1767, not 1764; and 
 Ark Wright, in his "Case," states the machine to have 
 been made in 1767. It is, however, in the highest 
 degree probable, that the jenny would not be at once 
 
 * Ibid. vol. i. pp. 33, 34. 
 
 t Mr. Guest prefers a claim on the part of Thomas Highs, of Leigh, to the 
 invention of the spinning-jenny, as well as of the water-franie. After attentively 
 considering the evidence adduced, I am of opinion that it is quite insufficient to 
 establish the claim. At the trial on Arkwright's patent, when Highs was examined 
 pretty largely as to his inventions, he did not even allude to the jenny, which it is 
 almost certain he would, to prove his great inventive talent, had he been the inventor. 
 It is true that two men, named Thomas Leather and Thomas Wilkinson, the 
 one 69 and the other 75 years old when their evidence was taken, stated in 
 1823 and 1827, that they knew Highs, and that he made a spinning-jenny 
 about the year 1763 or 1764. The former also stated, that the machine was called 
 jenny after Highs's daughter Jane ; and there is ample evidence that Highs 
 had a daughter of that name. It is added, that Kay, the clockmaker, assisted 
 in the construction of this machine, as well as in that of the water-frame. The 
 last-mentioned circumstance leads me to the belief that the witnesses have con- 
 founded the two inventions. Moreover, as Highs undoubtedly made jennies at a 
 later period, and also invented a double jenny with some new apparatus, this fact 
 
156 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 perfected: its construction would probably occupy the 
 author, who was a poor man, and had to work for liis 
 daily bread, some years: and as Hargreaves went to 
 Nottingham in 1 768, before which time his machine had 
 not only been perfected, but its extraordinary powers so 
 clearly proved, notwithstanding his efforts to keep it 
 secret, as to expose hun to persecution and the attacks 
 of a mob, I am strongly disposed to think that the 
 invention was conceived, and that the author began to 
 embody it, as early as 1764. 
 
 Hargreaves, though illiterate and humble, must be 
 regarded as one of the greatest inventors and improvers 
 in the cotton manufactm-e. His principal invention, 
 and one which shewed high mechanical genius, was the 
 jenny. The date of this invention was some years before 
 Arkwright obtained the patent for his water-frame ; and 
 it differs so completely from that machine, and from 
 Wyatt's, that there can be no suspicion of its being 
 other than a perfectly original invention. 
 
 It may be necessary to explain to some readers, that 
 the cotton was formerly, and is still, reduced from the 
 state of the fleecy roll called a carding, into the state of 
 spun thread, by repeated, though similar operations : 
 
 may have given rise to the belief that he was the original inventor. The recol- 
 lections of two aged men, concerning precise dates, after the lapse of sixty years, 
 and concerning the precise form of a machine seen by them in mere boyhood, are 
 little to be relied upon, especially for the purpose of overturning the claims of a 
 most ingenious man, the patentee of the invention, and whose pretensions were 
 never disputed till the appearance of Mr. Guest's book. Highs, however, has a 
 third claim as an inventor ; he stated, on Arkwright's patent trial, that he made a 
 perpetual carding in the year 1773, which was before any other person did the 
 same thing. It is certain that he was an extremely ingenious man, and he con- 
 tinued to make spinning machines till he was disabled by a stroke of the palsy, 
 about the year 1790. He was supported in his old age by the liberality of Peter 
 Drinkwater, Esq., of Manchester, and others, and died on the 13th December 
 1803, aged eighty-four years. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 157 
 
 the first draws out tlie carding, and gives it a very 
 slight twist, so as to make it into a loose thread, about 
 the thickness of a candle-wick, in which state it is called 
 a roving or sluhbin ; the subsequent processes draw out 
 the roving much finer, and at length reduce it into yarn. 
 Hargreaves's jenny, like Arkwright's machine, was in- 
 tended to spin the roving into yarn ; but it was not, like 
 Arkwright's, capable of being applied to the preparation 
 of the roving itself. Hargreaves is said to have received 
 the original idea of his machine from seeing a one- 
 thread wheel overturned upon the floor, when both the 
 wheel and the spindle continued to revolve.* The 
 spindle was thus thrown from a horizontal into an 
 upright position ; and the thought seems to have struck 
 him, that if a number of spindles were placed upright, 
 and side by side, several threads might be spun at once. 
 He contrived a frame, in one part of which he placed 
 eiglit ro\'ings in a row, and in another part a row 
 of eight spindles. The rovings, when extended to the 
 spindles, passed between two horizontal bars of wood, 
 forming a clasp, which opened and shut somewhat 
 like a parallel ruler ; when pressed together, this clasp 
 held the threads fast. A certain portion of roving 
 being extended from the spindles to the wooden clasp, 
 the clasp was closed, and was then drawn along the 
 horizontal frame to a considerable distance from the 
 spindles, by which the threads were lengthened out, 
 and reduced to the proper tenuity ; this was done with 
 the spinner's left hand, and his right hand at the same 
 time turned a wheel, which caused the spindles to 
 revolve rapidly, and thus the roving was spun into yarn. 
 
 • Rees's Cyclopaedia, and Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. " Cotton Manu- 
 facture." 
 
158 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 By returning the clasp to its first situation, and letting 
 down a presser wire, the yam was wound upon the 
 spindle. (See PL 4.) 
 
 With this admirable machine, though at first rudely 
 constructed, Hargreaves and his family spun weft for his 
 own weaving. Awai'e of the value of the invention, but 
 not extending his ambition to a patent, he kept it as 
 secret as possible for a time, and used it merely in liis 
 own business. A machine of such j^owers could not, 
 however, be long concealed ; but when it became the 
 subject of rumour, instead of gaining for its author 
 admu'ation and gratitude, the spinners raised an outcry 
 that it would throw multitudes out of emj)loyment, and 
 a mob broke into Hargi'eaves's house, and destroyed his 
 jenny. So great was the persecution he suflered, and 
 the danger in which he was placed, that this victim of 
 popular ignorance was compelled to flee his native 
 county, as the inventor of the fly-shuttle had been before 
 liim. Thus the neighbourhood where the machine was 
 invented, lost the benefit of it, yet without preventing 
 its general adoption ; — the common and appropriate 
 punishment of the ignorance and selfishness wliich 
 oppose mechanical improvements. 
 
 Hargreaves retired to Nottingham in 1768, where he 
 entered into pailnership with Mr. Thomas James, a 
 joiner, who raised sufficient money to enable them to 
 erect a small mill. He took out a patent for the 
 jenny in 1770, the year after Arkwright had obtained 
 his patent at the same place. The patent was " for a 
 method of makino^ a wheel or eno;ine of an entire new 
 construction, and never before made use of, in order for 
 spinning, drawing, and twisting of cotton, and to be 
 managed by one person only, and that the wheel or 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 159 
 
 engine will spin, draw, and twist sixteen or more threads 
 at one time, by a turn or motion of one hand, and a 
 draw of the other." The following is the inventor's 
 description of the process, — " One person, with his or 
 her right hand turns the wheel, and with the left hand 
 takes hold of the clasps, and therewith draws out the 
 cotton from the slubbin box ; and, being twisted by the 
 turn of the wheel in the drawing out, tlien a piece of 
 wood is lifted up by the toe, which lets down a pressor 
 wire, so as to press the threads so drawn out and twisted, 
 in order to wind or put the same regularly upon bobbins 
 which ai'e placed on the spindles." The number of 
 spindles in the jenny was at first eight ; when the patent 
 was obtained, it was sixteen ; it soon came to be twenty 
 or thii'ty; and no less than one hundred and twenty have 
 since been used. 
 
 Before quitting Lancashire, Hargreaves had made a 
 few jennies for sale ;* and the importance of the inven- 
 tion being universally appreciated, the interests of the 
 manufacturers and weavers brought it into general use, 
 in spite of all opposition. A desperate effort was, how- 
 ever, made in 1 779 — probably in a period of temporary 
 distress — to put down the machine. A mob rose, and 
 scoured the country for several miles round Blackburn, 
 demolisliing the jennies, and with them all the carding 
 engines, water-frames, and every machine turned by 
 water or horses. It is said that tlie rioters spared the 
 jennies which had only twenty spindles, as these were 
 by this time admitted to be useful; but those with a 
 greater number, being considered mischievous, were 
 
 • It is mentioned by Mr. Kennedy, that Crompton, the inventor of the mule, 
 " learnt to spin upon a jenny of Hargreaves's make," in 1769. 
 
160 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 destroyed, or cut down to the prescribed dimensions. It 
 may seem strange, that not merely the working classes, 
 but even the middle and upper classes, entertained a 
 great dread of machinery. Not perceiving the tendency 
 of any invention which improved and cheapened the 
 manufacture, to cause an extended demand for its pro- 
 ducts, and thereby to give employment to more hands 
 than it superseded, those classes were alarmed lest the 
 poor-rates should be burdened with workmen thrown 
 idle. They therefore connived at, and even actually 
 joined in, the opposition to machinery, and did all in 
 their power to screen the rioters from punishment.* 
 This devastating outrage left effects more permanent than 
 have usually resulted from such commotions. Spinners, 
 and other capitalists, were driven from the neighbour- 
 hood of Blackburn to Manchester and other places, and 
 it was many years before cotton-spinning was resumed 
 at Blackburn. Mr. Peel, the grandfather of the present 
 Sir Robert Peel, a skilful and enterprising spinner and 
 calico printer, having had his machinery at Altham 
 thrown into the river, and been in personal danger from 
 the fury of the mob, retired in disgust to Burton, in 
 Staffordshire, where he built a cotton-mill on the banks 
 of the Trent, and remained there some years. A large 
 mill, built by Arkwright, at Birkacre, near Chorley, was 
 destroyed by a mob in the presence of a powerful body 
 of police and military, without any of the civil authorities 
 requiring their interference to prevent the outrage.f 
 
 * An honourable exception to this folly was found in the conduct of Doming 
 Rasbotham, Esq., a magistrate near Bolton, who published a sensible address to 
 the weavers and spinners, in which he endeavoured to convince them that it was 
 for their interest to encourage inventions for abridging labour. 
 
 t Edinburgh Review, No. xci. p. 14. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 161 
 
 The subsequent history of Hargreaves has been very 
 erroneously represented. The following is Arkwright's 
 notice of this ingenious man: — "About the year 1767, 
 one Hargi'eaves, of Blackburn, in Lancashire, constructed 
 an engine that would at once spin twenty or thirty threads 
 of cotton into yarn for the fustian manufacture; but 
 because it was likely to answer in some measure the end 
 proposed, his engines were burnt and destroyed, and 
 himself driven out of Lancashire : he afterwards removed 
 to Nottingham, and obtained a patent for his engine ; 
 but he did not even there long continue in the peaceable 
 possession of it. His patent right Avas invaded, and he 
 found it necessary to commence a prosecution : an asso- 
 ciation w^as soon formed against him ; and being unable 
 to contend against the united power of a body of men, 
 lie was obliged to give up the unjust and unequal con- 
 test. His invention was cruelly wrested from him ; and 
 he died in obscurity and great distress."* 
 
 In addition to this, it Avas stated in the Edbiburgh 
 Heview, No. 91, that Hargreaves died in tlie workhouse 
 at Nottingham. 
 
 I find, from careful inquiry, that botli Arkwright's 
 statement and that of tlie Edinburgh Review are 
 unfounded. Mr. John James, formerly a cotton spinner, 
 (the son of Mr. James, who was the partner of Har- 
 greaves,) and also a grandson of Hargreaves's, are still 
 livinjr at Nottingham ; and a gentleman of that town, 
 well known for his extensive knowledge of local history 
 and antiquities, has, at my request, kindly obtained 
 from them, and from other authentic sources, the follow- 
 ing particulars, which may be fully relied upon : — 
 James Hargreaves Avent to Nottingham in 1768, and 
 
 * Arkwright's " Case." 
 X 
 
162 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 worked for a while in the employment of Mr. Shipley, 
 for whom he made some jennies secretly in his house. 
 He was induced, by the offers of Mr. Thomas James, 
 to enter into partnership with him ; and the latter raised 
 sufficient money, on mortgage and loan, to build a small 
 mill in Hockley, where they spun yarn for the hosiers 
 with the jenny. The patent was obtained in 1770. 
 Finding: that several of the Lancashire manufacturers 
 were using the jenny, Hargreaves gave notice of actions 
 against them : the manufacturers met, and sent a dele- 
 gate to Nottingham, who offered Hargi'eaves £3000 for 
 permission to use the machine ; but he at first demanded 
 £7000, and at last stood out for £4000. The negocia- 
 tion being broken off, the actions proceeded ; but before 
 they came to trial, Hargreaves's attorney (Mr. Evans) 
 was informed that his client, before leaving Lancashire, 
 had sold some jennies to obtain clothing for his children, 
 (of whom he had six or seven ;) and in consequence of 
 this, which was true, the attorney gave up the actions, 
 in despair of obtaining a verdict. The spinning business 
 was carried on by the partners with moderate success, 
 till the death of Mr. Hargreaves, which took place at 
 his own house near the mill, in April, 1778.* In his 
 
 • Mr. John James, who is now in his 83d year, and who has a very strong memory, 
 said to the gentleman from whom I have received my information — " I knew 
 Mr. Hargreaves very well : he was a stout, broad-set man, about five feet ten 
 inches high, or rather more : he first worked in Nottingham with Mr. Shipley 
 about 1768, and here my father first met with him. He was making jennies for 
 Shipley, who then wished to go into the cotton spinning. My father prevailed on 
 him to leave Shipley, and embark with him in a new concern ; and money was 
 borrowed by my father, principally on the mortgage of some freehold property, on 
 which they were to erect their mill. The mill was erected, and two dwelling 
 houses, in one of which my father resided, in the other was Mr. Hargreaves's 
 family." Mr. John James himself paid Mrs. Hargreaves i6400 from his father, 
 on the death of her husband. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 163 
 
 will he directed a guinea lo be given to the vicar, for 
 preaching his funeral sermon. His widow received 
 £400 from Mr. James, for her husband's share in tlie 
 business; and, having other property which her husband 
 had accumulated, she left this sum to her children 
 on her death.* 
 
 It will be a consolation to the admii-ers of genius, to 
 find that this benefactor of his country was enabled to 
 live in comfort, though not in affluence, on the fruits of 
 liis invention. It is not difficult to account for Ark- 
 wright's mistatement of the facts regarding Har- 
 greaves : the statement was calculated to awaken a 
 sympathy for inventors, and therefore it answered Ark- 
 WTight's purpose. The mention made by him of the 
 invention of Hargreaves fell far below its real merits : 
 but this again answered the purpose of Arkwright, 
 whose object was to set off his own transcendent and 
 incomparable talents as an inventor. 
 
 The two important inventions for spinning, of which 
 the history has been traced, broke down the barrier 
 which had so long obstructed the advance of the cotton 
 manufacture. The new machines not only turned off a 
 much greater quantity of yarn than had before been 
 produced, but the yarn was also of a superior quality. 
 The water-frame spun a hard and firm thread, calcu- 
 lated for warps ; and from this time the w^arps of linen 
 yarn were abandoned, and goods were, for the first time 
 
 • In the register of burials belonging to St. Mary's parish, Nottingham, the 
 entry stands as follows: — " 1778, April 22, James Hargraves." The grandson of 
 the inventor, however, states that the name was certainly spelt Hargreaves, and it 
 was thus entered in the corporation books of Nottingham, when the inventor's son 
 was made a burgess. 
 
164 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 in tbis country, woven wholly of cotton. Manufactures 
 of a finer and more delicate fabric were also introduced, 
 especially calicoes, imitated from the Indian fabrics of 
 that name. The jenny was peculiarly adapted for spin- 
 nino- weft ; so that the two macliines, instead of coming 
 in conflict, were brought into use together. The spiiit 
 of invention and improvement, fully aroused by tlie 
 proof which had now been given of the powers of 
 mechanical combination, operated witli extraorchnary 
 vio-our ; and amongst the numberless schemes and 
 expeiiments tried in the workshops of Lancasliii'e, not 
 a few contrivances of real value were discovered, to 
 perfect the various machines. Tins period of high 
 intellectual excitement and successful effort would be 
 contemplated with more pleasure, if there had not at 
 the same time been displayed the workings of an in- 
 satiable cupidity and sordid jealousy, which remorse- 
 lessly snatched from genius the fruit of its creations, 
 and even proscribed the men to whom the mantifacture 
 was most deeply indebted. Ignorance on the one hand, 
 and cupidity on the other, combined to rob inventors 
 of their reward. 
 
 Arkwrio-ht, though the most successful of liis class, 
 had to encounter the animosity of his fellow-manu- 
 facturers in various fonns. Those in Lancashne refused 
 to buv his yams, though superior to all others, and 
 actually combined to discountenance a new branch of 
 their own manufacture, because he was the first to intro- 
 duce it. He has related the difficulties with which he 
 had to contend in his " Case." 
 
 " It was not," he said, " till upwards of five years 
 had elapsed after obtaiuiug liis first patent, and more 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 165 
 
 than £12,000 had been expended in machinery and 
 buildmgs, that any profit accrued to himself and part- 
 ners." " The most excellent yarn or twist was pro- 
 duced ; notwithstanding which, the proprietors found 
 great difficulty to introduce it into public use. A very 
 heavy and valuable stock, in consequence of these diffi- 
 culties, lay upon their hands : inconveniences and dis- 
 advantasfes of no small consideration followed. Whatever 
 were the motives which induced the rejection of it, they 
 were thereby necessarily driven to attempt, by tlieir own 
 strength and ability, the manufacture of the yarn. Their 
 first trial was in weaving it into stockings, which suc- 
 ceeded ; and soon established the manufacture of calicoes, 
 which promises to be one of the first manufactures in 
 this kingdom. Another still more formidable difficulty 
 arose; the orders for goods which they had received, 
 being considerable, were unexpectedly countermanded, 
 the officers of excise refusing to let them pass at the 
 usual duty of 3d. per yard, insisting on the additional 
 duty of 3d. per yard, as being calicoes, though manu- 
 factured in England : besides, these calicoes, when 
 printed, were prohibited. By this unforeseen obstruction, 
 a very considerable and very valuable stock of calicoes 
 accumulated. An application to the commissioners of 
 excise was attended with no success ; the proprietors, 
 therefore, had no resource but to ask relief of the legis- 
 lature ; which, after much money expended, and against 
 a strong opposition of the manufacturers in Lancashire, 
 they obtained."* 
 
 This opposition of the Lancashire manufacturers to 
 tJie establishment of a new branch of their own trade, 
 
 • " Case," in Arkwright's Patent Trial, p. 99. 
 
166 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 seems to have been gi-atuitoiisly malicious, and, fortu- 
 nately for themselves, it was unsuccessful. With some- 
 what more of reason, the silk and woollen manufacturers 
 had opposed the introduction of Indian calicoes at the 
 end of the preceding century, finding that this new and 
 elegant fabric came into competition with their own 
 products. They then, as has been shown, so completely 
 prevailed, as to obtain the entire prohibition of Indian, 
 Persian, or Chinese silks and printed calicoes, for home 
 consumption : and when calico printing extended in 
 this country, and great quantities of calicoes manu- 
 factured ia India, but printed or dyed in England, were 
 used for apparel and household furniture, parliament 
 again interfered in 1720, and passed an Act (7 Geo. I. 
 c. 7,) prohibiting altogether " the use or wear in Great 
 Britain, in any garment or apparel whatsoever, of any 
 printed, painted, stained, or dyed calico, under the 
 penalty of forfeiting to the informer the sum of <£5." By 
 the same Act, the use of printed or dyed calico " in or 
 about any bed, chair, cushion, window curtain, or any 
 other sort of household stuff or furniture," was forbidden 
 under a penalty of £20 ; and the same penalty attached 
 to the seller of the article. And so far did the Act 
 extend, that it forbad the use of any printed or dyed 
 goods, of which cotton formed any part; so that the 
 goods made of linen wai^p and cotton weft could not be 
 used in the printed or dyed state. Calicoes dyed all 
 blue, as well as muslins, neckcloths, and fustians, were 
 excepted from the prohibitions of this act. The prohi- 
 bition to use mixed goods containing cotton, in the dyed 
 or printed state, seems not to have been strictly en- 
 forced ; and as it obviously struck at the existence of 
 the then rising cotton manufacture of England, that 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 167 
 
 part of the Act of 1 720 was repealed in 1 736. The Act 
 9 Geo. II. c. 4,' after reciting the 7th Geo. I. c. 7, set 
 fortli that, " Whereas great quantities of stuffs made of 
 linen yarn and cotton wool have for several years past 
 been manufactured, and have been printed and painted 
 w^ithin tliis kingdom of Great Britain, and the said 
 manufactures so printed or painted are a branch of the 
 ancient fustian manufacture of this kingdom, and liave 
 been and now are used and worn in apparel and furni- 
 ture : and whereas some doubts have lately arisen, 
 whether the use and wearing of the said stuffs, when 
 the same are so printed or painted, be prohibited by the 
 said recited act, whereby the said manufacture is dis- 
 couraged, and may l)e utterly lost, and gi-eat numbers 
 of his majesty's subjects and their families, whose live- 
 lihoods entirely depend thereupon, may be ruined, and 
 the poor greatly increased, if not timely prevented;" 
 therefore it was enacted that it should be lawful to wear 
 and use " any sort of stuff made of linen yarn and cotton 
 wool manufactured and printed or painted with any 
 colour or colours within the kingdom of Great Britain, 
 provided that the warp thereof he entirely linen yarny 
 So that even this Act prohibited the use of printed goods 
 made entirely of cotton ; a prohibition directed against 
 the printing of Indian calicoes, no such goods being 
 then made in England. 
 
 These laws, though injurious to the public, were (for 
 the time at least) beneficial to the home manufacturer ; 
 but the prohibition of English-made calicoes was so 
 utterly without an object, that its being prayed for by 
 the cotton manufacturers of this country is one of the 
 most siffnal instances on record of the blinding- effects of 
 commercial jealousy. The legislature did not yield 
 
16S THE HISTORY OF 
 
 to the despicable opposition offered to the reasonable 
 demand of Mr. Arkwriglit and his partners, but, on the 
 contrary, passed a law, in 1774, sanctioning the new 
 manufacture, and rendering English calicoes subject 
 only to a duty of 3d. per square yard on being printed. 
 This Act, the 14th George III. c. 72, is so important, 
 as being the first legislative recognition of a British 
 manufacture consisting wholly of cotton, that it will be 
 proper to extract the preamble and the principal 
 clauses : — 
 
 " Ail Act for ascertaining the duty on printed, pai7ited, stained, 
 or dyed stuffs, xvholly made of cotton, and manufactured iyi 
 Great Britain, and for allowing the use and wear thereof, 
 under certain regulations. 
 
 "I. Whereas a new manufacture of stuff's, wholly made of raw 
 cotton wool, (chiefly imported from the British plantations,) hath 
 been lately set up within this kingdom, in which manufacture 
 many hundreds of poor persons are employed : and whereas the use 
 and wear of printed, painted, stained, or dyed stutfs, wholly made 
 of Cotton, and manufactured in Great Britain, ought to be allowed 
 under proper regulations : and whereas doubts have arisen whether 
 the said new manufactured stuffs ought to be considered as 
 Callicoes, and as such, if printed, painted, stained, or dyed with 
 any colour or colours, (such as shall be dyed throughout of one 
 colour only excepted) liable to the inland or excise duties laid on 
 Callicoes when printed, painted, stained, or dyed with any colour 
 or colours (except as aforesaid) by the statutes made and now in 
 force, concerning the same; whether the wearing or use of the said 
 new manufactured stuffs when the same are printed, painted, 
 stained, or dyed, are not prohibited by an act passed in the seventh 
 Year of the Reign of his late Majesty, King George the first, 
 intituled. An Act to preserve and encourage the Woollen and Silk 
 Manufactures of this Kingdom, and for more effectually employ- 
 ing the Poor, by prohibiting the use and wear of all printed, 
 painted, stained, or dyed Callicoes in Apparel, Household Stuff, 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 169 
 
 Furniture or otherwise, after the twenty fifth day of December one 
 thousand seven hundred and twenty two (except as therein is 
 excepted) : For obviating all such doubts for the future, may it 
 please your most excellent Majesty that it may be enacted ; and 
 be it enacted by the king's most excellent Majesty, by and with 
 the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
 Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the au- 
 thority of the same, that no greater or higher duty than three pence 
 for every yard in length reckoning yard wide, and after that rate 
 for a greater or lesser quantity, shall be imposed, raised, levied, 
 collected, or paid unto and for the use of His Majesty, his heirs 
 and successors, on the said new manufactured stuffs wholly made 
 of cotton spun in Great Britain, when printed, stained, painted, or 
 dyed with any colour or colours. 
 
 "II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that 
 it shall and may be lawful for any person or persons to use or 
 wear, within the Kingdom of Great Britain, either as Apparel, 
 Household Stuff, Furniture, or otherwise, any new manufactured 
 stuffs wholly made of Cotton spun in Great Britain, when printed, 
 stained, painted, or dyed with any colour or colours, any thing in 
 the said recited Act of the seventh Year of the Reign of His late 
 Majesty King George the first, or any other Act or Acts of Parlia- 
 ment to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding. 
 
 " III. And to the end it may be known that such Stuffs were 
 manufactured in Great Britain, be it further enacted. That in each 
 piece of the said new manufactured stuffs, wholly made of Cotton 
 Wool spun in Great Britain, there shall be wove in the warp in 
 both selvages through the whole length thereof three blue Stripes, 
 each Stripe of one thread only ; the first of which said Stripes shall 
 be the first or outermost thread of the warp of each selvage ; the 
 second of which said Stripes shall be the third thread ; and the 
 third of which said Stripes shall be the fifth thread of the warp 
 from each selvage ; and that each piece of the same stuffs, when 
 printed, stained, painted, or dyed in England, Wales, or Berwick 
 upon Tweed, be stamped at each end with a Stamp, to be provided 
 for that purpose, by the Commissioners of Excise in Eno-land for 
 the time being, or by the Officers employed or to be employed 
 under them ; and instead of the Word Callico, which stands for 
 foreign Callicoes, each piece may be marked with the words British 
 
 Y 
 
170 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Manufactory ; and that each piece of the same stuffs, when printed, 
 stained, painted, or dyed in Scotland, be stamped at each end 
 with a Stamp to be provided for that purpose by the Commissioners 
 of Excise in Scotland for the time being, or by the Officers em- 
 ployed or to be employed under them ; and instead of the Word 
 Callico, which stands for foreign Callicoes, each piece be marked 
 with the Words British Manufactory ." 
 
 The Act furtlier provided, that persons exposing such 
 stuffs to sale without the mark (unless for exportation) 
 should forfeit the stuffs, and £50 for every piece ; and 
 persons importing such stuffs sliould be liable to lose the 
 goods, and to forfeit £\0 for each piece. The penalty 
 of death was attached to the counterfeiting of the stamp, 
 or the selling of the goods knowing them to have 
 counterfeited stamps. Cotton velvets, velverets, and 
 fustians were not affected by this Act. 
 
 The cotton manufacture, for some years after the 
 great impulse was given to it, continued to move with 
 comparative slowness. The power was applied, but it 
 required time to overcome the ins inerticB of society. 
 Five years were requisite before Arkwright himself 
 began to receive a profit. It needed other examples of 
 success, to attract capital in a full stream to this em- 
 ployment. In the five years ending with 1775, the 
 average import of cotton wool into Great Britain did 
 not exceed 4,764,589 lbs. a year ; only four times as 
 much as the average import at the beginning of the 
 century. 
 
 The machinery was still, however, very imperfect, 
 especially in the preparation of the cotton for the spin- 
 ning-frame. But in this, as in other departments, the 
 manufacturers were on the alert for improvement. The 
 important process of carding was about this time brought 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 171 
 
 to perfection. On tliis subject we must go back a little 
 in our bistory. 
 
 Carding is tbe process to wbicli the cotton is subjected 
 after it has been opened and cleaned, iu order that the 
 fibres of the wool may be disentangled, straightened, 
 and laid parallel with each other, so as to admit of being 
 spun. This was formerly effected by instruments called 
 hand-cards, which were brushes made of short pieces of 
 wire, instead of bristles ; the wires being stuck into a 
 sheet of leather, at a certain angle, and the leather 
 fastened on a flat piece of wood, about tAvelve inches 
 long and five wide, mth a handle. The cotton being 
 spread upon one of the cards, it was repeatedly combed 
 with another till all the fibres were laid straight, when 
 it was stripped off the card in a fleecy roll ready for the 
 rover. The first improvement was in making one of 
 the two cards a fixture, and increasing its size ; so that 
 a workman, having spread the cotton upon it, might use 
 a card double the size of the old cards, and do twice the 
 quantity of work. The process was further facilitated 
 by suspending the moveable card by a pulley from the 
 ceiling, with a weight to balance it, so that the workman 
 had only to move the card, without sustaining its weight. 
 The stock-cards, as they were called, had been pre- 
 viously used in the woollen manufacture : at what period 
 they were introduced into the cotton manufacture, I 
 have not satisfactorily ascertained. It has been said 
 that James Hargreaves, the inventor of the jenny, first 
 applied them, with some improvement of his own, to the 
 carding of cotton ; but it will be seen by the letter of 
 Mr. Charles Wyatt, (p. 135,) that John Wyatt, the 
 inventor of spinning by rollers, spoke of cotton being 
 carded with stock-cards in 1 739. 
 
172 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The application of rotatory motion was the grand 
 improvement in carding ; and this improvement, singular 
 as it may seem, is traced back to Lewis Paul, the 
 patentee of spinning by rollers. 
 
 The carding patent of Lewis Paul,* of the 30th 
 August, 1 748, a copy of which, with the drawings, I 
 have obtained from the Patent Office, includes two 
 different machines for accomplishing the same purpose ; 
 the one a flat, and the other a cylindrical arrangement 
 of cards. The following description in the specification 
 applies equally to both : — " The said macliine for carding 
 of wool and cotton, &c. does consist and is to be per- 
 formed in the manner following, to wit : The card is 
 made up of a number of parallel cards, with intervening 
 spaces between each, and the matter being carded 
 thereon, is afterwards took off each card separately, and 
 the several rows or filliments of wool or cotton so took 
 off, are connected into one entire roll." The first ma- 
 chine described in the specification consists of a flat 
 board, varying in dimensions from three feet by two, to 
 two feet by fourteen inches, on wliicli were nailed sixteen 
 long cards, parallel to each other, with small spaces 
 betwixt each. The wool or cotton being spread on the 
 cards, a hand-card, of the same length as those nailed on 
 the board, but only a quarter of the breadth, and com- 
 pletely covered with points of wire, was drawn over the 
 lower cards till the operation was completed. 
 
 * In this patent, he thus describes himself, — "I, Lewis Paul, of Birmingham, 
 gentleman ;" from which it would appear that he was still living at Birmingham. 
 Whether he yet carried on spinning in that town, or whether, as Mr. Kennedy 
 supposes, he was connected with the concern at Northampton, I cannot learn. 
 This remarkable man, of whom so little is known except the surprising inventions 
 for which he obtained patents, lived at Birmingham in 1738 and 1748, and at 
 Kensington, near London, in 1758. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 173 
 
 The second and more important macliine was a 
 horizontal cylinder, covered in its whole cii'cumference 
 with parallel rows of cards, with intervening spaces, and 
 turned by a handle. Tlie specification drawing is re- 
 presented in Plate 3, fie/. 1, at p. 152. Under the 
 cylinder was a concave frame, lined internally with 
 cards, exactly fitting the loAver half of the cylinder ; so 
 that, when the handle was turned, the cards of the 
 cylinder and of the concave frame worked against each 
 other, and carded the wool. This bears the closest 
 resemblance to the modern carding cylinder, except 
 that the concave frame is noAv placed over tlie cylinder, 
 and in Paul's machine it was placed under. There was 
 a contrivance for letting the concave part down by a 
 lever and pulley, and turning it round, so as easily to 
 strip off the carded wool. 
 
 When the wool was properly carded, it was stripped 
 off, " by means of a stick, with needles in it, parallel to 
 one another, like the teeth of a comb." The cardings 
 were of course only of the length of the cylinder, but an 
 ingenious apparatus was attached for making them into a 
 perpetual carding. Each length was placed on a flat broad 
 riband, which was extended between two short cylinders, 
 and which wound upon one cyhnder as it unwound from 
 the other. When the carding was placed on the riband, 
 the turning of one of the cylinders wound the riband 
 and carding upon it ; and, length being johied to length, 
 the carding was made perpetual, and wound up in a 
 roll^ ready for the spuming machine. It has already 
 been seen that the upper roller in Paul's patent spinning 
 machine of 1758 was called the "riband cylinder." 
 
 Here, then, are the carding cylinder, the pei-petual 
 
174 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 cai'ding, and the comb for stripping off tlie carding. It 
 must be admitted, that the invention was admirable and 
 beautiful, though not peffect. Its defects were, — that 
 the cylinder had no feeder, the wool being put on by the 
 hand, — that the cai'dings were taken off sepai-ately by a 
 moveable comb, which of coui'se required the machine 
 to stop, — and that tlie perpetual carchng was produced 
 by joining short lengths with the hand, whereas now 
 it is brought off the machine in a continuous roll, 
 by a comb attached to the cylinder, and constantly 
 worked against it by a crank. Paul's machine, though 
 so great an improvement on the old method, was not 
 known in Lancashire for twelve years, nor generally 
 adopted for more than twenty years, after the date of the 
 patent. 
 
 Thus the two most important and admirable inven- 
 tions in cotton spinning, the carding by cylinders and 
 spinning by rollers — which have also been adopted (with 
 some modifications) in the manufactures of wool, worsted, 
 flax, and tow — originated in the very same establish- 
 ment, from twenty to tliii'ty years earher than is 
 coimnonly supposed, and not in Lancaslnre, but in 
 Warwickshire. As Paul's patent Avas obtained some 
 years after Wyatt had retired from tlie concern, the 
 invention was probably his own. These two extra- 
 ordinaiy men were doubly unfortunate, — first, in their 
 failure to realize profit by their splendid inventions, 
 and, secondly, in losing the fame as well as the profit 
 they deserved ; for their merits have, until now, 
 been recorded by no Amter, and their names ai'e 
 merely handed down as the luckless contrivers of some 
 unkiioAMi machinery. It may be hoped tliat, from the 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 175 
 
 proofs now published of tlieir inventions, they will even 
 yet receive the well-earned, though tardy, tribute of 
 admiration from posterity. 
 
 When the establishment at Northampton, in which 
 the carding cylinder is said to have been used, was 
 broken up, that machine was bought by a Mr. Morris, 
 and taken first to Leominster, in Hertfordshire, and 
 afterwards to Brock mill, near Wigan, in Lancashu'e. 
 Mr. Kennedy, in his " Brief Memoir of Samuel Cromp- 
 ton," says — "Lewis Paul was also in 1748 the patentee 
 of the invention of revolving cylinders for carding cotton. 
 This macliine is the original of the machine for carding 
 now used. After the breaking up of Wyatt and Paul's 
 establishment at Northampton, it was purchased by a 
 hat manufacturer from Leominster, and by him applied 
 to the carding of wool for hats ; and about 1 760 it was 
 introduced into Lancasliii'e, and re-applied to the 
 carding of cotton, by a gentleman of the name of Morris, 
 in the neighbourhood of Wigan.* 
 
 The carding machine having thus been introduced into 
 Lancashire, Mr. Peel was one of the first to adopt it, and 
 he is said to have erected a macliine with cylinders, by 
 the aid of James Hargreaves, at Blackburn. His 
 macliine is stated to have consisted of two or three 
 cylinders, covered with cards, the working of which in 
 contact effectually carded the cotton ;'\ but there were 
 defects both in the means of putting the cotton upon the 
 cylinders and of taking it off: the latter operation was 
 performed by women with hand-cards. For some years, 
 Mr. Peel laid aside this machine, and it only came into 
 
 * Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, vol. v. of 
 the second series, p. 326. 
 
 f Rees's Cyclopaedia, art. " Cotton Manufacture." 
 
176 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 general use after further improvements had been made 
 in it, and about the same time that the spinning 
 machmes were adopted. 
 
 One of the first improvements made in the carding 
 machine "was the fixing of a pei-petual revohdng cloth, 
 called a feeder, on which a given weight of cotton wool 
 was spread, and by which it was conveyed to the cylin- 
 der. This was invented in 1772, by John Lees, a 
 quaker, of Manchester.* Arkwright made a further 
 improvement in this part of the machine, by rolling up 
 the feeder with the cotton spread upon it, in a thick 
 roll, which gradually unrols as the cylinder is fed. 
 Another improvement had the efi"ect of bringing off 
 the carded v/ool fi'om the cylinder in a continuous fleece, 
 and foiining it into a unifonn and pei*petual sliver. 
 After the wool had been carded on the large cylinder, 
 it was stripped off by a smaller cylinder, also covered 
 with cards, revolving in contact with the larger, but in 
 an opposite direction. Tlie smaller was called the 
 finisliing cylinder or the doffer, and the cai'ds were at 
 first fixed upon it longitudinally, and with intervals 
 between them ; which did not produce a continuous 
 fleece, but turned off the wool in rolls the length of the 
 cylinder. 
 
 A Mr. Wood, and his partner, Mr. Pilkington, 
 improved the process by entirely covering the finishing 
 cylinder with nan'ow fillet cards, wound round it in a 
 circular and spiral form, and without any intervals ; 
 the effect of which was to bring off the wool in an 
 unbroken fleece. This they did before Ai'kwright took 
 out his carding patent, in 1775, which included the 
 
 • See the evidence of John Lees, Thomas Hall, and Henry Marsland, on the 
 trial concerning Arkwright's patent, in 1785. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 177 
 
 veiy same contrivance : it is difficult to judge from the 
 evidence, whether he or they first invented it, but they 
 appear to have used it a year before the date of his 
 patent, namely, in 1774.* 
 
 The manner in Avliich the wool was stripped off the 
 finishing cylinder, in Paul's machine, was by " needle- 
 sticks," and, in Mr. Peel's machine, by hand-cards : 
 afterwards a roller was employed, with tin plates upon 
 it, lilie the floats of a water-wheel, which, revolving with 
 a quick motion against the cylinder, scraped off the 
 cotton from the card. This contrivance, however, 
 injured both the cotton and the card. 
 
 About the year 1 773, a very ingenious contrivance was 
 invented, — a plate of metal, finely toothed at the edge like 
 a comb, which, being worked by a crank in a perpendi- 
 cular direction, with slight but frequent strokes on the 
 teeth of the card, stripped off the cotton in a continuous 
 filmy fleece. The fleece as it came off was contracted 
 and drawn through a funnel at a little distance in fi*ont 
 of the cylinder, and was thus reduced into a roll or 
 sliver, which, after passing betwixt two rollers, and 
 being compressed into a firm flat riband, fell into a deep 
 can, where it coiled up in a continuous length, till the 
 can was filled. 
 
 The crank and comb were claimed by Arkwright 
 a:5 one of his inventions, and were included in his 
 carding patent. Tliere has, however, been some doubt 
 thrown on the authorship of this happy contrivance. 
 At the trial several witnesses appeared, who ascribed 
 the invention to James Hargreaves, the inventor of the 
 jenny. Elizabeth and George Hargreaves, his widow 
 
 * See the evidence of Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Wood ; that of the latter has 
 the more weight, as he appeared as a vfitness Jor Arkwright on another part of 
 the case. 
 
 Z 
 
178 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 and son, declared that he contrived tlie crank and comb 
 two years before Arkwiight took out his patent : the 
 smith who made the apparatus for Hargi'eaves, confirmed 
 this testimony : and several cotton spinners swore to 
 their having used the crank and comb some time before 
 the patent was taken out.* On the gi'ound of all this 
 evidence, and in the absence of any disproof of it by 
 Arkwright, I had come to the conclusion that Har- 
 greaves was the inventor. But just before these sheets 
 go to the press, I have received the following distinct 
 and important testimony in Arkwright's favour from the 
 son of Mr. James, the partner of Hargreaves. He 
 states as follows to the gentleman whom I have before 
 referred to, as having procured me valuable information 
 from Nottingham: — " He (James Hargreaves) was not 
 the inventor of the crank and comb. We had a pattern 
 chalked out upon a table by one of the Lancashire men 
 in the employ of Mr. Arkwright; and I went to a frame- 
 smith of the name of Young to have one made. Of this 
 Mr. Arkwright was continually complaining, and it 
 occasioned some angry feelings between the parties." 
 This single testimony, coming from a gentleman of 
 unquestionable veracity, who had personal knowledge 
 of and share in the transaction, and whose bias would 
 naturally be more favourable to Hargreaves than to 
 Arkwright, seems to me to outweigh all the others. It 
 is also to be remembered that Arkwright, on apphing 
 for a new trial, offered evidence to disprove that of 
 Elizabeth and George Hargi'eaves. It is quite possible 
 that these witnesses believed their relative to be the 
 
 • See the evidence of Elizabeth and George Hargreaves, George Whitaker, 
 Richard Hudson, John Bird, Thomas Chatterton, and Thomas Ragg, on tlie 
 trial. 
 
ir.iii.ii /.!.,/:/. I 
 
 J_i 
 
 £nd ZUyaium. 
 
 Dranvw Frame. 
 
 Fio.^ 
 
 r.AlSIDIXG 'Z^^-r 
 
 DRAWi:^G ?3L^\3.1E 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 179 
 
 inventor of the crank and comb; the smith, too, may 
 have made it from Hargreaves's directions; and the 
 other cotton spinners may have used it before Ark- 
 ■\vi-ight took out his patent: and still Arkwright may 
 have been the inventor, and his workmen may have 
 communicated it to others, as one of them evidently did 
 to Hargreaves and his partner. 
 
 Mr. Wood used a fluted roller armed with needles, to 
 doff the cotton ; and both tliis contrivance and the 
 metallic comb seem to have had their prototype in the 
 " needle-sticks" of Lewis Paul ; but experience has 
 decided in favour of the crank and comb as the best 
 apparatus. 
 
 By these several inventions and improvements the 
 carding engine was perfected. It became a most 
 important, as well as beautiful machine. At one end of 
 it the cotton-wool was put in, an entangled and knotted 
 mass, the fibres lying in every direction ; and at the 
 other end the wool came out an even, delicate film, 
 with the fibres straightened, and that film immediately 
 compressed into a uniform and continuous sliver, ready 
 for the spinner. Most of these improvements are to 
 be ascribed to Arkwright, and he shewed his usual 
 talent and judgment in combination, by putting all the 
 uuprovements together, and producing a complete 
 machine, so admirably calculated for the purpose, that 
 it has not been improved upon to the present day. 
 
 Plate 5, figures 1 and 2, shew the carding macliine ; 
 and the operation of carding is well seen in the engrav- 
 ing after Mr. Allom's sketch, of the carding, dramng, 
 and roving room, in the large mill of Messrs. Swainson, 
 Birley, and Co. near Preston. (PL 6.) 
 
 When Arkwright took out his patent for the carding 
 
180 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 machine, he also included in it machines for dran-'incj 
 and roving. 
 
 Drawing is a process to which the cotton is subjected 
 after it leaves the carding engine, and before it is taken 
 to the roving frame. It consists in drawing out the 
 carding by rollers, and then doubling and redoubling the 
 slivers, Avhich are called ends, so as to restore them to 
 nearly the same substance as at first. This process is 
 several times repeated. The objects in thus repeatedly 
 drawing out the cotton are two-fold : — 
 
 1st. IMore perfectly to straighten and lay at their full 
 length all the fibres of the cotton, than it is possible for 
 the carding engine to do : the teeth of the cards often 
 lay hold of a fibre by the middle, in which case it is 
 doubled, and is unfit for being spun ; the drawing pro- 
 cess, by the continual pulling forward of the whole 
 mass, loosely, and so as to let the fibres sti'etch out each 
 other, extends them at theii* full length, and prepai'es 
 them for being twisted into a fine and even thread. 
 
 The 2d object of the process is, to equalize the thick- 
 ness of the cardings. One carding may have more or 
 less substance than another, though the variations can- 
 not be very great, as a given weight of wool is always 
 spread upon a given surface of the feeder of the carding 
 engine ; the di*awing and doublmg averages the iiTe- 
 gulaiities, and thus reduces the cardings as neai'ly as 
 possible to a uniform substance or grist. For example, 
 four cans, each filled with an end of carding, are placed 
 behind the frame ; and the ends ai'e passed through two 
 pairs of rollers, which draw them out to four times their 
 former length and fineness. They are thus reduced to 
 one-fourth of their original substance ; but, on being 
 united by being passed together through a funnel in 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 181 
 
 front of the rollers, the four become of the same sub- 
 stance as each end was of at first. 
 
 The united sliver falls into a can, and of course four 
 cans will be successively filled, before the four cans at 
 the back of the machine are emptied. Tims the same 
 length and substance of sliver is produced as at first, 
 and deposited in as many cans. The only diff"erence is, 
 that the fibres have been straightened, and the irregu- 
 larities of the first four cardings have been averaged 
 and equahzed, by the process. Each can now contains 
 a portion of all the four original cardings. Repeat the 
 process; the fibres are still further straightened, and 
 the irregularities are still further reduced. Each sliver 
 now contains portions of sixteen slivers. If repeated 
 again, each sliver will contain portions of sixty-four 
 slivers. And every time the drawing and doubling is 
 repeated, the irregularities in the substance or grist of 
 the sliver will be reduced. The number of times that the 
 cardings are passed through the drawing frame depends 
 partly on the quality of the cotton, and partly on the 
 kind of yarn required : cotton which is long and strong 
 in the staple or fibre, needs to be doubled oftener than 
 than that which is short and weak ; and the harder and 
 finer the yarn to be spun, the more frequently should 
 this operation be performed. It is common for the 
 slivers to be passed through the drawing frame till each 
 contains portions of several thousand slivers. The 
 operation of drawing will be seen from Plate 5, fi<js. 3 
 and 4. 
 
 The roving frame performs the first process of spin- 
 ning, by making the sliver into a thick loose thread. 
 This is done by a machine on the same principle as the 
 spinning frame. The carding is drawn out of the can 
 
182 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 into which it was delivered from the drawing frame ; it 
 passes through three pairs of rollers, which by their dif- 
 ferent velocities stretch it out ; and it is then slightly 
 twisted, and wound on the bobbins. Arkwright, how- 
 ever, did not wind the thread on bobbins, but allowed it 
 to fall into an upright can, revolving rapidly on its axis ; 
 the revolution of the can gave the roving its twist, no 
 spindle being used : when the can was filled, the roving 
 was wound upon bobbins at the winding frame. He 
 claimed the can as his own invention, but it was proved 
 on the trial to have been in use long before he obtained 
 his patent. This machine, called the roving or slubbing 
 frame, is seen in the plate representing the carding, 
 drawing, and roving room. (PL 6.) 
 
 It will be seen that the drawing and roving frames 
 depend on exactly the same principles as the spinning 
 frame, for which Arkwright took out his patent in 1 769 ; 
 they are mere modifications of that machine : but the 
 new processes which they were made to perform were 
 indispensable to the perfecting of the yarn. He was the 
 first to introduce the drawing process, and to apply the 
 spinning rollers to the purpose of roving; and very 
 great merit belongs to him on that account. 
 
 On the 16th December, 1775, Mr. Arkwright took 
 out a second patent, for a series of machines, comprising 
 the carding, drawing, and roving machines, all used 
 " in preparing silk, cotton, flax, and wool for spinning." 
 The said machines were said to be " constructed on 
 easy and simple principles, very difi*erent from any that 
 had ever yet been contrived ;" and Arkwright claimed 
 to be " the first and sole inventor thereof," and asserted 
 that " the same had never been practised by any other 
 person or persons whomsoever, to the best of his know- 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 183 
 
 ledge and belief." That this statement is to be received 
 witli some allowance, the reader Avill perceive from the 
 history we have given of the inventions. 
 
 When this admirable series of macliines was made 
 known, and by their means yams were produced far 
 superior in quality to any before spun in England, as 
 Avell as lower in price, a mighty impulse was commu- 
 nicated to the cotton manufacture. Weavers could now 
 obtain an unlimited quantity of yarn, at a reasonable 
 price ; manufacturers could use warps of cotton, which 
 were much cheaper than the linen warps formerly 
 used. Cotton fabrics could be sold lower than had 
 ever before been known. The demand for tliem conse- 
 quently increased. The shuttle flew with fresh energy, 
 and the weavers earned immoderately liigh wages. 
 Spinning mills were erected to supply the requisite 
 quantity of yarn. The fame of Arkwright resounded 
 through the land ; and capitalists flocked to him, to buy 
 his patent machines, or permission to use them. He 
 " sold to numbers of adventurers, residing in the dif- 
 ferent counties of Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Wor- 
 cester, Stafford, York, Hertford, and Lancaster, many 
 of his patent macliines. Upon a moderate computation, 
 the money expended in consequence of such grants 
 (before 1782) amounted to at least £60,000. Mr. Ark- 
 wiight and his partners also expended, in large buildings 
 in Derbyshire and elsewhere, upwards of £30,000, and 
 Mr. Arkwright also erected a very large and extensive 
 building in Manchester, at the expense of upwards of 
 £4000." Thus " a business was formed, which already 
 (he calculated) employed upwards of five thousand 
 persons, and a capital on the whole of not less than 
 £200,000."* 
 
 • Avkwright's " Case." 
 
184 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 On the trial concerning the validity of the patent, in 
 1 785, only three years later, Mr. Bearcroft, the counsel 
 oi)posed to Mr. Arkwi'ight, stated, that thirty thousand 
 peoj)le were employed in the establishments set up i?i 
 defiance of the patent, and that near £300,000 had been 
 expended in the buildings and machinery of those estab- 
 lishments. If we add to this the mills where the patent 
 machines were used, the capital and the population 
 employed will much exceed these amounts. 
 
 Tlie factory system in England takes its rise from 
 this period. Hitherto the cotton manufacture had been 
 carried on almost entirely in the houses of the workmen : 
 the hand or stock cards, the spinnmg wheel, and the 
 loom, requii-ed no larger apartment than that of a cottage. 
 A spinning jenny of small size might also be used in a 
 cottaofc, and in many instances was so used : when the 
 number of spindles was considerably increased, adjacent 
 work-shops were used. But the water-frame, the card- 
 ins: engine, and the other machines wliich Arkwright 
 brought out in a finished state, required both more space 
 than could be found in a cottage, and more power than 
 could be applied by the human ami. Their weight also 
 rendered it necessary to place them in strongly-built 
 mills, and they could not be advantageously turned by 
 any power then known but that of water. 
 
 The use of machinery was accompanied by a greater 
 division of labour than existed in the piimitive state of 
 the manufacture ; the material went through many more 
 processes ; and of course the loss of time and the risk 
 of waste would have been much increased, if its removal 
 from house to house at every stage of the manufacture 
 had been necessary. It became obvious that there 
 were several important advantages in carrying on the 
 numerous operations of an extensive manufacture in the 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 185 
 
 same building. Where water power was required, it 
 was economy to build one mill, and put up one water- 
 wheel, rather than several. This arrangement also 
 enabled the master spinner himself to superintend every 
 stage of the manufacture : it gave him a gi-eater security 
 against the wasteful or fraudulent consumption of the 
 material : it saved time in the transference of the work 
 from hand to hand : and it prevented the extreme incon- 
 venience which would have resulted from the failure of 
 one class of workmen to perform their part, when seve- 
 ral other classes of workmen were dependent upon them. 
 Another circumstance which made it advantageous to 
 have a large number of machines in one manufactory 
 was, that mechanics must be employed on the spot, to 
 construct and repair the machinery, and that their time 
 could not be fully occupied with only a few machines. 
 
 All these considerations drove the cotton spinners to 
 that important change in the economy of English manu- 
 factures, the introduction of the factory system ; and 
 when that system had once been adopted, such were its 
 pecuniary advantages, that mercantile competition would 
 have rendered it impossible, even had it been desirable, 
 to abandon it. The inquiry into the moral and social 
 effects of the factory system will be made hereafter. At 
 present we observe, that although Arkwiight, by his 
 series of machines, was the means of giving the most 
 wonderful extension to the system, yet he did not abso- 
 lutely originate it. Mills for the throwing of silk had 
 existed in England, though not in aUy great number, 
 from the time of Sir Thomas Lombe, who, in 1719, 
 erected a mill on the river Derwent, at Derby, on the 
 model of those he had seen in Italy. 
 
 It has been seen that Wyatt's first macliines, at 
 
 2 a 
 
186 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Birmingham, were turned by asses, and his establish- 
 ment at Nortliampton by water. So Arkwright's fii-st 
 mill, at Nottingham, was moved by horses ; his second, 
 at Cromford, by water. " Duiing a period of ten or 
 fifteen years after Mr. Arkwriglit's first mill was built 
 (in 1771) at Cromford, all the principal works were 
 erected on the falls of considerable rivers ; no other 
 power than water having then been found practically 
 useful. There were a few exceptions, where Newco- 
 men's and Saverv's steam-ensdnes were tried. But the 
 principles of these machines being defective, and their 
 construction bad, the expense in fuel was great, and 
 the loss occasioned by fi'equent stoppages was ruin- 
 ous. * 
 
 Cotton spinning, the history of which is almost 
 romantic, has been made poetical by Dr. Darwin's 
 powers of description and embellishment. In his 
 " Botanic Garden' he thus sings the wonders of Ark- 
 wiight's establisliment on the Derwent, at Crom- 
 ford : — 
 
 " Where Derwent guides his dusky floods 
 
 Through vaulted mountains and a night of woods, 
 The nymph Gossypia treads the velvet sod. 
 And warms with rosy smiles the wat'ry god ; 
 His pond'rous oars to slender spindles turns, 
 And pours o'er massy wheels his foaming urns ; 
 With playful charms her hoary lover wins, 
 And wields his trident while the Monarch spins. 
 First, with nice eye, emerging Naiads cull 
 From leathery pods the vegetable wool ; 
 With wiry teeth revolving cards release 
 The tangled knots, and smooth the ravell'd fleece : 
 Next moves the iron hand with fingers fine. 
 Combs the wide card, and forms th' eternal line ; 
 
 • Mr. Kennedy " On the Rise and Progress of the Cotton Trade ;" Memoirs 
 of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, Vol. III. 2d series, 
 p. 126. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 187 
 
 Slow with soft lips the whirling can acquires 
 
 The tender skeins, and wraps in rising spires : 
 
 With quicken'd pace successive rollers move, 
 
 And these retain, and those extend, the rove : 
 
 Then fly the spokes, the rapid axles glow, 
 
 While slowly circumvolves the labouring wheel below." 
 
 ArkAvriglit was now rapidly making a large fortune, 
 not merely by the sale of his patent machines and of 
 licences to use them, but much more by the profits of 
 his several manufactories ; for, having no less enterprise 
 than judgment and skill, and being supported by large 
 capital and very able partners, he greatly extended his 
 concerns, and managed them all with such ability as to 
 make them eminently prosperous. He offered the use 
 of his patents by public advertisements, and gave many 
 permission to use them on receiving a certain sum for 
 each spindle. In several cases he took shares in the 
 mills erected; and from these various sources he received 
 a large annual tribute. 
 
 His success stiumlated the jealousy of his fellow- 
 manufacturers ; and as there was a prevalent belief in 
 Lancashire that Arkwright was not really the author of 
 the inventions for wliich he had obtained patents, several 
 persons ventured to set up macliines similar to his, 
 without obtaining his licence. To vindicate liis claim, 
 and to secure the profits of his patent, he instituted nine 
 actions in the year 1781 ; only one of which, that against 
 Colonel Mordaunt, came to trial. An association of 
 Lancashire spinners was formed, to defend the actions ; 
 and Mr. Charles Taylor, of Manchester, afterwards 
 secretary to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 
 Manufactures, and Commerce, in the Adelphi, had the 
 principal share in arranging the evidence, and exposing 
 the defects of the patent. Tlie action was for the 
 
188 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 iiifrlno-emeiit of the second patent, namely, that for the 
 cardmg, drawing, and roving machines. The counsel 
 for Colonel Mordaimt Avere Mr. Bearcroft, and Mr. (after- 
 Avards Lord) Erskine; and Arkwright had on his side a 
 considerable number of the most eminent counsel of the 
 day. The defence was confined to the single point, that 
 the specification given in by ArkAvright on obtaining his 
 patent, was obscure and unintelligible. Every inventor, 
 on taking out a patent, is required by law to give in a 
 specification, " particularly describing and ascertaining 
 the nature of his invention, and in Avhat manner the 
 same is to be performed ;" for the purpose of enabling 
 all other persons to make the machine at the expiration 
 of the patent. ArkAvright gave in a specification, with 
 di*aAvings ; but there Avas much obscurity in the descrip- 
 tion, — some things Avhich were absolutely essential being 
 omitted, and others which were not used at all in the 
 cotton manufacture introduced ; and the di'awings were 
 so unintelligible, from the Avant of any scale, and from 
 the several parts of the machines being drawn separately, 
 Avithout any general vicAV of the entire macliines, that it 
 was manifest he had not intended to disclose his inven- 
 tion, but rather to conceal it.* Evidence was given on 
 the trial, by the person avIio had been employed to draAv 
 the formal part of the specification, that ArkAvright 
 " told him, he meant it to appear to operate as a speci- 
 fication, but to be as obscure as the nature of the case 
 could possibly admit."t On this evidence, and that of 
 
 * As specimens of this studied obscuration, it may be mentioned, that the very 
 first article in his specification and drawing was a hammer, not of his own inven- 
 tion, and of no use in the cotton manufacture, but merely used to beat hemp ; and 
 that the wlieels by which the whole machine was turned, were not introduced 
 at all ! 
 
 f See the evidence of Mr. W. D. Crofts ; Trial, p. 75. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 189 
 
 other witnesses, mechanics, who stated that they could 
 not construct tlie machine from that specification, the 
 jury, with the perfect concurrence of the judge, found a 
 verdict for the defendant. Thus this celebrated and 
 profitable patent was set aside. 
 
 Arkwright thd not for a long time venture to dispute 
 this verdict; but, conceiving that he had a claim to 
 national reward for the great inventions whicli he had 
 been the means of perfecting, he drew up a document, 
 entitled, " The Case of Mr. Richard Arkwright and Co. 
 in relation to Mr. Arkwright' s invention of an engine 
 for spinning cotton, &c. into yarn; stating his reasons 
 for applying to Parliament for an Act to secure his right 
 in such invention, or for such other relief as to the 
 Legislature shall seem meet." He began by showing 
 the importance of manufactures to the commerce and 
 prosperity of Great Britain, and proceeded to argue the 
 expediency of encouraging mechanical inventions, on 
 which manufacturing success gi'eatly depended. The 
 difficulties and disappointments which inventors had to 
 encounter, were illustrated by the cases of Paul and 
 Hargi-eaves, in terms which have already been quoted. 
 Arkwright's own merits as an inventor, his " intense 
 study and labour," his " unparalleled diligence and 
 application, the force of his natural genius, and his 
 unbounded invention," were then insisted upon in terms 
 as lofty and confident as if lie had been the sole author 
 of the inventions for which he had obtained patents. 
 His successful efforts to establish the new system of 
 spinning, and his introduction of the calico manufacture 
 in spile of opposition and jealousy, were with truth 
 exhibited to parliament as entitling him to the gratitude 
 of tlie nation. He then represented that others had 
 
190 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 " devised means to rob him of his inventions, and to 
 profit by his ingenuity ;" that " liis servants and 
 workmen (wliom he had with great labour taught the 
 business) were seduced;" that thus " a knowledge of 
 his maciiinery and inventions was fully gained;" that 
 " many persons began to pilfer something from him, and 
 then, by adding sometliing else of their own, and by 
 calHng similar productions and machines by other names, 
 they hoped to screen themselves from punishment." 
 To guard his own rights, he found it necessary to 
 prosecute several ; which *' occasioned, as in the case of 
 poor Hargreaves, an association against him of the very 
 persons whom he had served and obliged." He then 
 pathetically and plausibly described the legal proceed- 
 ings and their issue; and he contended that " it coidd 
 not be supposed that he meant a fraud on his country" 
 by the obscurity of his specification. On the contrary, 
 his object was to benefit his native country, by prevent- 
 ing the introduction of such important machines into 
 other countries; " in prevention of which e^il, he had 
 purposely omitted to give so full and particular a 
 description of his inventions, in his specification, as he 
 other^\dse would have done." " Indeed, it was impos- 
 sible (he ai'gued) that he could either expect or intend 
 to secrete his inventions from the public after the expira- 
 tion of his patents ; the whole machinery being neces- 
 sarily known to many workmen and artificers, as well 
 as to those persons (being many hundreds) Avho were 
 employed in the manufactory. This observation alone, 
 independent of the circumstances of the grants which 
 had been made, was fully sufficient to evince that 
 Mr. Arkwright had no such view." Ha\4ng thus exhi- 
 bited his claims, and refuted the imputation of selfishness 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 191 
 
 and fraud to wliich the studied obscurity of the specifica- 
 tion had exposed liim, — and having also stated, to show 
 the service he had rendered his country, that the cotton 
 spinning business " already employed upwards of five 
 thousand persons, and a capital, on the whole, of not 
 less than £200,000," — he concluded by praying " that 
 the legislature would be pleased to confirm, connect, 
 and consolidate the two letters patent, so as to preserve 
 to him the full benefit of his inventions for the remainder 
 of the term yet to come in the last patent, which favour 
 would be received by him ^vith the deepest sense of 
 gi'atitude." 
 
 Whatever were the ser^dces Arkwright had rendered 
 his country, he here asked for an enormous reward. His 
 first patent, obtained in 1769, would expire in 1783, the 
 year after this " Case" was drawn up; and the second 
 patent, obtained in 1 775, would not expire till the end 
 of the year 1789. He was therefore asking for the 
 patent right of all the macliines to be continued to him 
 for eight years longer, which alone would have secured 
 him an immense fortune. It is probable that Arkwright 
 found an indisposition on the part of ministers to favour 
 his application; for he abandoned his intention of apply- 
 ing to parliament, though he liad circulated his " Case" 
 with that view. 
 
 At the beginning of 1785, Arkwright made another 
 effort to establish his second patent, and brought an 
 action for its infringement, which was tried in the court 
 of Common Pleas on the 17th of February. Lord 
 Loughborough, the chief justice, on that occasion ex- 
 pressed an opinion favourable to tlie sufficiency of the 
 specification, and on this ground Arkwright obtained a 
 verdict. Alarmed by this unexpected event, the cotton 
 
192 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 spinners of Lancashire, who had formed an association 
 to defend the actions in 1781, and several of whom had 
 since erected macliines on Arkwright's principle without 
 his permission, api)lied for and obtained from the lord 
 chancellor a wi-it of scire facias, to try the validity of 
 the patent. This was tried in the Court of King's 
 Bench, before Mr. Justice Buller and a special jury, on 
 the 25th of June, 1785. Tlie cause was most ably 
 argued on both sides, and a great number of witnesses 
 were called: models of the machines were placed on the 
 table, and worked. Mr. Bearcroft, the counsel for the 
 crown, opposed the validity of the patent on four 
 grounds: 1st, that it was a gi'eat inconvenience to the 
 public; 2d, that it was not a new invention at the time 
 of the patent being gi-anted; 3d, that it was not a new 
 invention by Mr. Ark^night at all; and, 4th, that he 
 had not disclosed his invention in tlie specification. AU 
 the witnesses were now examined, to whose eA*idence 
 we have alluded, as proving that several of the improve- 
 ments in the carding engine were invented by others 
 before Arkwright took out his patent; and Highs and 
 Kay were also examined, to prove that the former had 
 invented the mode of spinning by rollers, and that it had 
 been communicated by the latter to Arkwright. Several 
 mechanics stated that they could not understand the 
 specification. A very strong case was made out against 
 the patent, and it was feebly met on the side of Ark- 
 wriglit. The result was, that the jury, without a 
 minute's hesitation, brought in their verdict for the 
 crown, which was a sentence of nullification of the 
 patent.* On the 10th of November, in the same year, 
 
 • It appears from a placard issued in Manchester, announcing the result of the 
 trial, that tlie verdict was not given till one o'clock in the morning, and that the 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 193 
 
 Arkwright applied for a new trial, alleging that he had 
 evidence to contradict that of Highs, Kay, and the 
 widow and son of Hargreaves; but the court refused the 
 motion, and judge Buller observed, that he was con- 
 vinced at the trial that " tlie defendant had not a leg: to 
 stand upon." 
 
 Thus Arkwright's patent was finally set aside; and 
 those most useful machines, which, though invented by 
 others, owed their perfection to his finishing hand, were 
 thrown open to the public. The astonishing extension 
 of the manufacture which immediately followed, shewed 
 that the nullification of the patent was a great national 
 advantage. 
 
 Arkwright continued, notwithstanding, his prosperous 
 career. Wealth flowed in upon him with a full stream 
 from his skilfully managed concerns. For several years 
 he fixed the price of cotton twist, all other spinners con- 
 forming to his prices. His partnership with the Messrs. 
 Strutt terminated about 1783, and he retained the 
 works at Cromford, still carried on by his son ; 
 whilst Messrs. Strutt had the works at Belper, which 
 also are yet conducted by the surviving members 
 of their family. In 1786, Arkwright was appointed 
 high sheriff of Derbyshire; and having presented an 
 address of congratulation from that county to the king 
 
 defeat of Arkwright gave great satisfaction to the people of that town. The 
 Lancashire spinners were, indeed, Arkwright's great enemies. Owing partly, 
 perhaps, to his humble origin, and partly to the doubts whether he was the author 
 of the inventions, ''he had no honour in his own country." Being of an irritable 
 temperament, he resented this treatment, and exerted himself to raise up a 
 successful rivalry to Lancashire. He therefore favoured the Scotch spinners as 
 much as possible, and formed a partnership with David Dale, Esq. of Lanark 
 mills ; in allusion to which, and probably by way of retorting the unworthy taunts 
 of his opponents relative to his former occupation, he said, that " he would find a 
 raxor in Scotland to shave Manchester." 
 
 2b 
 
194 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 on his escape from the attempt of Margaret Nicholson 
 on his life, Ai-k\\Tight received the houoiu' of knight- 
 hood. Sir Richard was for many years troubled with a 
 severe astlunatic affection ; he sunk at length under a 
 complication of disorders, and died at his house at 
 Cromford, on the 3d of August, 1 792, in the sixtieth 
 year of his age. 
 
 I have found myself compelled to form a lower 
 estimate of the inventive talents of Arkwright than 
 most previous writers. In the investigation I have 
 prosecuted, I have been guided solely by a desire 
 to ascertain the exact truth. It has been shewn that 
 the splenchd inventions, which even to the present 
 day are ascribed to Al•k^^Tight by some of the ablest 
 and best-informed persons in the kingdom, belong in 
 great part to other and much less fortunate men. In 
 appropriating those inventions as his own, and claiming 
 them as the fruits of his unaided genius, he acted dis- 
 honourably, and left a stain upon his character, which 
 tlie acknowledged brilliance of his talents cannot efface. 
 Had he been content to claim the merit which really 
 belonged to him, liis reputation would still have been 
 high, and his wealth would not have been diminished. 
 That he possessed inventive talent of a very superior 
 order, has been satisfactorily established. And in im- 
 proving and perfecting mechanical inventions, in exactly 
 adapting them to the purposes for which they were 
 intended, in arranging a comprehensive system of 
 manufacturing, and in conducting vast and complicated 
 concerns, he displayed a bold and fertile mind and con- 
 summate judgment; which, when his want of education, 
 and the influence of an employment so extremely unfa- 
 vourable to mental expansion as that of his previous 
 
THE COTTON fli A N I F A CT U R E. 195 
 
 life, are considered, must have excited tlie astonisliment 
 of mankind. But tlie marvellous and " unbounded 
 invention' wliich he claimed for himself, and which has 
 been too readily accorded to him, — the creative faculty, 
 wliich de\ised all that admirable mechanism — so entirely 
 new in its principles, and characteristic of the first order of 
 meclianical genius — which has given a new spring to the 
 industry of the world, and within half a century has 
 reared up the most extensive manufacture ever 
 known, — this did not belong to Arkwright. It is 
 clear that some of the improvements which made 
 the carding engine what it was when he took out 
 liis second patent, were devised by others; and there 
 are two prior claimants to the invention of spinning by 
 rollers, one of whom had undoubtedly made it the sub- 
 ject of a patent thirty-one years before the patent of 
 Arkwright. I mil not ventui'e positively to assert, that 
 the latter derived the principle of his machine either 
 from Wyatt or from Highs; but I must declare my 
 strong: conviction that this was the case, whilst at tlie 
 same time it is certain that Arkwright displayed great 
 inventive talent in perfecting the details. 
 
 Tlie most marked traits m the character of Arkwright 
 were liis wonderful ardour, energy, and perseverance. 
 He commonly laboured in his multifarious concerns 
 from five o'clock in the morning till nine at night; and 
 when considerably more than fifty years of age, — 
 feeling that the defects of liis education placed him 
 under great difficulty and inconvenience in conducting 
 his con-espondence, and in the general management of 
 his business, — he encroached upon his sleep, in order 
 to gain an hour each day to learn Enghsh gi-ammai', 
 and another hour to improve his writing and ortho- 
 
196 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 graphy ! He was impatient of whatever interfered with 
 his favourite pursuits; and the fact is too strikingly 
 characteristic not to be mentioned, that he separated 
 from his wife not many years after their marriage, 
 because she, convinced that he would starve his family 
 by scheming when he should have been shaving, broke 
 some of liis experimental models of machinery. Ark- 
 wright was a severe economist of time; and, that he 
 might not waste a moment, he generally travelled 
 with four horses, and at a very rapid speed. His 
 concerns in Derbyshii'e, Lancashire, and Scotland 
 were so extensive and numerous, as to shew at 
 once his astonishing power of transacting business 
 and his all-grasping spirit. In many of these he 
 had partners, but he generally managed in such a 
 way, tliat, whoever lost, he himself was a gainer. So 
 unbounded was his confidence in the success of his 
 machinery, and in the national wealth to be produced 
 by it, that he would make light of discussions on taxa- 
 tion, and say that he would pay the national debt ! His 
 speculative schemes were vast and daring ; he contem- 
 plated entering into the most extensive mercantile 
 transactions, and buying up all the cotton in the world, 
 in order to make an enormous profit by the monopoly: 
 and from the extravagance of some of these designs, his 
 judicious friends were of opinion, that if he had lived 
 to put them in practice, he might have overset the 
 whole fabric of his prosperity !* 
 
 * Several of these interesting particulars concerning Sir Richard Arkwright 
 I have received from a private source, on which full reliance may be placed ; — a 
 source, I may add, by no means unfavourably disposed to Sir Richard. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 197 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE SPINNING MACHINERY (CONTINUED.) 
 
 Invention of the Mule by Samuel Crompton. — Description. — Powers of the mule. 
 — Improved by others. — William Kelly applies water-power to drive the mule. — 
 Crompton takes out no patent ; receives a grant from parliament : notice of his 
 life. — Self-acting mule invented by Mr. W. Strutt; also by W. Kelly and 
 others. — The self-acting mule of Roberts ; its great success. — Improvements on 
 the water-frame.— The throstle. — The fly frame.— The tube frame. — Retro- 
 spective glance at the inventions and improvements in cotton spinning. — The 
 great importance of these inventions. — Unparalleled progress of the Cotton 
 Manufacture. — Cotton wool imported from 1771 to 1790; from 1701 to 1800. — 
 Exports of British manufactured cottons from 1701 to 1800. — Comparative 
 rates of progression in the manufacture before and after the mechanical inven- 
 tions. — Estimated value of the manufacture, and number of cotton mills, mules, 
 jennies, and spindles, in 17S7. 
 
 During the period tliat has now passed under review, 
 Hargreaves and Arkwright had established the Cotton 
 Manufacture by their spinning macliines; but those 
 machines were not adapted for the finer qualities of 
 yarn. The water-frame spun twist for warps, but it 
 could not be advantageously used for the finer quali- 
 ties, as thread of great tenuity has not strength to bear 
 the pull of the rollers when winding itself on the bob- 
 bins.* This defect in tlie spinning machinery Avas 
 remedied by the invention of another machine, called 
 the Mule, or the Mule Jenny, from its combining the 
 principles of Arkwright's water-frame and Hargi-caves's 
 
 * Encyl. Britannica, article " Cotton Manufacture." 
 
198 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 jenny. Like the former, it has a system of rollers, to 
 reduce the ro^dng; and, like the latter, it has spintUes 
 -without bobbins to give the twist, and the thread is 
 stretched and spun at the same time by the spindles, 
 after the rollers have ceased to give out the rove. The 
 distinguishing feature of the mule is, that the spindles, 
 instead of being stationary, as in both the other machines, 
 are placed on a moveable carriage, which is wheeled out 
 to the distance of fifty-four or fifty-six inches from the 
 roller-beam, in order to stretch and twist the thread, and 
 wheeled in again to wind it on the spindles. In the 
 jenny, the clasp, which held the rovings, was di'awn 
 back by tlie hand from the spindles; in the mule, on the 
 contraiy, the spindles recede from the clasp, or from the 
 roller-beam whicli acts as a clasp. Tlie rollers of the 
 mule draw out the rowing much less than those of the 
 water-frame; and they act like the clasp of the jenny, by 
 stopping and holding fast the rove, after a certain quan- 
 tity has been given out, whilst the spindles continue to 
 recede for a short distance further; so that the draught 
 on the thread is in part made by the receding of the 
 spindles. By this arrangement, comprising the advan- 
 tages both of the rollers and the spindles, the tlu'ead is 
 stretched more gently and equably, and a much finer 
 quality of yarn can therefore be produced.* 
 
 Tliis excellent machine, wliich has superseded the 
 jenny, and to a considerable extent the water-frame, and 
 which has carried the cotton manufacture to a perfection 
 
 • If the adaptation of the lines may be pardoned, for the sake of the exactness 
 with which they apply, it may be said of Crompton's invention, compounded of ilie 
 two former inventions — 
 
 " The force of genius could no further go, 
 To make a third, he joined the other two." 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 199 
 
 It could not otlierwise have attained, was invented by 
 Samuel Crompton, a weaver, of respectable character and 
 moderate circumstances, living at Hall-in-the-Wood, 
 near Bolton. The date of the invention has been 
 generally stated to be 1775, but Mr. Kennedy, who 
 personally knew Crompton, and who has published an 
 interesting " Memoir" of his life, " with a description of 
 his machine called the Mule, and of the subsequent 
 improvement of the machine by others,"* states that " he 
 was only twenty-one years of age when he commenced 
 tliis undertaking, which took him five years to effect ; at 
 least, before he could bring his improvements to maturity. 
 As the inventor was born in 1753, he must therefore 
 have begun to make his machine in 1774, and completed 
 it in 1779. His own account is decisive : he says in a 
 letter to a friend : — *' In regard to the mule, the date of 
 its being first completed was in the year 1779: at the 
 end of the following year I was under the necessity of 
 making it public, or destroying it, as it was not in my 
 power to keep it and work it, and to destroy it was too 
 pauiful a task, having been four and a half years, at 
 least, wherein every moment of time and power of mind, 
 as well as expense, which my other employment would 
 permit, were devoted to this one end, the having good 
 yam to weave; so that to destroy it, I could not." Being 
 of a retiring and unambitious disposition, he took out no 
 patent, and only regi'etted that public curiosity would 
 not allow him " to enjoy his little invention to himself 
 in his garret," and to earn, by his own manual labour, 
 undisturbed, the fruits of his ingenuity and perseverance. 
 Tlie very superior quality of his yarn drew persons from 
 
 t Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Vol. V. 
 second series, p. 318. 
 
200 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 all quarters, to ascertain the means whereby he produced 
 it. He stated to Mr. Bannatyne, that on the invention 
 of his machine, " he obtained 14s. per lb. for the spinning 
 and preparation of No. 40, (i.e. yam weighing 40 hanks 
 to the pound,) that a short time after, he got 25s. per 
 lb. for the spinning and preparation of No. 60; and that 
 he then spun a small quantity of No. 80, to shew that it 
 was not impossible, as was supposed, to spin yarn of so 
 fine a grist; and for the spinning and preparation of this 
 he got 42s. per lb."* These prices were commanded 
 by the umdvalled excellence of the yarn ; and it affords 
 a criterion to estimate the value of the machine, when it 
 is found that the price of yarn No. 100 is at the present 
 day only from 2s. .3d. to 3s. per lb. including the cost of 
 the raw material, which is lOd. or Is. — this sui*prising 
 reduction having been effected chiefly by the powers of 
 the mule; and that, whereas it was before supposed 
 impossible to spin eighty hanks to the pound, as many 
 as three hundred and fifty hanks to the pound have 
 since been spun, each hank measuiing 840 yards, and 
 forming together a thi'ead a hundred and sixty-seven 
 miles in length! 
 
 The invention of the mule was, therefore, another 
 most important improvement in the manufacture — more 
 important than it might have been thought there was 
 room to effect, after the production of the jenny and the 
 water-frame. The mule was not at once perfected. 
 Being much more complicated in its mechanism than 
 either of the other spinning macliines, it had cost the in- 
 ventor five years of experiment and toil ; and after all, he 
 produced but a rude piece of workmanship, though the 
 principle was excellent. His first machine consisted of 
 
 * Encycl. Britannica, " Cotton Manufacture." 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 201 
 
 not more than twenty or thirty spindles; liis rollers were 
 of Avood, and all the parts of liis machine were heavy, as 
 might have been expected, seeing that Crompton knew 
 nothing of mechanics, or the use of tools, beyond what 
 he had taught himself in his secluded leisure.* An 
 ingenious mechanic, Henry Stones, of Horwich, who 
 had doubtless seen Arkwright's machine, constructed a 
 mule in a workmanlike manner, making the rollers of 
 
 • A high estimate indeed must be formed of the genius of Crompton, if we sup- 
 pose, as Mr. Kennedy appears to do, that he was altogether ignorant of Arkwright's 
 machine when he invented his own. It is true, that Crompton was himself accua- 
 tomed to work with one of Hargreaves's jennies, and that his invention bears a 
 greater resemblance to that machine than to the water-frame ; but as Arkwright's 
 patent had been taken out five years before Crompton began the construction of 
 his machine, and ten years before he finished it, and as the mule includes the 
 rollers moving with different velocities — the very principle of Wyatt's and Ark- 
 wright's machines — I cannot suppose that he had not at least heard of this most 
 important contrivance. Mr. Kennedy says — " Mr. Crompton's first suggestion was 
 to introduce a single pair of rollers, viz. a top and a bottom, which he expected 
 would elongate the rove by pressure, like the process by which metals are drawn 
 out, and which he observed in the wire-drawing for reeds used in the loom. In 
 this he was disappointed, and afterwards adopted a second pair of rollers, the latter 
 pair revolving at a slower speed than the former; and thus producing a draught of 
 one inch to three or four. These rollers were put in motion by means of a wooden 
 shaft with different-sized puUies, which communicated with the rollers by a band. 
 This was certainly neither more nor less than a modification of Mr. Arkwright's 
 roller-beam ; but he often stated to me, that when he constructed his machine, he 
 knew nothing of Mr. Arkwright's discovery. Indeed, we may infer that he had 
 not, otherwise he would not have gone thus rudely to work ; and indeed the small 
 quantity of metals which he employed, proves that he could not have been 
 acquainted with Mr. Arkwright's superior rollers and fixtures in iron, and their 
 connexion by clockwork. Even the rollers were made of wood, and covered with 
 a piece of sheep-skin, having an axis of iron with a little square end, on which the 
 pullies were fixed. Mr. Crompton's rollers were supported upon wooden cheeks 
 or stands. His tops were constructed much in the same way, with something like 
 a mouse-trap spring to keep the rollers in contact. His first machine contained 
 only about 20 or 30 spindles. He finally put dents of brass-reed wire into his 
 under-rollers, and thus obtained a fluted roller. But the great and important 
 invention of Crompton was his spindle carriage, and the principle of the thread 
 having no strain upon it until it was completed. This was the corner-stone of the 
 merits of his invention." — Brief Memoir of Crompton ; Memoirs of Manchester 
 Lit. and Phil. Society, Vol. V. p. 325. 
 
 2c 
 
202 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 metal, and applying clockwork to move them ; and by 
 his improvements, the mule was adapted for 100 or 130 
 spindles. Still further improvements were made, within 
 a few years after the invention, by a man named Baker, 
 of Bury, and by one Hargraves, of Toddington. Mr. Wil- 
 Ham Kelly, of Lanark mills, was the first to turn the 
 mule by water-power, in 1790; and when tliis potent 
 agent was apj)lied, Mr. Wright, a machine-maker, of 
 Manchester, constructed a double mule. By these 
 successive additions, the machine was made capable of 
 working with no less than four hundred spindles. 
 Mr. Kennedy liimself, from whose " Memoir of Cromp- 
 ton" we collect these particulars, made a considerable 
 improvement in the wheel-work of the mule about 1 793, 
 wliicli accelerated the movement of the machine. Of 
 late years, mules have been much increased in size; 
 many are now at work, in IManchester and elsewhere, of 
 eight hundred spindles each, and some of the prodigious 
 number of eleven hundred spindles each, or two thousand 
 two hundred the pair, — the pair being managed by one 
 spinner. 
 
 When the mule first became known, it was called the 
 Hall-in-the-Wood wheel, fi'om the place where it was 
 invented, and, shortly after, the Muslin wheel, from its 
 making yarn sufficiently fine for tlie manufacture of 
 muslin; but it ultimately received the name of 3Iule, 
 from combining the principles of the jenny and the 
 water-frame. JNIr. Cromptou haAing made no efibrt to 
 secure by a patent the exclusive enjoyment of his inven- 
 tion, it became public property, and was turned to 
 advantage by more pusliing manufacturers, wliilst the 
 inventor himself kept on his humble course, recei\'ing 
 no other reward than the very inadequate one of £5,000, 
 
S ^ M T E L (^ K O M F T O X 
 
 €. 
 
 a—?^ 
 
 V\ S1£>:R. SOH fc C? rOMDON. 1835. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 203 
 
 granted him in the year 1812 by parliament.* " The 
 art of spinning on Crompton's machine (says Mr. Ken- 
 nedy) was tolerably well known, from the circumstance 
 of the high wages that could be obtained by those 
 working on it, above the ordinary wages of other 
 
 * The " short and simple annals" of the life of this worthy man — so much 
 resembling the history of many other sons of genius — are thus recorded by 
 Mr. Kennedy, in his " Brief Memoir :" — 
 
 " About the year 1802, Mr. G. A. Lee and myself set on foot a subscription for 
 Mr. Crompton, which amounted to about £500; and with this he was enabled to 
 increase his little manufacturing establishment in Bolton, namely, of spinning and 
 weaving. He was prevailed upon also to sit to a London artist for his portrait, 
 which is now in my possession. He was left a widower when his children were 
 very young, and his only daughter kept his little cottage in King-street, Bolton, 
 where he died, and where she is now (1829) living. Being a weaver, he erected 
 several looms for the fancy work of that town, in which he displayed great 
 ingenuity. Though his means were but small, his economy in living made him 
 always in easy circumstances. In 1812, he made a survey of all the cotton districts 
 in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and obtained an estimate of the number of 
 spindles then at work upon his principle, which amounted to between four and five 
 millions.* On his return, he laid the result of his inquiries before Mr. Lee and 
 myself, with a suggestion, that parliament might grant him something. With these 
 data before him, Mr. Lee, who was a warm friend to genius of every kind, with 
 his usual energy entered fully into his merits, and made an appointment with the 
 late George Duckworth, Esq. of Manchester, who also took a lively interest in the 
 scheme, and gratuitously offered to draw up a memorial to parliament in behalf of 
 Mr. Crompton. This was signed by most of the principal manufacturers in the 
 kingdom who were acquainted with his merits. He went to London himself with 
 the memorial, and obtained an interview with one of the members for the county 
 of Lancaster. He remained there during the session, and was in the house on the 
 evening that Mr. Perceval was shot, and witnessed the catastrophe. A short time 
 before this disastrous occurrence, Mr. Perceval had given him a promise to interest 
 himself in his behalf, and, in accordance with this assurance, had brought in a bill, 
 which was passed, for a grant of £5,000 in full, without fees or charges. 
 
 " Mr. Crompton was now anxious to place his sons in some business, and fixed 
 upon that of bleaching ; but the unfavourable state of the times, the inexperience 
 and mismanagement of his sons, a bad situation, and a misunderstanding with his 
 landlord, which occasioned a tedious lawsuit, conspired in a very short time to put 
 an end to this establishment. His sons then dispersed, and he and his daughter 
 were reduced to poverty. Messrs. Hicks and Rothwell, of Bolton, myself, and 
 some others, in that neighbourhood and in Manchester, had, in 1824, recourse to a 
 
 * "Now (in 1829) about seven millions." 
 
204 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 artisans, such as shoemakers, joiners, hat-makers, &c., 
 who on that account left their pre^dous employment;* 
 and to them might be appHed the fable of the town in a 
 state of siege. For if, in the course of their working the 
 machine, there was any little tiling out of gear, each 
 workman endeavoured to fill up the deficiency with some 
 expedient suggested by his former trade; the smith 
 suggested a piece of iron, the shoemEiker a welt of 
 leather, &c., all which had a good effect in improving 
 the machine. Each put what he thought best to the 
 experiment, and that which was good was retained. 
 But with all these exertions, there was still very much 
 to learn, for the piinciple on wliich the ro%'ings were 
 prepared had Httle chance of being known, being confined 
 to the principal mill-owners of Mr. Arkwright's patent 
 process of spinning, &c. But the demand for these 
 macliines, after the decision of the court of King's Bench, 
 in 1 783, j" (wliich I consider very questionable,) soon found 
 makers, and the perseverance of the mule-spinner soon 
 acquired the art." 
 
 second subscription, to purchase a life-annuity for him, which produced £63 per 
 annum. The amount raised for this purpose was collected in small sums, from 
 one to ten pounds, some of which were contributed by the Swiss and French 
 spinners, who acknowledged his merits, and pitied his misfortunes. At the same 
 time his portrait was engraved for his benefit, and a few impressions were disposed 
 of: he enjoyed this small annuity only two years. He died January 26th, 1827, 
 leaving his daughter, his affectionate housekeeper, in poverty." 
 
 Mr. Crompton was in one respect fortunate, namely, in having met with a 
 gentleman like Mr. Kennedy, who had the heart to befriend merit, and the talent 
 to commemorate it 
 
 • " By their industry, skill, and economy, these men first became proprietors of 
 perhaps a single mule, and, persevering in habits so intimately connected with 
 success, were afterwards the most extensive spinners in the trade." 
 
 t The first trial on Arkwright's patent took place in 1781, not 1783, and this 
 trial terminating unfavourably for Arkwright, many persons began to use his 
 carding and roving machines : at this time, probably, the mule came into use : the 
 second and third trials were in 1785. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 205 
 
 Even to the present time, the course of improvement 
 has not stopped. Mules have been constructed, which 
 do not require the manual aid of a spinner, the mechan- 
 ism being so contrived as to roll the spindle-carriage 
 out and in at the proper speed, without a hand touching 
 it; and the only manual labour employed in these 
 machines, which are called self-acting mules, is that of 
 the children who join the broken threads. The first 
 machine of this nature Avas invented by the ingenious 
 Mr. William Strutt, F.R.S., of Derby, son of Mr, 
 Jedediah Strutt, the partner of Arkwright; and the 
 folloAving mention is made of it in a memoir of that 
 gentleman, written by his son, Mr. Edward Strutt, at 
 present Member for Derby. Mr. Strutt died on the 
 29th of December, 1830, and the memoir appeared 
 shortly after in a periodical journal : — " Among liis 
 other inventions and improvements, we may mention a 
 self-acting mule for the spinning of cotton, invented 
 more than forty years ago," [therefore before 1790,] 
 " but we believe the inferior workmanship of that day 
 prevented the success of an invention, which all tlie 
 skill and improvement in the construction of machinery 
 in the present day has barely accomplished." 
 
 Mr. Kelly, formerly of Lanark mills, also made a 
 self-acting mule in 1 792 ; and the following letter from 
 himself to Mr. Kennedy, WTitten on the 8th of January, 
 1829, and communicated to me by the latter gentleman, 
 contains some interesting particulars concerning Mr, 
 Kelly's improvements — 
 
 " I first applied water-power to the common mules in the year 
 1790, that is, we drove the mules by water, but put them up, (that 
 is, the carriage or spindle-frame) in the common way, by applying 
 the hand to the fly-wheel : and by placing the wheels (or mules) 
 
206 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 right and left, the spinner was thereby enabled to spin two mules 
 in place of one. * « * * 
 
 " The mules at that time were generally driven with ropes made 
 of cotton-mill-waste, from a lying shaft in the middle of the room, 
 and over gallows-pullies above the fly-wheels on each side of |the 
 room. That mode of driving was succeeded by belts, which was 
 in every respect much better, and better adapted to self-acting 
 mules, &c. From the above date I constantly had in view the 
 self-acting mule, and trying to bring it into use ; and having got 
 it to do very well for coarse numbers, I took out the patent in the 
 summer 1792. The object then was, to spin with young people, 
 like the water twist. For that purpose it was necessary that the 
 carriage should be put up without the necessity of applying the 
 hand to the fly-wheel. At first we used them completely self- 
 acting in all the motions — the fly continuing to revolve, and, after 
 receiving the full quantity of twist, the spindles stood — the guide 
 or faller was turned down on the inside of the spindles, and the 
 points were cleared of the thread at the same instant, by the rising 
 of a guide, or inside faller, (if it might be so called.) When the 
 outside guide-wire, or faller, was moved round, or turned down to 
 a certain point on the inside of the spindles, it then disengaged, or 
 or rather allowed a puUy, driven from the back of the belt pully, 
 to come into gear or action, and which gave motion to the spindles, 
 and took in the carriage at the same time, (similar to the way you 
 assist the large mules in putting up.) But in the above self-acting 
 mule, which performed every motion, after the spindles were 
 stopped it required about three turns of the fly-wheel to move 
 round the faller, and put in action the above-mentioned pully, that 
 took in the carriage ; which was a great loss of time. We there- 
 fore set aside that part of the apparatus or machinery, and allowed 
 the mule to stop in the common way on receiving the full comple- 
 ment of twist ; and the instant it stopped, the boy or girl, without 
 putting their hand to the fly-wheel, just turned the guide or faller 
 with the hand, which instantly set in motion the spindles, and took 
 in the carriage — the cop being shaped by an inclined plane, or 
 other contrivance. * * * 
 
 " It will naturally be asked, why were not the self-acting mules 
 continued in use ? At first, you know, the mules were about 144 
 spindles in size, and when power was applied, the spinner worked 
 
Fio.J 
 
 xnrosUe -£.na utx'anon . 
 
 jAi.^oTJLE. MULE, & SELF 
 
 MULE, 
 
 J.Vr.Lowiv. 
 
 nsHEK. SOJf. £ C? LOKDON. I93i 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 207 
 
 two of such ; but the size of the mules rapidly increased to 300 
 spindles and upwards, and two such wheels being considered a 
 sufficient task for a man to manage, the idea of saving by spinning 
 with boys and girls was thus superseded. * * * * 
 
 " I am, dear sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 " William Kelly." 
 
 Several spinners and mechanics in England, Scotland, 
 France, and America have also invented contiivances 
 for tlie same purpose, amongst whom maj be mentioned 
 Messrs. Eaton, of Wiln, in Derbyshire, and of France ; 
 Mr. Peter Ewart, of Manchester ; Mr. De longh, of 
 Warrington; Mr. Buchanan, of the Catrine Works, 
 Scotland ; Mr. Knowles, of Manchester ; and Dr. 
 Brewster, of America. Of these, none succeeded to any 
 considerable extent, though the self-acting mule of 
 De lonffh has been worked with advantage in several 
 mills. 
 
 But the machine wliich has met with decided success 
 is the self-acting mule invented by Mr. Roberts, an 
 extremely ingenious machine-maker of Manchester, of 
 the firm of Sharp, Roberts, and Co. By this machine, 
 for which the first patent was taken out in 1825, and 
 tlie second, for a further improvement, in 1830, a very 
 close approach to perfection seems to be made. It 
 produces a considerably greater quantity of yarn, of 
 more uniform twist, and less liable to break, and it 
 winds it on the cop more evenly and closely ; so that the 
 yarn is more desirable for tlie weaver. Roberts's self- 
 acting mule is coming rapidly into use throughout the 
 spinning district. In March, 1834, the patentees 
 informed me that they had then made 520 self-acting 
 mules, containing upwards of 200,000 spindles, and 
 that that number was likely to be more than doubled 
 
208 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 in the course of the year. One of the recommendatioris 
 of tliis machine to the spinners is, that it renders them 
 independent of the working spinners, wliose combina- 
 tions and stoppages of work have often been extremely 
 annoying to the masters. 
 
 Having mentioned one of the most recent improve- 
 ments on the mule, that of Roberts, I shall now conclude 
 the history of the spinning machinery (though it carries 
 me out of the chronological order) by mentioning the 
 improvements made of late years in the water-frame. 
 This machine seemed at one tune to be going out of 
 use, like the jenny, — almost every quality of yarn being- 
 spun by the mule.. But when the power-loom came 
 into use, it was peculiarly desirable to have twist for 
 warps, of that superior strength and wiry smoothness 
 which the water-frame produces. Improvements which 
 were made in the machine also enabled the manu- 
 facturers to sell the water-twist of low counts cheaper 
 than mule-t^nst. Many years before, the gearing of 
 the water-frame liad been sunplified, so as to require 
 less power to drive it, and the improved machine was 
 called a throstle, probably from its singing sound. 
 
 Mr. Bannatyne thus describes this improvement : — 
 " In the throstle, the spinning apparatus is in every 
 respect the same as in Sir Richard Arkwright's frame, 
 but the movement of the pai'ts is different. In place of 
 four or six spindles being coupled together, forming 
 what is called a head, ^^'ith a separate movement by a 
 pulley and drum, as is the case in the frame, the Avhole 
 rollers and spindles on both sides of the throstle are 
 connected together, and turned by bands from a tin 
 cylinder lying horizontally under the machine. The 
 merit of the invention chiefly lies in the simplification of 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 209 
 
 the moving apparatus just mentioned. The movement 
 is not only rendered ligliter, but greater facility is 
 afforded for increasing the speed of the machine, and 
 consequently, when the nature of the spinning admits 
 it, for obtaining a larger production. Tlie throstle can 
 also, ^nth more ease, and at less expense, be altered to 
 spin the different grists of yarn ; only a few movements 
 require to be changed in it to produce this end, while in 
 the spinning-frame there are a great many."* 
 
 Further improvements, which have tlie effect of 
 increasing the velocity of the spindles, and consequently 
 of augmenting the quantity of twist produced, have been 
 made within the last few years by American mechanics ; 
 but these machines cause a large quantity of waste, and 
 they are therefore by no means established in general 
 use as real improvements. Owing to tliese advantages 
 — the greater quantity of twist produced, its consequent 
 cheapness, and its adaptation to the jiurpose of warps 
 for power-loom cloth of the coarser kinds — it is probable 
 that the throstles will come into use more extensively 
 than at present.f For all the finer qualities of yarn the 
 nmle is the only machine employed. J 
 
 I sliall avail myself of Mr. Bannatyne's concise and 
 
 clear descriptions of two recent improvements in the 
 
 machines for roving, called the fiy frame and the tube 
 
 frame — "About the year 1817 the fly frame was intro- 
 
 * Encyclopjedia Britannica, article " Cotton Manufacture." 
 
 t This opinion is strongly expressed in " The Carding and Spinning Master's 
 Assistant; or, The Theory and Practice of Cotton Spinning;" p. 147. 
 
 X Some idea may be formed of the proportions which these two machines at 
 present bear to each other in the extent of their adoption, from the statement of 
 mule and throstle spindles in Lanarkshire, in November, 1831, made by Dr. 
 Cleland, in his "Enumeration of the Inhabitants of Glasgow," &c. The number 
 of mule spindles is stated to be 591,288, and of throstle spindles 48,900. — p. 151. 
 
 2d 
 
210 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 duced for prepaiiiig roviiigs for the middle and coai'ser 
 numbers of both warp and Aveft; and this machine, 
 haAino- received considerable improvements since, has 
 nearly superseded the use of the roving frame. Instead 
 of the revohing cans of the roving frame, the fly frame 
 has spindles placed at equal distances from each other, 
 Avith a fly on the top of each, one of the legs of wliich is 
 made in the form of a tube, for the purpose of receiving 
 the roving and conveying it to the bobbin. The rollers 
 deliver the roving to the top of the fly, where it passes 
 through a small hole immediately above the centre of 
 the spindle, called the eye of the fly, and from which it 
 descends through the tube to the bobbin, wliich is fitted 
 loosely on the spindle. The fly revolves rapidly round 
 the bobbin, and winds the roving on it as fast as it is 
 delivered by the rollers. The motions of the rollers and 
 spindles are equal and unifonn at all times : hence the 
 twist is equally difiused over all parts of the ro^-ing. 
 But to adapt the taking up of the roving to tlie unifonn 
 delivery of the rollers, the speed of the bobbin must be 
 variable and unequal ; for, while it increases in dia- 
 meter, the velocity of its acting circumference will 
 remain the same. The ratio of its accelerating motion, 
 therefore, must be equal to the ratio of its increasing 
 diameter; that is, supposing the bobbin to follow the 
 fly ; but sometimes the fly follows the bobbin, in which 
 case the speed of the bobbin must decrease in the same 
 ratio as above. 
 
 " An important improvement in the process of pre- 
 paration for cotton spinning is the tube frame lately 
 introduced. It is employed as a finishing frame for 
 coarse numbers ; but when used as a slabbing or roving 
 frame, it may be applied to the preparation of yarns of 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 211 
 
 any number whatever. The construction of this 
 machine differs from tliat of the roving frame, in having, 
 instead of cans, revolving horizontal cylhiders parallel 
 with the beam rollers, placed about twelve inches in 
 front of the beam. Its chief advantage lies in the great 
 quantity of roving it can produce in a given time, its 
 superiority of production to the fly frame being as 
 eighty-four to seventeen; but the rove it produces is 
 inferior in quality, and, having no twist, is extremely 
 soft and tender, and causes a greater quantity of waste 
 than the roves prepared by the fly frame."* 
 
 A person named Green, a tinsmith, of Mansfield, was 
 the first who conceived the idea of attaching the move- 
 ments of the spindle and bobbin together, so as to 
 regulate the speed of the latter in proportion to that of 
 the former, as is done in the fly frame ; but Mr. Henry 
 Houldsworth, the cotton spinner, of Manchester, invented 
 the combination of wheels, by whicli that object is 
 accomplished, and took out a patent for it in 1825. 
 Mr. Dyer, of Manchester, introduced the tube frame 
 from America, and is the patentee in this country ; he 
 obtained the first patent in 1825, and the second, for 
 an improvement of his OAvn, in 1829 : the machine has 
 been brought into very extensive use : in 1833 not less 
 than a thousand of the tube frames were in operation, 
 each of them capable of Avorking 1000 lbs. of cotton per 
 week. 
 
 Having thus traced the spinning machinery up to the 
 present time, let us pause, to cast a retrospective glance 
 on the different stages by which the process of spinning 
 has advanced, from the time when the one-thread wlieel 
 was in general use. Little more than sixty years since, 
 
 • Encyclopaedia Britannica, article " Cotton Manufacture." 
 
212 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 every thread used in tlie manufacture of cotton, wool, 
 worsted, and flax, throughout the Avorld, was spun 
 shigly by the fingers of the spinner, with the aid of that 
 classical instrument, the domestic spinning wheel. In 
 1767, an eight-handed spinster sprung from the genius 
 of Hargreaves ; and the jenny, with still increasing 
 powers, made its way into common use, in spite of all 
 opposition. Two years afterwards, the more wonderful 
 invention of Wyatt, which claims a much earlier origin, 
 but which had disappeared, like a river that smks into 
 a subterraneous channel, and now rose again under the 
 fortunate star of Arkwright, claimed yet higlier admira- 
 tion, as founded on principles of more extensive appli- 
 cation. Five years later, the happy thought of combining 
 the principles of these two inventions, to produce a 
 third much more efficient than either, struck the mind 
 of Crompton, who, by a perfectly original contrivance, 
 eff"ected the union. From twenty spindles, this machine 
 was brought, by more finished mechanism, to admit of 
 a hundi-ed spindles, and tlms to exercise a Briarean 
 power. Kelly relinquished the toilsome method of tm-ning 
 the machine by hand, and yoked to it the strength of 
 the rapid Clyde. Watt, with the subtler and more 
 potent agency of steam, moved an iron arm that never 
 slackens or tires, which whirls round two thousand 
 spindles in a single machine. Finally, to consummate 
 the wonder, Roberts dismisses the spinner, and leaves 
 the machine to its own infallible guidance. So that, in 
 the year 1834, several thousand spindles may be seen 
 in a single room, revolving ^vit]l inconceivable rapidity, 
 with no hand to urge their progress or to guide their 
 operations — drawing out, twisting, and winding uj) as 
 many thousand threads, with unfailing precision, inde- 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 213 
 
 fatigable patience and strength ; — a scene as magical to 
 tlie eye wliicli is not familiarized with it, as the effects 
 have been marvellous in augmenting- the wealth and 
 population of the country. 
 
 If the thought should cross any mind, that, after all, 
 the so much vaunted genius of our mechanics has been 
 expended in tlie insignificant object of enabling men 
 better to pick out, arrange, and twist together the fibres 
 of a vegetable wool, — that it is for the performance of 
 this minute operation that so many energies have been 
 exhausted, so much capital employed, sucli stupendous 
 structures reared, and so vast a population trained up ; 
 — we reply — An object is not insignificant, because the 
 operation by wliicli it is effected is minute : the first 
 want of men in this life, after food, is clothing, and as 
 this art enables them to supply it far more easily and 
 cheaply than the old methods of manufacturing, and to 
 bring cloths of great elegance and durability within the 
 use of the humble classes, it is an art whose utility is 
 inferior only to that of agriculture. It contributes 
 directly and most materially to the comforts of life 
 among all nations where manufactures exist, or to which 
 the products of manufacturing industry are conveyed ; 
 it ministers to the comfort and decency of the poor, as 
 well as to the taste and luxury of the rich. By 
 supplying one of the great wants of life with a much 
 less expenditure of labour than w^as formerly needed, 
 it sets at liberty a larger proportion of the population, 
 to cultivate literature, science, and the fine arts. To 
 this country, the new inventions have brought a material 
 accession of wealth and power. When it is also remem- 
 bered that the inventions, whose origin I have endea- 
 
214 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 voured carefully to trace, are not confined in tlieir 
 application to one manufacture, however extensive, but 
 that they have given nearly the same facilities to the 
 woollen, the worsted, the linen, the stocking, and the 
 lace manufactures, as to the cotton ; and that they have 
 spread from England to the whole of Europe, to 
 America, and to parts of Africa and Asia ; it must be 
 admitted that the mechanical improvements in the art 
 of spinning have an importance which it is difficult to 
 over-estimate. By the Greeks, their authors would 
 have been thought worthy of deification ; nor will the 
 enhghtened judgment of moderns deny that the men to 
 whom we owe such inventions deserve to rank among 
 the chief benefactors of mankind. 
 
 The dissolution of Arkwright's patent, and the inven- 
 tion of the mule, concurred to give the most extraordinary 
 impetus to the cotton manufacture. Nothing like it has 
 been known in any other great branch of industry. 
 Capital and labour rushed to this manufacture in a 
 torrent, attracted by the unequalled profits which it 
 yielded. Numerous mills were erected, and filled with 
 water-frames; and jennies and mules were made and set 
 to work with almost incredible rapidity. Tlie increase 
 of Aveavers kept pace with the increase of spinners ; and 
 all classes of workmen in this trade received extrava- 
 gantly high wages ; such as were necessEuy to draw from 
 other trades the amount of labour for which the cotton 
 trade offered profitable employment, but sucli as it was 
 impossible to maintain for any lengthened period. 
 
 Within ten yeai's, from 1 780 to 1 790, tlie quantity of 
 cotton consumed in this country increased nearly ^fe- 
 fold, as appears from the following table : — 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 215 
 
 Years. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1(1771 to 1775 . 
 
 . 4,764,589 
 
 f U776 tol780 . 
 
 . 6,766,613 
 
 1781 . . . 
 
 . 5,198,778 
 
 1782 . . . 
 
 . 11,828,039 
 
 1783 . . . 
 
 . 9,735,663 
 
 1784 . . . 
 
 . 11,482,083 
 
 Cotton Imported from 1771 to 1790. 
 
 Years. lbs. 
 
 1785 .... 18,400,384 
 
 1786 19,475,020 
 
 1787 .... 23,250,268 
 
 1788 20,467,436 
 
 1789 .... 32,576,023 
 
 1790 31,447,605 
 
 It may be interesting to cast a glance over the whole 
 century, and to compare the slow progress of the manu- 
 facture before the mechanical improvements with its 
 rapid progress afterwards, as indicated by the con- 
 sumption of the raw material, and the exportation of 
 the manufactured article. The following tables have 
 been supplied from the Custom-House : — 
 
 Cotton Imported from 1701 to 1800. 
 
 Yeats. lbs. 
 
 1701 1,985,868 
 
 1701 to 1705 (average) 1.170,881 
 1710 ..... 715,008 
 
 1720 1,972,805 
 
 1730 1,545,472 
 
 1741 1,645,031 
 
 British Cottons Exported from 1701 to 1800. 
 
 Official Value. 
 
 Years. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1751 . . . 
 
 . 2,976,610 
 
 1764 . . . 
 
 . 3,870,392 
 
 1771 to 1775 
 
 . 4,764,589 
 
 1776 to 1780 
 
 . 6,766,613 
 
 1790 . . . 
 
 . 31,447,605 
 
 1800 . . . 
 
 56,010,732 
 
 Years. 
 
 1701 
 1710 
 1720 
 
 £. 
 23,253 
 5,698 
 16,200 
 
 1730 13,524 
 
 1741 20,709 
 
 1751 45,986 
 
 Years. £. 
 
 1764 200,354 
 
 1766 220,759 
 
 1780 355,060 
 
 1787 1,101,457 
 
 1790 1,662,369 
 
 1800 5,406,501 
 
216 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Within the first fifty yeai's of the century, the quantity 
 of cotton wool imported seems to have little more than 
 doubled: within the last twenty years, it multiplied more 
 than eight-fold. The rate of progi-ession, therefore, was 
 ten times as great in tlie latter period as in the former ! 
 
 Within the first fifty years, the value of the cotton 
 exports nearly doubled: witliin the last tiventy it multi- 
 plied fifteen and a half fold. The rate of progression, 
 therefore, was nearly twenty times as great in the latter 
 period as in the former ! Such are the eifects of 
 Machinery ! 
 
 The purposes for which the cotton was used, in the 
 year 1787, are thus stated: — 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Calicoes and Muslins 11,600,000 
 
 Fustians 6,000,000 
 
 Mixtures with Silk and Linen . . . 2,000,000 
 
 Hosiery 1,500,000 
 
 Candle-wicks* 1,500,000 
 
 22,600,000 
 
 Estimates of the extent and value of the cotton trade 
 were made in a pamphlet, published in 1 788, entitled, 
 " An important Crisis in the Calico and Muslin Manu- 
 factures of the Country explained." Tliese estimates 
 have been copied into many other works,| but they 
 
 * The quantity here set down for candle-wicks is nearly as great as the whole 
 importation of cotton at the beginning of the century. I have no means of ascer- 
 taining whether the estimate (which appears in a pamphlet published at the time, 
 but, as will be seen, having little pretensions to accuracy,) is correct ; but if it 
 even approaches to correctness, it leads us to the inference that a considerable pro- 
 portion, even of the small imports of 1700 to 1750, may have been used as 
 candle-wicks, and for other minor purposes. 
 
 t Amongst others, into Aikin's History of Manchester, Macpherson's Annals of 
 Commerce, Bryan Edwards's History of the West Indies, and Rees's Cyclopaedia. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 217 
 
 are preposterously exaggerated. They represent tlie 
 whole value of the cotton manufacture, including both 
 raw material and labour, to have been only £200,000 
 in 1767, and to have risen to £7,500,000 in 1787; 
 which would have shewn an increase of more than 
 thirty-seven fold, whilst the increase in the quantity 
 of the raw material consumed was certainly not seven- 
 fold! 
 
 The amounts given both for 1767 and 1787 are 
 incorrect, the former being as much under-rated as the 
 latter is over-rated. The official return just quoted 
 shews that the cotton exports in 1766 were £220,759; 
 and, in the same year, Postlethwayt estimated the whole 
 value of the cotton goods manufactured in England at 
 £600,000 : these two statements would shew that the 
 exports were then nearly in the proportion o( one-third of 
 the whole value manufactured. At the present time the 
 exports are about one-half of the whole value manu- 
 factured. But suppose that they continued in the 
 same proportion in 1787 as in 1766, that is, one-third: 
 the official value of the cotton exports in 1787 was 
 £1,101,457; which, multiplied by three, would give 
 £3,304,371 as the whole value of the cottons manu- 
 factured in England. The matter will then stand 
 thus : — 
 
 Even Dr. Percival, of Manchester, suffered himself to be deluded by this 
 pamphlet, which was got up in a huvy to assist a popular clamour against the 
 admission of India cotton goods ; and he copied from it (with acknowledgment) 
 into his " Observations on Population," the statement which has ever since been 
 fathered upon himself, namely, that " in 1760 the entire value of all the cotton 
 goods manufactured in Great Britain was estimated to amount only to £200,000 
 a year," {ante, p. 110.) It is amusing to trace the progress of these gross errors, 
 which have probably been copied on trust by hundreds of authors, though they 
 originated in an ephemeral brochure, — a mere budget of blunders and prejudices. 
 
 2e 
 
218 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Value of English Cotton Manufactures in 
 1767 AND 1787. 
 
 Erroneous Estimate. 
 
 1767 . £200,000 "i An increase 
 1787 . 7,500,000 j of 37 fold. 
 
 Corrected Estimate. 
 
 1766 . £600,000 7 An increase 
 1787 . 3,304,3715 of .5^ fold. 
 
 Instead of an increase of 37 fold, we see therefore an 
 increase of 5i fold; the reality is sufficiently striking, 
 without the aid of exaggeration. 
 
 The pamphlet above quoted also calculates the number 
 of men, women, and children, employed in all the stages 
 of the cotton manufacture, in the year 1787, as being 
 350,000; wliich is equally incredible, if compared with 
 the small population wliich must have been engaged in 
 the manufacture twenty years before, or with the popu- 
 lation it employs at the present time, when tlie quantity 
 of cotton consumed is thirteen times as gTeat as in 1787. 
 Mr. M'Culloch, in 1831, estimated the number of 
 weavers, spinners, bleachers, &c. employed in the cotton 
 trade in Great Britain, at 833,000,* wliich is probably 
 near the truth; but it cannot be supposed that the 
 number of persons in the trade only little more than 
 doubled witliin the forty-four years, from 1787 to 1831, 
 when the consumption of the raw material increased 
 eleven-fold during the same period. At the beginning 
 of the year 1 785, Mr. Pitt, when defending the new 
 cotton duty, estimated the number of persons employed 
 in all branches of the cotton manufacture at 80,000.t 
 As this estimate was made immediately after a searcliing 
 
 * M'Culloch's Dictionary of Commerce and Commercial Navigation, p. 415. 
 t Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, April 20, 1785. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 219 
 
 parliamentary investigation into the condition of the 
 cotton manufacture, it is likely to have been tolerably 
 accurate ; but it Avas the estimate for the year 1 784, when 
 the importation of cotton was only 11,482,083 lbs., not 
 for 1785. In 1787 — the interval having been a period 
 of the most extraordinary increase — the quantity of 
 cotton imported was 23,250,268 lbs. Suppose, then, 
 that the number of hands increased in proportion to the 
 increase in the consumption of the raw material ; and 
 from these elements of calculation we should find that 
 the hands employed in the cotton manufacture in 1787 
 were 162,000. 
 
 It is probable that the statement of the number of 
 cotton-mills, made in this pamphlet, would approach to 
 correctness. It is as follows : — 
 
 Number of Cotton-Mills in Great Britain, 
 
 IN 1787. 
 
 In Lancashire .... 41 Flintshire 3 
 
 Derbyshire .... 22 Pembrokeshire 1 
 
 Nottinghamshire ... 17 Lanarkshire 4 
 
 Yorkshire 11 Renfrewshire 4 
 
 Cheshire 8 Perthshire 3 
 
 Staffordshire .... 7 Edinburghshire 2 
 
 Westmoreland .... 5 Rest of Scotland .... 6 
 
 Berkshire 2 Isle of Man 1 
 
 Rest of England ... 6 
 
 24 
 
 In England 119 
 
 In Scotland, Wales, and 
 
 Isle of Man .... 24 
 
 143 
 
220 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE STEAM-ENGINE, POWER-LOOM, ETC. 
 
 Disadvantages of water-power. — The steam-engine. — History of the steam-engine; 
 Solomon de Caus, David Ramseye, Marquis of Worcester, Captain Savery, 
 Newcomen, Beighton. — James Watt studies to remedy tlie defects of the steam- 
 engine: succeeds. — His patent in 1769. — Brilliant era of British science and 
 invention. — Watt connects himself with Boulton. — Act to secure his patent for 
 25 years. — His improvements described. — First reciprocating engine erected in 
 1782. — Applied to cotton spinning. — Great importance of the steam-engine. — 
 Improvements in weaving. — History of the power-loom. — Rev. Dr. Cartwright. 
 — Dressing machine of Johnson and Radcliffe. — Power-loom succeeds. — Number 
 of power-looms in Great Britain. — The willow, scutching machine, and spreading 
 machine. — Review of the processes of manufacturing. — The cotton mill a grand 
 triumph of science. 
 
 Amazing as is the progress whicli had taken place iu the 
 cotton manufacture prior to 1790, it would soon liave 
 found a check upon its farther extension, if a power more 
 efficient than water had not been discovered to move the 
 machinery. The building of mills in Lancashire must 
 have ceased, when all the available fall of the streams 
 had been appropriated. The manufacture might indeed 
 have spread to other counties, as it has done to some 
 extent j but it could not have flourished in any district 
 where coal as well as water was not to be found; and the 
 diifiision of the mills over a wide space would have been 
 unfavourable to the division of labour, tlie perfection of 
 machine-making, and the cheapness of conveyance. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 221 
 
 At this period a power was happily discovered, of 
 almost universal application and unlimited extent, adapted 
 to every locality where fuel was cheap, and available 
 both to make machines and to work them, both to pro- 
 duce goods, and to convey them by land and water. 
 Tliis power was tlie steam-engine, which, though not an 
 invention of tliat age, was first made of great and 
 extensive utility by tlie genius of James Watt. 
 
 The first thought of employing the expansive 
 force of steam as a mechanical power is believed to 
 have been entertained by Solomon de Cans, engineer to 
 Louis XIII., who proposed the raising of water by steam 
 as a philosophical principle, in a book written in 1615, 
 after he had been in England, in the suite of the Elector 
 Palatine, who married the daughter of James I. In 1630, 
 Charles I. granted a patent to David Ramseye, a groom 
 of the privy chamber, for nine articles of invention, two 
 of which seem to indicate tlie origin of the steam-engine, 
 viz.: "To raise water from low pitts, by fire;" and "To 
 raise water from low places, and mynes, and coal pits, 
 by a new waie never yet in use."* These facts take 
 away from the ingenious Marquis of Worcester the 
 honour which has generally been ascnbed to liim, of 
 having first applied steam as a mechanical power. In 
 the " Century of Inventions,'' published by that eccentric 
 nobleman in 1663, there is tlie most distinct statement 
 of the immense power of steam, which he had provied by 
 its bursting a cannon, and which he had applied to the 
 producing of fountains forty feet liigh. The first person 
 who constructed a machine in which steam was success- 
 fully turned to pui-poses of usefulness, was Captain 
 
 • Rymer's Foedera, Vol. XIX. p. 139. 
 
222 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Savery,* who obtained a patent on the 25th July, 1698, 
 for his invention. This engine was thouglit of so mucli 
 importance, that an act of parhament was passed, 10 and 
 11 William III. c. 31, " for the encouragement of a 
 new invention, by Thomas Savery, for raising water, 
 and occasioning motion to all sorts of mill-work, by the 
 impellent force of fire." Before he obtained his patent, 
 Savery had erected several steam-engines to pump 
 water out of the Cornish mines, and had published a 
 description of the machine in a book, entitled " TJie 
 Miners Friend,'' in 1696. This engine, though very 
 ingenious, had many defects, the principal of which 
 were, that it occasioned a gi'eat waste of steam and fuel, 
 and, from its limited powers, could only be applied in 
 certain situations. A material improvement was made 
 in it by Thomas Newcomen, an ingenious ironmonger 
 at Dartmouth, in Devonshu'e, who came to an agree- 
 ment with Savery, and obtained a joint patent with him 
 for the new engine in 1705. Mr. Beighton, in 1717, 
 simplified the movements of the macliine, without 
 changing its principle; and, after his time, no consi- 
 derable improvement was made till 1769. 
 
 James Watt, a native of Greenock, was brought up as 
 a maker of philosophical instruments in Glasgow and 
 London, and settled in Glasgow in 1757. He was 
 appointed instrument maker to the university, and thus 
 became acquainted with Dr. Black, professor of medicine 
 and lecturer on chemistry in that institution, who, about 
 this time, pubHshed his important and beautiful discovery 
 of latent heat. The knowledge of this doctrine led Watt 
 to reflect on the prodigious waste of heat in the steam- 
 
 • Savery obtained the title of Captain, by which he is always known, from the 
 Cornish miners, who are in the habit of giving it to the head engineers. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 223 
 
 engine, where steam was used merely for the purpose of 
 creating a vacuum in the cylinder under the piston, and 
 for that end was condensed in the cylinder itself, — the 
 piston being then forced down solely by atmospheric 
 pressure. The cylinder Avas therefore alternately warmed 
 by the steam, and cooled by the admission of cold water 
 to condense the steam ; and when the steam was readmit- 
 ted after the cooling process, much of it was instantly 
 condensed by the cold cylinder, and a great Avaste of 
 the steam took place: of course, there was an equal 
 waste of the fuel which produced the steam, and this 
 rendered the use of the machine very costly. 
 
 It happened that Watt was employed, in the year 
 1 763, to repau- a small working model of Newcomen's 
 steam-engine for Professor Anderson. He saw its 
 defects, and studied how to remedy them. He perceived 
 the vast capabilities of an engine, moved by so powerful 
 an agent as steam, if that agent could be properly 
 applied. His scientific knowledge, as well as his 
 mechanical ingenuity, was called forth; all the resources 
 of his sagacious and pliilosophical mind were devoted to 
 the task; and after years of patient labour and costly 
 experiments, which nearly exhausted his means, he 
 succeeded in remo\ing every difficulty, and making the 
 steam-engine the most valuable instrument for the appli- 
 cation of power, which the world has ever knoAvn. 
 
 It is not a little remarkable that his patent, " for 
 lessening the consumption of steam and fuel in fire 
 engines," should have been taken out in the same year 
 as Arkwright's patent for spinning with rollers, namely, 
 1769 — one of the most brilliant eras in the annals of 
 British genius; — when Black and Priestley were 
 making their great discoveries in science; when Har- 
 
224 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 oreaves, Ark\NTiglit, and Watt reyolutionized the pro- 
 cesses of manufactures; when Smeaton and Brindley 
 executed prodigies of engineeiing art; when the senate 
 was illuminated by Burke and Fox, Chatham and 
 ^lansfield; when Johnson and Goldsmith, Reid and 
 Beattie, Hume, Gibbon, and Adam Smith, adoraed the 
 walks of philosophy and letters. 
 
 The patent of 1 769 did not include all Watt's im- 
 provements. He connected himself in 1775 with Mr. 
 Boulton, of Soho, Bu-miugham, a gentleman of wealth, 
 entei-piise, and mechanical talent; and, having made 
 still further improvements in the steam-engine, an Act of 
 parHament was passed the same year, vesting in him 
 " the sole use and property of certain steam-engines (or 
 fire-engines) of liis invention, throughout his majesty's 
 dominions," for the extraordinary term of twenty-five 
 years.* So comprehensive was the Act, that it pre- 
 vented others from making steam-engines which con- 
 tained improvements of tlieii' own, if their engines 
 condensed the steam in a sepai'ate vessel : tliis was the 
 foundation of Watt's improvements, and it was so great 
 an improvement, that no person could without immense 
 
 • The reasons for this great favour shewn to Mr. Watt are thus stated in the 
 act : " James Watt has expended great part of his fortune in making experiments 
 to improve steam-engines; but on account of the diflBculties in execution, could 
 not complete his invention before the end of 1774, when he finished some large 
 engines, which have succeeded. In order to make those engines with accuracy, at 
 moderate prices, a large sum must be previously expended in mills and apparatus ; 
 and as several years and repeated proofs will be required before the public can be 
 fully convinced of their interest to adopt the invention, the term of the patent may 
 elapse before he is recompensed. By furnishing mechanical power at less expense, 
 and in more convenient forms than hitherto, his engines may be of great utility in 
 many great works and manufactures, yet he cannot carry his invention into that 
 complete execution that will render it of the highest utility of which it is capable, 
 unless the term be prolonged, and his property in the invention secured in 
 Scotland, as well as in England and the colonies." 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 225 
 
 disadvantage dispense with it. Watt, therefore, took 
 up liis position in a narrow pass, which he was able to 
 defend against a host ; and lie kept the whole business of 
 maldng steam-engines to liimself, deterring all invaders 
 of his privilege by instantly commencing prosecutions. 
 He enjoyed his patent for more than thirty years, from 
 1769 to 1800: and, though it was probably unproductive 
 for the first ten years, it afterwards produced him a 
 large fortune, so that he retired from business a wealthy 
 man, on the expiration of the exclusive privilege. The 
 monopoly was much more extended than any legis- 
 lature ought to have granted ; but it must be allowed 
 that no man could have better deserved or better 
 used it. 
 
 Watt laboured incessantly to perfect this important 
 and complicated engine, and took out three other patents 
 in 1781, 1782, and 1784, for great and essential im- 
 provements. 'I'he three gi-eat improvements which he 
 made in the steam-engine are thus briefly described : 
 1st. The condensation of the steam in a separate vessel: 
 this increased the original powers of the engine, giving 
 to the atmospheric pressure, and to the counter-weight, 
 theii' full energy, while, at the same time, the waste of 
 steam was greatly diminished. 2d. The employment of 
 steam pressure, instead of that of the atmosphere : this 
 accomplished a still further diminution of the waste, and 
 was fertile in advantages, as it rendered the machine 
 more manageable, particularly by enabling the operator 
 at all times, and without trouble, to suit the power of 
 the engine to its load of work, however variable and 
 increasing. Tlie third improvement was the double 
 impulse, which may be considered as the finishing touch 
 
 2f 
 
226 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 given to the engine, by which its action is rendered 
 nearly as uniform as the water-wheel. 
 
 Up to the time of Watt, and indeed up to the year 
 1782, the steam-engine had been almost exclusively 
 used to pump water out of mines. He perfected its 
 mechanism, so as to adapt it to the production of rotative 
 motion and the working of machinery ; and the first 
 engine of that kind was erected by Boulton and Watt 
 at Bradley iron-works, in that year. The first engine 
 which they made for a cotton mill was in the works of 
 Messrs. Robinsons, of Papplewick, in Nottinghamshii'e, 
 in the year 1785. An atmospheric engine had been 
 put up by Messrs. Arkwright and Simpson for their 
 cotton mill on Shude-hill, Manchester, in 1783 : but it 
 was not till 1 789 that a steam-engine was erected by 
 Boulton and Watt in that town for cotton spinning, 
 when they made one for Mr. Drinkwater : nor did Sir 
 Richard Ark>vi'ight ado2)t the new invention till 1790, 
 when he had one of Boulton and Watt's engines put up 
 in a cotton mill at Nottingham. In Glasgow, the first 
 steam-engine for cotton spinning was set up for Messrs. 
 Scott and Stevenson, in 1792. So truly had it been 
 predicted in the Act of 1775, that " several years, and 
 repeated proofs, would be required before the public 
 would be fully convinced of their interest to adopt the 
 invention." But when the unrivalled advantages of 
 the steam-engine, as a movmg force for all kinds 
 of machinery, came to be generally known, it was 
 rapidly adopted throughout the Idngdom, and for every 
 purpose requiring great and steady power. The number 
 of engines in use in Manchester, before the year 
 1800, was probably 32, and their power 430 horse; 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 227 
 
 and at Leeds there were 20 engines, of 270 horse- 
 power.* 
 
 By some writers, who have not remarked the wonderful 
 spring which had been given to the cotton manufactiu'e 
 before the steam-engine was applied to spinning 
 macliinery, too great stress has been laid upon this 
 engine, as if it had almost created the manufacture. 
 Tliis was not the case. The spinning machinery created 
 the cotton manufacture. But tliis branch of industry 
 has unquestionably been extended by means of the 
 steam-engine far beyond the limit wliich it could other- 
 wise have reached ; and now the steam-engine stands in 
 the same relation to the spinning macliines, as the heart 
 does to the arms, hands, and fingers, in the human 
 frame ;'|" the latter perform every task of dexterity and 
 labour, the former supplies them with all then* vital 
 energy. Without the steam-engine, IManchester and 
 Glasgow would not have approached to theii* present 
 greatness. ;[; 
 
 • Farey on the Steam Engine, p. 654. 
 
 f Voila la plus merveilleuse de toutes les machines ; le mecanisme ressemble a 
 celui des animaux. La chaleur est le principe de son mouvement ; il se fait dans 
 ses diffi^rens tuyaux une circulation, comme celle du sang dans les veines, ayant 
 des valvules qui s'ouvrent et se ferment apropos ; elle se nourrit, s'^vacue d'elle- 
 m^me dans des temps r^gl^s, et tire de son travail tout ce qu'il lui fhut poor 
 subsister." — Belidor, Architecture HydrauUque. 
 
 X Mr. Kennedy makes the following remarks on the effects of the steam-engine, 
 in his paper " On the Rise and Progress of the Cotton Trade :" — " About this time 
 (1790) Mr. Watt's steam-engine began to be understood and introduced into this 
 part of the kingdom, and it was applied to the turning of these various machines, 
 (the spinning machinery.) In consequence of this, waterfalls became of less 
 value ; and, instead of carrying the people to the power, it was found preferable to 
 place the power among the people, wherever it was most wanted. The intro- 
 duction of this admirable machine imparted new life to the cotton trade. Its 
 inexhaustible power, and uniform regularity of motion, supplied what was most 
 urgently wanted at the time ; and the scientific principles and excellent workmanship 
 displayed in its construction, led those who were interested in this trade to make 
 many and great improvements in their machines and apparatus for bleaching. 
 
228 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The spiiit of improvement, which had carried tlie 
 spimiing machinery to so high a degi'ee of perfection, 
 was next directed to the iveaving department, and did 
 not rest till that operation, as well as spinning, was 
 performed by machinery. A loom, moved by water- 
 power, had been contrived by M. de Gennes so far back 
 as the seventeenth century ; it is described in the Philo- 
 sopliical Transactions of the Royal Society for 1678, 
 (vol. II. p. 439, of Dr. Button's Abridgment,) as " a 
 new engine to make linen cloth without the help of an 
 artificer ;" and the description given of its advantages 
 deserves to be quoted, from the resemblance between 
 the advantages which that loom professed to attain, 
 and those which the modern power-loom actually does 
 attain : — - 
 
 "The advantages of this machine are these: — 1. That one mill 
 alone will set ten or twelve of these looms at work. 2. The cloth 
 may be made of what breadth you please, or at least much broader 
 than any which has been hitherto made. 3. There will be fewer 
 knots in the cloth, since the threads will not break so fast as in 
 other looms, because the shuttle that breaks the greater part can 
 never touch them. In short, the work will be carried on quicker 
 and at less expense, since, instead of several workmen, which are 
 required in making of very large cloths, one boy will serve to tie 
 the threads of several looms as fast as they break, and to order the 
 quills in the shuttle." 
 
 dyeing, and printing, as well as for spinning. Had it not been for this new 
 accession of power and scientific mechanism, the cotton trade would have been 
 stunted in its growth, and, compared with its present state, must have become an 
 object only of minor importance in a national point of view. And, I believe, the 
 effects of the steam-engine have been nearly the same in the iron, woollen, and 
 flax trades." — Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, 
 vol. III. second series, p, 127. 
 
THE COTTON M A iN U F AC T UR E. 229 
 
 It is i)robable that tliis macliine, from its unwieldy 
 cojistructioii, did not secure in practice the advantages 
 which it promised in theory, as it is not known to have 
 ever come into use. About the middle of the eighteenth 
 century, a swivel-loom Avas invented by M. Vauconson ; 
 and in 1765 a weaving factory, probal)ly filled with those 
 looms, was erected by Mr. Gartside, at Manchester; 
 but no advantage w as realized, as a man w as required to 
 superintend each loom. 
 
 In 1785 the Rev. Dr. Edmund CartAvright, of Hol- 
 lander-house, Kent, (brother of Major Cartwright, the 
 well-known advocate of radical reform,) invented a 
 power-loom, wliich may be regarded as the parent of 
 that now in use. The circmnstances which led to the 
 imention have been thus described in a letter from 
 himself to Mr. Bannatyne, inserted in the Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica : — 
 
 " Happening to be at Matlock in the summer of 1784, I fell in 
 company with some gentlemen of Manchester, when the conver- 
 sation turned on Arkwright's spinning machinery. One of the 
 company observed, that as soon as Arkwright's patent expired, so 
 many mills would be erected, and so much cotton spun, that hands 
 never could be found to weave it. To this observation I replied, 
 that Arkwright must then set his wits to work to invent a weaving 
 mill. This brought on a conversation on the subject, in which the 
 Manchester gentlemen unanimously agreed that the thing was 
 impracticable ; and, in defence of their opinion, they adduced 
 arguments which I certainly was incompetent to answer, or even to 
 comprehend, being totally ignorant of the subject, having never at 
 that time seen a person weave. I controverted, however, the 
 impracticability of the thing by remarking, that there had lately 
 been exhibited in London an automaton figure which played at 
 chess. Now you will not assert, gentlemen, said I, that it is more 
 difficult to construct a machine that shall weave, than one which 
 
230 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 shall make all the variety of moves which are required in that 
 complicated game. 
 
 " Some little time afterwards, a particular circumstance recalling 
 this conversation to my mind, it struck me that, as in plain weaving, 
 according to the conception I then had of the business, there could 
 only be three movements, which were to follow each other in succes- 
 sion, there would be little difficulty in producing and repeating them. 
 Full of these ideas, I immediately employed a carpenter and smith 
 to carry them into effect. As soon as the machine was finished, 
 I got a weaver to put in the warp, which was of such materials as 
 sail-cloth is usually made of. To my great delight, a piece of 
 cloth, such as it was, was the produce. As I had never before 
 turned my thoughts to any thing mechanical, either in theory or 
 practice, nor had ever seen a loom at work, or knew any thing of 
 its construction, you will readily suppose that my first loom was a 
 most rude piece of machinery. The warp was placed perpen- 
 dicularly, the reed fell with the weight of at least half a hundred- 
 weight, and the springs which threw the shuttle were strong enough 
 to have thrown a Congreve rocket. In short, it required the 
 strength of two powerful men to work the machine at a slow rate, 
 and only for a short time. Conceiving, in my great simplicity, 
 that I had accomplished all that was required, I then secured what 
 I thought a most valuable property, by a patent, 4th of April, 1785. 
 This being done, I then condescended to see how other people 
 wove ; and you w'ill guess my astonishment, when I compared their 
 easy modes of operation with mine. Availing myself, however, of 
 ■what I then saw, I made a loom, in its general principles nearly as 
 they are now^ made. But it was not till the year 1787 that I com- 
 pleted my invention, when I took out my last weaving patent, 
 August 1st of that year." 
 
 Dr. Cartwriglit was led by his invention to undertake 
 manufacturing TN-itli power-looms at Doncaster ; but the 
 concern was unsuccessful, and he at length abandoned 
 it. He afterwards obtained other patents for wool- 
 combing, in which he was as unfortunate as in his 
 power-loom, although an Act was passed in 1801, pro- 
 longing the latter patents. Though he had a liandsome 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 231 
 
 paternal fortune, liis affairs became inextricably em- 
 baiTassed ; but he was more fortunate than most 
 inventors, in obtaining from parliament, in 1809, a 
 grant of £10,000, as a reward for liis ingenuity. 
 
 About 1790, Messrs. Grimshaw, of Gorton, under a 
 licence from Dr. Cartwright, erected a weaving factory 
 at Knott Mills, Manchester, and attempted to improve 
 the power-loom, at great cost to themselves. They did 
 not succeed ; and, the factory being burnt down, they 
 abandoned the undertaking. In 1794, a power-loom 
 was invented by Mr. Bell, of Glasgow, which was like- 
 Avise abandoned. On the 6th of June, 1796, Mr. Robert 
 Miller, of Glasgow, took out a patent for a machine 
 of this nature; which a spirited individual, Mr. John 
 Monteith, adopted in 1801, and fitted up a mill at 
 Pollokshaws, Glasgow, with two hundred looms. It 
 was several years before the business was made to 
 answer. 
 
 The great obstacle to the success of the power-loom 
 was, that it was necessary to stop the machine fre- 
 quently, in order to dress the Avarp as it unrolled from 
 the beam ; which operation required a man to be 
 employed for each loom, so that there was no saving of 
 expense. This difficulty was happily removed, by the 
 invention of an extremely ingenious and effectual mode 
 of dressing the warp before it was placed in the loom. 
 
 The dresshig-machine was produced by Messrs. Rad- 
 cliffe and Ross, cotton manufacturers, of Stockport, but 
 they took out the patent in the name of Thomas Johnson, 
 of Bredbury, a weaver in their employment, to whose 
 inventive talent the machine Avas cliiefly owing. Mr. 
 William Radcliffe, who had conceived the utmost alarm 
 at the consequences of exporting cotton-yarn, and who 
 
232 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 spent a considerable part of his life in endeavours to 
 prevent it, justly thought that the most effectual way of 
 securing for this country the manufacturing of the yam, 
 was to enable the English to excel as much in wea\ing 
 as they did in spinning. He saw the obstacles to the 
 accomplishment of tliis object, but, being a man of 
 deteiTuined purpose, he shut himself up in his mill, on 
 the 2d of January, 1802, with a number of weavers, 
 joiners, turners, and other workmen, and resolved to 
 produce some great improvement. Two years were 
 spent in experiments. He had for liis assistant Thomas 
 Johnson, an ingenious but dissipated young man, to 
 whom he explained what he wanted, and whose fertile 
 invention suggested a gi'eat variety of expedients, so 
 that he obtained the name of the " conjuror" among his 
 fellow -workmen. Johnson's genius, and RadcliflFe's 
 judgment and perseverance, at length produced the 
 (h'essing - machine ; an admirable invention, without 
 which the power-loom could scarcely have been ren- 
 dered efficient. 
 
 The process is thus briefly described : — " The yam is 
 first wound from the cop upon bobbins, by a winding- 
 macliine, in which operation it is passed through water, 
 to increase its tenacity. The bobbins are then put upon 
 the warping-mill, and the web warped from them upon 
 a beam belonirino: to the dressing-frame. From this 
 beam, placed now in the dressing-frame, the wai-p is 
 wound upon the weaving-beam, but, in its progress to 
 it, passes through a hot dressing of starch. It is then 
 compressed between two rollers, to free it from the 
 moisture it had imbibed with the dressing, and drawn 
 over a succession of tin cylinders heated by steam, to 
 dry it ; during the whole of this last part of its progi'ess 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 233 
 
 being lightly brushed as it moves along, and fanned by 
 rapidly revolving fanners."* The dressing here spoken 
 of is merely a size or paste made of flour and water,| 
 now generally used cold ; and the use of it is, to make 
 the minute fibres, which, as it were, feather the yarn, 
 adhere closely to it, so that the warp may be smooth like 
 catgut. The brushes essentially aid in smoothing the 
 yarn, and distributing the size equally over it ; and by 
 means of the fan and the heated cylinders the warp is 
 so soon dried, that it is wound upon the beam for the 
 loom within a very short space after passing through 
 the trough of paste. Tliis macliine, from the regularity 
 and neatness of its motions, and its perfect efficacy, is 
 equally beautiful and valuable. 
 
 Radcliffe and his partner took out four patents in the 
 years 1803 and 1804 ; two of them for a useful improve- 
 ment in the loom, — the taking up of the cloth by the 
 motion of the lathe; and the other two for the new 
 mode of warping and dressing. Johnson, in whose 
 name they were taken out, received by deed the sum 
 of £50 in consideration of his services, and continued 
 in their employment. Radcliife's unremitted devotion 
 to the perfecting of this apparatus, and other unfor- 
 tunate circumstances, caused the affairs of his concern 
 to fall into derangement. He failed twice or three 
 times ; and he was as unsuccessful in liis well-meant, 
 but foolish and pertinacious opposition to tlie exporta- 
 
 * Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Cotton Manufacture." 
 
 t The consumption of flour in the cotton manufacture is estimated at not less 
 than 42,301,584 lbs. a year, or 215,824 barrels (of 196 lbs.) or 176,256 loads (of 
 240 lbs. each.) — Burn's Commercial Glance for 1832. Bengal flour, an article 
 lately introduced into this country, is found to answer well for dressing. 
 
 2g 
 
234 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 tion of yam, as in his private undertakings. His book, 
 entitled, " Origin of the new System of Manufacture, 
 commonly entitled ' Power-Loom Wearing,' and the 
 purposes for which this system was invented and 
 brought into use, fully explained in a Narrative, con- 
 taining William Radcliffe's Struggles through 
 Life, to remove the Cause which has brought this 
 Country to its present crisis ; written by himself — 
 1828;" displays a mind naturally shrewd and bold, but 
 invincibly obstinate and contracted. 
 
 The di*essing-machine itself has now in some estab- 
 lishments been superseded, and the warp is di'essed in 
 a shorter and simpler way by an improved sizing 
 apparatus. 
 
 By the aid of Johnson and Radcliffe's invention, the 
 power-loom became available. A patent for another 
 power-loom was taken out in 1803, by Mr. H. Horrocks, 
 cotton manufacturer, of Stockport, which he further 
 improved, and took out subsequent patents in 1805 and 
 1813. One of the principal improvements in tliis loom, 
 the mode of taking up the cloth, Radcliffe states to have 
 been copied from liis hand-loom, and to have been the 
 invention of Thomas Johnson. Mr. Peter Marsland, 
 of Stockport, an enterprising spinner, took out a patent 
 for a power-loom, with a double crank, in 1806 ; but 
 from its complexity, it was not adopted by any one but 
 liimself. Superior cloth, however, was made by it. 
 Horrocks's loom is the one which has now come into 
 general use : it is constructed entirely of iron, and is a 
 neat, compact, and simple machine, moving with great 
 rapidity, and occupymg so little space, that several 
 hundreds may be worked in a single room of a large 
 
irOS7^S'*327 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 235 
 
 factory.* HoiTocks, sharing tlie common destiny of inven- 
 tors, failed, and sunk into poverty. This retarded the 
 adoption of the machine ; but, independently of this, the 
 power-loom and dressing-machine came very slowly into 
 favour. In 1813, there were not more than one hundred 
 of the latter machines, and 2400 of the former in use. 
 Yet this was enough to alarm the hand-loom weavers, 
 who, attributing to machinery the distress caused by 
 the Orders in Council and the American war, made 
 riotous opposition to all new machines, and broke the 
 power-looms set up at West Houghton, Middleton, and 
 other places. Nevertheless, the great value of the 
 power-loom having now been proved, it was adopted by 
 many manufacturers, both in England and Scotland ; 
 and it Avill, no doubt, in time supersede the hand-loom. 
 The rapidity ^vith which the power-loom is coming, into 
 use is proved by the following table, the particulars of 
 which were stated by R. A. Slaney, Esq., M.P., in the 
 house of commons, on the 13th of May, 1830, and 
 which rest on the authority of Mr. Kennedy : — 
 
 Number of Power-Looms in England and 
 Scotland. 
 
 In 1820. In 1829. 
 
 In England . . . 12,150 45,500 
 
 In Scotland . . . 2,000 10,000 
 
 Total . . 14,150 55,500 
 
 • The plates, containing four views of the power-loom, are from drawings 
 kindly furnished me by Messrs. Sharp, Roberts, and Co., machine-makers, 
 Manchester, and shew the loom in its most improved state, as manufactured by 
 them, for plain work ; but there are scarcely two establishments in which looms 
 are fitted up alike in all their parts ; for, as there is a great variety of modes of 
 
236 TPIE HISTORY OF 
 
 This number would ai)pear to have been somewhat 
 under-rated. Dr. Cleland states, that in 1828, the 
 Glasgow manufacturers had m operation, in that city 
 and elsewhere, 10,783 steam-looms, and 2,060 more in 
 preparation; total 12,843: he supposes there was au 
 increase of 10 per cent, between 1828 and 1832, which 
 would make the number 14,127 in the latter jear. 
 This is mdependent of other parts of Scotland, uncon- 
 nected with Glasgow. In 1833 evidence was given 
 before the Commons' Committee on Manufactures, 
 Commerce, &c. that " in the whole of Scotland there 
 were 14,970 steam-looms." We may, therefore, safely 
 take the number of power-looms in Scotland, at the pre- 
 sent time at 15,000. 
 
 In England the great increase took place during the 
 years of speculation, 1824 and 1825 ; and comparatively 
 few power-loom mills were built betwixt that time and 
 1832. But in 1832, 1833, and the former part of 1834, 
 the trade has been rapidly extending ; many nulls have 
 been built, and many spinners have added power-loom 
 factories to their spinning mills.* Mr. Kennedy's 
 estimate in 1829 was probably too low for England as 
 well as for Scotland. At all events there ai'e good 
 reasons for believing that there must now be 85,000 
 
 eflfecting each or all of the different movements, particularly that for throwing the 
 shuttle, the combinations are constantly varied, according to the judgment or 
 caprice of masters or managers. The power-loom is also seen in operation in the 
 view of " Power-Loom Weaving," taken by Mr. Allom, from one of the rooms in 
 the large mill of Messrs. Swainson, Birley, & Co., near Preston. 
 
 * Mr. Wm. R. Greg, an extensive spinner and manufacturer at Bury, gave 
 evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons, on Manufactures, 
 Commerce, and Shipping, (7th August, 1S33,) that " the number of power-looms 
 had very materially increased of late years in and about Bury," and also at Stock- 
 port, Bolton, Ashton, and in Cheshire. He stated that he did not know any 
 person who was now building a spinning mill without addition of a power-loom 
 mill, (Report, p. 677.) 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 237 
 
 power-looms in England. This conclusion is deduced 
 from a computation of the number of workmen employed 
 in power-loom weaving, founded on actual returns 
 obtained by the factory commissioners from the cotton 
 mills in Lancashire and Cheshire. The particulars of 
 the estimate will be given in a future chapter, and it 
 will be seen that the estimate has been made in a spirit 
 the reverse of exaggeration. It is also supported by the 
 calculations of Mr. Bannatyne, and Messrs. Samuel 
 Greg and Co., the spinners and manufacturers, of Bury. 
 At the present time, the machine-makers of Lancashire 
 are maldng power-looms with the greatest rapidity, and 
 they cannot be made sufficiently fast to meet the de- 
 mands of the manufacturers. The result we have 
 arrived at is as follows : — 
 
 Estimated Number of Power Looms in Great 
 Britain, in 1833. 
 
 In England 85,000 
 
 In Scotland . ... 15,000 
 
 Total .... 100,000 
 
 While the number of power-looms has been multi- 
 plying so fast, the hand-looms employed in the cotton 
 manufacture are believed not to have diminished 
 between 1820 and 1834, but rather to have increased. 
 In the fonner year they were estimated by Mr. Ken- 
 nedy at 240,000. In 1833, Mr. James Grimsliaw, a 
 spinner and manufacturer, of Colne, gave his opinion, 
 before the Committee of the Commons, on Manufactures, 
 &c., that the number of hand-loom cotton weavers in 
 the kingdom Avas about 250,000, (p. 608) ; whilst Mr. 
 George Smith, manufacturer, of Manchester, estimated 
 
238 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 them at only 200,000. (p. 566.) In the present year 
 (1834) several intelligent workmen and manufacturers 
 from Glasgow gave evidence to the Commons' Com- 
 mittee " on Hand-Loom Weavers," that there were 
 45,000 or 50,000 hand-loom cotton weavers in Scotland 
 alone.* As the workmen had good means of obtaining 
 information, from their associations and clubs, this 
 statement seems worthy of credit; and it is supported 
 by the evidence before the Committee on Manufac- 
 tures, &c.t But if so, the number of weavers in Eng- 
 land must amount to at least 200,000. It is generally 
 estimated that the Scotch manufacture employs about 
 one-seventh as many hands as the English; the quantity 
 of yarn spun in Scotland is only one-ninth or one-tenth 
 of that spun in England; but some of the English yam 
 is sent to Glasgow, Paisley, &c. to be woven, and the 
 number of weavers in Scotland is undoubtedly greater, 
 in proportion to the spinners, than in England. If, 
 however, we allow the English hand-loom Aveavers to be 
 only four times as numerous as the Scotch, this must 
 be considered a moderate estimate ; and this will 
 justify me in agreeing in opinion with Mr. GrimshaAv, 
 that the number of hand-loom weavers in the cotton 
 manufacture in Great Britain must be at least 
 250,000. Though the whole number of hand-loom 
 weavers has probably rather increased than diminished 
 of late years, from the training up of children to the occu- 
 pation of their fathers, as well as from the influx of new 
 hands to an employment so easily learnt, yet there 
 are not a few places in Lancashire and Chesliire, 
 where the hand-loom cotton-weavers have turned to the 
 
 * See Report; the evidence of William Buchanan, Thos. Davidson, Esq. and 
 Hugh Mackenzie. 
 
 t See Report on Manufactures, &c. (1833,) p. 698. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 230 
 
 weaving of silk, as at Leigh, Middleton, &c. ; or have 
 found employment in the power -loom and spinning 
 factories, as at Stayley-bridge, Hyde, Oldham, Bury, 
 Macclesfield, &c. ; and it is earnestly to be desired that 
 the whole number should be thus transferred to other 
 branches of industry, as they have no prospect from 
 continuing to toil at the hand-loom, but increasing 
 misery and degradation. 
 
 The power -loom has hitherto been principally 
 employed in weaving cotton goods, and particularly 
 calicoes and fustians ; for, although this machine has for 
 more than ten years been well adapted for weaving all 
 kinds of ]Aam silk, linen, woollen, and worsted goods, 
 and all patterns of those fabrics not requiring more than 
 twelve lieddles and tAvelve sheds, and in some patterns 
 upwards of thirty sheds, and of working with one or two 
 shuttles, yet it is comparatively little used in any of those 
 manufactures. 
 
 The advantages of the steam-loom and dressing-frame 
 have been thus stated : — Before the invention of the 
 dressing-frame, one weaver was required to each steam- 
 loom ; at present a boy or girl, fourteen or fifteen years 
 of age, can manage two steam-looms, and witli their 
 help can weave three and a half times as much cloth as 
 the best hand-weaver. The best hand-weavers seldom 
 produce a piece of uniform evenness ; indeed, it is next 
 to impossible for them to do so, because a weaker or 
 stronger blow >vith the lathe immediately alters the 
 thickness of the cloth ; and after an interruption of some 
 hours, the most experienced weaver finds it difficult to 
 recommence with a blow of precisely the same force as 
 the one with which he left off. In steam-looms the 
 lathe gives a steady, certain blow, and, when once regu- 
 
240 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 lated by the engineer, moves with the greatest precision 
 from the beginning to the end of the piece. Clotli 
 made by these looms, when seen by those manufacturers 
 wlio employ hand-weavers, at once excites admiration, 
 and a consciousness that their own workmen cannot 
 equal it."* 
 
 Since tliis statement was published (in 1823,) the 
 power-loom has been further improved, or at least its 
 motion has been accelerated, so that the comparison 
 between the hand-loom weaver and the power-loom 
 weaver Avill now be still more to the disadvantage of the 
 former. The following is furnished by a manufacturer, 
 as a correct statement of the advance which has been 
 made : — 
 
 " A very good ha7id weaver, 25 or 30 years of age, will weave 
 two pieces of 9-8ths shirtings per week, each 24 yards long, con- 
 taining 100 shoots of weft in an inch; the reed of the cloth being 
 a 44 Bolton count, and the warp and weft 40 hanks to the lb. 
 
 " In 1823, a steam-loom weaver, about 15 years of age, attending 
 two looms, could weave seven similar pieces in a week. 
 
 " In 1826, a steam-loom weaver, about 15 years of age, attending 
 to two looms, could weave twelve similar pieces in a week ; some 
 could weave fifteen pieces. 
 
 " In 1833, a steam-loom weaver, from 15 to 20 years of age, 
 assisted by a girl about 12 years of age, attending to four looms, 
 can weave eighteen similar pieces in a week ; some can weave 
 twenty pieces." 
 
 A machine for making cards has within a few years 
 been introduced from America, and made the subject of 
 a patent by Mr. Dyer, of Manchester, the patentee of 
 the tube-frame. Tlie process is remarkably beautiful 
 and rapid. The wire which is to foiTU the teetli of the card 
 is dra^vn from a reel by the machine, a sufficient portion 
 
 • Guest's History of the Cotton Manufacture, p. 46. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 241 
 
 cut off to make a pair of teeth, and that portion bent 
 so as to form two teeth projecting in the same direction; 
 the slieet of leather, wliich is also moved along at a 
 certain rate, has two holes drilled in it, to receive 
 the teeth ; the teeth of Avire are immediately inserted, 
 and bent downwards at the proper angle, and thus the 
 operation is completed, not requiring more time for 
 all the processes than a tailor requires for each stitch 
 taken by his needle, and the whole is performed by 
 machinery A\ithout the intervention of human hands. 
 The advantage of this machiue is in making cards 
 cheaper than those made by hand : the cards are said 
 not to be better, if so good. 
 
 Before quitting the subject of the machines used in 
 the cotton manufacture, it will be proper briefly to 
 mention three macliines used in the early stages, pre- 
 vious to the process of carding. When the cotton wool 
 comes to England, from the very great pressure to 
 whicli it has been subjected in packing, it is in hard 
 matted lumps ; and it also contains seeds and dirt. It 
 is, therefore, put into a machine, called the willow, 
 which, by its revolving spikes, tears open the cotton, 
 and, by the blast of a powerful fan, frees it from most of 
 its dirt and seeds. It is then taken to the scutching 
 machine, — a most useful machine, for more completely 
 opening and cleaning the cotton, invented by Mr. 
 Snodgi'ass, of Glasgow, in 1797, and introduced into 
 Manchester about 1808 or 1809 by Mr. James 
 Kennedy ; in which the cotton is subjected to be beaten 
 by metallic blades revolving on an axis at the speed of 
 from 4000 to 7000 revolutions in a minute, so that all 
 the fibres are opened, and the seeds and dirt fall down 
 through a frame of wire-work. Before the invention of 
 
 2H 
 
242 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 this machine, the cotton was opened and cleaned by 
 being placed upon cords stretched on a wooden frame, 
 and then beaten by women with smooth switches, — an 
 occupation very fatiguing, and which required twenty 
 times as much labour as the new process,* but which is 
 nevertheless still used to clean the finest cotton. The 
 third machine is the spreading or lapping machine, 
 which was constructed and brought into use by Mr. 
 ArkwTight (the son of Sir Richard) and Mr. Strutt, 
 in Derbyshire, and the effect of which is to spread a 
 given weight of cotton equally over a given surface, and 
 to roll it up on a roller, so as to be in a proper state to 
 be conveyed to the carding machine. 
 
 Let us briefly review the difierent processes through 
 which the cotton goes, in its conversion into cloth, all of 
 which are performed in many of the large spinning and 
 weaving mills. The cotton is brought to the mill in 
 bags, just as it is received from America, Egypt, or 
 India ; and is then stowed in warehouses, being arranged 
 according to the countries from which it may have come. 
 It is passed through the willow, the scutching -machine, 
 and the spreading -machine, in order to be opened, 
 cleaned, and evenly spread. By the carding -engine 
 the fibres are combed out and laid parallel to each other, 
 and the fleece is compressed into a sliver. Tlie sliver 
 is repeatedly drawn and doubled in the drawing -frame, 
 more perfectly to straighten the fibres, and to equEdize 
 the grist. The roving-frame, by rollers and spindles, 
 produces a coarse and loose thread ; wliich tlie mule or 
 throstle spins into yarn. To make the wai-p, the twist 
 is transferred from cops to bobbins by the winding- 
 machine, and from the bobbins at the warping -mill to a 
 
 • Mr. Kennedy — " Rise and Progress of the Cotton Trade." 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 243 
 
 cylindrical beam. This beam being taken to the dress- 
 ing-machine, the warp is sized, dressed, and wound 
 upon the Aveaving beam. The latter is then placed in 
 the power-loom, by which machine, the shuttle being 
 provided with cops of weft, the cloth is woven. 
 
 Such, without entering too much into minutiae, are 
 the processes by which the vegetable wool is converted 
 into a woven fabric of great beauty and delicacy ; and 
 it will be perceived that the operations are numerous, 
 and every one of them is performed by machinery, 
 without the help of human hands, except merely in 
 transferring the material from one machine to another. 
 It is by iron fingers, teeth, and wheels, moving with 
 exhaustless energy and devouring speed, that the cotton 
 is opened, cleaned, spread, carded, drawn, roved, spun, 
 wound, warped, cb'essed, and woven. The various 
 machines are proportioned to each other in regard to 
 their capability of work, and they are so placed in the 
 mill as to allow the material to be carried from stage to 
 stage with the least possible loss of time. All are 
 moving at once — the operations chasing each other j 
 and all derive their motion from the mighty enghie, 
 which, firmly seated in the lower part of the building, 
 and constantly fed with water and fuel, toils through 
 the day with the strength of perhaps a hundred horses. 
 Men, in the mean Avhile, have merely to attend on this 
 wonderful series of mechanism, to supply it with work, 
 to oil its joints, and to check its slight and infrequent 
 in-egularities ; — each workman performing, or rather 
 superintending, as much work as could have been done 
 by two or three hundred men sixty years ago.* At the 
 
 • Mr. Kennedy stated, in 1815, since which time many improvements have 
 been made, that " the united effects of the spinning machines amounted to this, 
 
244 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 approach of darkness tlie building is illuminated by jets 
 of flame, whose brilliance mimics the light of day, — the 
 produce of an invisible vapour, generated on the spot. 
 When it is remembered that all these inventions have 
 been made within the last seventy years, it must be 
 acknowledged that the cotton mill presents the most 
 striking example of the dominion obtained by human 
 science over the powers of nature, of which modern 
 times can boast. That this vast aggregate of important 
 discoveries and inventions should, with scarcely an ex- 
 ception, have proceeded from Englisli genius, must be a 
 reflection highly satisfactory to every Englishman. 
 
 that the labour of one person, aided by them, can now produce as much yarn, in a 
 given time, as 200 could have produced fifty years ago." — Rise and Progress of 
 the Cotton Trade. Mr. Farey, in his " Treatise on the Steam-Eiigine," says — 
 *' An extensive cotton mill is a striking instance of the application of the greatest 
 powers to perform a prodigious quantity of light and easy work. A steam-engine 
 of 100 horse-power, which has the strength of 880 men, gives a rapid motion to 
 50,000 spindles, for spinning fine cotton threads : each spindle forms a separate 
 thread, and the whole number work together in an immense building, erected on 
 purpose, and so adapted to receive the machines that no room is lost. Seven 
 hundred and fifty people are suflScient to attend all the operations of such a cotton 
 mill ; and by the assistance of the steam-engine they will be enabled to spin as 
 much thread as 200,000 persons could do without machinery, or one person can 
 do as much as 266. The engine itself only requires two men to attend it, and 
 supply it with fuel. Each spindle in a mill will produce between two and a half 
 and three hanks (of 840 yards each) per day, which is upwards of a mile and a 
 quarter of thread in twelve hours ; so that the 50,000 spindles will produce 62,500 
 miles of thread every day of twelve hours, which is more than a sufficient length 
 to go two and a half times round the globe." 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 240 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BLEACHING AND CALICO PRINTING. 
 
 Ancient modes of bleaching. — Improvement suggested by Dr. Home. — Grand 
 improvement in the application of chlorine (oxymuriatic acid,) discovered by 
 Scheele, and applied to bleaching by BerthoUet. — Introduced into England by 
 James Watt, and into Lancashire by Thomas Henry. — Improvements by 
 Mr. Tennant, of Glasgow. — The processes of bleaching described. — Extent and 
 admirable management of bleach works. — Calico printing. — First practised 
 by the Indians. — Cotton and linen more difficult to dye than woollen and silk ; 
 their chemical composition. — Pliny's description of calico printing in Egypt. — 
 Oriental modes of calico printing. — Introduction of the art into Europe and 
 England. — Excise duties early laid on printed goods. — The printing of calicoes 
 prohibited. — Legislation on the subject. — Calico printing first practised in Lan- 
 cashire about 1764. — Greatly extended and improved by Mr. Robert Peel, and 
 his son, Sir Robert Peel : notice of the Peels of Church, and the Peels of Bury. 
 — Block printing. — Important invention of cylinder printing. — Mechanical 
 engraving invented in Manchester. — Etching of cylinders by a remarkable 
 apparatus. — Manchester celebrated for its engraving. — Improvement in the con- 
 struction of blocks. — Surface printing by engraved wooden rollers. — Union or 
 mule machine. — Chemical improvements in calico printing. — Use of mordants. 
 — Discharge work. — Resist work. — Dyeing of cloth Turkey red, and discharging 
 the pattern. — Bronze style. — Legislative interference with the printing business. 
 — New duties in 1784: repealed in 1785: duties fixed in 1785 and 1787. — 
 Repeal of the duties on printed goods in 1831 : its beneficial effects. — Tables 
 of calicoes and muslins printed in Great Britain. — Statistical view of the extent 
 of the printing business. — Extent and beauty of the print works in Lan- 
 cashire. 
 
 After the manufacture of the cloth i.s complete, there 
 is the important process of bleaching to be undergone 
 by all cotton goods ; and the furtlier process of printing, 
 by such muslins and cottons as ai*e intended for outer 
 gannents, or for furniture. These are two very exten- 
 
246 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 sive branches of the business : the former is necessaiy 
 to remove the dirt and gi'ease contracted in tlie manu- 
 facture, and the dressing applied to the warp, and also 
 to destroy all the colour belonging to the raw material, 
 so as to make the cloth perfectly white ; and the latter 
 very greatly adds to the beauty and value of the cloth, 
 by the variety of patterns and colours impressed upon 
 it, from the ordinary stripe or check of a furniture print, 
 to the rich, elegant, and variegated patterns, which 
 render these manufactures suitable for the dress of 
 ladies of the hiG^hefrt rank. Chemical science has done 
 at least as much to facihtate and perfect these processes, 
 as mechanical science to facilitate and perfect the 
 operations of manufacturing. 
 
 Tlie bleaching process, as perfoiTued in the middle of 
 the last century, occupied from six to eight months. 
 " It consisted in steeping the cloth in alkaline leys for 
 several days, washing it clean, and spreading it upon 
 the grass for some weeks. The steeping in alkaline 
 leys, called bucking, and the bleaching on the grass, 
 called crofting, were repeated alternately for five or six 
 times. The cloth was then steeped for some days in 
 sour milk, washed clean, and crofted. These processes 
 were repeated, diminishing every time the strength of 
 the alkaline ley, till the linen had acqufred the requisite 
 whiteness."* 
 
 The art of bleaching was at that time so little under- 
 stood in Great Britain, that nearly all the Unens 
 manufactured in Scotland were sent to Holland to 
 bleach, and were kept there more than half a year, 
 undergoing, in the bleach-fields around Haarlem, the 
 tedious processes just described. Tlie mode of bleach- 
 
 • Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. '" Bleaching." 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 247 
 
 iiig, like that of maimfacturing, was no doubt brought 
 from the East, where it has been practised imme- 
 morially. In some parts of India, as will be seen from 
 the testimony of Ta vernier, quoted at p. 57, the acid of 
 lemons, that is, citric acid, in a very diluted state, was 
 used instead of the acid of sour milk ; and the muslins 
 and other cotton goods of Bengal were conveyed to the 
 opposite coast of India to be bleached, on account of 
 " the large meadows and plenty of lemons" near Baroche 
 and Raioxsary . In other parts, buffaloes' milk is still used. 
 
 The first considerable improvement in bleaching in 
 Great Britain, consisted in the substitution of a more 
 powerful acid for sour milk. Dr. Home, of Edinburgh, 
 about the middle of the last century, introduced the 
 practice of employing water acidulated with sulphuric 
 acid ; by the quicker operation of this liquid, the souring 
 of the cloth was effected in a few hours, whereas it 
 formerly occupied days and weeks ; and as the souring 
 process had under both modes to be repeated, so much 
 time was saved by the use of sulphuric acid as to reduce 
 the whole operation of bleaching from eight months to 
 four. 
 
 The grand improvement in bleaching, however, was 
 in the application of cJilorine, formerly termed oxymuri- 
 atic acid, to the art. This acid was discovered in 1774, 
 by Scheele, the Swedish philosopher, who observed its 
 property of destroying vegetable colours, from its 
 having bleached the cork of liis phial. This observa- 
 tion, having been recorded, suggested to the active mind 
 of the French chemist, BerthoUet, the thought of 
 applying the acid to the bleaching of cloths made of 
 vegetable fibres ; and, in 1 785, having found by experi- 
 ment that it answered the purpose, he made known this 
 
248 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 great discovery, which brings down the time required 
 for bleaching from months to days, or even to hours. 
 
 James Watt, who was an accomplished chemist, 
 as well as mechanician, learnt from Berthollet, at 
 Paris, the success of his experiments; and when he 
 returned to England, at the end of 1786, he intro- 
 duced the practice at the bleach-field of his father- 
 in-law, Mr. Macgregor, near Glasgow, with several 
 improvements of his own, and found it to answer 
 perfectly. A little while after this, and without 
 knowing any thing of Watt's experiments, but acting 
 merely on the suggestions in Berthollet's papers in 
 the Journal de Physique, Mr. Thomas Henry, of 
 Manchester, who was at that time delivering lectures 
 on dyeing, printing, and bleacliing, began to try experi- 
 ments in bleaching with oxymuriatic acid. He prose- 
 cuted the subject with diligence and success, and made 
 known the result to the Manchester bleachers in 1788, 
 by a public exhibition of the bleaching of half a yard of 
 calico. " In consequence of this exhibition, he was 
 applied to by Mr. Ridgway, of Horwich, near Bolton, 
 to be instructed in the new process. And the instruc- 
 tions which he accordingly received, were the first step 
 of a series of improvements carried on by Mr. Ridgway 
 and his son, with an ability and spirit of enterprise, 
 which have raised their establishment to its present 
 extent and importance." Mr. Henry was also one of 
 the first persons to suggest the addition of lime, which 
 takes away the noxious smell of the oxymuriatic acid, 
 without injuring its bleaching properties. 
 
 So great was the facility thus given to the process 
 of bleaching, that it is recorded, that a bleacher in 
 Lancashire received 1400 pieces of grey muslin on a 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 249 
 
 Tuesday, which, on the Thursday immediately following, 
 were returned bleached to the manufacturers, at the 
 distance of sixteen miles, and they were packed up 
 and sent oif on that very day to a foreign market. This 
 is considered as not an extraordinary performance. 
 Without this wonderful saving of time and capital, the 
 quantity of cotton goods now manufactured could scarcely 
 have been bleached. 
 
 Scheele and BerthoUet had made their oxymuriatic 
 acid from muriatic acid and manganese. Watt used 
 the cheaper materials of common salt, black oxide of 
 manganese, and sulphuric acid; and with the gas 
 produced he impregnated water confined in air-tight 
 vessels of wood lined with pitch. To remove the very 
 noxious and offensive smell of oxymuriatic acid, Mr. 
 Henry, of Manchester, and Mr. Tennant, of Glasgow, 
 each resorted to tlie use of lime, which deprives the 
 liquid of its smell without impairing its bleaching 
 qualities. Mr. Tennant, " after a gi-eat deal of most 
 laborious and acute investigation, hit upon the method 
 of making a saturated liquid of chloride of lime, which 
 was found to answer perfectly all the purposes of the 
 bleacher."* He took out a patent in 1798, but it was 
 set aside in 1802, on the ground that the whole of the 
 process which he described in his patent was not new. 
 Having, however, obtained a second patent in 1799, for 
 impregnating slacked lime in a dry state with chlorine, 
 which patent was not contested, he succeeded in 
 establishing a large manufacture of this article, and in 
 bringing it into extensive use. Mr. Tennant uses 
 52 parts of black oxide of manganese, 7 j parts of com- 
 mon salt, and 1 2i parts of sulphuric acid of the specific 
 
 • Ency Britanniea. 
 
 2i 
 
250 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 gravity of 1*843, diluted with an equal quantity of 
 water, to make the chlorine gas, with which he im- 
 pregnates a layer of slacked lime, some inches thick, in 
 a stone chamber. By recent improvements in the 
 manufacture, he has doubled the value of the bleacliing 
 powder, whilst its price is reduced to one-half: the 
 present price is three-pence per pound. By many 
 bleachers this powder is used, mixed with a proper 
 quantity of water ; but tlie great bleachers use liquid 
 chloride of lime, which they make in leaden stills, steam 
 being used to expel the gas from the materials, and the 
 gas being received into a cream of lime, which becomes 
 saturated with it. 
 
 Cotton is much more easily bleached than linen, 
 owing to the smaller quantity of colouring matter in tlie 
 former, and to its being less fixed. The processes 
 through which cottons pass in the hands of the bleacher 
 are as follows : — The cloth is first singed, by being 
 drawn rapidly over a copper or iron cylinder heated to 
 a red heat, which burns ofi" the down and loose fibres on 
 the surface, mthout injuring the fabric. It is next 
 thrown in loose folds into a cistern of cold water, Avhere it 
 remains some time ; and it is afterwards more efiectually 
 washed by being put into a large hollow wheel, called 
 tlie dash-wheel, usually divided into four compart- 
 ments ; this is supplied with a jet of clear spring water, 
 thrown in through a cu'cular slit in the side, which 
 revolves opposite the end of a flattened pipe, by which 
 means the cloth is well washed, as it is throAvn back- 
 wards and forwards in the rapidly-revolving wheel. 
 By this means a considerable portion of the weaver's 
 dressing is removed. Next the cloth is boiled with 
 lime : the pieces of calico are placed in a kicr or 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 251 
 
 boiler, having a false bottom perforated with holes, and 
 with layers of cream of lime betmxt the pieces, 1 lb. of 
 lime being used for every 35 lbs. of the cloth : it is so 
 contrived that the boiling water is spouted upon the 
 goods, filters through them and the lime into that part 
 of the boiler below the false bottom ; is again forced up 
 a pipe in the middle of the boiler, and falls again upon 
 the goods ; and this process is repeated for about eight 
 hours. By this lime boiling, the dressing, dirt, and grease 
 are com])letely removed from the cloth; and the lime 
 itself is removed by a careful washing in the dash-wheel. 
 The cloth is now subjected to the action of the 
 bleaching liquid, that is, chloride of lime dissolved in 
 water. A solution of one pound of bleaching powder 
 with one gallon of water, has a specific gravity of 1*05 ; 
 but water is added till the solution is reduced to the 
 specific gravity of 1*02. The quantity of this liquor 
 used for 700 lbs. of cloth is 971 gallons; and 388 lbs. 
 of the solid bleaching powder is required for 700 lbs. of 
 cloth. The goods are left in the cold bleaching liquid 
 about six hours, and when taken out they are con- 
 siderably whitened. Having been washed, the cloth is 
 next put into a very weak solution of sulphuric acid, 
 containing eight gallons of the acid in 200 gallons of 
 water : this is called the souring process, which lasts 
 about four hours : by this the oxide of iron, which in the 
 course of the operations has been deposited on the cloth, 
 giving it a yello^vish hue, and the lime which it had 
 imbibed, are removed, and the cloth becomes much 
 whiter. It is again washed in cold water, and then 
 boiled for eiglit hours more in an alkaline ley : 64 lbs. 
 of carbonate of soda are used to 2100 lbs. of tlie un- 
 bleached cloth. After this the cloth is steeped a second 
 
252 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 time in the bleacliing liquid, which is only two-thirds of 
 the strength of the first, where it remains five or six 
 hours ; and a second time in the mixture of sulphuric 
 acid and water, where it remains four hours. The last 
 souring process completes the bleaching of the cloth, 
 which comes out of the acid solution perfectly white. 
 
 The cloth is then very carefully washed, to remove 
 all trace of the sulphuric acid : it is freed from the 
 greater part of the water, by being squeezed betwixt 
 two rollers, and is then straightened, and mangled in the 
 damp state. To improve the appearance of the cloth, it 
 is usually passed through starch made of wheaten flour, 
 often mixed with porcelain clay and calcined sulphate of 
 lime; by which the cloth is made stifFer, and appears to 
 have greater substance and strength than it proA es to haxe 
 after being washed ; a contrivance originally devised for 
 the purpose of fraud, and which, though now too gene- 
 rally understood to be regarded as fraudulent, it would 
 be creditable to the trade to lay aside. The cloth is 
 dried by being passed through a drying machine, con- 
 sisting of several copper cylinders heated by steam : it 
 is tlien again damped, in order to fit it to receive the 
 gloss which is imparted in the process of calendering. 
 The calender consists of several wooden and iron rollers 
 placed above each other in a frame, and held together 
 by levers and pidlies ; the cloth, passing betwixt these 
 rollers, is strongly pressed ; tlie surface becomes glossy, 
 and sometimes it is made to assume a wiry appearance 
 by two pieces being put through the calender together, 
 in which case the threads of each are impressed on the 
 i'ace of the other. The goods are then folded up in 
 pieces, stamped with marks varying according to the 
 foreign or domestic markets for wliich they are intended, 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 253 
 
 and pressed in a Bramali's press ; after which they are 
 packed up, and sent to the merchant.* 
 
 Such are the processes by which the rough, grey, and 
 dirty fabric brouglit in by the weaver, is converted into 
 the smooth and snowy cloth ready for the hands of the 
 sempstress. The processes vary a little in duration and 
 frequency, according to tlie quality of the cloth to be 
 bleached. Every tiling is done by machinery or by 
 chemical agents, and the large bleach-works require 
 steam engines of considerable power. Human hands 
 only convey the cloth from process to process. Tliere 
 is much beauty in many of the operations ; and great 
 skill is needed in the mere disposition of the several 
 cisterns and machines, so that the goods may pass 
 through the processes with the smallest expenditure of 
 time. Large capital has been expended on many of the 
 bleach-works ; an extraordinary perfection has been 
 attained in the machinery, and in all the details of 
 the arrangements ; strict method and order ])revail ; 
 the managers are men of science, who are eager to 
 adopt every chemical and meclianical improvement that 
 may occur to themselves or to others. So greatly has 
 bleacliing been cheapened and quickened by the dis- 
 coveries of modern science, that all tlie processes above 
 described are ordinarily performed in two or three days, 
 and at the trivial cost of a halfpenny per yard on the 
 cloth bleached and finished. The most extensive bleach- 
 works in Lancashire are those of Mr. Thomas Ridgway, 
 of Honvich, near Bolton. 
 
 • The above account of the mode of bleaching is principally abridged from the 
 able and elaborate article on that subject in the new edition of the Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica, — confirmed, however, by personal observation, and by the works of 
 Berthollet and others. 
 
254 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 We come now to treat of the important and beautiful 
 art of calico printing, which constitutes a very large 
 branch of the cotton manufacture, and by means of which 
 the value of calicoes, muslins, and other cotton fabrics, 
 is greatly enhanced. Cotton cloth, when used for under 
 garments, is generally worn in the white state ; but when 
 used for the outer garments of the female sex, the 
 drapery of beds and windows, the coverings of furniture, 
 and similar purposes, it is ornamented with colours and 
 patterns. Unlike silk and woollen fabrics, cottons axe 
 very rarely dyed of a uniform colour throughout ; a 
 variety of colours is fixed upon a single piece, and they 
 are printed on the wliite cotton or muslin in an endless 
 variety of patterns, thus giving a light and elegant effect 
 to the print. The art of the calico printer, therefore, 
 not only comprehends that of the dyer, which requires 
 all the aid of chemical science, but also that of the artist, 
 for the designing of tasteful and elegant patterns, that 
 of the engraver, for transferring those patterns to the 
 metal used to impress them on the cloth, and that of 
 the mechanician, for the various mechanical processes 
 of engraving and printing. Taste, chemistry, and 
 mechanics have been called the three legs of calico 
 printing. 
 
 To d.0 justice to all the branches of this extensive 
 subject would require volumes, rather than a single 
 chapter, and would demand an author well skilled in 
 several distinct sciences. A brief and popular descrip- 
 tion is all that the limits of this work will admit. 
 
 The Indians were not only the first manufacturers, 
 but also, in all probability, the first who printed or 
 stained cottons. Pliny mentions, that dyed linen (whicli 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 255 
 
 was no doubt dyed cotton *) was first seen by the Greeks 
 in Alexander's wars Antli the Indians. Before tliis time, 
 Herodotus (book i. c. 203) had mentioned a nation on 
 the borders of the Caspian, who painted figures of 
 animals on their garments with a vegetable dye. He 
 says — " They have trees whose leaves possess a most 
 singular property : they beat them to powder, and then 
 steep them in water : this forms a dye, witli wliich they 
 paint on their garments figures of animals. The im- 
 pression is so very strong that it cannot be washed out ; 
 it appears to be interwoven in the cloth, and wears as 
 long as the garment." He does not, however, state the 
 material of Avhich the garments were made. Strabo, 
 and the author of the Periplus, as has already 
 been seen, (pp. 19 and 23,) celebrate tlie beautiful 
 flowered cottons of India, and the brilliant and various 
 dyes of that country. And from the very early civiliza- 
 tion of the Indians, and their stationary condition for 
 several thousand years, it may be infeiTcd that calico 
 printing existed amongst them many ages before the 
 time of Alexander. From the books of Moses, it is 
 evident that the Egyptians practised the art of dyeing, in 
 blue, purple, and scarlet, 1500 years B.C.; and the 
 Tyrians were, from a very early date, famous for dyeing 
 the finest purple. 
 
 Woollen and silk, which are animal substances, are 
 dyed much more easily than cotton and linen, which are 
 vegetable substances. Chemists have not yet ascer- 
 tained upon what the difference between animal and 
 vegetable bodies, in theii* capacity of receiving colours, 
 depends. It appears from analysis that wool and silk 
 
 * Sue pp. 18, 19. 
 
256 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 contain an appreciable quantity of azote, wliich is not 
 found in either cotton or flax, and this is the only 
 chemical diflFerence that has been cUscovered in their 
 composition, except as to the proportions of the other 
 constituents : but this does not enable chemists to under- 
 stand why the animal substances should receive colours 
 so much more easily than the vegetable substances. 
 The following: are the results of Dr. Ure's analytical 
 experiments on the four principal subjects of dyeing, as 
 stated in his translation of BerthoUet's " Elements of the 
 Art of Dyeing :" — 
 
 
 Carbon. 
 
 Hydrogen. 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 Azote. 
 
 Wool . . 
 
 . 53-70 
 
 '2-80 
 
 31-20 
 
 12-30 
 
 Silk . . 
 
 . 50-69 
 
 3-94 
 
 34-04 
 
 11-33 
 
 Cotton 
 
 . 42-11 
 
 5-06 
 
 52-83 
 
 
 Flax . . 
 
 . 42-81 
 
 5-50 
 
 51.70 
 
 
 In the time of Pliny, the Egyptians practised the art of 
 dyeing or staining their cloths in various colours, by the 
 use of mordants ; and tliere is no doubt that these cloths 
 were cotton and linen. He thus distinctly describes the 
 process: — " Garments," he says, " are painted in i^gypt 
 in a wonderful manner, the white cloths being first 
 smeared, not with coloui-s, but with drugs which absorb 
 colour. These applications do not appear upon the 
 cloths, but when the cloths are immersed in a cauldron 
 of hot dyeing liquor, they are taken out the moment 
 after painted. It is wonderful that, although the dyeing 
 liquor is only of one colour, the gai'ment is dyed by it of 
 several colours, according to the diflferent properties of 
 the drugs wliich had been applied to different pai'ts. 
 Nor can this dye be washed out. Thus the vat, wliich 
 would doubtless have confused all the colours if the 
 cloths had been immersed in a painted state, produces a 
 
THi: COTTON MANUFACTURE. 257 
 
 diversity of colours out of one, and at the same time 
 fixes tliem immoveably."* 
 
 From this passage it is evident that an art analo- 
 gous to calico-printing was practised by the ancients, 
 if not on scientific principles, yet in a manner wliioh 
 indicated considerable proficiency in tlie art, the result 
 of long practice and close observation. When the 
 Portuguese visited India, on tlie discovery of the 
 l^assage by the Cape of Good Hope, they found that 
 the natives stained their cottons in the manner described 
 by Pliny, and it is probable that they have done so from 
 a remote antiquity. Yet the Indians have no scientific 
 knowledge of chemistry, and many of their processes are 
 so rude, inconvenient, and encumbered with useless 
 parts, that they were rejected by the people of Europe 
 soon after calico printing began to be practised here, 
 though it was begun and carried on for a considerable 
 time with very little aid from chemical science.f In 
 different parts of the East, great varieties prevail in the 
 knowledge and skill with which this art is practised. 
 In some parts block printing is wholly unknown, and in 
 India the patterns are usually, if not always, drawn 
 with a pencil or reed,;|: as may be inferred from the fact 
 tliat no two forms or figures in the work are exactly 
 alike : but at Orfah, in Mesopotamia, the printers are 
 described by Mr. Buckingham as having small wooden 
 
 • Pingunt et vestes in ^Egypto inter pauca mirabili genere, Candida vela post- 
 quam attrivere illinentes non coloribus, sed colorem sorbentibus medicamentis. 
 Hoc cum fec^re, non apparet in velis : sed in cortinam pigmenti ferventis raersa, 
 post momentum extrahuntur picta. Mirumque cum sit unus in cortina colos, 
 ex illo alius atque alius fit in veste, accipientis medicamenti qualitate mutatus. 
 Nee postea ablui potest: ita cortina non dubie confusura colores, si pictos acciperet, 
 digerit ex uno, pingitque dum coquit." — Plinii Hist. Nat. lib. xxxv. cap. 11. 
 
 t Bancroft on the Philosophy of Permanent Colours, vol. i. p. Ix. Introd. 
 
 t Ibid, vol. i. pp. 352, 355. 
 
 '2 K 
 
258 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 blocks, of four to six square iuches, aud using them 
 neai-lv in the same way as the block printers iu this 
 country, but being of course ignorant of the gi'eat im- 
 provement of cylinder printing * The Cliinese practised 
 block printing before any species of printing was known 
 in Europe. Calico printing is practised in Asia Minor, 
 Tm-key, and indeed in all the countries of the East, by 
 such means and processes as prove clearly the Eastern 
 origin of the art. The processes of calico printing in 
 India are described in certain letters written by Father 
 Coeurdoux, a missionary at Pondicherry, published 
 in Vol. 26 of " Recueil des Lettres Edifiantes et 
 Curieuses ;" fi-om which Dr. Bancroft has di'awn 
 up his account m his " Philosophy of Permanent 
 
 Colours."'!' 
 
 Calico printing is believed not to have been practised 
 in Europe till the seventeenth century. In what country 
 the art was first introduced is doubtful. At the begin- 
 ning of the eighteenth century Augsburg, where the 
 manufacture of cotton had prevailed long before its 
 introduction into England, was famous for its printed 
 linens and cottons ; but even on the spot it is not easy 
 to obtaui any authentic infonnation of its introduction. 
 That city long supplied the manufacturers of Alsace and 
 Switzerland ^^•ith colour makers, dyers, &c.— a proof of 
 the earlier establishment of the art in Augsburg, which 
 has vN-itnessed alike its bu*th and decay. 
 
 It is mentioned by Anderson, that calico printing 
 commenced in London in 16 76. J Mr. James Thomson, 
 a scientific and accomplished calico printer at Piimrose, 
 
 * Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia, vol. i. chap. v. p. 145, 146. 
 
 + Vol. i. p. 350. 
 
 t .\nderson's History of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 159. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 259 
 
 near Clitheroe, in his e\-idence before a select committee 
 of the house of commons on trade, manufactures, and 
 shipping, in 1833, informed the committee that " the 
 origin of printing in England dated from about the year 
 1690, when a small print-gi'ound Avas established on the 
 banks of the Thames, at Richmond, by a Frenchman, 
 who in all probability was a refugee after the revocation 
 of the edict of Nantz. The first large establishment 
 was at Bromley-hall, in Essex : it stood No. 1 in the 
 Excise books when tlie duty was first imposed, shewing 
 that it was at that time the most considerable manufac- 
 tory of printed calicoes near London." 
 
 Calico printing could not for a long time have suc- 
 ceeded in England, if pailiament had not prohibited the 
 introduction of the cheap and beautiful prints of India, 
 Persia, and China, which was done in 1 700, by the Act 
 II and 12 William III. c. x. This Act was intended 
 to protect the EngHsh woollen and silk manufactures 
 from the com.petition of Indian goods, but it also had the 
 effect of stimulating and greatly increasing the infant 
 trade of printing: for the English had then become 
 accustomed to the use of printed calicoes and chintzes,* 
 and the taste for these articles could only be gratified, 
 after the prohibition of the Indian prints, by printing in 
 this country the plain Indian calicoes, which were still 
 admitted under a duty. In 1712 the printing business 
 had become sufficiently extensive to lead parliament to 
 impose an excise duty of 3d. per square yard on calicoes 
 printed, stained, painted, or dyed (10 Anne, c. 19); 
 and in 1714 the duty was raised to 6d. per square yard, 
 (12 Anne, sec. 2. c. 9.) Half these duties were laid 
 by the same statutes on printed linens. It would seem 
 
 • See p. 77. 
 
260 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 that the Act ol 1 700 had become of little effect, pro- 
 bably in part thi'ough the exti'avagant severity of the 
 penalty it imposed on the buyer or seller of Indian 
 prints, viz. £200 ; but still more from the improvement 
 and extension of piintiug in this country, by which 
 means Indian goods were still largely consumed, to the 
 deti'iment, as was imagined, of the English woollen and 
 silk manufactures. Paidiament therefore passed a law 
 in 1720, (7 George I. c. 7,) prohibiting the use or wear 
 of any printed or dyed calicoes whatsoever, whether 
 printed at home or abroad, and even of any piinted 
 goods in wliich cotton formed a part ; excepting only 
 calicoes dyed all blue, and muslins, neckcloths, and 
 fiistians.* The effect of this law was to put an end to 
 the printing of cahcoes in England, and to confine the 
 printers to the piinting of linens. In 1736, (by the 
 9th George II. c. 4,) so much of the Act of 1720 was 
 repealed as forbad the use or wear of printed goods 
 of a mixed kind containing cotton ; and thenceforth 
 cloths were made and printed of linen wai-p and cotton 
 weft, probably approacliing in appearance to calicoes. 
 
 The printing trade is thus mentioned in a work 
 entitled, " A Plan of the English Commerce," published 
 in 1728:— 
 
 " I proceed to another visible increase of trade, which spreads 
 dailv among us, and affects not England only, but Scotland and 
 Ireland also, though the consumption depends wholly upon 
 England, and that is, the printing or painting of linen. The late 
 Acts prohibiting- the use aud wearing of painted callicoes either in 
 
 • The French government pursued the same policy as the English, and, in 
 order to favour the silk manufacture, prohibited, under severe penalties, the 
 wearing of chintzes, and printed linens and cottons. These prohibitions weie not 
 annulled till 1759. — Bancroft, vol. i. p. Iviii. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 261 
 
 clothes, equipages, or house furniture, were without question aimed 
 at improving the consumption of our woollen manufacture, and in 
 part it had an effect that way. But the humour of the people 
 running another way, and being used to and pleased with the light, 
 easie, and gay dress of the callicoes, the callicoe printers fell to 
 work to imitate those callicoes by making the same stamps and 
 impressions, and with the same beauty of colours, upon linen, and 
 thus they fell upon the two particular branches of linen called 
 Scots cloth and Irish linen. So that this is an article wholly new 
 in trade, and indeed the printing itself is wholly new ; for it is but 
 a few years ago since no such thing as painting or printing of linen 
 or callicoe was known in England ; all being supplied so cheap 
 and performed so very fine in India, that nothing but a prohibition 
 of the foreign printed callicoes could raise it up to a manufacture 
 at home ; whereas now it is so increased, that the parliament has 
 thought it of magnitude sufficient to lay a tax upon it, and a con- 
 siderable revenue is raised bv it." p. 296. 
 
 Printed linens and mixed goods having in some 
 degi'ee supplied the place of printed calicoes, the busi- 
 ness continued to extend, though much more slowly 
 than it would have done if tlie printing of cahcoes Iiad 
 been permitted. About the year 1 750 it was computed 
 that fifty thousand pieces of linen and cotton goods Avere 
 annually printed in Great Britain, and cliiefly in the 
 neighbourhood of London.* The cloth was principally 
 of the kind called Blackburn greys, being woven at 
 Blackburn, of linen w arp and cotton weft. In 1 754 it 
 Avould appear that the art had attained considerable 
 excellence, as the following notice appeal's in the Gen- 
 tleman's Magazine for March in that yeai* : — 
 
 " Mr. Sedgwick, a very considerable wholesale trader in printed 
 goods, had the honour to present her royal highness the Princess of 
 Wales with a piece of English chintz, of excellent workmanship, 
 
 • Bancroft, vol. i. p. Iviii. 
 
262 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 printed on a British cotton,* which, being of our own manufacture, 
 her royal highness was most graciously pleased to accept of. And 
 on Sunday morning the said gentleman was, by Sir Wm. Irby, 
 introduced to her royal highness at Leicester-house, and had the 
 honour to kiss her hand ; when her highness was pleased to say she 
 was very glad we had arrived at so great a perfection in the art of 
 printing, and that in her opinion it was preferable to any Indian 
 chintz whatsoever, and would give orders to have it made up into a 
 garment for her highness's own wear, immediately, as an encourage- 
 ment to the labour and ingenuity of this country." 
 
 The pniiting business was carried on almost exclu- 
 sively in the neighbourhood of London till after the 
 middle of the eighteentli century, since which time it lias 
 gradually declined there, yielding to the disadvantages of 
 its local situation, to its remoteness from the great seat 
 of the cotton manufacture in the north, to high wages, dear 
 fuel, and, above all, to the superior activity and science of 
 the calico printers of Lancasliire ; — experiencing in this 
 respect the fate of the printing establishments near 
 Paris, which have been eclipsed by the industry and 
 talent of Alsace. Tlie printing of silk, especially hand- 
 kerchiefs, both of Indian and British manufacture, now 
 gives employment to many of the workmen and factories 
 round London, heretofore employed on calicoes and 
 muslins. 
 
 The introduction of calico printing into Lancashii'e is 
 ascribed to the Messrs. Clayton, of Bamber Bridge, 
 neai- Preston, who began the business on a small scale 
 as early as the year 1764. They were followed, and 
 Tvith gi-eater vigour, by Mr. Robert Peel, the grand- 
 father of the present right honourable sir Robert Peel, 
 bai-t., late secretary of state. Mr. Peel was originally a 
 yeoman farming his own estate, and lived at Cross, 
 
 • This must have been a fabric of cotton and linen mixed. 
 
K i;>ii',i;i;r r k.ki.. hah r 
 
 (/t (^ /^-(^/2^/^^ 
 
 ris.iir« son 
 
THE COTTON .MANUFACTURE. 2G3 
 
 afterwards called Peel-fold, near Blackburn. Beino- of 
 an active and enterprising disposition, lie began the 
 manufacture of cotton, and he is mentioned as one of 
 the first persons who tried the carding- cylinder. He 
 also took up the printing business, and I have been 
 informed by a member of his family that he made his 
 first experiments secretly in his own house ; that the 
 cloth, instead of being calendered, was ii-oned by a 
 female of the family ; and that the pattern was a parsley 
 leaf. Stimulated by the success of his experiments, he 
 embarked in the printing business with small means 
 and convenience, and shortly after removed to Brook- 
 side, a village two miles from Blackburn. Here he 
 caiTied on the business for some years with the aid of 
 his sons ; and by great application, skill, and enterprise, 
 the concern was made eminently prosperous. His 
 eldest son, Robert, afterwards created a baronet, pos- 
 sessed strong talents, which he devoted assiduously to 
 business from an early age, and tlms contributed much 
 to the success of the printing, spinning, and manufactur- 
 ing businesses ; and in each of these branches the Peels 
 soon took a lead in Lancashire. They eagerly adopted 
 every improvement suggested by others, and many 
 improvements originated in their own extensive estab- 
 lishments. As tlie elder Mr. Peel had several sons, 
 Robert quitted his father's concern about 1773, and 
 established himself with his uncle, Mr. Hav/orth, and 
 liis future father-in-law, Mr. William Yates, at Bury, 
 where the cotton spinning and printing trades were 
 carried on for many years with pre-eminent success, 
 and on a most extensive scale, and are, indeed, con- 
 tinued, though in other hands, to the present day. 
 Mr. Peel, the father, with his other sons, and another 
 
264 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Mr. Yates, established the print-works at Church, and 
 had also large works at Burnley, Salley Abbey, and 
 Foxhill-bank, and spinning mills at Altham, and after- 
 wards at Burton -upon -Trent, in Staffordshire. So 
 widely did these concerns branch out, and so liberally and 
 skilfully were they conducted, that they not only brought 
 immense wealth to the proprietors, but set an example to 
 the whole of the cotton trade, and trained up many of 
 the most successful printers and manufacturers in 
 Lancashu-e. The liistory of the two houses, the Peels 
 of Bury, and the Peels of Chui-ch, is, indeed, the histor}^ 
 of the spinning, weaving, and printing of Lancashire for 
 many years. 
 
 Calico printing has been the subject of modem im- 
 provements, which may be compared in importance with 
 those in cotton spinning and bleaching; and most of 
 these improvements have either originated or been 
 matured and perfected in Lancashire. The old method 
 of printing — still continued for certain parts of the work 
 — was by blocks of sycamore, about ten inches long by 
 five broad, on the surface of which the pattern was cut 
 in relief, in the common method of wood engi-aving. 
 On the back of the block was a handle, by which the 
 workman held it : the surface was applied to a woollen 
 cloth stretched over a vessel containing the coloui", and 
 in contact with that colour, so as to be saturated by it, 
 and was then laid upon the piece of cloth, (there being 
 wire points at the corners of the block, to enable the 
 workman to apply it with exactness,) and struck with an 
 iron mallet. Thus the figure was impressed upon the 
 cloth, one colour only being used at once; and if 
 other colours were required to complete the pattern, it 
 was necessaiy to repeat the operation with different 
 
TriE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 265 
 
 blocks. In order to produce more delicate patterns 
 than could be engi-aved on wood, copper-plates Avere 
 introduced in the neighbourhood of London, and the 
 cloth was thus printed from flat plates, Avith the kind of 
 press used in copper-plate printing. Each of these 
 modes was tedious, as no more of the cloth could be 
 printed at once than was covered witli the wooden block 
 or copper plate ; and a single piece of calico, twenty- 
 eight yaids in length, required the application of the 
 block 448 times. 
 
 The grand improvement in the art was the invention 
 of cylinder pruiting, which bears nearly the same relation 
 in point of despatch to block printing by hand, as tlu'ostle 
 or mule spinning bears to spinning by the one-tlu'ead 
 wheel. This great invention is said to have been made 
 by a Scotchman of the name of Bell, and it was first 
 successfully applied in Lancashire, about the year 1 785, 
 at Mosney, near Preston, by the house of Livesey, 
 Hargreaves, Hall, and Co., celebrated for the extent of 
 their concerns, and the magnitude of then' failure in 
 1 788, which gave a severe shock to the industry of that 
 part of the country. This new mode of printing may 
 be thus described : — A polished copper cylinder, several 
 feet in length, (according to the width of the piece to 
 be printed,) and three or four inches in difmieter, is 
 engraved with a pattern round its whole cii'cumference, 
 and from end to end. It is then placed horizontally in 
 a press, and, as it revolves, the lower part of the circum- 
 ference passes through the colouring matter, which is 
 again removed from the whole siu'face of the cylinder, 
 except the engraved pattern, by an elastic steel blade, 
 placed in contact \n\\\ the cylinder, and reduced to so 
 tine ajid straight an edge as to take off the colour 
 
 2l 
 
266 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 ^\ithout scratching the copper. This blade has received 
 the name of the doctor, wliich may be a workman's 
 abbreviation of the word abductor, applied to it from the 
 purpose wliicli it answers ; or may have been given from 
 a vulgar use of the word to doctor, meaning to set to 
 rights. The colour being thus left oulv in the engi'aved 
 pattern, the piece of calico or muslin is drawn tightly 
 over the cylinder, wliich revolves in the same dii'ection, 
 and prints the cloth. After the piece is printed, it passes 
 over several metallic boxes, six feet long, ten inches 
 broad, and six inches deep, lieated by steam, which chy 
 it. A piece of cloth may be thus printed and dried in 
 one or two minutes, which by the old method would 
 have required the application of the block 448 times. 
 Nor is this all. Two, three, four, and even five 
 cylinders may be used at the same time in one press, 
 each cylinder having engraved upon it a different 
 portion of the pattern, and being supplied with a 
 different colour. The piece passes over them suc- 
 cessively, and receives the entii'e pattern almost in the 
 same moment. To produce the same effect by hand 
 block printing, would have required 896, 1344, 1792, 
 or 2240 applications of the blocks, according as 2, 3, 4, 
 or 5 cylinders may have been employed. TJie saving 
 of labour, therefore, is immense : one of the cylinder 
 printing macliiues, attended by a man and a boy, is 
 actually capable of producing as much work as could be 
 turned out by one hundred block printers and as many 
 tear-boys ! In consequence of the wonderful facility 
 given to the operation, three-foiu'ths of ail the prints 
 executed in tliis country are printed by the cylinder 
 macliine. (PI. 14.) 
 
 But the course of improvement did not stop here. 
 

THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 267 
 
 Anotlier admirable invention, analogous to that jus' 
 described, multiplied the advantages of cylinder printing-. 
 Tlie process of engraving itself, instead of being executed 
 by the graver on the whole surface of the copper cylinder, 
 is now performed by mechanical pressure, which transfeis 
 the pattern from a very small steel cylinder, only about 
 three inches in length and one in diameter, to the 
 copper cylinder three or four feet in length. The prin- 
 ciple of this invention is the same which Mr. Jacob 
 Perkins applied to the multiplication of plates for the 
 printing of bank notes, and Mr. Perkins has the repu- 
 tation of being its inventor ; but the process had been 
 practised in Manchester some years before he came from 
 America to settle in London. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Lockett, engraver for calico printers in 
 Manchester, introduced tliis system about the year 
 1808 : he may be considered as at least one of the 
 inventors, and he certainly did more than any other 
 person to perfect it. The method of transferring is as 
 follows : — The pattern intended to be engraved is so 
 arranged in the first place by a drawing made to agree 
 with the circumference of the copper cylinder, as that it 
 Anil join and appear continuous when repeated. This 
 is then carefully followed by the engi'aver, and cut or 
 sunk on a small steel cylinder, about three inches long 
 and one thick, so softened or decarbonized as to admit 
 of being easily cut. The steel is then tempered or 
 hardened, and by means of pressure against another 
 cylinder of softened steel, a fac simile is made in relief, 
 that is, raised upon the surface. The second cylinder 
 is then hardened in the same way, and it becomes hard 
 enough to impress the whole engraving, even to the 
 most delicate lines, on the copper cylinder, when pressed 
 
268 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 against it in a machine. The small cylinder originally 
 engraved is called the die ; the second cylinder, which 
 is in relief, is called the mill. The latter is successively 
 applied to the whole circumference of the copper cylinder, 
 which is thus entirely covered with the pattern, as finely 
 wi'ought as if it had been directly produced by the tool 
 of the engraver. The surface of the die originally 
 engraved is not more than about one-fiftieth part of the 
 surface of the copper cylinder, and the engraving itself 
 is therefore multiplied fifty-fold. By this means the 
 most delicate designs, whicli would occupy an engraver 
 many months to effect by hand, can be completed in a 
 few days; of course the cylinders are produced at a 
 much less price, and they may be executed in a very 
 superior manner. Should the copper cylinder be so 
 far worn as to require the pattern to be re-engraved, 
 it can be done by the same process with amazing 
 rapidity, and at a very trifling cost, as the mill is already 
 prepared. 
 
 Other modes of transferring are practised. In some 
 cases the die is cut on a flat surface, and the pattern 
 transferred in relief to a cylinder, which again transfers 
 it to the copper cylinder at proper distances on the 
 surface. In other cases the die is cylindrical, and the 
 mill flat. When the design is very small, and requires 
 to be repeated a great number of times on the copper 
 cylinder, the pattern is engraved round the whole of the 
 steel cylinder, so as to join or meet in the circumference, 
 and at such equal distances that every repetition, or 
 part forming the pattern, will fall into its fac-simile, like 
 the teeth in a wheel. The mill is then placed in contact 
 with and compressed into the copper cylinder by means 
 of machineiy, which is made to traverse by a spiral 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 269 
 
 movement until the whole of the copper cylinder is 
 covered. By this means the most minute patterns are 
 produced, such as human ingenuity could not accomplish 
 by any other method. 
 
 Tliere are various modes of softening and hardening 
 the steel cylinders. The conunon mode of softening the 
 steel is, to put it into an iron case suiTounded with a 
 paste made of lime, cow's gall, and a little nitre and 
 water, then to expose the case to a slow fire, which is 
 gi'adually increased to a considerable heat, and after- 
 wards allowed to go out, when the steel is found to be 
 soft and ready for the engraver. To harden the steel, 
 it is placed in an iron case with bone-dust or scrapings, 
 exposed to a slow fire, and after being gradually raised 
 to a certain heat, which is indicated to the practised eye 
 by its colour, it is taken out and plunged into cold water. 
 Stale water witli a mixture of salt is preferred. To 
 make the mill, iron of a fine quality is often employed ; 
 and in that case, charcoal and a little salt aie added 
 in the hardening. 
 
 Sometimes the copper cylinders are etched, instead 
 of being engraved, — a plan invented by Mr. John 
 Bradbury, of Manchester, extensively practised by 
 Messrs. Joseph Lockett, jun. and Co., and which is 
 likely to prove of very great benefit to the printing 
 business. Tlie polished cylinder, having been heated, 
 is covered with a thin coat of varnish, such as is used 
 by historical engi*avers. Tlie pattern is then traced on 
 the cylinder witli a diamond-pointed tracer, by means 
 of a most complicated and ingenious system of ma- 
 chinery, the invention of Mr. Lockett, sen. ; and the 
 varnish having been thus removed from the figure, the 
 cylinder is immersed in aqua-fortis, and the parts 
 exposed become corroded or engraved. Tlie value of 
 
270 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 this process depends entirely on the beauty and novelty 
 of the pattern. The tracing machinery is capable, like 
 the kaleidoscope, of producing an endless variety of 
 patterns, yet without being, like that instrument^ de- 
 pendent on mere accident for its changes. It has been 
 so far perfected, that it will follow to a considerable 
 extent designs made by persons perfectly unacquainted 
 with its construction ; and patterns may be produced by 
 it, which cannot be copied, or in many instances even 
 imitated, by any other means. 
 
 So great is the reputation acquired by the engravers 
 of Manchester, from their skill and the perfection of 
 their machinery, that orders are sent there for engi'aved 
 cylinders from all parts of Europe and America, where 
 cylinder printing is practised ; even though the cost and 
 risk of getting them to their destination should treble or 
 quadruple their original price. It is superfluous to 
 remark that the English calico printers possess a great 
 advantage over their foreign competitors, from the 
 cheapness of engraving in this country, and the variety 
 of patterns they can command. 
 
 The beautiful and admirable inventions we have 
 described, do not complete even the mechanical imjjrove- 
 ments in calico printing. It is still found necessary to 
 execute parts of the patterns in fine goods with blocks, 
 after the ground-work has been laid on by the cylinders ; 
 because different parts of the pattern, executed with dif- 
 ferent colours, cannot be made so exactly to fall into and 
 fit with the other parts, by the cylinder as by the block. 
 About the year 1802, an important improvement was 
 made in the construction of blocks, for which the art is 
 indebted to the workmen of London. Formerly all the 
 blocks were cut in wood, like ordinary wood-cuts used 
 in the prints of books, but the work was necessarily 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 271 
 
 coarser, to endure the wear and tear of so many impres- 
 sions : each piece of cloth, as has been stated, requires 
 the application of the block 448 times, and, of course, 
 100 pieces would require its application 44,800 times. 
 If the design, therefore, was fine and elaborate, the 
 block would soon wear away. The improvement effected 
 removes tliis objection. The pattern, instead of being cut 
 in relief on the wood, is (in many cases) raised on the sur- 
 face of a plain block, by pieces of flat copper or brass wire, 
 of various tliicknesses and forms, produced by drawing 
 the wire through dies of various shapes. These pieces of 
 wii*e are let into the wood, and all stand exactly the 
 same height, namely, about the eighth of an inch. The 
 tliicker parts of the pattern have merely the outline 
 formed of copper, and they are filled up Avitli felt. 
 Blocks on this improved construction are ten-fold more 
 durable than the old wooden blocks, and when the metal 
 is worn down nearly to the surface of the wood, the last 
 impression is as good as the first. 
 
 The successful application of engraved copper cylin- 
 ders to printing was followed by that of cylindrical 
 blocks, or engraved wooden rollers. This mode of 
 printing, which is practised extensively in some estab- 
 lishments, is called surface-printing. The union of the 
 two systems in the same machine, that is, of a wooden 
 cylinder in relief with an engraved copper cylinder, 
 forms what has been denominated the union or mule 
 machine, and was the invention of Mr. James Burton, 
 about tlie year 1805, whilst he was engineer in the 
 establishment of Messrs. Peel and Co., of Church. 
 
 Many minor improvements have been made in the 
 mechanical department of calico printing; but those 
 which have been described are by far the gi-eatest, and, 
 for ingenuity and beauty, as well as for productive 
 
272 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 power, they well deserve to rank with the more celebrated 
 iuventioiis in cotton spinning. 
 
 The chemical department of printing has been not 
 less rich in discoveries than the mechanical. At the 
 head of these stands the gTaud discovery of the pro- 
 perties of chlorine, already mentioned in the description 
 of bleaching, and wliich are of important use in several 
 stages and processes of printing, as well as in whitening 
 the cloth. Wlienever in the course of printing the 
 calico is to be freed from stain or discoloration, the 
 solution of chloride of lime is used : and by the aid of 
 this powerful agent, a rich chintz, whicli fonnerly 
 requii'ed many weeks to print, in the summer season, 
 when it could be laid on the grass exposed to the air 
 and sun, is now produced without ever going from under 
 the roof of the factory, and almost in as many days. 
 
 In a popular History of the Cotton Manufacture, it 
 would be out of place to discuss the properties of the 
 drugs and chemical substances used in dyeing, or to 
 describe with minuteness the various processes of that 
 art. Tlie author must confine himself to a brief and 
 general notice, such as may give to the unscientific 
 reader an idea of the most important operations to 
 which the cloth is subjected in the hands of the calico 
 printer. 
 
 It has been remarked that cotton fabrics are very 
 rarely dyed of a uniform colour. Sometimes a flower, 
 stripe, or other figure, is printed on a wliite ground; 
 and at other times the pattern only is wliite, and the rest 
 of the cloth dyed. The proper use of mordants lies at 
 the foundation of the dyer's art. The nature of mordants 
 is thus explained by Dr. Thomson : — 
 
 " The teiTU mordant is applied by dyers to certain 
 substances with which the cloth to be dved nnist be 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 273 
 
 impregnated, otherwise the colouring matters would not 
 adhere to the cloth, but would he removed by washing. 
 Tlius the red colour given to cotton by madder would 
 not be fixed, unless the cloth were previously steeped in 
 a solution of a salt of alumina. It has been ascertained 
 that the cloth has the property of decomposing the salt 
 of alumina, and of combining with and retaining a por- 
 tion of alumina. The red colouring j^rinciple of the 
 madder has an aflSnity for this alumina, and combines 
 with it. The consequence is, that the alumina being 
 firmly retained by the cloth, and the colouring matter 
 by the alumina, the dye becomes fast, or cannot be 
 removed by washing the cloth with water, even by the 
 assistance of soap, though simple water is sufficient to 
 remove the red colouring matter from the cloth, unless 
 the alum mordant has been previously applied. The 
 term mordant (from the Latin word mordere, to bite) 
 was applied to these substances by the Frencli writers 
 on dyeing, from a notion entertained by them that the 
 action of the mordants was mechanical; that they were 
 of a corrosive or biting nature, and served merely to 
 open pores in the fibres of the cloth, into which the 
 colouring matter might insinuate itself. And after the 
 inaccuracy of this notion was discovered, and the real 
 use of mordants ascertained, the term was still continued 
 as sufficiently appropriate, or rather as a proper name, 
 without any allusion to its original signification. The 
 term mordant, however, is not limited to those sub- 
 stances merely which serve, like alumina, to fix the 
 colours. It is applied also to certain substances, which 
 have the property of altering the shade of colour, or of 
 briglitening the colour, as it is called."* 
 
 * EncycIopsEdia Britannia, 7th edition, article " Dyeing." 
 
 2m 
 
274 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The most valuable of all mordants is the acetated 
 aliimiuoas mordant, first employed by the calico printers 
 of this country, and the discovery of wliicli would have 
 been worthy to fonn an era in the art, if it were not that 
 its application was the result of accident rather than of 
 science, and tliat it was long used empirically and 
 ioTiorantlv, tog-ether mth several other ingi-edients which 
 were perfectly useless. Alum was employed by the 
 English calico printers, as it had been for ages in India, 
 and guess seems to have led some of them to 2)ut in 
 sugai' of lead together ^"ith the other materials; by the 
 combination of these two, acetate of alumine was formed, 
 but amidst the number of ingredients employed the 
 piinters did not know wliich j>roduced the effect. By 
 deofi-ees thev^ found out that sugar of lead and alum were 
 the most important, and they discarded first one and 
 then another of the ingi'edients they had been accus- 
 tomed to mix with them, tliough witliout the aid of any 
 chemical reasoning. It has been supposed that the 
 Indians employed the acetate of alumine, but Dr. Ban- 
 croft says — " they neither had, nor have they at 
 present, any knowledge of the use of sugar of lead, or 
 of any other preparation of that metal, which could 
 produce similar effects in caUco printing; a solution of 
 common alum in water being their only aluminous 
 mordant, and the previous application of the soluble 
 parts of myrobalans and of buffaloes' milk to theii* 
 calicoes, aided by a very hot sun-shine, and the complete 
 desiccation which it produces, enabling them, without 
 any thing like an acetate of alumine, to give equal 
 durability to tlieii* colours."* 
 
 The process of cylinder printing is ver}' commonly 
 
 * Bancroft's Philosophy of Permanent Colours, Vol. I. p. 370. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 275 
 
 employed to fix the mordant on the clotli, whicti is 
 afterwards put into tlie dye vat, when those parts only 
 receive the colour Avhich had previously been printed 
 with the mordant, the other parts remaining white. 
 
 Several modern improvements in calico printing 
 claim particular notice. 
 
 An attempt in Scotland to imitate by another process 
 those handkerchiefs of IncUan origin, in which white 
 spots or squares were produced by tying up the portions 
 intended to be reserved white, and thus protecting them 
 from the mordant or dye, gave birth to tlie system of 
 printing wiiich is called lUscharge-R'ork. In this system 
 the parts intended to be kept white are piinted with 
 acid, — lemon juice, or citric acid, being chiefly used for 
 this purpose. Tlie clotli is then wholly immersed in the 
 mordant, and quickly dried; or, being first impregnated 
 with the mordant, the design or pattern is printed in 
 acid, wliich removes it. This is reversing the original 
 process, which was to apply the block or cylinder to 
 those parts of the cloth intended to be coloured. In the 
 process of dying, wliich is called padding, fans are 
 used, as well as the steam boxes, and by the use of the 
 fans one-third less fuel is needed. 
 
 Such is the origin of this gi-eat and permanent 
 improvement and extension of the process of printing. 
 It was tried ^\'ith partial success in Scotland and in 
 London for a few years; but it was not till about the 
 year 1801 that it was adopted and perfected by the 
 Lancashire houses, amongst whom the Peels, of 
 Chiu'ch, were the first to practise it successfully and 
 extensively. 
 
 Tliis was soon followed by the discovery of the process 
 for producing what has been named resist work, or 
 
276 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 neutral work, the meaning of the latter tenn not being 
 very obvious. It consists in printing various mordants 
 on those parts of the cloth intended to be coloured, and 
 a paste or resist on such as are intended to remain 
 white. The cloth is immersed in the indigo vat for a k\y 
 seconds; and when taken out, the parts covered Avith 
 the paste are found to have kept out the blue dye; hence 
 this is called resist work. This system is of most exten- 
 sive application, and has given a new face to the 
 productions of calico printing. It is the invention of a 
 person named Grouse, a traveller for a London house, 
 possessing little practical and less scientific knowledge, 
 fond of experiments and dabbling by the fire-side in tlie 
 processes of printing. The same individual discovered 
 the mode of dyeing bran pink, for which ten London 
 printers subscribed and gave him one hundred guineas. 
 His process for resist work he sold for five pounds! It 
 required the experience of a year or two to perfect this 
 system, and make it practically useful. The house of 
 Sir Robert Peel, of Bury, was the first to print by this 
 plan so as to attract notice, about the year 1802: it is 
 now one of the most beautiful and perfect of the opera- 
 tions of modern calico printing. 
 
 The art of dyeing the fine red, called Turkey or 
 Adrianople red, on thread or yarn, has long been 
 practised in the Levant, and subsequently in Europe. 
 About forty years ago it was introduced in Glasgow by a 
 Frenchman, M. Papillon, who established a dye-work 
 with Mr. Mackintosh, and that city has ever since been 
 famous for dyeing Turkey red.* The art of giving this 
 
 * Mr. John Wilson, of Ainsworth, near Manchester, an extremely ingenious 
 dyer and manufacturer, who more than sixty years since gained both celebrity 
 and wealth by the great improvements he introduced into the art of dyeing, had 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 277 
 
 colour to cloth was unknown till the year 1810, when it 
 was first practised by M. Daniel Koechlin, of Mul- 
 hausen, in Alsace. The discovery whicli has immor- 
 talized the name of this gentleman in the annals of 
 calico printing was made the following year. It consists 
 in pnnting upon Turkey red, or any dyed colour, some 
 powerful acid, and then immersing the cloth in a solu- 
 tion of chloride of lime. Neither of these agents singly 
 and alone affects the colour, but those parts which have 
 received the acid, on being plunged in chloride of lime, 
 are speedily deprived of their dye, and made white by 
 tlie acid of the liberated chlorine. This is one of the 
 most beautiful facts in the chemistry of calico printing. 
 
 For this process a patent Avas obtained in this country, 
 by Mr. James Tliomson, of Primrose, near Clitheroe, in 
 the year 1813; and the same gentleman, in 1816, took 
 
 obtained from the Greeks of Smyrna the secret of dyeing Turkey red, which he 
 described in two essays read by him before the Literary and Philosophical Society 
 of Manchester; but it is stated, that "he found this too tedious and eaipensive a 
 " process, less suited to manufactured goods than to cotton in the skein ; nor even 
 " suited to that spun upon the single spindles then in use, though it might be 
 " applicable enough to that spun on machines." Aikin's, Hist- of Manchester, 
 p. 165. — Mr. Thomas Henry, in a paper on the Art of Dyeing, read before the 
 above-mentioned Society in 1786, says, — " great improvenienis have been made 
 " in dyeing within these few years, — improvements principally owing to the 
 " ingenuity and public spirit of Mr. Wilson, of this Society ; who by the applica- 
 " tion of chemical principles, and by a diligent investigation of the nature of 
 " colouring substances, laid the foundation on which the present fabric is erected." 
 Memoirs of the Manchester Lit. and Phil. Society, vol. iii. p. 348. — Mr. Wilson's 
 essays and his recipes are quoted with respect both by BerthoUet in his " Art of 
 Dyeing,'' and by Dr. Bancroft, in his " Philosophy of Permanent Colours." — We 
 learn from the paper of Mr. Henry quoted above, that a M. Borelle, a Frenchman, 
 also ititroduced the art of dyeing Turkey red at Manchester; which must have 
 been several years previous to M. Papillon's going from France to Glasgow; and 
 he obtained a grant from government for the disclosure of his plans, as M. Papillon 
 afterwards did from the Commissioners and Trustees for Manufacturers in Scot- 
 land. But the method of the latter seems to have obtained the most decided 
 success. 
 
278 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 out a second patent for a veiy useful and happy modifi- 
 cation of the principle of the fonner one, namely, for 
 combining with the acid some mordant, or metallic oxide, 
 capable, after the dyed colour was removed, of ha\iiig 
 imparted to it some other colour. Tliis laid the founda- 
 tion of that series of processes, in which the chromic 
 acid and its combinations have since been employed with 
 such great success. 
 
 A bronze colour, so extensively used in common 
 prints, was first produced from solutions of manganese 
 by Messrs. Hartman, of jMunster, about the year 1822. 
 Cloth impregnated with sulphate or muriate of manga- 
 nese, and then passed thi-ough caustic alkali, becomes, 
 by the absorption of oxygen and the per-oxidalion of 
 the wliite oxide of manganese, a deep rich ln*own, 
 unalterable by light and air. The cheapness of this 
 metallic dye, and its pennaneuce, have brought it into 
 extensive use in calico printing ; but, more than all, a 
 series of beautiful processes, founded on tlie proportions 
 and combinations of manganese and chrome, in which 
 the resources of a refined chemistry have been applied 
 with the happiest success. 
 
 The discoverv of new facts, as well as the ingenious 
 application of known ones, has enabled j\Ir. Mercer, of 
 Oakenshaw, to make the bronze style his own, and 
 literally to transmute the ores of manganese into ores of 
 gold. Tliis ingenious incUvidual possesses a store of 
 knowledge and facts unknown to scientific chemists, and 
 sought for in vain in their latest works. It is to be 
 hoped he wiQ have both leisure and inclination at some 
 time to communicate a portion of liis labours to the 
 world. 
 
 For most of the facts in the above outline of the 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 279 
 
 mechanical and cliemical improvements in calico printings 
 I am indebted to gentlemen whose anthority is inferior 
 to none in the trade ; and especially to one gentleman, 
 who combines in an eminent degTee scientific witli 
 practical knowledge, Mr. Thomson, of Primrose. 
 
 By the various inventions, discoveries, and improve- 
 ments made in calico printing, the trade flourished and 
 increased, notwithstanding tlie weight of duties and the 
 vexation of excise regulations. To these annoyances 
 the printing business was subjected Irom its very infancy 
 down to the year 1831. The duties imposed in 1712 
 and 1714, and the prohibition to print or dye calicoes in 
 1720, have already been noticed. In 1774, parliament 
 removed this prohibition as regards English calicoes, 
 and allowed them to be printed on paying an excise 
 duty of 3d. per square yard. In 1779 and 1782, three 
 several additions of 5 per cent., making in the whole 
 1 5 per cent., were made to that duty. 
 
 In 1 784, when Mr. Pitt imposed new taxes to repair 
 the finances of the country injured by tlie American 
 war, he taxed not only printed but even bleached goods, 
 and compelled the bleachers, printers, and dyers, to take 
 out licences, for which the sum of £2 was to be paid 
 ajinually. By the act i)assed for this purpose, the 
 24 Geo. III. c. 40, he laid a new duty on all cottons 
 and mixed goods of Id. per yard, if bleached or printed, 
 under 3s. per yard in value, and 2d. on all above that 
 value, in adchtion to the former duties of 3d. per yard ; 
 and 15 per cent. adtUtional was charged on tlie new 
 duties as well as on the old. These impositions excited 
 great alarm and discontent throughout Lancashire and 
 all tlie cotton manufacturing districts of England and 
 ►Scotland ; petitions to the House of Commons, and 
 
280 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 memorials to the Lords of the Treasury, were sent up, 
 representing that these new duties would crush tlie rising 
 manufacture, and render the English altogether unable 
 to compete with Indian goods, hrouglit from a country- 
 producing the raw material and every article used in 
 the manufacture, and where labour was exceedingly 
 cheap. Deputations were also sent from Manchester, 
 Bolton, and other places, to remonstrate with the 
 minister; the manufacturers were heard by counsel at 
 the bar of the house, in the session of 1 785, and much 
 evidence was given ; and so forcible were the repre- 
 sentations made, that Mr. Pitt reluctantly consented to 
 brhig in a short bill (25 Geo. III. c. 24.) repealing all 
 the new duties unposed by the bill of the previous year, 
 on tlie Imen and cotton manufactures. The repeal 
 was celebrated as a jubilee in Lancashire; and when 
 Mr. Thomas Walker and Mr. Richardson, who had 
 been especially active in the application to government, 
 returned from London, they were honoured with a 
 triumphal entrance into Manchester, being met by a 
 procession which extended neai'ly from that town to 
 Stockport, and wliich is celebrated as one of the most 
 joyous and splendid processions ever seen in Lancashu'e. 
 The inhabitants of Manchester and Bolton presented 
 silver cups to these gentlemen, with inscriptions, 
 acknowledgino^ their valuable exertions. 
 
 In the same year, however, a considerable addition 
 was made to the former duties on cotton, linen, and 
 mixed goods. By the 25 Geo. III. c. 72, all cottons, 
 muslins and stuffs, of wliich cotton formed a part, when 
 prhited, painted, dyed, or stained, were made liable to 
 an additional duty of 2d. per yard, if of the vidue of 
 Is. 8d. and not more than 3s. per yard ; and to a duty 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 281 
 
 of 4d. per yard, if worth more tliaii 3s. Tlie addition of 
 15 per cent, was also cliarged upon tlicse duties, as well 
 as upon the duty of 3d. per yard imposed in 1774. 
 Therefore the duties stood thus: — 
 
 Above the value of Is. 8d. and not') 
 
 above 3s j 
 
 Above the value of 3s 
 
 Duty im- 
 posed in 
 1774. 
 
 Additional 
 Duties im- 
 posed in 
 1785. 
 
 15 pei- Ct. 
 on the 
 whole. 
 
 Total Duty 
 
 Per Yard. 
 
 Per Yard. 
 
 
 Per Yard, 
 
 3d. 
 
 2d. 
 
 Id. 
 
 5 id. 
 
 3d. 
 
 4d. 
 
 Id. 1-5 
 
 8d. 1-5 
 
 These duties, therefore, on the average more than 
 doubled the duties existing previously to 1784, but 
 tliey only applied to printed goods, not to goods which 
 were merely bleached. 
 
 On the consolidation of the customs in 1787, all 
 former duties were repealed, and cotton, linen, or mixed 
 goods of every kind were subjected to a duty of 3M. per 
 square yard, when printed or dyed. The wliole duty 
 was returned by di'awback on the exportation of the 
 goods. At the same time, foreign calicoes and muslins 
 were charged with a duty of 7d. per square yard, when 
 printed or dyed in Great Britain. 
 
 To encourage the art of designing original patterns 
 for printing on calicoes, muslins, and linens, parliament 
 vested in the proprietors the sole right of vending the 
 goods printed \\-ith original patterns, for two months 
 after the day of publishing them : and this act, passed in 
 1787, (27 Geo. III. c. 28,) has been continued by sub- 
 sequent statutes to the present time, with an enlarge- 
 ment of the term of copyright to three months. 
 
 2n 
 
282 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The duties fixed in 1787 continued till 1831, when 
 the chancellor of the exchequer, Lord Althorp, on the 
 eai'nest representations of the calico piiiiters, entirely 
 remitted the duty, and released the trade from the 
 shackles of the excise. The duty was extremely objec- 
 tionable on various grounds. It took upwards of two 
 millions out of the pockets of the calico printers, yet 
 only brought about half a million into the exchequer, 
 and, deducting the expenses of collection, only about 
 £350,000: a million and a half was returned as draw- 
 back on exportation. This opened a wide door, and 
 presented a strong temptation, to fraud and peijury, 
 which were of daily occurrence. The restrictions, 
 delays, and expenses, to which it subjected the calico 
 printers, were estimated as imposing a tax of £200,000 
 a year on the ti'ade. The duty increased the cost 
 of prints on the average 30 to 40 per cent. ; but, being 
 of the same amount on all qualities, it pressed most 
 unequally and unjustly ; on the common prints, worn by 
 the poor, it amounted to 70 or 80 per cent., whilst the 
 fine prints, worn by the rich, only paid 10 or 15 per 
 cent. The tax was, indeed, so amioying to the printers, 
 and weighed so heavily on the commodity, that nothing 
 but the series of wonderful discoveries and inventions 
 wliich has been exhibited, could have made the trade 
 increase under it. With that mighty help, however, it 
 did increase very rapidly. In 1796, the quantity of 
 British calicoes and muslins, wliich paid the print duty, 
 was 28,621,797 yardsj in 1829, it was 128,340,004 
 yards. 
 
 The following table shews the gross produce of the 
 excise duty on printed calicoes and muslins in the year 
 1796 and 1800, but it does not exhibit the di-awback. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 283 
 
 Calicoes and Muslins printed in Great Britain, 
 IN 1796 AND 1800. 
 
 1800. 
 
 Rate of 
 Duty. 
 
 r 
 
 Yards. 
 
 ^ 
 Amount of 
 Duty. 
 
 r 
 Yards. 
 
 Amount of 
 Duty. 
 
 7d. 
 
 1,750,270 
 
 £51,049 
 
 1,577,536 
 
 £46,011 
 
 3i 
 
 24,363,240 
 
 355,297 
 
 28,692,790 
 
 418,436 
 
 7d. 
 
 141,403 
 
 4,124 
 
 78,868 
 
 2,300 
 
 Sh 
 
 4,258,557 
 
 62,103 
 
 4,176,939 
 
 60,913 
 
 In England. 
 
 Foreign Calicoes & Muslins 
 British do. do. 
 
 In Scotland. 
 Foreign Calicoes & Muslins 
 British do. do. 
 
 By the subjoined table, the gross and net produce of 
 the duty, ^vith the number of pieces of calicoes, muslins, 
 &c. printed, exported, and retained for home consump- 
 tion A\dll be seen for the years 1815, 1820, 1825, and 
 1830, the last being the year before the repeal of the 
 duty :— 
 
 Calicoes, Muslins, &c. printed in Great 
 Britain, from 1814 to 1830. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Drawback 
 
 Calicoes, Src. 
 
 Net amount 
 
 
 Calicoes, &c. 
 
 Duty on 
 
 Calicoes ex- 
 
 paid by go- 
 
 taken for 
 
 ofduty recvd 
 
 
 printed at an 
 
 printed ca- 
 
 ported ; ave- 
 
 vernment on 
 
 home con- 
 
 by govern- 
 
 Years 
 
 average duty 
 
 licoes re- 
 
 rage draw- 
 
 printed cali- 
 
 sumption, at 
 
 ment on cali- 
 
 
 iif 5s. per 
 
 ceived by 
 
 back of 5.S. 
 
 coes, &c. ex- 
 
 an average 
 
 coes, &c. for 
 
 
 piece. 
 
 governmt. 
 
 per piece. 
 
 ported. 
 
 duty of 5s. 
 per piece. 
 
 home con- 
 sumption. 
 
 
 Pieces. 
 
 £. 
 
 Pieces. 
 
 £. 
 
 Pieces. 
 
 |£. 
 
 1814 
 
 5,192,228 
 
 1,228,057 
 
 3,324,lt>0 
 
 831,040 
 
 1,868 008 
 
 467,017 
 
 15 
 
 5,326,656 
 
 1,331,664 
 
 3,81.1,000 
 
 953,2.50 
 
 1,513,052 
 
 378.413 
 
 16 
 
 4,511,244 
 
 1,127,811 
 
 2,878,704 
 
 719,076 
 
 1,632,540 
 
 408,135 
 
 17 
 
 4,693,204 
 
 1,173,816 
 
 3,282,210 
 
 220,554 
 
 1,413,048 
 
 353,262 
 
 18 
 
 6,282,544 
 
 1,570,630 
 
 4,317,508 
 
 1,072,377 
 
 1,905,030 
 
 491,259 
 
 19 
 
 5,938,572 
 
 1,484,643 
 
 3,519,868 
 
 879,967 
 
 2,118,704 
 
 604,576 
 
 1820 
 
 5.456,196 
 
 1,614,01!) 
 
 3,727,820 
 
 •131,955 
 
 1,728,340 
 
 682,085 
 
 21 
 
 7,00.-.,484 
 
 1,751,371 
 
 4,333,004 
 
 1,083,416 
 
 2,671,820 
 
 567,955 
 
 22 
 
 6,730,808 
 
 1,082,702 
 
 4,730,228 
 
 1,182 557 
 
 2,000,580 
 
 500,145 
 
 23 
 
 7,247,676 
 
 1,810,919 
 
 4,587,004 
 
 1,146,751 
 
 2,000,072 
 
 070,108 
 
 24 
 
 8,162,872 
 
 2,040,71- 
 
 5,527,704 
 
 1,381,941 
 
 2,035,108 
 
 058,677 
 
 25 
 
 8,140,876 
 
 2,035,219 
 
 0,002,308 
 
 1,665,592 
 
 1,478,508 
 
 369,627 
 
 26 
 
 6,098,656 
 
 1,524,664 
 
 4,082,084 
 
 1,020,071 
 
 2,015,972 
 
 503,993 
 
 27 
 
 8,089,028 
 
 2,022,257 
 
 5,440,272 
 
 1,360,068 
 
 2,048,750 
 
 662,189 
 
 28 
 
 8,395,848 
 
 2,098,962 
 
 5,769,828 
 
 1,441,207 
 
 2,631,020 
 
 657,755 
 
 29 
 
 7,768,072 
 
 1,942,013 
 
 5,562,136 
 
 1,390,534 
 
 2,105,930 
 
 551,484 
 
 1830 
 
 8,596,952 
 
 2,149,238 
 
 6,315,440 
 
 1,578,800 
 
 2,281,512 
 
 570,378 
 
284 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The following calculation was made in 1830 by an 
 extremely w ell-informed calico printer, of the number of 
 individuals employed in the printing trade, and in the 
 manufacturing of the cloth printed : — 
 
 *' The duty is in round numbers £2,000,000, which is equal to 
 8,000,000 pieces of prints. 
 
 s. d. 
 Average price of printing cloth, per piece .... 70 
 Deduct the value of the raw material 2 6 
 
 4 6 
 Deduct for profits of machinery, &c 10 
 
 Supposed amount paid in wages on each piece . . 3 6 
 
 8,000,000 pieces of cloth — wages for spinning 
 
 and weaving, at 3s. 6d £1,400,000 
 
 Average of wages for printing do. at 2s. 6d. . . 1,000,000 
 
 £2,400,000 
 Or equal to £46,154 of wages paid weekly for labour in spinning, 
 weaving, and printing: the average of which is about 8s. per head; 
 divide £46,154 by 8s. and there results 115,385 individuals 
 employed in spinning, weaving, and printing ; and it may be said 
 that as many more are dependent upon them — thus giving 230,770 
 individuals, employed in and dependent upon the printing trade. 
 It is presumed that a repeal of the print duty would give an 
 increased employment of 12^ per cent., — making the total 259,366 
 individuals dependent on the prosperity of the printing trade." 
 
 The repeal of the print duty has proved highly bene- 
 ficial, having given a stimulus both to production and to 
 improvement. To the consumer it is a great relief, 
 especially to the poor, as a woman can now buy a useful 
 and respectable printed dress for half -a-cr own, which, 
 before the repeal of the duty, would have cost nearly 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 285 
 
 four sliillings. Indeed a printed dress of good materials 
 and a neat pattern, with fast colour, may now be bought 
 for two shillings. 
 
 The large print-works of Lancashire are among the 
 most interesting manufactories that can be visited. 
 Several of the proprietors or managers are scientific 
 men ; and, being also persons of large capital, they have 
 the most perfect machinery and the best furnished labo- 
 ratories. All the processes through which the cloth has 
 to pass, from the state in which it is left by the weaver, 
 till it is made up a finished print ready for the foreign or 
 home mai'ket, are performed in these extensive establish- 
 ments. The bleaching, the block printing, the cylinder 
 printing, the dyeing, tlie engraving both of blocks and 
 cylinders, the designing of patterns, and the preparation 
 of colours, all go on within the same enclosure. Some 
 of the print-works employ as many as a thousand work- 
 people. The order and pleanliness of the works, and 
 the remarkable beauty of most of tlie operations, impress 
 the visitor with admiration and surprise. A printino- 
 establishment, like a cotton mill, is a wonderful triumph 
 of modern science; and when the mechanical and 
 chemical improvements of both are viewed tooether, 
 they form a splendid and matchless exhibition of science 
 aj^plied to the arts, and easily account for a rapidity of 
 gi'owtli and a vastness of extension in the maimfacture, 
 wliich has no parallel in the records of industry. 
 
286 THE HISTORY OP 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 COTTON -WOOL. 
 
 Natural history of cotton- wool. — Annual herbaceous cotton. — Mode of cultivation, 
 in America and India. — Shrub cotton; its varieties; countries where found.^ — 
 Tree cotton. — The silk cotton tree. — Dwarf cotton. — Cotton requires a dry and 
 sandy soil. — The best grown on the sea-coast. — Sea Island cotton. — Salt a chief 
 cause of its excellence. — American Report concerning the growth of this cotton. 
 — Selection of seed. — First introduction of long-stapled cotton into the United 
 States. — Short-stapled cotton, called Upland and Bowed Georgia. — Modes of 
 separating the cotton from the seeds. — Roller mill. — Mr. Whitney's saw-gin. — 
 Extensive cultivation of cotton in the United States. — Exports from that 
 country. — Growth from 1819 to 1832. — Different sources from which England 
 is supplied. — Bourbon cotton ; West Indian ; Demerara ; Pernambuco. — 
 Recent and successful cultivation of long-stapled cotton in Egypt ; imports of 
 Egyptian cotton from 1823 to 1833; Egyptian cotton manufacture. — Indian 
 cotton. — Imports of cotton-wool from different countries from 1820 to 1833. — 
 Distinguishing qualities of cotton. — Prices of different kinds from 1782 to 1833i. 
 — Tables of import, consumption, &c. — Great fall in the price of cotton. — Its 
 principal cause, the extended cultivation in America. — Mutual dependence of 
 the English spinner and the American planter. — Freight. — Mode of consign- 
 ment. — Mode of selling and buying cotton at Liverpool. 
 
 Having completed that portion of the history of the 
 Cotton Manufacture which comprises the meclianicaJ 
 and chemical improvements, it will be proper to give 
 some account of the raw material, cotton-wool, before 
 proceeding to bring down the commercial history to the 
 present period. 
 
 Cotton, or cotton-wool, is a vegetable down, the 
 produce of a plant growing in warm climates, and 
 indigenous in India and America. The name of the 
 genus is Gossypium, and there are many varietif^^. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 287 
 
 The cotton is contaiiied in the seed vessels, and adheres 
 closely to the seeds of the plant. Linnaeus enumerated 
 five species of the cotton plant : — 
 
 1. Gossypium herbaceum, or herbaceous, 
 
 2. G. arboreum, or arborescent. 
 
 3. G. Jiirsutum, or haii'j. 
 
 4. G. religiosum, or religious. 
 
 5. G. Barbadense, or Barbadoes. 
 
 Lamarck, in the Encyclopedic Methodique, enume- 
 rates eight species of the cotton plant ; Cavauilles and 
 WiUdenow recognize ten. According to the latter, the 
 following species are distinct from each other : — 
 
 L Gossypium herbaceum. 
 
 2. G. Indicum. 
 
 3. G. micranthum. 
 
 4. G. arboreum. 
 
 5. G. vitifoUum. 
 
 6. G. hirsutum. 
 
 7. G. religiosum. 
 
 8. G. latifolium. 
 
 9. G. Barbadense. 
 10. G. Peruvianum. 
 
 It will be sufficient for the purpose of this work to 
 point out the three great distinctions, 1st. herbaceous 
 cotton; 2d. shrub cotton; 3d. tree cotton; each of 
 which has several varieties, so that some cotton planters 
 have recognized not fewer than a hundred kinds, and 
 the plant seems to have a great tendency to run out into 
 varieties. 
 
 The 1st and most useful species of cotton is the 
 herbaceous, which is an annual plant, cultivated in the 
 United States, Incha, China, and many other countries. 
 It grows to the height of eighteen to twenty-four inches, 
 ai. I has leaves of a bright daik gieeu colour, marked 
 
288 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 with brownish veins, and each (li^-ide(l into five lobes. 
 Its blossom expands into a pale yellow flower, like that 
 of a mallow, having one large pistil and five petals or 
 leaves, with a pui*ple spot at the bottom of each. Wlien 
 the flower falls off, a capsular pod appeal's, supported hj 
 three triangular green leaves, deeply jagged at their 
 ends : the pod approaches to the triangular shape, with 
 a pointed end, and has three cells. It increases to the 
 size of a large filbert, and becomes brown as the woolly 
 fruit ripens -, the expansion of the wool then causes the 
 pod to burst, when it discloses a ball of snow-white or 
 yellowish down, consisting of three locks, one in each 
 cell, enclosing and firmly adhering to the seeds, wliich 
 in form resemble those of grapes, but are much larger. 
 
 The seed is planted in March, April, and May ; and 
 the cotton is gathered by hand, \vithin a few days after 
 the opening of the pods, in August, September, and 
 October. In America it is planted in rows five feet 
 asunder, and in holes eighteen inches apart, in each of 
 which several seeds are deposited : careful weeding of 
 the gi'ound is necessary, and the plants requii'e to be 
 gradually thinned, so as ultimately to leave only one or 
 two for each hole ; they are also tT^*ice pruned, by 
 nipping ofi" the ends of the branches, in order to make 
 them put out more branches, and yield a larger quantity 
 of blossom and fruit. A field of cotton at the gatliering 
 season, when the globes of snowy wool ai'e seen among 
 the glossy dark green leaves, is singularly beautiful ; 
 and in the hottest countries, where the yellow blossom 
 or flower, and the ripened fruit, are seen at the same 
 tune, the beauty of the plantation is of course still more 
 remarkable. In India, the mode of cultivation is 
 most slovenly, as the seed is sown broadcast, and the 
 
THE COTTON M A N U F A C T U II E . 
 
 289 
 
 plant is neglected at every stage of its growth ; which, 
 together with the carelessness of the natives in gathering 
 the cotton, in separating it from the seeds, and in pack- 
 ing it, makes the Indian cotton so much inferior to that 
 of the United States.* 
 
 A representation of a branch of the herbaceous cotton, 
 with the flower, and the pods open and closed, has been 
 given at page 13; and the foUoAving shows the appearance 
 of the plant when growing : — 
 
 Gossypium herbaceum — Herbaceous Cotton. 
 
 2d. The shrub cotton grows in almost every country 
 where the annual herbaceous cotton is found. Its dura- 
 
 * For an account of Indian cotton, and its mode of cultivation and prepa- 
 ation, see pp. 64, 65. 
 
 20 
 
290 THE HISTORY OJ 
 
 lion varies according to the climate : in some places, as 
 in the West Indies, it is biennial or triennial -, in others, 
 as in India, Egypt, &c. it lasts from six to ten years ; in 
 the hottest countries it is perennial ; and in the cooler 
 countries which grow cotton, it becomes an annual. In 
 appearance, the shrub has a considerable resemblance 
 to the currant busli. Tlie principal varieties of shrub 
 cotton are, the Gossypium Indicum, or the Indian, which 
 attains the height of ten or twelve feet ; the G. litifoUum, 
 or -sine-leaved, found in the Isle of France, in Celebes, 
 and various parts of South America ; the G. hirsutum, 
 or haiiy, (so called from its branches being covered with 
 hau-,) a low shrub, and a native of the hottest parts of 
 America; the G. religiosum, or religious, (the reason of 
 which name, given by Linnaeus, is unknown,) which 
 has an upright stem, and of which the flower changes 
 from white to red, found in Surinam, India, &c. ; the 
 G. latifoUum, or broad-leaved, resembhng the G. viti- 
 foliitm, and found in the West LuUes ; the G. Barbadense, 
 cultivated chiefly in Barbadoes, and believed to be the 
 same as the G. Indicum ; and the G. Penivianum, a 
 Peruvian shrub not materially diff'erins^ from the others. 
 Tlie flower and fruit of the shrub-cotton closely resemble 
 those of the herbaceous cotton, but the pod is egg- 
 shaped, not triangular and pointed. It is found, in one 
 or other of its varieties, throughout the tropical parts of 
 Asia, Africa, and America. The shrub is planted in 
 holes seven or eight feet apai't ; eight or ten seeds are 
 deposited in each hole, but only one of the stems Avhich 
 they produce is allowed to remain ; tlie shrubs require 
 to be pruned, and the plantations to be well weeded ; 
 and they seldom continue to yield good cotton more than 
 live or six years, but in tlie hottest countries two crops 
 
THE COTTON M A N U F A C T U II E . 
 
 291 
 
 a year are gathered, one from October to December, 
 and the otlier from February to April. The Guiana and 
 Brazil cotton is of tliis kind. 
 
 Tlie following is a representation of the shrub 
 cotton : — 
 
 Gossypium religiosum — Shrub Cotton. 
 
 3d. Tlie ti-ee cotton grows in India, China, Egypt, the 
 interior and western coast of Africa, and in some parts 
 of America. As the tree only attains the height of 
 twelve to twenty feet, it is difficult to distinguish the 
 tree cotton and the shrub cotton, from the mention made 
 of them by many travellers. In a passage quoted at 
 p. 62, Marco Polo distinctly describes the cotton tree ot 
 Guzerat, which he states to be six yards high, and to 
 
292 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 bear fruit for twenty yeai*s ; but he adds, that the cotton 
 taken from trees of that age is not adapted for spinning. 
 Abu Zacaria Ebn el Awam, an Arabo-Spanish writer 
 on agiiculture and horticulture, of the twelfth century, 
 infonns us, that in Arabia the cotton tree gi'ows to 
 the size of the Armenian apple, and lasts twenty years. 
 It is stated by Malte Brun that " the cotton tree grows 
 on all the Indian mountains, but its produce is coarse in 
 quality." Quotations from travellers might be multi- 
 plied, but they do not materially add to the information 
 briefly given above. The following is a representation 
 of the cotton ti*ee : — 
 
 Gosstjpiiim Arhoreum — The Cotton Tree. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 293 
 
 There is still another tree, of very magnificent growth, 
 attaining the height of a hundred feet, and with a 
 peculiar spreading top, which bears a silky cotton of 
 matchless softness, wliiteness, and lustre, but of so short 
 and brittle a fibre that it is unfit for spinning, and can 
 only be used for the mean purpose of stuffing pillows 
 and beds. This is called the homhax ceiha, and 
 familiarly the umbrella tree ; it is found in the Indian 
 isles, in South America, the West Indies, and on the 
 coast of Guinea, where it is said to be held in much 
 veneration by the negroes ; but, owing to its unfitness 
 for manufacturing purposes, it would be superfluous here 
 to do more than mention it.* 
 
 In the heart of Africa, near Timbuctoo, Rene Caillie 
 saw a dwarf cotton, wliich rises only five or six inches 
 above the ground ; it is an annual, and with its wool the 
 natives make a narrow cloth.f 
 
 Tlie cotton plant, in all its varieties, requires a dry 
 and sandy soil. Tliis is the uniform testimony of 
 travellers and naturalists. It flourishes on the rocky 
 hills of Hindoostan, Africa, and the West Indies, and 
 will grow where the soil is too poor to produce any 
 other valuable crop. A mixture of siliceous and argil- 
 laceous earth is the most desirable, with a preponderance 
 of the former. A marshy soil is wholly unfit for the 
 plant, and so little congeniality has it for moisture, that 
 a wet season is destructive to the crops. Of the several 
 diseases to which cotton is subject, and which make the 
 
 • See Marsden's History of Sumatra, p. 126; Bolingbroke's Voyage to the 
 Demerary, p. 253; Bowditch's Mission to Ashantee, pp. 24 and 326; Bryan 
 Edwards's History of the West Indies, vol. ii. p. 268. 
 
 t Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo, vol. 1. p. 426. 
 
294 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 crop a precarious one, the most fatal is the blight pro- 
 duced by wetness at the roots. 
 
 The i^lant flourishes most, and produces cotton of the 
 best quality, on the sea-coast.* It was mentioned, as 
 long since as the twelfth century, by the Arabo-Spanish 
 TVTiter, Abu Zacaria, quoted above, that in Spain the 
 sea-coast was found best suited to the cotton plant."!" 
 The same fact is familiarly known to the cotton planters 
 of India, China, Demerara, and Western Africa.]; And, 
 above all, this proximity to the sea is proved to be indis- 
 pensable to the growth of the best cotton, by the 
 experience of the planters of South Carolina and 
 Georgia, who raise the finest cotton known, namely, the 
 Sea Island, on the sandy coasts and low islands of the 
 sea, and who find the same cotton degenerate in length 
 of staple and in quality when grown inland. The 
 Hon. Whitemarsh B. Seabrook, the corresponding 
 secretary of the Agiicultural Society of St. John's 
 Colleton, (South Carolina,) in a valuable " Report, 
 accompanied with sundry letters, of the causes wliich 
 contribute to the production of fine Sea Island Cotton," 
 published in 1827, says — 
 
 * To this rule there are two exceptions. The Pernambuco cotton, which is only- 
 second to the Sea Island in value, though still much inferior, is said by Koster to 
 be injured by proximity to the sea, and improved as the planters recede from the 
 sea. — Koster s Travels in Brazil, p. 365. In Egypt also, " the cotton of the upper 
 provinces, several hundred miles from the sea, is superior to that of the Delta." — 
 St. John's Travels in Egypt, vol. ii. p. 438. 
 
 t Libro de Agricultura, torn. ii. c. xxii. p. 103. 
 
 X See p. 65. Mr. H. Bolingbroke, in his " Voyage to the Demerary," says that, 
 '• On the sea-coast the British settlers also commenced the culture of cotton, and 
 found that land to answer much better than the soil up the river." p. 141. One 
 reason which he alleges for the soil on the coast being more favourable to cotton 
 than to sugar and coflfee is, that it is of a "saline" quality, p. 204. In the Third 
 Report of the Directors of the African Institution, it is stated that "the saline air 
 of the sea-shore, which generally destroys cofiPee, is favourable to cotton." p. 23. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 295 
 
 " Tlie plantations of the gentlemen whose letters are 
 under review, are similarly situated. Four of them are 
 indented with creeks, and located on large rivers, and 
 all of them, in point of effect, are exposed to the salutary 
 action of the ocean s spray. In proportion to the 
 distance from the sea-board, and to the want of a free 
 circulation of air from the south, is, in general, the 
 downward graduated scale of coarseness in the cotton 
 produced. . These causes operate increasingly as you 
 recede from the ocean, until a point is reached at which 
 long cotton cannot be profitably cultivated." 
 
 Salt appears to be the principal cause of making the 
 cotton fine in quality and long in the staple. Hence, 
 and from the sandy nature of the soil, the sea-coast is so 
 favourable to the growth of cotton;* and hence it is 
 established that salt mud is the best manure for a cotton 
 plantation. Mr. Seabrook says — 
 
 " Tlie cotton of Mr. Burden and his favoured asso- 
 ciates, is indebted for its celebrity to the combined 
 requisites of fineness, strength, and evenness of fibre. 
 Upon what piinciples are these distinguished properties 
 dependent ? Those planters use, not only extensively, 
 but almost exclusively, salt mud. This manure is 
 known to impart a healthful action to the cotton plant, 
 to maturate rapidly its fruit, and to produce a staple at 
 once strong and silky. Mr. William Seabrook, senior, 
 from a steadfast adherence to the application of salt mud, 
 has literally converted a pine barren to as fruitful a soil 
 as Edisto Island can boast. That siliceous and argdl- 
 laceous soils, in the order narrated, are the best adapted 
 for cotton, every cultivator of this article is well awai-e. 
 
 • See the quotations in the note, p. 295, from Bolingbroke's " Deinerary," and 
 the Report of the Directors of the African Institution. 
 
296 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 * * * From experiments by a member of this society, 
 (Capt. Benj. Bailey,) it has been clearly demonstrated, 
 that sdt, added to a compost, in the ratio of one bushel 
 of salt to every sixty bushels of compost, has been 
 attended with the most decisive advantages in relation to 
 the quantum and quality of cotton." " For every 
 description of soil in which sand predominates, the 
 secretary is warranted in averring that salt clay mud 
 is the manure which ^ill effect the double purpose of a 
 profitable liarvest, with its desirable correlative, a fine 
 quality. 8alt clay mud acts rather negatively than 
 positively. It does not add very materially to the pro- 
 duct of cotton, but, from its conservative and maturative 
 power, the fruit, wliich the combined operation of soil 
 and season may have disclosed, it is nearly certain of 
 retaining and ripening. In a propitious season, stimu- 
 lating manures will peld a larger crop than salt mud ; 
 but for a series of years, the latter ^vill more certainly 
 repay the industiy and skill of the planter." 
 
 For the cultivation of the best cotton, there are two 
 other requisites, besides a sandy soil, proximity to the 
 sea, and salt clay mud as a manure: — First, very great 
 cai'e is necessary in the selection of the seed; and, 
 second, there must be diligence in weeding, pruning, 
 and in every part of the cultivation. The seed should 
 be selected from the most perfect, early stalks, produced 
 on the best land;* and it is indispensable frequently to 
 change the soil and situation, in order to keep up the 
 quality of the produce yielded by any pai'ticular kind of 
 seed. To carelessness in the use of mixed and bad 
 seed, the indifferent quality of cotton in many countries 
 
 • Mr. Seabrook's Report, p. 8. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 297 
 
 is greatly owing.* It is usual to throw the seed into 
 water before sowing it, when the bad seed will float, and 
 the good will sink. 
 
 The celebrated Sea Island cotton is much longer in 
 the fibre than any other description. It is also strong 
 and even, of a silky texture, and has a yellowish tinge. 
 Its seed is black, whereas most of the other American 
 cotton is produced from green seed. It is of the annual 
 herbaceous kind. This valuable plant Avas first sent in 
 the winter of 1 786, from the Bahama islands, (where it 
 had been introduced from Anguilla, in the West Indies,) 
 to Georgia, by some of the American royalist refugees, 
 who had settled in the Bahamas at the close of the 
 revolutionary war.| The soil and situation of the low 
 sandy islands, which lie along the coast from Charleston 
 to Savannah, were found extremely congenial to the 
 plant, and from them the cotton which it produces 
 derives its name. The great demand for cotton-wool in 
 England, (owing to the rapid extension of the manu- 
 facture,) and the high price fetched by this particular 
 description, induced the Americans to cultivate it with 
 diligence. The quantity raised, however, is limited by 
 the peculiar combination of circumstances requisite for 
 its production, and only a very small proportion of the 
 cotton grown in the United States is of this Idnd. Nor 
 is the quantity at all on the increase. In the year 1805, 
 
 * See p. 64: also, Edwards's Hist, of the West Indies, Vol.11, p. 270; and 
 Porter's Tropical Agriculturist, p. 11. 
 
 t Letter from Mr. Thomas Spalding, Darien, Georgia, inserted in Mr. Ken- 
 nedy's " Brief Memoir of Samuel Crompton, ' and in Mr. G. R. Porter's 
 " Tropical Agriculturist." Mr. Spalding, whose father was one of the first to 
 cultivate the long-stapled cotton, in 1787, states that the seed of the Bourbon 
 cotton, and every other kind of cotton in the world but one, have been tried in the 
 United States without success. It is supposed that Persia is the native country of 
 the Sea Island species. 
 
 2p 
 
298 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the export of tlie Sea Island cotton was 8,787,659 lbs. 
 and in the year endmg 30th September, 1832, it was 
 only 8,743,373 lbs. This cotton, being from the situa- 
 tion in which it is grown much exposed to the incle- 
 mency of the weather, varies greatly in quality, the 
 finer sorts biiuging often three times the price of the 
 damaged sorts. 
 
 A short-stapled cotton, of inferior value, had been 
 cultivated in the southern states of North America 
 before the revolutionary wai*, and used for domestic 
 purposes. The cultivation of this article, which is 
 named Upland, or Bowed Georgia,* was greatly im- 
 proved and enormously extended in consequence of the 
 demand from England. It was at first chiefly raised in 
 Georgia and South Carolina, but of late yeai's it has 
 spread with so much rapidity in Alabama, Mobile, and 
 the valley of the Mississippi, that more than one- 
 half of the whole imports into this country now come 
 from the Gulf of JMexico ; and owing to the fertility and 
 cheapness of the new soils, the price of the article has 
 been very greatly reduced. 
 
 Tlie operation of gathering the ripe cotton needs to 
 be performed with care. The women and young people, 
 who are employed in it, go through the plantation several 
 times, as the pods do not all open together, and the 
 cotton should be plucked "within a few days after it has 
 opened. Tlie cotton and seeds ai*e plucked, leaAing the 
 husk behind. Fine weather is chosen, as any degree of 
 wet on the cotton would make it afterwards become 
 mouldy, and would cause the oU of the seeds to spread 
 upon the wool. That it may be more completely dried, 
 it is exposed to the heat of the sun, on a platform of tiles 
 
 * For an explanation of this ternij see p. 67. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 299 
 
 or wood, for several days after it is gathered : by this 
 means not only tlie wool, but also the seeds become dry, 
 in which state they are more easily separated from the 
 wool.* 
 
 To detach the cotton from the seeds which it enve- 
 lops, is a work of some difficulty, and one which must 
 be perfonned effectually before the cotton is packed, 
 otherwise it Avill inevitably become oily and mouldy, and 
 by the particles of seed and dirt be rendered unfit for 
 spinning. To do this by the hand, would be a very 
 slow and expensive process, as a man could not clean 
 more than a pound per day. All nations at any remove 
 from barbarism, therefore, employ some kind of machi- 
 nery. The rude hand-mill, or roller-gin, used in India, 
 China, and throughout Asia, has been described, and 
 shoAvn by a drawing, at p. 6Q ; but this also is a com- 
 paratively slow process, by which not more than from 
 forty to sixty-five pounds in a day can be cleansed. The 
 long-stapled, or Sea Island cotton, is still separated from 
 the seeds by rollers, constructed on a large scale, and 
 worked by horses, steam, or other power. A mill of this 
 kind, which is capable of cleansing eight or nine hun- 
 dred pounds of cotton in a day, is thus described : — 
 
 " It consists of two wooden rollers of about an inch in diameter; 
 these are placed horizontally, parallel and touching each other. 
 Over them is fixed a sort of comb, having iron teeth two inches 
 long and seven-eighths of an inch apart. This comb is of the 
 same length as the rollers, and so placed that its teeth come 
 nearly in contact with them. When the machine is set in 
 motion, the rollers are made to revolve with great rapidity, so 
 that the cotton being laid upon them, it is by their motion drawn 
 in between the two, whilst no space is left for the seeds to pass 
 with it. To detach these from the fibres of cotton in which they 
 
 * Porter's Tropical Agriculturist, p. 21. 
 
300 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 are enveloped, the same machinery which impels the rollers gives 
 to the toothed instrument above a quick, wagging motion to and 
 fro, by means of which the pods of cotton, as they are cast upon 
 the rollers, are torn open, just as they are beginning to be drawn 
 in ; the seeds, now released from the coating which had encircled 
 them, fly off like sparks to the right and left, while the cotton 
 itself passes between the cylinders. The sharp iron teeth of the 
 comb, moving with great velocity, sometimes break the seeds; then 
 the minute pieces are instantly hurried on, and pass between the 
 rollers with the cotton. These stray particles are afterwards sepa- 
 rated by hand, a process which is called moting. Entirely to 
 cleanse the cotton from any remaining fragment of seed, it is sub- 
 jected to another process. This consists in whisking it about in a 
 light wheel, through which a current of air is made to pass. As it 
 is tossed out of this winnowing machine, it is gathered up, and 
 conveyed to the packing house, where by means of screws it is 
 forced into bags, each when filled weighing about three hundred 
 pounds. These are then sewed up, and sent to the place of ship- 
 ment, where they are again pressed, and reduced to half their 
 original size."* 
 
 The short-stapled American cotton is cleansed by a 
 very different and much more rapid process, without the 
 invention of which that species of cotton must have been 
 much dearer than it now is, (if indeed it could have been 
 used at all,) and consequently the cotton manufacture 
 itself could not have attained its present extension.! In 
 
 • Hall's Travels in North America. 
 
 + Malte Brun states, that the short-stapled American cotton adheres so closely 
 to the seeds, that it would not have been worth cleaning if the new process had 
 not been invented. (Vol. V. p. 193, book 80.) This is not true of all short-stapled 
 and green-seed cotton, as such cotton is cleaned in India and other countries with 
 the old roller-gin. Bryan Edwards, however, in his History of the West Indies, 
 (published in 1793,) mentions a kind of green-seed cotton grown there, " of which 
 the wool is so firmly attached to the seed, that no method has hitherto been found 
 of separating them, except by the hand ; an operation so tedious and troublesome, 
 that the value of the commodity is not equal to the pains that are requisite in 
 preparing it for market ; but the staple being exceedingly good, and its colour per- 
 fectly white, it would doubtless be a valuable acquisition to the muslin manu- 
 factory, could means be found of detaching it easily from the seed." He also 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 301 
 
 1793, Mr. Eli Whitney, of Westborougli, in Massa- 
 chusetts, invented the saw-gin, Anth which one man may 
 cleanse tlu'ee hundredweight of cotton in a day. The 
 cotton is put into a receiver, or hopper, of considerable 
 length compared \ni[\ its width, one side of which is 
 formed by a grating of strong parallel wires, about an 
 eighth of an inch apart. Close to the hopper is a 
 wooden roller, having upon its surface a series of cir- 
 cular saws, an inch and a half apart, wliich pass ^^'ithin 
 tlie gi-ating of the hopper to a certain depth. When the 
 roller is tunied, the teeth of tlie saAvs lay hold of the 
 locks of cotton, and drag them through the wires, wdiilst 
 the seeds are prevented by their size from passing 
 through, and fall to the bottom of the receiver, wdiere 
 they are carried off by a spout. The cotton is afterwards 
 swept from the saws by a revolving cylindrical brush. 
 When first invented, the wooden cylinder was covered 
 A\ith teeth of wire, like cards, but the saw is found to 
 answer the pui'pose better. The saw-gin injures in 
 some degree the fibre of the cotton; but it affords so 
 cheap a way of cleansing it, that all the North American 
 cotton, except the Sea Island, undergoes this operation. 
 
 The skill and energy applied to the cultivation of 
 cotton in the United States have enabled that country to 
 distance all others in providing a supply for the manu- 
 factures of England. In 1781, an American vessel 
 
 luentions another kind of cotton, of which "the seeds are larger, and of a duller 
 green than the former, and the wool is not of equal fineness, though much finer 
 than the cotton-wool in general cultivation." (Vol. II. p. 269.) To which of these 
 kinds the Upland cotton of North America belongs, I do not know: if to the 
 former, as Malte Brun asserts, then Mr. Whitney's machine has indeed been of 
 immense importance both to the agriculture of America and the manufactures 
 of England, as that cotton furnishes three-fourths of all that is used in this 
 country. 
 
302 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 arrived at Liverpool, having ou board eight bags ol 
 cotton, which were seized by the custom-house ofBcers, 
 under an impression that cotton was not the produce of 
 the United States !* The extraordinaiy progress of the 
 growth and export is shown by the following tables : — 
 
 Exports of Cotton from the United States. 
 
 rt 
 
 Quantity. 
 
 S 
 
 Quantity. 
 
 1 « 
 
 Quantity. 
 
 a 
 
 Quantity. 
 
 >! 
 
 
 >< 
 
 
 1 '" 
 
 
 >^ 
 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1791 
 
 189,316 
 
 1799 
 
 9,532,263 
 
 1807 
 
 66,212,737 
 
 1815 
 
 82,998,747 
 
 1792 
 
 138,328 
 
 1800 
 
 17,789,803 
 
 1808 
 
 12,064.366:. 
 
 1816 
 
 81,747,116 
 
 1793 
 
 487,600 
 
 1801 
 
 20.911,201 
 
 1809 
 
 53,210,225 
 
 1817 
 
 85,649,328 
 
 1794 
 
 1,601,700 
 
 1802 
 
 27,501,075 
 
 1810 
 
 93,874,201 
 
 1818 
 
 92,471,178 
 
 1795 
 
 6,276,300t 
 
 1803 
 
 41,105,623 
 
 1811 
 
 62,186.081 
 
 1819 
 
 87,997.045 
 
 1796 
 
 6,106,729t 
 
 1804 
 
 38,118,041 
 
 J1812 
 
 28,9.'>2.544^ 
 
 1820 
 
 127,860,152 
 
 1797 
 
 3,788,429 
 
 1805 
 
 40,383,491 
 
 ,1813 
 
 19,399,91 U 
 
 
 
 1789 
 
 9,360,005 
 
 1806 
 
 37,491,282 
 
 1814 
 
 17,806,479^ 
 
 
 
 Parliamentary Paper, No. 578, Sess. 1828. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Sea Island. 
 
 Other kinds. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Value. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Dollars. 
 
 1821 
 
 11,344,066 
 
 113,549,339 
 
 124,893,405 
 
 20,157,484 
 
 1822 
 
 11,250,635 
 
 133,424,460 
 
 144,675,095 
 
 24,035,058 
 
 1823 
 
 12,136,688 
 
 161.586.582 
 
 173,723,270 
 
 20,445,520 
 
 1824 
 
 9,525,722 
 
 132,843,941 
 
 142,369,663 
 
 21,947,401 
 
 1825 
 
 9,655,278 
 
 166,784,629 
 
 176,439,907 
 
 36,346,&49 
 
 1826 
 
 5,972,852 
 
 198,562.563 
 
 204,535,415 
 
 25,025,214 
 
 1827 
 
 15,140,798 
 
 579.169,317 
 
 294,3)0,115 
 
 29,359,545 
 
 1828 
 
 11,288,419 
 
 299.302,044 
 
 210,590,463 
 
 22,487,229 
 
 1829 
 
 12,833,307 
 
 252.003.879 
 
 264,847,186 
 
 20,574,311 
 
 1830 
 
 8,147,165 
 
 290,311.937 
 
 298,459,102 
 
 29,674,883 
 
 1831 
 
 8,311,762 
 
 268,668,022 
 
 270,979,784 
 
 25,289,492 
 
 1832 
 
 8,743,373 
 
 313,471,749 
 
 322,215,122 
 
 31,742,682 
 
 1833 
 
 
 
 
 36,191,102 
 
 * Smithers's Hist, of Liverpool, p. 124. 
 
 t The years 1795 and 1796 include a quantity of foreign cotton in the 
 exports. 
 
 X 1808 was the year of the American embargo on foreign trade. 
 
 § The years 1812, 1813, and 1814, were those of the American war. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 303 
 
 The whole growth of tlie United States, from 1819 to 
 1832, was thus given in to the Commons' Committee 
 on Manufactures, Commerce, &c. in 1833, in the form 
 in which it is usually made up, namely, in bales : — 
 
 CROPS OF COTTON IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Bales of 300 lbs. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Bales of 300 lbs. 
 
 1819 . . . 
 
 303,589 
 
 1826 . . 
 
 . 937,000 
 
 1820 . . . 
 
 369,800 
 
 1827 . . 
 
 . 712,000 
 
 1821 . . . 
 
 539,038 
 
 1828 . . 
 
 . 857,000 
 
 1822 . . . 
 
 588,139 
 
 1829 . . 
 
 . 976,845 
 
 1823 . . . 
 
 509,600 
 
 1830 . . 
 
 . . 1,038,847 
 
 1824 . . . 
 
 560,000 
 
 1831 . . . 
 
 . 950,000 
 
 1825 . . . 
 
 710,000 
 
 1832 . . 
 
 . 1,050,000 
 
 The distribution of these immense exports will be 
 shown by the following table, which also affords some 
 index to the extent of the cotton manufacture in the 
 other countries of Europe, as compared with Great 
 Britain : — 
 
 Quantity and Value of the Exports of Cotton Wool from the United States, during 
 the Year ended the 30th of September, 1832, specifying the Countries to which 
 Exports were made, with the Quantities and their Values sent to each. 
 
 Whither Exported. 
 
 Russia 
 
 Sweden and Norway 
 
 Denmark 
 
 Holland 
 
 England 
 
 Scotland 
 
 Ireland 
 
 Gibraltar 
 
 British East Indies 
 
 British West Indies 
 
 British American Colonies .... 
 
 Hanse Towns, &c 
 
 France on the Atlantic 
 
 France on the Mediteiranean • • 
 
 Spain on the Atlantic 
 
 Spain on the Mediterranean • • 
 
 Cuba 
 
 Italy and Malta 
 
 Trieste and other Austrian ports 
 Europe generally 
 
 Sea-Island. 
 
 7,011,23.5 
 319,994 
 
 13G,140 
 
 1, -276,004 
 
 Other kinds of 
 Cotton. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 838,951 
 
 699,002 
 
 305,450 
 
 3,920,016 
 
 210,196,428 
 
 10,674,457 
 
 805,158 
 
 492,778 
 
 376 
 
 36,171 
 
 4,075,122 
 
 67,722,972 
 
 8,468,831 
 
 1,296,474 
 
 987,401 
 
 335,900 
 
 580,974 
 
 1,654,775 
 
 380,513 
 
 Value. 
 
 Dollars. 
 
 87,973 
 
 75,711 
 
 27,812 
 
 392,430 
 
 21,262,900 
 
 1,088,344 
 
 77,807 
 
 42,537 
 
 20,420 
 
 41 
 
 4,298 
 
 403,099 
 
 6,931,564 
 
 791,311 
 
 142,924 
 
 93,491 
 
 17,660 
 
 51,606 
 
 179,402 
 
 33,353 
 
 Total 8,743,373 313,471,749 31,724,682 
 
 Papers hid before Congress, lUth Feb. 1833, p. 2\S, 
 
304 THE H I s r O K V OF 
 
 Thus the total exportation of American cotton in the 
 year ended 30th September, 1832, was 322,2 15, 122 lbs. 
 Add to this the quantity consumed that year in the 
 American manufactures, namely, 77,757,316 lbs. ;* and 
 the total quantity gi'own in the United States, in the 
 year, appeal's to have been 399,9 72,4381bs. The value 
 must be about 40,000,000 dollars, (£8,500,000 ;) and 
 in the year 1833 the value was several million dollars 
 more than in 1832. This article alone furnishes one- 
 half of the whole exports of United States produce. So 
 vast a production has risen up in little more than forty 
 years, all of which may be ascribed to the mechanical 
 inventions of England. 
 
 In the hifancy of the cotton manufacture, England 
 obtained her supply of the raw material from the Medi- 
 terranean and Levant. In the eighteenth century, the 
 lai'gest supplies came from the West Indies ar^^ South 
 America, as will be seen from the following table of the 
 quantities of cotton imported into England from different 
 countries, in the year 1 786 : — ■ • ■ 
 
 Imports of Cotton Wool in 1786. 
 
 From the British West Indies .... 5,800,000 lbs. 
 
 French and Spanish Colonies . 5,500,000 
 
 . . Dutch Colonies 1,600,000 
 
 . . Portuguese Colonies .... 2,000,000 
 
 . . Smyrna and Turkey . . . ^,000,000 
 
 Total .. . . = 19,900,000 lbs. 
 
 • Evidence of Mr. J. Kempton, an American, before the Select Committee cf 
 the House of Commons on Manufactures, Commerce, and Shipping, 1833: 
 Mr. Kempton stated this on the authority of a committee of Congress. 
 
Berbice . 
 
 . 2s. Id. per lb. 
 
 Demerara 
 
 1 11 to 2s. Id. 
 
 Surinam . 
 
 . 2 
 
 Cayenne 
 
 . 2 
 
 THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 305 
 
 A small quantity of cotton, of the best quality then 
 lino^\ai, was received from the Isle of Bourbon by way 
 of Ostend. It is- recorded, that in the year 1786 this 
 sold at from 7s. 6d. to 10s. per lb. In 1780, however, 
 we are assured by Mr. Bryan Edwards, that " the finest 
 grained and most perfectly cleaned cotton which was 
 brought to the English market, was, he believed, that 
 of the Dutch plantations of Berbice, Demerara, and 
 Surinam, and of the island of Cayenne." He gives the 
 following as the prices of several kinds of cotton in 
 England in the year 1 780 : — 
 
 St. Domingo Is. lOd. per lb. 
 Tobago ..19 
 Jamaica . 1 7 
 
 In the MS. book of Mr. John Wyatt, of which an 
 account is given at p. 126, the price of cotton is stated 
 to be lOd. per lb., which would, however, be the inferior 
 cotton of the West India islands. 
 
 Brazilian cotton was first imported from Maranham 
 in the year 1781, in a very dirty state ; but soon after it 
 was found that the Pernambuco cotton exceeded even 
 that of Demerara in fineness and goodness of staple ; 
 and it was in consequence so much sought after that its 
 cultivation was extended, and from that time to the 
 present the growth has on the whole increased, and it 
 continues to fetch the highest price of all cotton except 
 Sea Island. The supply of cotton received in this 
 country from Brazil is considerable, and tolerably 
 regular. The Brazilian cotton has been called kidney 
 
 2q 
 
306 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 cotton, from the seeds being of the kidney shape; tliey 
 are clustered together in the pod, and adliere to each 
 other. 
 
 All the South American and most of the West India 
 cotton is long-stapled, and is produced from the shrub, 
 not from the herbaceous plant. It is supposed that 
 some of the finest cotton ever grown was in the island 
 of Tobago, by Mr. Robley, between the years 1 789 and 
 1 792 ; but in consequence of a fall in the price of 
 cotton, and a rise in the price of sugar, that gentleman 
 discontinued the cultivation of the former for that of the 
 latter. 
 
 About the year 1823, long-stapled cotton of an excel- 
 lent quality, equal to the Pernambuco, and superior to 
 every other kind except Sea Island, began to be imported 
 from Egypt, where the enterprising viceroy, Mehemet 
 Ali, cultivated the article as a speculation of his own. 
 Cotton, as has been seen in the early part of this work, 
 (p. 19,) was grown in Upper Egypt in the time of 
 Pliny, but the cultivation had long since been discon- 
 tinued; and it was only about the year 1821 that the 
 Pasha, having learnt the adaptation of the soil to this 
 plant, and having succeeded in several experimental 
 plantations, began to cultivate cotton on the large 
 scale in Upper Egypt. The result was extremely 
 favourable. The first year of its cultivation only 
 60 bags were produced; the .second year, 50,000; the 
 third year, 120,000; and in 1824, 140,000 bags.* 
 The imports of Egyptian cotton into this country have 
 been as follow : — 
 
 * Madden's Travels in Turkey, Egypt, &c. vol. i. p. 245. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 307 
 
 Egyptian Cotton Imported into Great Britain. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Bags. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Bags. 
 
 1823 
 
 5,623 
 
 1829 . . 
 
 24,739 
 
 1824 
 
 38,022 
 
 1830 . . 
 
 14,752 
 
 1825 
 
 . . 111,023 
 
 1831 . . 
 
 38,124 
 
 1826 
 
 47,621 
 
 1832 . . 
 
 41,183 
 
 1827 
 
 . . 22,450 
 
 1833 . . 
 
 3,893 
 
 1828 . 
 
 32,889 
 
 
 
 The bags vary in weight in different years, from 180 to 
 240 lbs. In 1827 or 1828, a quantity of seed from the Sea 
 Island cotton was planted in Egypt, and it flourishes, and 
 yields cotton only inferior to the American Sea Island.* 
 From the above table it will be seen that the quantity of 
 cotton exported fluctuates greatly, and during the years 
 1833 and 1834 it has been very insignificant ; but it may 
 increase again as rapidly as it has declined, being in 
 a great measure regulated by the capricious determi- 
 nation of the Pasha. A considerable quantity of the 
 raw material must be consumed by the twenty-three 
 or twenty-four large cotton spinning mills which the 
 Pasha has erected, and filled with machinery : but tliis 
 manufacturing project has so entirely fiiiled to yield 
 profit, that it must sooner or later be abandoned. f It is 
 
 * St. John's Travels in Egypt, vol. ii. p. 440. Encycl. Britannica. 
 
 t Mr. St. John informs us that about 12,000 men were at one time employed 
 in the cotton mills; that the mills are veorked by bullocks; and that the spinning 
 machinery was made in Egypt by workmen under the tuition of French and 
 Italian artisans, and with tools brought at enormous cost from England and France. 
 That author remarks, that the atmosphere, impregnated with nitre, is destructive 
 to the more delicate parts of the machinery, and that the fine silicious dust of that 
 country is equally injurious. The yarn spun in these mills is extremely bad, and 
 
308 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 proper to remark, that Egyptian cotton is more difficult 
 to bleacli than any other, and that it will not receive so 
 bright a dye in some colours. 
 
 Indian cotton comes to this country in considerable 
 quantities, but not very regularly, and it is the worst in 
 the English market, owing to the negligent cultivation 
 and packing ; but it is probable that the free application 
 of English capital and skill to the cultivation of this 
 article, which will doubtless be made now that the 
 restrictions on the settlement of Europeans in India 
 are removed, Tvill improve the quality and extend the 
 growth of cotton in Hindoostan. 
 
 The following tables will shew in what proportions 
 different countries supply the English manufacturers 
 with this most important raw material : — 
 
 sells for much less by weight than the raw material itself. The management of 
 the mills and the workmen is characterized by all the vices incident to government 
 monopolies, and to a barbarous state of society ; and it is quite obvious that the 
 speculation must cause heavy loss, and be finally relinquished. Vol. ii. chap. 18. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 309 
 
 IMPORTS OF COTTON WOOL FROM 1820 TO 1833. 
 
 Quantities of Cotton Wool imported, distinguishing the produce of British 
 Possessions from that brought from Foreign Countries, together with the 
 quantities exported and cleared for consumption, from 1820 to 1833, both 
 inclusive. 
 
 Imported from Foreign Countries. 
 
 Years. 
 
 United States of 
 
 Brazil. 
 
 Turkey and 
 
 Other Foreign 
 
 TotaJ from For. 
 
 
 America. 
 
 
 Egypt. 
 
 Countries. 
 
 Countries. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1820 
 
 89,999,174 
 
 29,198,155 
 
 285,350 
 
 2,045,147 
 
 121,527,826 
 
 1821 
 
 93,470,745 
 
 19,535,786 
 
 856,868 
 
 2,504,180 
 
 n6,367,i)79 
 
 1822 
 
 101,031,766 
 
 24,705,206 
 
 395,077 
 
 1,534,483 
 
 127,666,532 
 
 1823 
 
 142,532,112 
 
 23,514,641 
 
 1,334,547 
 
 1,988,773 
 
 169,370,073 
 
 1824 
 
 92,187,662 
 
 24,849,552 
 
 7,719,368 
 
 1,278,720 
 
 126,035,392 
 
 1825 
 
 139,908,699 
 
 33,180,491 
 
 18,938,246 
 
 7,245,229 
 
 199,272,665 
 
 1826 
 
 130,858,203 
 
 9,871,092 
 
 10,032,400 
 
 755,153 
 
 151,516,848 
 
 1827 
 
 216,924,812 
 
 20,716,162 
 
 5,071,579 
 
 1,279,873 
 
 243,992,426 
 
 1828 
 
 151,752,289 
 
 29,143,279 
 
 6,926,288 
 
 1,579,711 
 
 189,401,567 
 
 1829 
 
 1.57,187,396 
 
 28,878,386 
 
 5,986,385 
 
 1,070,800 
 
 193,122,967 
 
 1830 
 
 210,885,358 
 
 33,092,072 
 
 3,401,710 
 
 639,823 
 
 248,018,963 
 
 1831 
 
 219,333,628 
 
 31,695,761 
 
 8,081,024 
 
 697,691 
 
 259,808,104 
 
 1832 
 
 219,756,753 
 
 20,109,560 
 
 9,113,890 
 
 698,048 
 
 249,578,251 
 
 1833 
 
 237,506,758 
 
 28,403,821 
 
 987,262 
 
 1,696,108 
 
 268,953,949 
 
 Imported from British Possessions. 
 
 
 
 British West Indies. 
 
 
 
 
 East Indies and 
 
 
 Other British 
 
 Total from Brit- 
 ish Possessions. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Mauritius. 
 
 The growth of 
 
 Foreign. 
 
 Possessions. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1820 
 
 23,125,825 
 
 6,219,625 
 
 617,191 
 
 182,188 
 
 30,144,829 
 
 1821 
 
 8,827,107 
 
 5,854,944 
 
 1,284,036 
 
 202,954 
 
 16,109,041 
 
 1822 
 
 4,5.54,225 
 
 9,031.904 
 
 1,263,210 
 
 321,757 
 
 15,171,096 
 
 1823 
 
 14,839,117 
 
 5,719,610 
 
 1,31.5,183 
 
 158,520 
 
 22,032,430 
 
 1824 
 
 10,420,005 
 
 5,006,002 
 
 1,263,304 
 
 655,509 
 
 23,344,820 
 
 1825 
 
 20,294,262 
 
 7,413,704 
 
 780,184 
 
 244,416 
 
 28,732,626 
 
 1826 
 
 21,187,900 
 
 4,510,302 
 
 240,768 
 
 151,583 
 
 26,090,553 
 
 1827 
 
 20,984,916 
 
 6,227,172 
 
 938,709 
 
 305,686 
 
 28,456,483 
 
 1828 
 
 32,247,187 
 
 5,893,800 
 
 218,088 
 
 38,359,075 
 
 1829 
 
 24,908,399 
 
 4,640,414 
 
 95,631 
 
 29,644,444 
 
 1830 
 
 12,483,217 
 
 3,429,247 
 
 30,025 
 
 15,942,489 
 
 1831 
 
 25,805,153 
 
 2,228,927 
 
 172,758 
 
 6.59,911 
 
 28,866,749 
 
 1832 
 
 35,178,625 
 
 1,708,764 
 
 331,664 
 
 35,221 
 
 37,254,274 
 
 1833 
 
 32,755,164 
 
 1,653,166 
 
 431.696 
 
 162,862 
 
 35,002,888 
 
310 
 
 THE HISTORY OK 
 
 Totals. 
 
 
 
 
 Quantity 
 
 Years. 
 
 Quantity 
 
 Quantity 
 
 entered for 
 
 Imported 
 
 Exported. 
 
 Consumption. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 /bs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1820 
 
 1.51,672,6.55 
 
 6,024,038 
 
 152,829,633 
 
 1821 
 
 1 32,536,620 
 
 14,589,497 
 
 137,401,549 
 
 1822 
 
 142,837,628 
 
 18,269,776 
 
 143,428,127 
 
 1»23 
 
 191,402,503 
 
 9,318,402 
 
 186,311,070 
 
 1824 
 
 149,380.122 
 
 13,299,505 
 
 141,038,743 
 
 1825 
 
 228,005/291 
 
 18.004,953 
 
 202,546,869 
 
 1S26 
 
 177,607,401 
 
 24.474,920 
 
 162,889,012 
 
 1827 
 
 272,448,909 
 
 18,134,170 
 
 249,804,396 
 
 1828 
 
 227,760,642 
 
 17,396,776 
 
 208,987,744 
 
 1829 
 
 222,767,411 
 
 30,289,115 
 
 204,097,037 
 
 1830 
 
 263,961,452 
 
 8,534.976 
 
 209,616,640 
 
 1831 
 
 288,674,853 
 
 22,308.555 
 
 273,249,653 
 
 1832 
 
 286,832,525 
 
 18,027,940 
 
 259,412,463 
 
 1833 
 
 303,656,837 
 
 17,363,882 
 
 293,682,976 
 
 Tables of the Revenue, Population, and Commerce of the United Kingdom, prepared 
 by the Board of Trade. 
 
 A few words must be said as to the distingiiishiiig 
 qualities of cotton-wool in the estimation of the manu- 
 facturer. The quality depends on the length, strength, 
 and fineness of the fibre, or, as it is called in the trade, 
 the staple : but these, which ai'e the essential attributes 
 of quality, are modified by the cleanliness and the 
 colour. The different denominations of cotton-wool 
 vary cousiderablj fi*om each other in these particulars, 
 and the value is estimated accorchngly. In cotton of 
 the same denomination, there is also a considerable 
 diflference in quality. In Sea Island cotton, which as a 
 class is by much the most valuable, tliis difi'erence is 
 great ; the very finest quality of this class, in ordinary 
 states of the market, is worth three times as much as 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 311 
 
 the common quality of tlie same class. The variation 
 of quality in most of the other denominations is from 
 20 to 25 per cent., and in none of tliem is more tlian 
 50 per cent. Fonnerly, the usual distinction of the 
 different sorts of cotton had reference to the colour, 
 "yellow" and "white." But now, improved modes 
 and processes of manufacturing have rendered colour of 
 less importance than staple, and the broad distinction is 
 therefore into " long-stajjled" and "short-stapled." The 
 principal long-stapled cottons are Sea Islands, Brazils 
 of every kind, Demerara, West Indian, and Egyptian. 
 The short-stapled cottons include such parts of the 
 produce of North America as are gi-own in the interior 
 of that country, and called Uplands, Orleans, Alabama, 
 Mobile, &c., as well as the East India cotton, Surat, 
 Bengal, and Madras. Except the better qualities of 
 Sea Islands, there is no sort of cotton which is now 
 confined in its use to any peculiar or exclusive purpose. 
 By mixing different sorts together, and by careful 
 management in preparing the mixture for the spinning, 
 the manufacturers can now make a substitute for almost 
 any particular kind of cotton, except the very best. It 
 is only requisite to add, that the long-stapled cottons 
 are generally used for the twist or warp, and the short- 
 stapled for the weft. 
 
 The market price of the several descriptions of cotton 
 at Liverpool, at the present time, and in April 1832 
 and 1833, will be seen from the following table, obtained 
 from the " Price Current" of Messrs. Priestley, GriffitJi, 
 and Cox, brokers, of Liverpool : — 
 
312 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 PRICES OF COTTON IN LIVERPOOL. 
 
 Sea-island, stained, per lb. 
 
 ordinary to fair . • 
 
 good fair to very fine . 
 New Orleans, very or- 
 dinary to fair . . 
 
 good fair to good . . 
 
 very good to prime 
 Georgia Upland, very or- 
 dinary to fair . . 
 
 good fair to prime . . 
 Alabama and Mobile 
 
 Egyptian 
 
 Pernambuco .... 
 
 Maranham 
 
 Bahia and Mac^aio . . 
 Demerara and Berbice . 
 
 Barbadoes 
 
 Bahama 
 
 West India 
 
 Carthagena 
 
 Surat, ordin. to middling 
 
 , fair to good . . 
 
 Bengal 
 
 30th April, 1832. 
 
 d. 
 
 6 to 
 
 115 _ 
 
 1 — 
 
 61 - 
 
 6| — 
 
 7^ — 
 
 52 _ 
 
 6| — 
 
 5| - 
 
 9| — 
 
 8i — 
 
 7 — 
 
 6J - 
 
 7^ - 
 
 6| - 
 
 61 - 
 
 6- 
 
 5J - 
 
 s. d. 
 
 9* 
 
 113 
 
 1 8 
 
 6| 
 
 7f 
 
 81 
 
 30th AprU, 1833. 
 
 d. 
 7 
 
 11 
 
 1 Qi 
 
 s. d. 
 to 10 
 
 — 10 
 
 — 20 
 
 *8 
 41 
 
 u 
 
 91 
 
 81 
 
 7^ 
 
 93 
 
 71 
 
 8| 
 
 71 
 
 5| 
 
 4| 
 
 51 
 
 5 
 
 ^5 — 
 8 — 
 
 61 — 
 7| - 
 6^ - 
 9^ - 
 
 8i - 
 
 H - 
 
 8 — 
 81 - 
 8 — 
 71 
 
 7 — 
 61 - 
 
 ^ - 
 H - 
 5 — 
 
 71 
 7i 
 9 
 
 7\ 
 8 
 
 71 
 
 IQi 
 101 
 9| 
 9 
 10 
 8i 
 
 1st July, 1834. 
 
 d. s. d. 
 
 9 to 1 2J 
 14—15 
 
 1 51 — 2 
 
 71 
 
 9 
 
 9| 
 
 71 
 
 8| 
 
 7 
 
 1 3 
 111 
 9J 
 
 95 
 
 11 
 
 10 
 
 8^ 
 9^ 
 10^ 
 
 8^ 
 
 9^ 
 
 9i 
 
 
 
 1 OJ 
 1 
 
 II 
 
 1 21 
 lOJ 
 
 
 
 4| 
 
 61 
 
 51 
 
 
 
 9 — 11 
 
 
 
 7| — 7J 
 
 
 
 52 — 6k 
 
 
 
 6^-0 7i 
 
 The following tables, shewing the prices of the prin- 
 cipal descriptions of cotton from 1782 to 1834, ought to 
 have a place in this work, as they serve to illustrate 
 several points in the history of the manufacture. The 
 first is taken from Mr. Tooke's work " On High and 
 Low Prices :" it is to be regretted that it does not 
 distinguish between the Berbice and tlie West India — 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 313 
 
 
 Prices of Cotto 
 
 N F 
 
 ROM 1(82 
 
 TO 1 
 
 805 : Exclusive 
 
 OF Duty 
 
 
 Yc-ais. 
 
 Wt'st India, includin 
 Surinam & Berbice. 
 
 
 Bowed Georgia. 
 
 Pernambuco. 
 
 Bengal and Surat. 
 
 1782 
 
 Per lb. 
 s. d. 8. d. 
 ( 1 8 to 3 
 12 — 3 6 
 
 Per lb. 
 
 5. d. s 
 
 None. 
 
 d. 
 
 Per lb 
 
 s. d. s. d. 
 
 None. 
 
 Per lb. 
 
 s. d. s. d. 
 
 None. 
 
 1783 
 
 t 1 9 — 3 
 (1 1 — 1 10 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1784 
 
 S 1 — 1 10 
 < 1 2 — 2 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1785 
 
 S 1 2 — 1 10 
 i 1 9 — 2 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1786 
 
 i 1 10 — 2 2 
 < 2 3 — 3 C 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1787 
 
 t I 7 — 2 8 
 ^2 — 3 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1788 
 
 S 1 9 — 2 9 
 < 1 2 — 1 8 
 
 
 . • ■ 
 
 
 2 1 to 2 7 
 16 — 19 
 
 
 
 1789 
 
 i 1 — 1 7 
 
 i 1 2 — 1 10 
 
 
 
 
 16 — 18 
 14 — 16 
 
 
 
 1790 
 
 f 1 1 - 1 8> 
 ( 1 0—1 9 
 
 
 . • 
 
 
 17 — 18 
 1 8 — 1 10 
 
 8 to 10 
 
 1791 
 
 ^11 — 1!) 
 I 1 9 — 2 6 
 
 
 
 
 1 6—1 8^ 
 
 2 5 — 27 
 
 8-0 9* 
 12 — 13 
 
 1792 
 
 i 1 8 — 2 
 I 1 9 — 2 6 
 
 
 • ■ • 
 
 
 2 5 — 2 6 
 1 10 — 2 
 
 12 — 13 
 11 — 1 
 
 1793 
 
 ^10 — 20 
 M 8 — 2 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 8 to 1 
 1 — 1 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 2 1—23 
 19 — 20 
 
 13 — 14 
 10 — 11 
 
 1794 
 
 S 1 1 — 1 10 
 
 M 2 — 2 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 — 1 
 3 — 1 
 
 3 
 6 
 
 1 11 — 2 1 
 16 — 18 
 
 10 — 011 
 9 — 11 
 
 1795 
 
 i 1 3 — 1 11 
 M 9 — 2 6 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 3 — 1 
 9 — 2 
 
 6 
 3 
 
 1 9—111 
 
 2 3 — 26 
 
 11 — 1 1 
 
 1 5 — 1 10 
 
 1796 
 
 i 1 9 — 2 6 
 M 7 — 2 4 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 8 — 2 
 — 2 
 
 5 
 3 
 
 2 3 — 26 
 1 10 — 2 1 
 
 1 7 — I 10 
 11 — 1 5 
 
 1797 
 
 $15 — 26 
 I 2 2 — 3 4 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 — 2 
 
 1 — 3 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 111—2 2 
 3 2 — 35 
 
 10 — 1 6 
 
 1 8—111 
 
 1798 
 
 $21—34 
 i 2 G — 3 4 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 10 — 3 
 5 — 3 
 
 
 9 
 
 3 2 — 34 
 3 1-35 
 
 1 8—111 
 
 2 — 22 
 
 1799 
 
 $16 — 26 
 ^ 3 4 — 4 7 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 6 — 5 
 5 — 2 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 4 2 — 48 
 2 5 — 28 
 
 2 2 — 24 
 11 — 1 2 
 
 ISOO 
 
 $18 — 29 
 ^2 3 — 3 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 6 — 3 
 4 — 2 
 
 
 10 
 
 2 9—30 
 2 11 — 3 1 
 
 10 — 1 4 
 13 — 16 
 
 1801 
 
 $2 1 — 3 
 M 9 — 2 8 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 6 — 3 
 5 — 2 
 
 2 
 11 
 
 2 9 — 2 11 
 
 2 8 — 30 
 
 15 — 16 
 12 — 15 
 
 1802 
 
 $19 — 29 
 (13 — 21 
 
 1 
 
 
 5 — 3 
 10 — 2 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 2 8 — 211 
 2 — 25 
 
 13—16 
 10 - 1 2 
 
 1803 
 
 $14 — 22 
 i 1 2 — 2 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 - 1 
 
 8 — 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 2 — 24 
 2 2 — 25 
 
 10 — 1 2 
 9—1 2 
 
 1804 
 
 ) 1 — 2 1 
 i 1 6 — 2 4 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 10 — 1 
 4 — 1 
 
 
 6 
 
 19 — 20 
 2 3 — 20 
 
 8 — 10 
 10 — 1 3 
 
 1805 
 
 $16 — 24 
 ^ 1 5 — 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 5 — 1 
 2 — 1 
 
 7 
 4 
 
 2 3 — 
 1 11 — 
 
 2 (i 
 2 () 
 
 1 — 
 1 2 — 
 
 1 3 
 1 5 
 
 2r 
 
314 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 I o : • ■ 
 
 ^"H ^ ^ - '. ^ 
 
 » 5 t = ;c - » 
 
THE COTTON M A N U F A C T (J R E. 
 
 315 
 
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 n> 
 
 3 
 
 w 
 
 oq' 
 
 S3 
 
 rr 
 
 3 
 
 :^ 
 
 rt 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 8 E- 
 
 -£ op 
 
316 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The al)o\o tables sliew an extraordinary fall in the 
 price of cotton-wool of every description between 1816 
 and 1833. Upland cotton, other^vise called Bowed 
 Georgia, wliich is considered as forming a standard by 
 which the valne of the other kinds is measured, fell 
 from an average of 20d. per lb. in 1818, to 8 id. in 
 1833. One cause of this decline in price is the 
 increase in the value of money in England; but the 
 principal cause is the extended growth in America, and 
 the cheapness and fertility of the lands newly brought 
 imder cotton cultivation in the western states. The 
 weekly consumption of Orleans and Alabama cotton in 
 this country increased from 875 packages in 1818, to 
 6,442 packages in 1833; whicli is an increase of more 
 than seven-fold; whilst in the same time the con- 
 sumption of Upland cotton only increased two and a 
 half fold. The quantity of cotton imported from the 
 western states, through the ports of the Gulf of JNIexico, 
 is now greater than that from the Atlantic states ; and 
 as the planters of the Mississippi and Alabama can 
 afford to grow cotton at the present prices, all other 
 descriptions of cotton necessarily fall to the same level, 
 in proportion to their quality.* Tlie growing cheapness 
 
 * Mr. Joshua Bates, of the house of Baring, Brothers, and Co., stated, in his 
 evidence hefore the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Trade, Manu- 
 factures, and Shipping, in 1833, that " it was understood that even 6 cents, or 3d. 
 a lb. was a price at which the cotton planters could gain money in the valley of 
 the Mississippi." Mr. Kirkman Finlay stated before the same Committee, that 
 " the lowering of the price of cotton in America is much owing to its greatly 
 extended cultivation in the new western states, where it has increased very much 
 more than in the eastern." Mr. Gabriel Shaw, of the house of Thomas Wilson 
 and Co., London, said — " The cultivation of cotton is increasing, and therefore 
 I suppose it affords the growers a remuneration for the capital and time 
 employed." 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 317 
 
 of the raw material must have been a principal cause of 
 the extension of the manufacture in England since the 
 peace, thougli hnprovements in our machinery have 
 been another powerful cause. 
 
 Tims do mechanical improvements in England, and 
 agricultural improvements in Ameiica, act and re-act 
 upon each other : thus do distant nations become 
 mutually dependent, and contribute to each other's 
 wealtli. The spinning machinery in England gave 
 birth to the cotton cultivation in America ; and the 
 increase of the latter is now in turn extending tlie 
 application of tlie former. In the vast machine of 
 commerce, the spindles of Mancliester are as necessarily 
 tied to the plough and hoe of tlie Mississippi, as to their 
 own bobbins. They must move or stop, be accelerated 
 or retarded, together. The American government can- 
 not wage war against English manufactures, Avithout 
 waging it equally against the southern states of its own 
 confederation. The English government could not 
 obstruct the trade and navigation of America, without 
 stopping its OA\Ti mills and looms. 
 
 Cotton is brought from New Orleans and Mobile to 
 to England for f d. per lb., and from the Atlantic States 
 for 3d. to f d. per lb.* The American growers frequently 
 consign it to this country for sale on their own account, 
 but about three-fourths of the whole quantity sent is 
 consigned by mercantile houses.t Tlie chief market 
 for cotton in this country is Liverpool, as may be seen 
 from the following account of the imports : — 
 
 * Evidence of Mr. Kirkman Finlay- 
 f Evidence of Mr. Gabriel Shaw. 
 
318 
 
 THE HISTORY O F 
 
 In 1833, the cotton imported into Liverpool was 
 
 into London . . 
 into Glasgow . . 
 
 Total 
 
 Bags. 
 840,953 
 40,350 
 48,913 
 
 930,216 
 
 The stock of cotton held m the ports has for some 
 
 years been dimmishing, as appears from the following 
 table : — 
 
 The whole stock held in the ports of the kingdom at the close of 
 1833 was, of— 
 
 American 117,650 
 
 Brazil 49,250 
 
 West India 2,860 
 
 East India 44,430 
 
 Egyptian 960 
 
 1833— To 
 
 tal . 
 was 
 
 . . 215,150 bags 
 
 The stock at tlie close of 1832 
 
 . . 245,120 
 
 1831 
 
 
 . . 274,800 
 
 1830 
 
 
 . . 320,218 
 
 1829 
 
 
 . . 289,380 
 
 1828 
 
 
 . . 405,886 
 
 1827 
 
 
 . . 452,240 
 
 1826 
 
 
 . . 342,200 
 
 Cotton is sold in Liverpool by brokers, Avho are 
 employed by the importers, and who charge 10s. per 
 £100 for tlieir trouble in valuing and selling it. The 
 buyers, who are the Manchester cotton dealers, and the 
 spinners all over the country, also employ brokers, at 
 the same rate of commission, to make tlieir purchases. 
 The cotton is principally bought and sold by sample, — 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURK. 319 
 
 the purchasers very rarely considering it necessary to 
 examine tlie hulk. By the strict prohity and honour 
 invariahly ohserved hy the brokers in their dealings with 
 each otlier, this immense business is conducted with a 
 facility and despatch which have probably no parallel 
 in any other market of the world, and Avhicli could not 
 exist to the same extent in the sale of any other descrip- 
 tion of merchandise. It may be mentioned, as a proof 
 both of the excellence of the arrangements for carrying 
 on the business, and of the integrity of the parties 
 ensrajjed in it, that, thouoh the sales are not made with 
 the formalities necessary to render the bai-gains legally 
 binding, a dispute or difficulty in their fulfilment is 
 almost unlmown. Whatever misunderstandings arise 
 are at once settled by a reference to some of the brokers 
 not interested in the transaction ; and such is the good 
 feeling which prevails amongst tliera, that on these 
 occasions the decision is, with scarcely an exception, 
 prompt and satisfactory. The credit allowed with the 
 goods is ten days, and the payment is then in bills at 
 three months j but from the present low^ rate of discount, 
 when bills are cashed by the banks at 3^ per cent., the 
 buyers almost invariably accept the alternative offered 
 them, by paying the cash immediately, and deducting 
 interest at the rate of 5 per cent. 
 
320 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 COMMERCIAL HISTORY 
 
 The Cotton Manufacture owes nothing to legislative protection. — View of the 
 different kinds of legislative interference; 1st. Restrictions on the importation of 
 foreign cottons ; 2d. Duties on cotton-wool ; 3d. Excise duties on printed goods ; 
 4th. Miscellaneous laws intended to benefit the manufacture. — The various 
 statutes quoted. — Clamour against the admission of Indian cottons, in 1787. — 
 High duties afterwards imposed ; reduced in 1825. — Insignificant importation of 
 foreign cottons. — Entire repeal of the duty recommended — Improvements in the 
 cotton manufacture by Mr. John Wilson, of Ainsworth. — Introduction of the 
 manufacture of British calicoes and muslins. — Change in the dress of the people. 
 RadclifiTe's description of the growth of the manufacture. — The Lace manu- 
 facture ; its extent and value. — The Stocking manufacture ; its extent and value. 
 
 Sewing thread. — Tables of the Imports of Cotton Wool, and of the Exports 
 
 of British Cotton Goods, from 1697 to 1833. — Explanation of the apparent 
 decline in the value of the exports. — Reduction in the price of the raw 
 material ; mechanical improvements ; rise in the value of money. — Mr. Kennedy's 
 table of comparative cost of English and Indian yarn in 1812 and 1830. — Tables 
 of prices of warp, weft, cotton-wool, and calico, from 1814 to 1833: of prices 
 of cotton yarn from 17S6 to 1833. — Great national advantage from the cheapness 
 of clothing. — Fluctuations in the manufacture: Mr. Kirkman Finlay's testimony 
 concerning them, and on the present state of the trade. — Effect of the cotton 
 manufacture in multiplying the population of Lancashire, &c. — Amazing effects 
 of Machinery. — Comparison between the periods of 1760 and 1833. 
 
 The commercial history of the English cotton manu- 
 facture was begun in our seventh chapter, and brought 
 down to the year 1764, (p. 84 to 112.) It was then 
 inteiTupted, to describe the gi*eat mechanical iuAentions 
 in cotton spinning, which changed the whole aspect of 
 the trade. The series of inventions and discoveries in 
 the spinning, weaving, bleaching, and printing lias been 
 so rapid and continuous, as scarcely to admit of can-ying 
 on the commercial history along ^^ith the mechanical. 
 Yet a notice of the prodigious eflfects produced by the 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 321 
 
 machines of Hargi'eaves, Arkwright, and Crompton 
 closed our tenth chapter ; and brought us down to the 
 yeai- 1787, and m part to 1800, (p. 214 to 219.) Other 
 notices of the gro^^dng magnitude of the trade naturally 
 interwove themselves Avith the account of the improve- 
 ments in bleaching and printing: and the commercial 
 liistory of the raw material, cotton-wool, has been com- 
 pleted to the present tiuie in the last chapter. 
 
 There remain to be mentioned many interesting facts 
 connected with the growth of the manufacture and trade ; 
 among which are, the legislative interferences in the way 
 of protection and taxation, — the change produced in the 
 dress of the people, — the new branches of manufactui-e 
 arishig out of the cotton, — the increase in the amount of 
 exports, — and the great fall produced in the price of 
 cotton goods by machinery. 
 
 Statutes framed for the regulation of commerce have 
 done little or nothing, either for or against the British 
 Cotton Manufacture. This trade w^as not the nurslina: 
 of government protection. The advocates of commercial 
 restrictions find no support for their principles from the 
 liistory of the cotton trade, however they may seem to 
 be favoui'ed by that of the woollen trade. Nor, indeed, 
 does the latter furnish them Avitli any solid argument ; 
 for although tlie statute-book contains an almost count- 
 less array of Acts intended to protect, to foster, to force, 
 to regulate, and to improve the woollen manufacture, 
 from the Third Edward down to the Third George, yet 
 these were like so many props to the mountain pine, or 
 crutches to the well-formed youth ; they served to 
 encumber, not to help it ; and the real supports of that 
 manufacture were the copious supply of wool, the only 
 raw material of clothing furnished by this island, — 
 
 2 s 
 
322 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 abundance of water, fuel, wood, and iron, for can'ying 
 on the processes or n^aldng the implements of manu- 
 factures,— the security for person and property afforded 
 by the laws of England to foreigners as well as to 
 i^atives,— and the wants of a numerous population, in a 
 climate requiring warm clothing. 
 
 The woollen manufacture had become extensive and 
 flourishing in England, long before the manufacture 
 of cotton was introduced. When the latter was 
 brought into this country, it had to compete with the 
 wooUen, the linen, and the silk manufactures, akeady 
 well established; and from this cii-cumstance, as well as 
 from the scanty supply of the raw mateiial, and, above 
 all, from the hnperfection of our macliinery, its progi'ess 
 at first was slow, and it received no attention whatever 
 from parliament. The English cotton manufacturers 
 looked upon the delicate and elegant fabrics of India, 
 hopeless of imitating them; nor would it have been 
 possible for the English workman, feeding on meat, beer, 
 and wheaten bread, ever to compete with the Hindoo 
 weaver, supported by rice and pulse, spreading his web 
 in the very field which grows the raw material, and 
 possessing a patience and a physical organization pecu- 
 liarly adapted for the manufacture of calicoes and 
 muslins, unless the foinner had called the wondrous 
 powers of mechanism to his aid. 
 
 Until the invention of the spinning machines, there- 
 fore, the English cotton manufacture was nearly confined 
 to heavy articles, like fustians, velvets, and tHcksets, of 
 which the warp was linen, and to the small wares required 
 for the trimmings of fm-niture and garments. If the 
 manufacturers were protected from foreign competition, 
 little benefit resulted from this protection, as the trade 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 323 
 
 extended very slowly. At the beginning of the last 
 century, the legislature frequently prohibited the use of 
 Indian calicoes and silks; but this was for the protection 
 of the silk and woollen manufactures of England, not of 
 the cotton, as no such ai'ticles were then made in this 
 country. The English were then as incapable of rival- 
 ing the Indians in the manufacture of calicoes and 
 muslins, as they were of competing with the Chinese in 
 the growth of tea. The invention of the spinning 
 machinery at once reversed the ease, and placed our 
 countrymen as much above Eastern competition as they 
 had formerly been below it. In the early period of the 
 trade, no legislation could have aided the English 
 manufacture; in its latter period, legislation could scarcely 
 have checked it. There was as great a difference in the 
 same manufacture, before and after the inventions, as 
 between the dwarf cotton of Timbuctoo and the stately 
 homhax of Guinea. The interference of government 
 could neither have trained up the herb into a forest tree, 
 nor have confined the forest tree to the dimensions of an 
 herb. 
 
 The interferences of the legislature may be classed 
 under four heads : — 
 
 1 . Restrictions, absolute or partial, on the importation 
 of foreign cotton goods. 
 
 2. Duties on the importation of the raw material, 
 cotton-wool. 
 
 3. Excise duties on printed goods. 
 
 4. Miscellaneous laws intended to benefit the manu- 
 facture. 
 
 1 . Restrictions, absolute or partial, on the importation 
 of foreign cotton goods. I present them in chronological 
 order : — 
 
324 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 1700. The Act, 11 & 12 Wm. III. c. 10, prohibited the 
 importation of the printed calicoes of India, 
 Persia, and China. 
 
 1721. 7 Geo. I. c. 7, prohibited the use or wear of 
 printed calicoes, whether printed in England or 
 elsewhere. 
 
 1783. 23 Geo. III. c. 74, reduced the heavy duties on 
 muslins, calicoes, and nankeen cloths, to IS per 
 cent, ad valorem, with a drawback of 10 per cent, 
 on exportation. 
 
 1787. 27 Geo. III. c. 13, established the following 
 duties. On — 
 Plain white dimity, imported by the East India 
 Company, Is. 6d. per yard, and £16. 10s. per 
 cent, ad valorem; with a drawback of nearly the 
 amount, on exportation. 
 Plain wliite calicoes, imported by the East India 
 Company, 5s. 3d. per piece, (a piece being ten 
 yards long when not more than li yard wide, 
 and six yards long when above that width,) and 
 also £16. 10s. per cent, ad valorem; with a 
 di-awback of nearly the amount, on exportation. 
 Plain muslins, nankeen cloth, muslins or wliite 
 calicoes flowered or stitched, imported by the 
 East India Company, 18 per cent, ad valorem; 
 with a drawback of 10 per cent, on exportation. 
 Cotton manufactures not enumerated or described, 
 imported by the East India Company, 50 per 
 cent, ad valorem. 
 Cotton manufactures not enumerated or described, 
 imported otherwise than by the Company, 44 per 
 cent, ad valorem; with a drawback of £41. 10s. 
 per cent, on exportation. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 325 
 
 The following is a statement of the duties, imposed 
 at different times, from 1787 to the present day, fur- 
 nished to me by order of the President of the Board of 
 Trade : — 
 
 RATES OF DUTY ON COTTON GOODS IMPORTED. 
 
 
 
 East India 
 
 
 East India Muslins 
 
 East India 
 
 
 
 White Calicoes. 
 
 
 and Nankeens. 
 
 Dyed Goods. 
 
 
 Per Piece. 
 
 Pr. Ct. ad val. 
 
 Per Cent. > 
 
 ad valorem. 
 
 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 £. s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 1787 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 and 
 
 16 10 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 
 
 Prohibited 
 
 1797 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 and 
 
 18 3 
 
 
 
 19 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 1798 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 and 
 
 21 3 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 
 1799 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 and 
 
 26 9 
 
 1 
 
 30 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 - 
 
 1802 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 and 
 
 27 1 
 
 1 
 
 30 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 
 1803 
 
 
 
 
 59 1 
 
 3 
 
 30 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 
 1804 
 
 
 
 
 65 12 
 
 6 
 
 34 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 1805 
 
 
 
 
 66 18 
 
 9 
 
 35 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 1806 
 
 
 
 
 71 6 
 
 3 
 
 37 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 
 1809 
 
 
 
 
 71 13 
 
 4 
 
 37 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 
 1813 
 
 
 
 
 85 2 
 
 1 
 
 44 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 
 1814 
 
 
 
 
 67 10 
 
 1 
 
 37 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 N.B. The importations of Cotton Goods, from other places tlian 
 the East Indies, were inconsiderable until 1825. 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES OF ALL SORTS, NOT 
 MADE UP. 
 
 1825. £10 per cent, ad valorem, and an additional duty of 3.id. 
 
 per square yard, if printed. 
 1832. Repeal of the additional duty of 3id. per square yard on 
 
 printed cottons. 
 
 (Signed) Wm. Irving. 
 
 Inspector General's Office, Custom House, London, January 21, 1834. 
 
326 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 2. Duties on the importation of the raw material, 
 cotton-wool — 
 
 1 766. The Act 6 Geo. III. c. 52, exempted cotton- wool 
 from duty, on importation into, or exportation 
 from, any British colony, and on importation 
 into Great Britain in British-built ships. In 
 foreign ships it was subject to a duty. 
 
 1780. 20 Geo. III. c. 45, allowed the importation of 
 cotton in foreign sliips, at a duty of lid. per lb. 
 and 5 per cent, additional — the produce to be 
 devoted to " the encouragement of the growth of 
 cotton in his Majesty's Leeward Islands, and for 
 encouraging tlie importation thereof into Great 
 Britain." 
 
 1787. 27 Geo. III. c. 13, allowed importation of cotton 
 fr'om British j)lantations duty fr^e -, and of cotton 
 not from British plantations, at a duty of Id. per 
 lb. in foreign ships ; free in British ships. 
 
 The following statement of the duties imposed on the 
 raw material, from 1 798 to the present time, has been 
 furnished, like that just given, fr*om the office of the 
 Inspector General of Customs : — 
 
 RATES OF DUTY ON COTTON WOOL IMPORTED. 
 
 Previous to 179S 
 
 1798. Imported by the East India Company 
 Of the British colonies or plantations 
 Of Turkey and the United States 
 Of any other place . . . , 
 
 1801 
 
 1802. Imported by the East India Company 
 Of Turkey and the United States 
 
 Free. 
 
 41. per cent, ad val. 
 
 8s. 9d. per 100 lbs. 
 
 Gs. 6d. per do. 
 
 12s. 6d. per do. 
 
 Free. 
 
 41. 16s. percent, ad val. 
 
 7s. lOd. per 100 lbs. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 1802. Of the British colonies or plantations 
 Of any other place ..... 
 
 1803. Of the East Indies, Turkey, United States, and any 
 
 British colony or plantation 
 Of any other place ..... 
 1805. Of the East Indies, Turkey, United States, and any 
 British colony or plantation 
 
 Of any other place 
 
 1809. All sorts . . . . 
 
 1815. All sorts 
 
 1819. Of any British colony or plantation in America 
 
 and imported directly from thence 
 Otherwise imported .... 
 
 1820. Of any British colony or plantation in America, 
 
 and imported directly from thence 
 Otherwise imported .... 
 
 1821. Of any British colony or plantation in America, and 
 
 of Malta, and imported directly from thence 
 Otherwise imported .... 
 
 1828. Imported from any British possession 
 
 any other place 
 
 1831. The produce of, and imported from, any British 
 possession ...... 
 
 Of any foreign country, or imported therefrom 
 1833. The produce of, and imported from, any British 
 possession ...... 
 
 Of any foreign country, or imported therefrom 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 327 
 
 10s. Cd. per 100 lbs. 
 15s. per do. 
 
 16s. 8d. per do. 
 11. 5s. per do. 
 
 ICs. lOJd. per do. 
 11. 5s. 3f d. per do. 
 16s. lid. per do. 
 8s. 7d. per do. 
 
 6s. 3d. per 
 8s. 7d. per 
 
 do. 
 do. 
 
 6s. 3d. per do. 
 61. per cent, ad va!. 
 
 Free. 
 
 61. per cent, ad vai. 
 
 4d. per cwt. 
 
 61. per cent, ad val. 
 
 4d. per cwt. 
 
 5s. lOd. per cwt. 
 
 4d. per cwt. 
 
 2s. lid. per cwt. 
 
 Wm. Irving, 
 
 Inspector General's Office, Custom House, London, January 21, 1834. 
 
 3. Excise duties on printed goods. Of these an 
 account lias been given in the last Chapter, (pp. 259, 
 260, and 279-283.) In order to biing all the instances 
 of leodslative interference into one view, the follo^^ino: 
 statement, resting (like the preceding) on the authority 
 of the Inspector General of Customs, is subjoined : — 
 
328 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 EXCISE DUTIES ON PRINTED COTTON GOODS. 
 
 Per Yard. 
 
 Duties commenced 20 July, 1712. 
 
 Calicoes printed, stained, painted, or dyed . 3d. yard wide. 
 
 From 2d August, 1714, additional duty of the 
 
 like amount Total 6d. do. 
 
 1 7th August, 1774. Stuffs wholly made 
 
 of cotton spun in Great Britain, called 
 
 " British Manufactory" 3d. per yard. 
 
 5th April, 1779. 5 per cent, additional on 
 
 the former duty. 
 5th April, 1 782. A second 5 per cent, as before. 
 25th July, 1782. A third 5 per cent, as before. 
 1st Oct. 1784. Duties on cotton stuffs, and 
 
 cotton and linen mixed, bleached or dyed : 
 
 not being linen gauzes sprigged with 
 
 cotton, viz. 
 
 Under 3s. per yard in value Id. per yd. & 15 per 
 
 cent, thereon. 
 At 3s. do. or upwards .... 2d. do. do. 
 
 1st Aug. 1785. The above [last mentioned] 
 
 repealed, and new duties, viz. 
 Mixed or cotton stuffs : — d. 
 
 Of greater value than Is. 8d. & not more than 3s. 2?^ per yard. 
 
 do. 2s. 6d 3U do. 
 
 British muslins : — 
 
 Of greater value than ls.8d.& not more than 3s. 2^^^ do. 
 
 do. 3s 4^1*5 do. 
 
 10th May, 1787. The whole of the above 
 repealed, and new duties in lieu thereof, viz. 
 British Manufactory and British muslins . . 31 per square yard. 
 
 These rates continued until the repeal of the duty, March 1, 1831. 
 
 4. Miscellaneous laws intended to benefit the manu- 
 facture. Of these the principal are as follow : — 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 329 
 
 1783. The Act 23 Geo. 111. c. 21, gave bounties on the 
 exportation of British printed cottons, viz. 
 
 Under the value of 5d per yard (before printing) . ,jd. per yard. 
 Of the value of 5d. and under 6d. per yard . . Id. per do. 
 
 6d. and under 8d. . . Ud. per do. 
 
 Besides the drawback of the excise duty. 
 
 These bounties were continued for more than thirty 
 years, when tliey were found to be so perfectly useless, 
 that they were repealed, under the financial administra- 
 tion of Mr. Vansittart, without opposition. 
 1783. The Act 23 Geo. III. c. 77, gave the manufac- 
 turers of cotton and flax a di*awback of the excise 
 duties on hard and soft soap, amounting to |d. 
 per lb. weight, and on starch, amounting to 1 jd. 
 per lb.; which indulgence has been continued to 
 the present time. 
 1787. The Act 27 Geo. III. c. 28, gave calico-printers 
 a copyright in their original patterns, so that no 
 person could copy or prepare to copy them 
 within two months after their first publication. 
 This copyright was afterwards extended to three 
 months, and continued till the present time. 
 1782. The 22 Geo. 111. c. 40, made the destruction of 
 cotton, woollen, silk, and linen goods, or any 
 tools or utensils used in spinning, preparing, or 
 weaving such goods, in England, a capital 
 felony. Tliis law, wliich was meant to check 
 the riotous attacks on macliinery, was extended, 
 in 1789, to Scotland. 
 An examination of the laws above cited, and of the 
 history of the manufacture, will make it evident that the 
 extension of the manufactiu'e was in no degree owing to 
 the interposition of parliament. 
 
 2t 
 
330 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 At one of those periods wliich occur frequently in 
 every considerable trade, when over-production causes a 
 glut in the market, namely, in 1787, the manufacturers 
 of muslins and calicoes took the alarm, owing to an 
 uncommonly large accumulation of those kinds of goods 
 in the warehouses of the East India Company, imported 
 from India. They sent a memorial to the Board of 
 Trade, stating that the British manufacturers were likely 
 to be ruined by tliis immense importation of Indian 
 goods, the prices of which were much reduced by the 
 glut, and praying that restrictions might be placed on 
 the Company's sales. A most satisfactory answer was 
 given by the Company, in which they shewed that the 
 restrictions prayed for would only encourage smuggling, 
 and throw the ti'ade into the hands of foreigners. They 
 also stated, that " 1 7-20ths of the whole of the calicoes 
 imported were exported, and that 12-20ths of the whole 
 of the muslins were exported." " Stained and printed 
 goods," they added, " seem to furnish a wide field for 
 the ingenuity and industry of the British manufacturers, 
 as the Company cannot import any goods under those 
 descriptions for home consumption." Government, being- 
 convinced by these statements, declined to interfere ; 
 and ultimately the glut in the market proved beneficial 
 to the manufacturers, as " it called into employment a 
 vast number of hawkers of muslins, &c. who, by dint of 
 low prices, diffused a taste for those goods in the 
 remotest villages of the kingdom."* 
 
 In spite of experience, and without the slightest 
 necessity, parliament afterwards gi*adually raised the 
 duties on the import of foreign cottons till they reached 
 the extravagant rate of £75 per cent., ad valorem, on 
 
 * Macphcrson's Annals of Commerce, Vol. IV. p. 134. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 331 
 
 printed cottons, and £67. 10s. and £50 per cent, on 
 other kinds ; and at tliis rate we find the duties, when 
 Mr. Huskisson induced the legislature, in 1825, to make 
 an approach towards free trade, and to lower the duties 
 on foreign cottons to 10 per cent, ad valorem. The 
 reduction of the duty had no effect in increasing the 
 importation of foreign cottons ; on the contrary, the 
 importation has heeii regularly diminishing from tliat 
 time to the present, as appears from the following 
 tables : — 
 
 Foreign Cotton Goods Imported from 
 
 1826 TO 1831. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Value. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Value. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Value. 
 
 1826 
 
 £110,365 
 
 1828 
 
 £68,528 
 
 1830 
 
 £42,277 
 
 1827 
 
 115,026 
 
 1829 
 
 60,770 
 
 1831 
 
 35,180 
 
 Pari. Papers, No. 462, Sess. 1832. 
 
 Foreign Cotton Goods imported into, exported from, 
 
 AND cleared for CONSUMPTION, IN THE UNITED KiNGDOM, 
 
 IN THE Years 1831, 1832, and 1833. 
 
 Importations. 
 
 Exportations. 
 
 Consumption. 
 
 Years 
 
 Cot. Piece 
 
 Goods of 
 
 India. 
 
 Cotton 
 manu- 
 factures 
 entered 
 at value. 
 
 Cotton 
 Yarn. 
 
 Cot. Piece 
 
 Goods of 
 
 India. 
 
 Cotton 
 manu- 
 factures 
 entered 
 at value. 
 
 Cotton 
 Yarn. 
 
 Cotton ma- 
 nufactures 
 entered at 
 value (in- 
 cluding E. 
 India Piece 
 Goods.) 
 
 Cotton 
 Yarn. 
 
 1831 
 1832 
 1833 
 
 Pieces. 
 1,064,416 
 506,184 
 300,823 
 
 £. 
 31,211 
 18,477 
 34,537 
 
 lbs. 
 196,796 
 184,859 
 177,333 
 
 Pieces. 
 784,317 
 811,716 
 583,843 
 
 £. 
 18,089 
 9,078 
 16,386 
 
 lbs. 
 86,643 
 110,839 
 33,267 
 
 £. 
 26,019 
 25,399 
 
 28,577 
 
 lbs. 
 
 91,204 
 111,203 
 118,707 
 
 Tables of Revenue, S(c. for IBS.*?, p. 160. 
 
332 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 It is abundantly clear from the above facts, and from 
 the preference given to British cottons in all foreign 
 markets, that no protection whatever is needed by the 
 manufacturer in the home market. The entire repeal 
 of the protecting duty, therefore, would produce no 
 injurious effect upon the manufacturer, whilst, as an 
 example to foreign nations, it might be beneficial. 
 There would be no merit in the act, but it would in 
 part take fi'om other governments the argumentum ad 
 hominem which they now address to our own, when 
 urged to admit our goods on favourable terms into their 
 markets. 
 
 The descriptions of cotton goods now manufactured in 
 England and Scotland are exceedingly numerous and 
 diversified. Before the invention of the spinning 
 machinery, only the stronger and coarser fabrics were 
 made, such as the several varieties of fustian, cotton 
 velvets, velveteens, and strong and fancy cords. " For 
 the introduction and improvement of many of these 
 articles, the country is indebted to the late Mr. John 
 Wilson, of Ainsworth. This gentleman was originally 
 a manufacturer of fustians at Manchester, but had early 
 engaged in the manufacture of cotton velvets ; and by 
 persevering efforts he succeeded in bringing it to the 
 utmost degree of perfection. His improvement of the 
 mode of dressing, of finisliing, and particularly of dyeing 
 these goods, acquired for them so high a character, that, 
 both in the home and foreign market, his articles sold 
 in preference to those of every other manufacturer. His 
 plan for cleaning off the loose and uneven fibres was by 
 the use of razors. He afterwards successively employed, 
 for this end, singeing by spirits of wine, and the appli- 
 cation of a hot iron resembling a weaver's drying iron, 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 333 
 
 which last instrument had been introduced for the same 
 purpose in tlie manufacture carried on in the Manchester 
 house of correction, by Mr. Whitlow, governor of that 
 institution. At a later period, Mr. Wilson effected his 
 object by drawing the goods rapidly over a cylinder of 
 cast-iron, heated to redness, by which they were in a 
 superior manner cleared of the do\vn or pile wliich had 
 been raised upon them in the various operations of 
 weaving, washing, bleaching, or dyeing. These suc- 
 cessive inventions of Mr. Wilson's, for performing this 
 process, give us some idea of the manner in which 
 improvements are introduced into our manufactures, 
 when, fortunately, the efforts of self-interest are directed 
 by intelligence and talent. The many valuable improve- 
 ments introduced by Mr. Wilson into the diflerent pro- 
 cesses connected "wdth the cotton manufacture, had the 
 effect not only to establish it more firmly, but rapidly to 
 enlarge its extent."* Mr. Wilson's improvements in 
 the art of dyeing have already been mentioned, (p. 276.) 
 
 After the invention of the spinning machines, the 
 English manufacturers began to unitate the light and 
 elegant fabrics of India; in which they so completely 
 succeeded as soon to banish all fear of the competition 
 of Indian goods. It has already been mentioned, that 
 Arkwright and his partners successfully attempted the 
 manufacture of calicoes about the year 1772 or 1773; 
 and soon afterwards calicoes were made at Blackburn,f 
 Avhicli became tlie principal mart for that description of 
 
 * Aikin's Manchester ; abridged in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
 
 t The subjoined paragraph is extracted from an old newspaper : — " The follow- 
 ing memorandum was wrote in a bible now in the possession of a family at Rishton, 
 near Blackburn, for the purpose, no doubt, of recording the period when the 
 manufacture of calico was first introduced into this country: — ' 15th September, 
 1776. Thomas Duxbury, of Rishton, near Blackburn, sold to Messrs, Peels, 
 
334 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 goods. This branch extended with great rapidity, and 
 spread tlu'ough a large extent of country round Blackbuni, 
 and into that part of Yorkshii-e near Burnley and Colne. 
 It now constitutes by fai* the largest branch of the 
 manufacture. 
 
 The manufacture of the still more delicate and beau- 
 tiful article, muslin, was attempted both in Lancasliire 
 and at Glasgow, about ihe year 1780, with weft spun 
 by the jenny. The attempt failed, owing to the coai'se- 
 ness of the yarn. Even vriih Indian weft, muslins could 
 not be made to compete with those of the East. But 
 when the mule was brought into general use, in 1785, 
 both weft and warp were produced in this country suffi- 
 ciently fine for muslins ; and so quickly did the weaver 
 avail liimself of the improvement in the yai-n, that no 
 less than 500,000 pieces of muslin were manufactui'ed 
 in Great Britain in the year 1787. In a " Report of 
 the Select Committee of the Court of Directors of the 
 East India Company upon the subject of the Cotton 
 Manufacture of this Country," made in the year 1793, 
 it is said, that " every shop offers British muslins for 
 sale equal in appearance, and of more elegant patterns 
 than those of India, for one-foui-th, or perhaps more than 
 one-third, less in price." " Muslin began to be made 
 nearly at the same time at Bolton, at Glasgow, and at 
 Paisley, each place adopting the peculiar description of 
 fabric which resembled most those goods it had been 
 accustomed to manufacture ; and, in consequence of this 
 judicious distribution at fii*st, each place has continued 
 
 Yates, & Co., Church Bank, two common-fine calico pieces for £5- 9». Sd. These 
 were the first calico pieces ever manufactured in this kingdom.' " This is an 
 erroneous statement, as Arkwright and his partners made calicoes in 1772 or 
 1773 ; but these may have been the first pieces of calico manufactured in Lancashire 
 and the memorandum shews the extraordinary price which they fetched. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTCRE. 335 
 
 to maintain a superiority in tlie production of its own 
 article. Jaconets, both coarse and fine, but of a stout 
 fabric, checked and striped muslins, and other articles 
 of tlie heavier description of this branch, are manufac- 
 tured in Bolton, and in its neighbourhood. Book, mull, 
 and leno muslins, and jaconets of a lighter fabric than 
 those made in Lancashire, are manufactured in Glasgow. 
 Sewed and tamboured muslins are almost exclusively 
 made there and in Paisley."* Fancy musUns, woven in 
 the loom, were first made at Paisley, of great variety 
 and elegance, but are now chiefly made at Glasgow. 
 
 A familiar but lively and striking description of the 
 great change in the dress of the people, consequent on 
 the introduction of English calicoes aud muslins, is 
 given in Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, under the 
 year 1785. It is as follows: — "The manufacture of 
 calicoes, which was begun in Lancashire in the year 
 1772, was now pretty generally established in several 
 parts of England and Scotland. The manufacture of 
 muslins in England was begun in the year 1781, and 
 was rapidly increasing. In the year 1 783, there were 
 above a thousand looms set up in Glasgow for that most 
 beneficial article, in which the skill and labour of the 
 mechanic raise the raw material to twenty times the 
 value it was of when imported. Bengal, which for some 
 thousands of years stood unequalled in the fabric of 
 muslins, figured calicoes, and other fine cotton goods, is 
 livalled in several parts of Great Britain. The rapid 
 increase in the number of spinning engines, which took 
 place in consequence of the expu-ation of Arkwright's 
 patent, forms a new era, not only in manufactures and 
 commerce, but also in the dress of both sexes. The 
 
 * Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
 
336 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 common use of silk, if it were only to be worn wliile it 
 retains its lustre, is proper only for ladies of ample 
 fortune, and yet women of almost all ranks affected to 
 wear it : and many in the lower classes of the middle 
 ranks of society distressed their husbands, parents, and 
 brothers, to procui'e that expensive finery. Neither was 
 a handsome cotton gown attainable by women in humble 
 circumstances ; and thence the cottons were mixed ^nth 
 linen yarn, to reduce tlieii* price. But now cotton yai'n 
 is cheaper than linen yarn ; and cotton goods are very 
 much used in place of cambrics, lawns, and other 
 expensive fabrics of flax ; and they have almost totally 
 superseded the silks. Women of all ranks, from the 
 highest to the lowest, are clothed in British manu- 
 factures of cotton, from the muslin cap on the crown of 
 the head, to the cotton stocking under the sole of the 
 foot. The ingenuity of the calico printers has kept pace 
 with the ingenuity of the weavers and others concerned 
 in the preceding stages of the manufacture, and pro- 
 duced patterns of printed goods, which for elegance of 
 drawing exceed every thing that ever Avas imported ; 
 and, for durability of colour, generally stand tlie wasliing 
 so well, as to appear fresh and new every time they are 
 washed ; and give an air of neatness and cleanliness to 
 the wearer, beyond the elegance of silk in the first 
 freshness of its transitory lustre. But even the most 
 elegant prints are excelled by the superior beauty and 
 virgin purity of the muslins, the gi-owth and the manu- 
 facture of the British dominions. With the gentlemen, 
 cotton stuffs for waistcoats have almost superseded 
 woollen cloths ; and silk stuffs, I believe, entii'ely : and 
 they have the advantage, like the ladies' gowns, of 
 having a new and fresh appearance every time they are 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 337 
 
 washed. Cotton stockings have also become very 
 general for summer wear, and liave gained ground very 
 much upon silk stockings, wliicli are too thin for our 
 climate, and too expensive for common wear for people 
 of middling circumstances."* 
 
 A still more lively and interesting description is given 
 of the change produced in the habits and circumstances 
 of the manufacturing population, during the extra- 
 ordinary increase of the manufacture, by William 
 Radcliffe, the joint author of the dressing macliine, in 
 his book already referred to. He describes the change 
 produced in his own parish of Mellor, fourteen miles 
 from Manchester : — 
 
 *' In the year 1770, the land m our township was occupied by 
 between fifty to sixty farmers; rents, to the best of my recollection, 
 did not exceed 10s. per statute acre; and out of these fifty or sixty 
 farmers, there were only six or seven who raised their rents directly 
 from the produce of their farms ; all the rest got their rent partly 
 in some branch of trade, such as spinning and weaving woollen, 
 linen, or cotton. The cottagers were employed entirely in this 
 manner, except for a few weeks in the harvest. Being one of those 
 cottagers, and intimately acquainted with all the rest, as well as 
 every farmer, I am better able to relate particularly how the change 
 from the old system of hand labour to the new one of machinery 
 operated in raising the price of land. Cottage rents at that time, 
 with convenient loom-shop, and a small garden attached, were 
 from one and a half to two guineas per annum. The father of a 
 family would earn from eight shillings to half-a-guinea at his 
 loom ; and his sons, if he had one, two, or three alongside of him, 
 six or eight shillings each per week : but the great sheet-anchor of 
 all cottages and small farms, was the labour attached to the hand- 
 wheel ; and when it is considered that it required six to eight hands 
 to prepare and spin yarn, of any of the three materials I have 
 mentioned, sufficient for the consumption of one weaver, — this 
 shews clearly the inexhaustible source there was for labour for 
 
 • Vol. IV. p. 80. 
 
 2u 
 
338 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 every person from the age of seven to eighty years, (who retained 
 their sight and could move their hands,) to earn their bread, say 
 one to three shillings per week, without going to the parish. 
 
 " From the year 1770 to 1788, a complete change had gradually 
 been effected in the spinning of yarns ; that of wool had dis- 
 appeared altogether, and that of linen was also nearly gone ; 
 cotton, cotton, cotton, was become the almost universal material 
 for employment ; the hand-wheels were all thrown into lumber- 
 rooms ; the yarn was all spun on common jennies ; the carding for 
 all numbers up to 40 hanks in the pound was done on carding 
 engines ; but the finer numbers of 60 to 80 were still carded by 
 hand, it being a general opinion at that time that machine-carding 
 would never answer for fine numbers. In weaving, no great 
 alteration had taken place during these eighteen years, save the 
 introduction of the fly-shuttle, a change in the woollen looms to 
 fustians and calico, and the linen nearly gone, except the few 
 fabrics in which there was a mixture of cotton. To the best of my 
 recollection, there was no increase of looms during this period, but 
 rather a decrease. 
 
 " The next fifteen years, viz. from 1788 to 1803, I will call the 
 golden age of this great trade. Water twist and common jenny 
 yarns had been freely used in Bolton, &c., for some years prior to 
 1788; but it was the introduction of mule yarns about this time, 
 along with the other yarns, all assimilating together and producing 
 every description of clothing, from the finest book muslin, lace, 
 stocking, &c., to the heaviest fustian, that gave such a prepon- 
 derating wealth through the loom. 
 
 " The families I have been speaking of, whether as cottagers or 
 small farmers, had supported themselves by the different occupa- 
 tions I have mentioned in spinning and manufacturing, as their 
 progenitors from the earliest institutions of society had done before 
 them. But the mule twist now coming into vogue, for the warp, 
 as well as weft, added to the water-twist and common jenny yarns, 
 with an increasing demand for every fabric the loom could produce, 
 put all hands in request, of every age and description. The fabrics 
 made from wool and linen vanished, while the old loom-shops 
 being insufficient, every lumber-room, even old barns, cart-houses, 
 and out-buildings of any description, were repaired, windows broke 
 through the old blank walls, and all fitted up for loom-shops. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 339 
 
 This source of making room being at length exhausted, new 
 weavers' cottages, with loom-shops, rose up in every direction ; all 
 immediately filled, and, when in full work, the weekly circulation 
 of money, as the price of labour only, rose to five times the amount 
 ever before experienced in this district, every family bringing home 
 weekly 40, 60, 80, 100, or even 120 shillings per week! It may 
 be easily conceived, that this sudden increase of the circulating 
 medium would, in a few years, not only show itself in atfording all 
 the necessaries and comforts of life these families might require, 
 but also be felt by those who, abstractedly speaking, might be 
 considered disinterested spectators ; but in reality they were not 
 so, for all felt it,- and that in the most agreeable way, too ; for this 
 money in its peregrinations left something in the pockets of every 
 stone-mason, carpenter, slater, plasterer, glazier, joiner, &c. ; as 
 well as the corn-dealer, cheese-monger, butcher, and shopkeepers 
 of every description. The farmers participated as much as any 
 class, by the prices they obtained for their corn, butter, eggs, 
 fowls, with every other article the soil or farm-yard could produce, 
 all of which advanced at length to nearly three times the former 
 price. Nor was the portion of this wealth inconsiderable that 
 found its way into the coffers of the Cheshire squires, who had 
 estates in this district, the rents of their farms being doubled, and 
 in many instances trebled."* 
 
 Here is a strongly-drawn picture, (which for spirit, 
 boldness, and truth, may vie vnth an interior of Teniers,) 
 of the cottas^e of the domestic manufacturer before the 
 spinning machinery was invented ; and there is also a 
 familiar, strilving, and just history, illustrated by a single 
 specimen, of the growth of the great manufacturing 
 villages and towns, wliich are now thickly spread over 
 the cotton districts of Lancashire and Cheshire. 
 
 There are two extensive manufactures, which, though 
 not carried on in Lancashire, yet call for notice in a 
 history of the cotton manufiicture, being founded entirely 
 
 • Origin of Power-loom Weaving, by William Radcliffe, p. 59 — 66. 
 
340 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 on cotton yarn ; namely, the manufactures of lace and 
 of cotton stockings. 
 
 The bobbin-net, or Nottingham lace manufacture, like 
 that of muslin, could have had no existence in England, 
 but for Cromptou's invention, the mule, which spins 
 yai'U suitable for that delicate fabric. For this manu- 
 facture the best quality of cotton is used, spun into the 
 finest yarn, and twisted into thread by the doubling 
 frame. The application of the stocking frame to the 
 making of lace, was first thought of and tried by a 
 frame-work knitter of Nottingham, named Hammond, 
 about the yeai- 1 768 — that era of gi'eat inventions. It 
 was not, however, rendered completely successful till 
 Mr. John HeathcoatjM.P. for Tiverton, made an important 
 alteration and improvement in the frame, for which he 
 obtahied a patent in 1809. Mr. Heathcoat began life 
 in humble cu'cumstances at Nottingham, and made liis 
 fortune by this happy invention ; and, being at once a 
 man of talent and of business, he now fills the honour- 
 able station of member of parhament for Tiverton. He 
 removed to the latter place soon after he had obtained 
 his patent, OAving to the riotous attacks made on his 
 lace-frames at Nottingham ; for that town, though it had 
 derived so much benefit from being the cradle of the 
 two gi-eatest inventions in cotton spinning, became 
 afterwards, through the ignorance of the workmen, the 
 head-quarters of an extensive conspiracy against ma- 
 chinery, known by the name of Luddism, in the counties 
 of York, Lancaster, Nottingham, Derby, Chester, &c. and 
 which was only put down after many men had atoned by 
 their lives for their acts of outrage. On the expiration of 
 Mr. Heathcoat's patent, in 1823, other improvements 
 followed in rapid succession; and such was the perfection 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 341 
 
 attained in the manufacture, and so surpiisingly cheap, 
 as well as beautiful, was tlie net produced, that this 
 manufacture has nearly destroyed the old manufacture 
 of net by hand upon the pillow in England, Belgium, 
 and France. 
 
 The growth of the bobbin-net manufacture, after 182-3, 
 Mas as rapid as that of the cotton manufacture after the 
 nullification of Mr. Arkwright's patent ; and the wages 
 of the workmen rose to the same extravagant rate. It 
 has now, after a wonderful extension, fallen into a 
 depressed state, from the quantity of capital and labour 
 having exceeded the demand ; and both profits and 
 Avages have necessarily declined. Great temporary loss 
 has been sustained owing to the recent invention of new 
 machines, which are capable of producing much more 
 lace than the machines of a few years standing, so as to 
 render the latter nearly worthless. Hand machines, 
 which, when first made, cost £1200 each, are now only 
 worth £60. Macliines moved by steam or water power 
 have been introduced, with which the owners of the 
 hand machines can only compete by submitting to a 
 great reduction of profits and wages ; and, in conse- 
 quence, many small masters are sinking into tlie rank 
 of workmen. So cheap has tliis beautiful fabric become, 
 that in 1831 a durable and elegant article in bobbin-net, 
 proper for certain useful and ornamental purposes, as 
 curtains, &c., could be sold wholesale for fourpence per 
 square yard, and another article, used for many purposes 
 in female dress, at sixpence per square yard : and since 
 tliat time a further fall in price has taken place, equal 
 to 20 per cent. 
 
 Mr. William Felkin, of Nottingham, the agent of 
 ]\Tr. Heathcoat, of Tiverton, lias published at several 
 
342 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 distinct periods a brief and able tract, entitled, 
 " Statistics of the Bobbin Net Trade,'" ginng a view 
 of the state of tliis manufacture. From liis publi- 
 cation in August, 1833, the following particulars are 
 extracted : — 
 
 Capital employed in spinning and doubling the Yarn. 
 
 Fixed capital in 35 spinning and 24 doubling 
 factories— 724,000 spinning, 296,700 doub- 
 ling spindles £715,000 
 
 Floating capital in spinners' and doublers' 
 
 stock and necessary sundries . . . 200,000 
 
 915,000 
 Deduct l-6th, employed for foreign bobbin net 
 
 trade 155,000 
 
 £760,000 
 
 Capital employed in Bobbin Net making. 
 
 Fixed capital in 25 factories, principally for power £. 
 
 machines .... 85,000 
 . . , 1,100 power machines, averaging 
 
 11 quarters wide . . . 170,000 
 . . , 3,900 hand machines, averaging 
 
 9 quarters wide. . . 267,000 
 
 Floating capital in stock on hand, 
 
 power owners £150,000 
 hand owners . 250,000 
 
 400,000 
 
 922,000 
 
 Capital in embroidering, preparing, & stock .... 250,000 
 
 Total capital employed in the trade . . . £1,932,000 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 343 
 
 Number of Hands employed. 
 
 In spinning: adults, 4,800; children, 5,500 . . 10,300 
 In doubling: adults, 1,300; children, 2,000 . . 3,300 
 
 13,600 
 Deduct l-6th employed for foreign demand . . 2,300 
 
 11,300 
 
 In power net making: adults, 1,500; youths, 1,000; 
 
 children, 500; women and girls in mending, 2,000 . . 5,000 
 In hand machine working : small machine owners, 1,000; 
 
 journeymen and apprentices, 4,000; winders, 4,000; 
 
 menders, 4,000 13,000 
 
 Mending, pearling, drawing, finishing, &c. . . . 30,000 
 In embroidering, at present very uncertain, probably about 1 00,000 
 
 Total of hands employed 159,300 
 
 Value of the Raw Material when imported, and of the Goods 
 manufactured therefrom. 
 
 Amount of Sea Island cotton annually used, 2,387,000 lbs. 
 value £179,000, This is manufactured into yarn, weighing 
 1,532,000 lbs. But of this quantity 262,000 lbs. are sent abroad, 
 leaving l,270,0001bs., value £635,000. This yarn, (inclusive of 
 about £10,000 worth of thrown silk,) is worked up into 
 
 £. 
 5,645,000yrds. of hand lever quilling net, averaging Ipersquare^ 
 fine 11-point, at Is. 3d. . . . > yard. * 
 2,207,000 — of hand circular quilling net, averaging 
 
 fine 11-point, at Is. 3d — 137,935 
 
 6,622,000 — of hand circular plain net, averaging 
 
 • fine 12-point, at Is. 6d — 496,650 
 
 4,580,000 — of hand rotary plain net, averaging 
 
 common U-point, Is — 229,000 
 
 10,905,000 — of power plain net, averaging common 
 
 11-point, Is — 545,250 
 
 562,000 — of fancy net, averaging 2s. 6d. ... — 70,250 
 
 250,000 — of silk net, averaging Is. 6d. ... — 18,750 
 
 ■°'=^' \ 30 771 000 \ ^"""='' 1"'°'^"" "l ^"^'^^ ^°^^'''' ""'' "''"'" ! £1,850,650 
 quare>'^">" ^i""" J present value of S 
 
 ards. ) 
 
 Total 
 
 sq 
 
 yard! 
 
344 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Tlie manufacture of cotton stockings is of great extent, 
 that being one of the common articles of dress among 
 the population of this country. It is chiefly carried on 
 in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The stocking- 
 frame, though a complex and ingenious macliine, was 
 invented so far back as 1589, by a Mr. William Lee, of 
 Woodborough, in Nottinghamshire, who, from Avant of 
 patronage in this country, took his machine to France, 
 and established the stocking manufacture at Rouen, 
 under the patronage of Henry IV. On the death of 
 that monarchy Lee fell into difficulties, and lie died in 
 poverty at Paris. The machine was brought back from 
 France to England by some of the workmen who had 
 emigrated with him, and who established themselves in 
 Nottinghamshire. In the course of the last century the 
 stocking-frame Avas considerably improved, and it was 
 adapted by Mr. Jedediah Strutt to the making of ribbed 
 stockings. The inventions in cotton spinning of course 
 led to a great extension in the manufacture of cotton 
 stockings. Hargreaves first employed his jenny at 
 Nottingham in spinning yarn for the hosiers. This was 
 in 1770. I have no means of knowing what was the 
 consumption of cotton in this manufacture previously. 
 In 1787, it was estimated that 1,500,000 lbs. of cotton 
 wool was consumed in the hosiery branch : at present it is 
 believed that 4,584,000 lbs. is consumed yearly, of the 
 value of £153,000. 
 
 An analysis of the hosiery trade was made in 1812, by 
 Blackner, which Mr. Felkin has continued up to the 
 present time, and which yields the following parti- 
 culars : — 
 
 Cotton hosiery is chiefly made throughout the counties 
 of Nottingham and Derby, at Hinckley, and at Tewkes- 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 345 
 
 bury. The number of frames employed on the different 
 kinds of goods is thus stated — 
 
 Plain cotton, 14 to 22-gauge, 1,600; 24 to 28-gauge, 
 1,600; 30 to 34-gauge, 2,790; 36 to 60-gauge, 
 1,600 frames 7,590 
 
 Gauze, 600; gloves and caps, 1,000; drawers, 500; 
 
 sundries, 560 2,660 
 
 Wide frames, making cut-ups and various other kinds 6,030 
 
 16,280 
 
 The following table contains additional particulars:- 
 
 Descriptions 
 of Cotton 
 Hosiery. 
 
 Frames. 
 
 Pairs of 
 
 Stockings 
 
 made. 
 
 Quantity of 
 
 Cotton 
 Yarn con- 
 sumed. 
 
 Value of 
 the Yarn. 
 
 Wages for 
 
 making 
 
 Stockings. 
 
 £. 
 
 220,000 
 285,000 
 
 Wages 
 
 for 
 finishing 
 Stock- 
 ings. 
 
 Value of 
 manufac- 
 tured 
 Cotton 
 stockings. 
 
 Fashioned 
 Cotton Hose 
 Cut-up, &c. 
 
 10,300 
 6,000 
 
 Dozen. 
 
 420,000 
 1,960,000 
 
 lbs. 
 
 880,000 
 2,940,000 
 
 £. 
 
 73,000 
 172,000 
 
 £. 
 
 32,000 
 98,000 
 
 £. 
 
 325,000 
 555,000 
 
 Total . . 
 
 16,300 
 
 2,380,000 
 
 3,820,000 
 
 245,000 
 
 505,000 
 
 130,000 
 
 880,000 
 
 The number of persons employed in the cotton branch 
 of the hosiery trade, will probably amount to nearly 
 40,000. The fixed capital in mills, machinery, and 
 frames, is estimated by Mr. Felkin at £385,000. The 
 same gentleman estimates the whole of the floating 
 capital in the hosiery business (including the worsted 
 and silk branches) at £1,050,000; of which that belong- 
 ing to the cotton branch would be about one-half, or 
 £500,000. In 1833, there were exported 468,602 
 dozen pairs of cotton stockings, which Mr. Burn (Com- 
 mercial Glance) estimates as worth £257,931. 
 
 2x 
 
316 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The jai'n for the stocking-frame is required to be 
 particularly smooth and equal, and it is therefore spun in 
 a manner different from other yam, two roves being 
 united to fonn the thread: on this account it is called 
 double-spun twist. 
 
 The making of sewing-thread, by firmly twisting 
 together two, three, or more threads of cotton yam by 
 machinery, is a considerable branch of business, canied 
 on both at JMauchester and in Scotland, and in which 
 Mr. David Holt, of the former place, has made great 
 improvements. The beauty of this article, and its 
 remarkable utility and cheapness, are universally known, 
 as it is used in every house, and in the making of 
 almost every kind of clothing. Several shops in the 
 principal streets of London sell tliis article only. It 
 is also extensively exported; the quantity sent abroad 
 in 1833 was 1,187,601 lbs. 
 
 Tlie following tables ■will shew at a glance the extent 
 of the British Cotton Manufacture for the last one hun- 
 dred and thu'ty-seven years ; and the reader will not fail 
 to notice the different rate of increase before and since 
 the great inventions in cotton spinning. All tliese 
 tables rest on official authority : — 
 
 Cotton Wool Imported fro3i 1697 to 1780. 
 
 Years. lbs. 
 
 1697 1,976,359 
 
 1701 1,985,868 
 
 1 700 to 1705(average)i, 170,881 
 1710 . . . ' . . 715,008 
 
 1720 1,972,805 
 
 1730 .... 1,545,472 
 
 Years. lbs. 
 
 1741 . . . 
 
 1,645,031 
 
 1751 . . . 
 
 2,976,610 
 
 1764 . . . 
 
 . 3,870,392 
 
 >|'1771 to 1775 
 
 . 4,764,589 
 
 ||l776to 1780 
 
 , 6,766.613 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 347 
 
 Cotton-Wool Imported and Exported from 1781 
 TO 1819. 
 
 Years 
 
 Imported. 
 
 Exported. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Imported. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 /6s. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1781 
 
 5,198,778 
 
 96,788 
 
 1801 
 
 56,004,.305 
 
 2 
 
 11,828,039 
 
 421,229 
 
 2 
 
 60,345,600 
 
 3 
 
 9,735,663 
 
 177,626 
 
 3 
 
 53,812,284 
 
 4 
 
 11,482,083 
 
 201,845 
 
 4 
 
 61,867,329 
 
 5 
 
 18,400,384 
 
 407,496 
 
 5 
 
 59,682,406 
 
 6 
 
 19,475,020 
 
 323,153 
 
 6 
 
 58,176,283 
 
 7 
 
 23,250,268 
 
 1,073,381 
 
 7 
 
 74,925,306 
 
 8 
 
 20,467,436 
 
 853,146 
 
 8 
 
 43,605,982 
 
 9 
 
 32,576.023 
 
 297,837 
 
 9 
 
 92,812,282 
 
 1790 
 
 31,447,605 
 
 844,154 
 
 1810 
 
 132,488,935 
 
 1 
 
 28,706,675 
 
 363,442 
 
 11 
 
 91,576,535 
 
 2 
 
 34,907,497 
 
 1,485,465 
 
 12 
 
 63,025,936 
 
 3 
 
 19,040,929 
 
 1,171,566 
 
 13 
 
 50,966,000 
 
 4 
 
 24,358,567 
 
 1,349,950 
 
 14 
 
 60,060,239 
 
 5 
 
 26,401,340 
 
 1,193,737 
 
 15 
 
 99,306,343 
 
 6 
 
 32,126,357 
 
 694,962 
 
 16 
 
 93,920,055 
 
 7 
 
 23,354,371 
 
 609,058 
 
 17 
 
 124,912,968 
 
 8 
 
 31,880,641 
 
 601,139 
 
 18 
 
 177,282,158 
 
 9 
 
 43,379,278 
 
 844,671 
 
 19 
 
 149,739,820 
 
 1800 
 
 56,010,732 
 
 4,416,610 
 
 
 
 Exported. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1,860,872 
 
 3,730,480 
 
 1,561,053 
 
 503,171 
 
 804,243 
 
 651,867 
 
 2,176,943 
 
 1,644,867 
 
 4,351,105 
 
 8.787,109 
 
 1,266,867 
 
 1,740,912 
 
 6.282,437 
 6,780,392 
 7,105,034 
 8,155,442 
 15,159,453 
 16,622,969 
 
 CoTTON-Wooi Imported, Exported, and Entered for 
 Consumption, from 1820 to 1833. 
 
 
 
 
 Quantity 
 
 Years. 
 
 Quantity 
 
 Quantity 
 
 entered for 
 
 
 Imported. 
 
 E.\ported. 
 
 Consumption. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1820 
 
 151,672,655 
 
 6,024,038 
 
 152,829,633 
 
 1821 
 
 132,536,620 
 
 14.589,497 
 
 137,401,549 
 
 1822 
 
 142,837,628 
 
 18,269,776 
 
 143,428,127 
 
 1823 
 
 191,402,503 
 
 9,318,402 
 
 186,311,070 
 
 1824 
 
 149,380,122 
 
 13,299,505 
 
 141,038,743 
 
 1825 
 
 228,005,291 
 
 18,004,953 
 
 202,546,869 
 
 1826 
 
 177,607,401 
 
 24,474,920 
 
 162,889,012 
 
 1827 
 
 272,448,909 
 
 18,134,170 
 
 249,804,396 
 
 1828 
 
 227,760,642 
 
 17,396,776 
 
 208,987,744 
 
 1829 
 
 222,767,411 
 
 30,289,115 
 
 204.097,037 
 
 1830 
 
 263,961,452 
 
 8,534,976 
 
 269,616,640 
 
 1831 
 
 288,674,853 
 
 22,308,555 
 
 273,249,653 
 
 1832 
 
 286,832,525 
 
 18,027,940 
 
 259,412,463 
 
 1833 
 
 30.3,656,837 
 
 17,303,882 
 
 293,682,976 
 
348 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The following table shews the rates of increase in the 
 import of the raw material, and therefore in the manu- 
 facture, for the last ninety years : — 
 
 Rate of Increase in the Import of Cotton-Wool, in 
 Periods of Ten Years, from 1741 to 1831. 
 
 From 1741 to 1751 81 per cent. 
 
 . 1751 to 1761 211 per cent. 
 
 . 1761 to 1771 25J per cent. 
 
 . 1771 to 1781 751 per cent. 
 
 . 1781 to 1791 319i per cent. 
 
 . 1791 to 1801 67i per cent. 
 
 . 1801 to 1811 39j per cent. 
 
 . 1811 to 1821 ...... 93 percent. 
 
 . 1821 to 1831 85 percent. 
 
 From 1697 to 1741, the increase was trifling: between 
 1741 and 1751, the manufacture, though still insigni- 
 ficant in extent, made a con.siderable spiing : during 
 the next twenty years, the increase was moderate : from 
 1771 to 1781, owing to the invention of the jenny and 
 the water-frame, a rapid increase took place : in the ten 
 years from 1781 to 1791, being those which immediately 
 followed the invention of the mule and the expiration 
 of Arkwright's patent, the rate of advancement was 
 prochgiously accelerated, being nearly 320 per cent. : and 
 from that time to the present, and especially since the 
 close of the war, the increase, though considerably mode- 
 rated, has been rapid and steady far beyond all prece- 
 dent in any other manufacture. 
 
 Let us now see how the cotton manufacture has 
 extended the foreign commerce of England. Less than 
 a centui'y ago, the cotton exports of the country were so 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 349 
 
 insignificant that they are not mentioned by any writer 
 of that period in treating of the commerce between 
 England and foreign countries. Even half a century 
 since, they were as yet a small branch of trade compared 
 with the woollen: but about that period they increased 
 with unparalleled rapidity, and at the beginning of the 
 present century they nearly overtook the woollen exports 
 in amount. At the present day they are three times as 
 large as the woollen exports, — having in so short a 
 period outstripped and distanced a manufacture which 
 has flourished for centuries in England, and which for 
 that length of time all writers on trade had justly consi- 
 dered as the grand source of commercial wealth to the 
 country. The following tables rest on official authority : 
 
 Cotton Manufactures Exported from Great Britain, 
 FROM 1697 to 1797. 
 
 Ot 
 Years. Co 
 
 iicial Value of British 
 tton Goods of all sorts 
 Exported. 
 
 1 
 
 1 Of?icia 
 Years. Cotton 
 
 1 Value of British 
 Goods of all sorts 
 Exported. 
 
 
 £. 
 
 
 £. 
 
 1697 
 
 5,915 
 
 178 
 
 915,046 
 
 1701 
 
 23,253 
 
 1787 
 
 . 1,101,457 
 
 1710 
 
 5,698 
 
 1788 
 
 . 1,252,240 
 
 1720 
 
 16,200 
 
 1789 
 
 1,231,537 
 
 1730 
 
 13,524 
 
 1790 
 
 1,662,369 
 
 1741 
 
 20,709 
 
 1791 
 
 1,875,046 
 
 1751 
 
 . . . . 45,986 
 
 1792 
 
 2,024,368 
 
 1764 
 
 200,354 
 
 1793 
 
 1,733,807 
 
 1765 
 
 248,348 
 
 1794 
 
 2,376,077 
 
 1766 
 
 220,759 
 
 1795 
 
 2,43.3,331 
 
 1780 
 
 355,060 
 
 1796 
 
 3,214,020 
 
 1785 
 
 864,710 
 
 1797 
 
 2,580,568 
 
350 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURES AND YARN EXPORTED 
 
 FROM GREAT BRITAIN.* 
 
 From 1798 to 1833. 
 
 
 BRITISH COTTON MAM- 
 
 1 
 
 TWIST AND VARN. 1 
 
 tOTAL COTTON EXPORTS 
 
 
 FACTURED GOODS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 EARS. 
 
 Official Value. 
 
 Declared 
 Value. 
 
 Official 
 Value. 
 
 Declared 
 Value. 
 
 Official Value. 
 
 Declared 
 Value. 
 
 
 £. 
 
 £. 
 
 £. 
 
 £. 
 
 £. 
 
 £. 
 
 1798 
 
 3,572,217 
 
 
 30.271 
 
 
 3,602,488 
 
 
 9 
 
 5,593,407 
 
 
 204,602 
 
 
 5,808,009 
 
 
 ISOO 
 
 5.406,501 
 
 zi 
 
 447,556 
 
 
 5,854,057 
 
 
 I 
 
 6,606,368 
 
 c= 
 
 444,441 
 
 
 7,050,809 
 
 
 2 
 
 7,195,900 
 
 >1 
 
 428,605 
 
 '^ 
 
 7,624,505 
 
 0/ 
 
 3 
 
 6,442,037 
 
 -- 
 
 639,404 
 
 >> 
 
 7,081,441 
 
 
 4 
 
 7,834.564 
 
 >> 
 
 902,208 
 
 u 
 
 8,746,772 
 
 d 
 
 5 
 
 8,619,990 
 
 s 
 
 914,475 
 
 o 
 xn 
 
 9,534,465 
 
 z^ 
 
 6 
 
 9.753,824 
 
 ? 
 
 736,225 
 
 10,489,049 
 
 m 
 
 7 
 
 9,708,046 
 
 ~ 
 
 601.719 
 
 u 
 
 10,309,765 
 
 u 
 
 8 
 
 12,503,918 
 
 X 
 
 472,078 
 
 o 
 
 12,986,096 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 9 
 
 18,425,614 
 
 = 
 
 1,020,352 
 
 ^ 
 
 19,445,966 
 
 r-* 
 
 1810 
 
 17,898,519 
 
 z 
 
 1,053,475 
 
 
 18,951.994 
 
 
 I 
 
 11.529,551 
 
 ■" 
 
 483,598 
 
 
 12,013,149 
 
 
 2 
 
 15,723,225 
 
 
 794,465 
 
 
 16,517,690 
 
 
 3 
 
 Records de 
 
 stroyed. 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 16,535,528 
 
 17.241,884 
 
 1,119,850 
 
 2,791.248 
 
 17,655,378 
 
 20,033,132 
 
 5 
 
 21,480,792 
 
 18.946,835 
 
 808,853 
 
 1,674,021 
 
 22,289,645 
 
 20,620,956 
 
 6 
 
 16,183,975 
 
 12,948,944 
 
 1,380,486 
 
 2,628,448 
 
 17,564,461 
 
 15,577,392 
 
 7 
 
 20,133,966 
 
 13,997,820 
 
 1,125,258 
 
 2,014,181 
 
 21,259,224 
 
 16.012,001 
 
 8 
 
 21,292,354 
 
 16,372,212 
 
 1,296,776 
 
 2,:195,305 
 
 22,589,130 
 
 18,767,517 
 
 9 
 
 16,696,539 
 
 12,180,129 
 
 1,585,753 
 
 2,519,783 
 
 18,282,292 
 
 14,699,912 
 
 1820 
 
 20.509.926 
 
 13.690,115 
 
 2,022,153 
 
 2,826,643 
 
 22,531,079 
 
 16,516,758 
 
 1 
 
 21,642.936 
 
 13,788,977 
 
 1,898,679 
 
 2,305,830 
 
 23,541,615 
 
 10,094,807 
 
 2 
 
 24,559.272 
 
 14,521.211 
 
 2,351^771 
 
 2,697,590 
 
 26.911,043 
 
 17,218,801 
 
 3 
 
 24,119^359 
 
 13.650,890 
 
 2,425,411 
 
 2,625.947 
 
 20.544,770 
 
 16,276,843 
 
 4 
 
 27, 171, .5.56 
 
 15,241,119 
 
 2,984,345 
 
 3,135,396 
 
 30,155,901 
 
 18,376,515 
 
 5 
 
 26,597,-575 
 
 15.046.902 
 
 2,897,706 
 
 3,206,729 
 
 29,495,281 
 
 18,253,631 
 
 6 
 
 21.445,743 
 
 10,522,407 
 
 3,748,527 
 
 3,491,268 
 
 25,194,270 
 
 14,013.675 
 
 7 
 
 29,203,138 
 
 1 3,956,826 
 
 3,979,760 
 
 3,545.568 
 
 33,182,898 
 
 17,502,394 
 
 8 
 
 '28,981,575 
 
 13,545,188 
 
 4,485,842 
 
 3,594,926 
 
 33,467,417 
 
 17,140.114 
 
 9 
 
 31,810,474 
 
 13,420,536 
 
 5,458,958 
 
 3.974,039 
 
 37,269,432 
 
 17,394,575 
 
 1830 
 
 35,395,400 
 
 15,203,713 
 
 5.655,509 
 
 4.132,258 
 
 41,050,969 
 
 19,335,971 
 
 1 
 
 133,682,475 
 
 13,207,947 
 
 5,674,600 
 
 13,974,989 
 
 39,357,075 
 
 17,182.936 
 
 2 
 
 37,060,750 
 
 12,622,880 
 
 6,725,505 
 
 4,721,796 
 
 43,786.255 
 
 17,344,676 
 
 3 
 
 40,058,153 
 
 13,754,992 
 
 6,279,057 
 
 4,704,008 
 
 46,337,210 
 
 18,459,000 
 
 • Pari. P.iper, No. 145, sess 1831 ; and Finance Accounts for 1834. The 
 cotton exports from Ireland to foreign parts are not included in this table, but 
 they are of very small amount: in 1831 their real or declared value was 
 £76,118 -, in 1832 it was £53,705 ; and in 1833 it was £27,399. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 351 
 
 It is desirable, before proceeding fiu-tlier, to give an 
 explanation necessary to the cleai* understanding of the 
 above table, and for want of which several members of 
 parliament, who ought to have known better, have drawn 
 from such tables the most erroneous and absurd con- 
 clusions. It will be seen, that whilst the official value 
 of the cotton exports increased from £17,055,378, in 
 1814, to £46,337,21 0, in 1833, the real or declared value 
 declined from £20,033,132, in 1814, to £18,459,000, 
 in 1833. The official value, as is known to all who are 
 conversant with commercial statistics, mdicates merely 
 the quantity of goods exported, but is no criterion of 
 their actual worth; the quantities being reduced to a 
 money amount, according to a scale fixed many years 
 ago by the custom-house, and never altered. The 
 real or declared value is the money price, according 
 to the declaration of the exporters, and approaches to 
 the actual worth of the exports, though it is not always 
 accurate. The following are the rates of valuation at the 
 custom-house for cotton goods : {Pari. Paper, No. 183, 
 Sess. 1830.)— 
 
 Rates of Valuation for Cotton Goods at the Custom-house 
 
 IN 1829. 
 
 Cotton Manufactures, viz. 
 
 Calicoes, white or plain . . . per yard 
 
 printed, checked, &c. . per yard 
 
 Muslins, white or plain . . . per yard 
 
 printed, checked, &c. . per yard 
 
 Fustians, velvets, &c per yard 
 
 Counterpanes each .... 
 
 Lace and patent net per yard 
 
 Hosiery ; viz. stockings, . . . per doz. pair 
 
 Cotton for sewing per lb. ... 
 
 Cotton and linen mixed .... per yard 
 
 Cotton Twist and Yarn . . . per cwt. . . 
 
 Official 
 Value. 
 
 Average Rates of 
 Real Value. 
 
 £. s. 
 
 d. 
 
 £. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 . . 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 . . 
 
 8| 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 . • 
 
 7| 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 . . 
 
 9? 
 
 2 
 
 G 
 
 . . 
 
 lOJ 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 . . 
 
 3 21 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 . . 
 
 3 
 
 1 10 
 
 
 
 . . 
 
 11 5 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 , . 
 
 3 3J 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 . . 
 
 8| 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 . . 7 
 
 5 
 
352 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 From tliis table it will be seen, that the official value 
 differed greatly from the real or declared value in 1829, 
 and that the latter was in every case less than the 
 former. Tliis indicates that a great fall has taken place 
 in the value of the manufactures ; and the late Mr. 
 Alderman Waithmau often endeavoured to prove, that 
 the country was now giving a much larger amount of 
 its labour for the same price, than it gave in 1814. 
 This conclusion, however, shews that he overlooked 
 several most important cii'cumstances, especially the fall 
 in the price of the raw material, wliich of course reduces 
 the cost of the manufactured goods ; and also the im- 
 provements in macliinery, which enable the manufacturer 
 to produce a much gi'eater quantity of goods with the same 
 quantity of capital and labour. Since the year 1 798, the 
 price of the raw material has fallen to less than one- 
 fourth of what it was in that year. The folloAving com- 
 parison is drawn from the prices given by ]\Ir. Tooke, 
 in liis work on " High and Low Prices," and the 
 Liverpool Price Current of April, 1833 :— 
 
 Comparative Prices of Cottox Wool in 1798 axd 1833. 
 
 Prices of 1798. Prices of 1833. 
 
 Descriptions of Coltoii. S. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 
 West India, including Surinam 
 
 and Berbice per lb. 2 1 to 3 4 . . 7 to 10 
 
 Bowed Georgia do. 1 10 to 3 9 . . CJ to S 
 
 Pernarabuco ....... do. 3 1 to 3 5 . . 8| to 10| 
 
 Bengal and Surat do. I 8 to 2 2 . . 4i to 5i 
 
 The following table, furnished by Mr. Kennedy, of 
 IManchester, to a parliamentary committee on East 
 India affairs, shews both the reduction in the cost of the 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 353 
 
 raw material between 1812 and 1830, and the saving of 
 labour in the same period, from the improvements in the 
 spinning machinery. It serves also to shew the com- 
 parative cost of the raw material, labour, and yam, in 
 
 England and in India :- 
 
 Comparative Statement of the Cost of English and 
 Indian Yarn in 1812 and 1830. 
 
 English Cotton Yarn. 
 
 Indian Cotton Yarn. 
 
 1^ 
 
 Hanks per 
 day per 
 spindle. 
 
 Price of 
 cotton and 
 waste per lb. 
 
 Labour per 
 lb.» 
 
 Cost per lb. 
 
 1 Cosiper 
 lb. 
 
 Labour 
 per lb. 
 
 Price of 
 cotton Sc 
 waste 
 per lb 
 
 
 1812 
 
 1830 
 
 1812 
 
 1830. 
 
 1812. 
 
 1830. 
 
 1812. 
 
 1830. 
 
 1812& 
 
 1830. 
 
 1812 & 
 1830. 
 
 1812 6. 
 1830. 
 
 No. 
 
 40 
 
 60 
 
 80 
 
 100 
 
 120 
 
 150 
 
 200 
 
 250 
 
 2. 
 
 175 
 
 1.5 
 
 1.4 
 
 1.25 
 
 1. 
 .75 
 .05 
 
 2.75 
 
 2.5 
 
 2. 
 
 1.8 
 
 1.65 
 
 1.33 
 ,90 
 .06 
 
 s. d. 
 
 1 6 
 
 2 
 2 2 
 2 4 
 2 6 
 
 2 10 
 
 3 4 
 
 4 
 
 s. d. 
 7 
 10 
 
 llj 
 
 I If 
 
 1 4 
 
 I 8 
 3 
 3 8 
 
 s. d. 
 1 
 
 1 6 
 
 2 2 
 
 2 10 
 
 3 6 
 6 6 
 
 16 8 
 31 
 
 s. d. 
 
 7^ 
 
 1 01 
 
 1 H 
 
 2 2J 
 2 8 
 4 11 
 
 11 6 
 24 6 
 
 s. d. 
 
 2 6 
 
 3 6 
 
 4 4 
 
 5 2 
 
 6 
 9 4 
 
 20 
 35 
 
 s. d. 
 1 2J 
 
 1 lOJ 
 
 2 6| 
 
 3 4| 
 
 4 
 6 7 
 
 14 6 
 28 2 
 
 s. d. 
 
 3 7 
 
 6 
 
 9 3 
 
 12 4 
 
 16 5 
 
 25 6 
 
 45 1 
 
 84 
 
 s. d. 
 
 3 4 
 
 5 8^ 
 
 8 lOJ 
 
 11 11 
 
 16 
 
 25 
 
 44 7 
 
 83 4 
 
 s. d. 
 3 
 3} 
 4i 
 5 
 5 
 6 
 6 
 8 
 
 • Wages are estimated at the same rate, or at 20d. a day, for every person employed, men, 
 women, and children, in 1812 and 1830, the saving being entirely in the better application of 
 the labour. 
 
 Tliis table has reference only to the cost of spinning 
 and the price of yarn. But still gi'eater improvements 
 have been made in weaving, by which more goods are 
 produced with the same expenditure of labour. As the 
 spinner and manufacturer, therefore^ for the same outlay 
 
 2y 
 
354 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 of capital, get so much more of the raw material, and so 
 many more goods spun and woven, they can afford to 
 sell a gi'eatly increased quantity of those goods for the 
 same price. In the year 1814, moreover, the prices of 
 cotton goods were immoderately high, owing to the 
 American war, which raised the cost of the raw material, 
 and still more owing to the peace in Europe, which 
 caused an immense exportation of British manufac- 
 tures. Add to these considerations, that the value 
 of money has risen very considerably since 1814, in 
 wliich year the currency was depreciated at least thirty 
 per cent. ; and the great variation between the official 
 and the real or declared value, which has been gi-adually 
 taking place, is nearly accounted for. It must be ad- 
 mitted, however, that in one very important department 
 of the manufacture, the weaving, a gi-eat decline has 
 taken place in the remuneration of the Avorkmen : tliis is 
 to be lamented, but it has arisen, as will afterwards be 
 sheAMi, from causes over which the legislature had no 
 control ; and in no other branch of the manufacture is 
 the condition of the workmen less advantageous than it 
 was in 1814. 
 
 It is beyond all question that the wages of the 
 spinners, and of all the Avoi-k-people employed in the 
 mills, are high, and that they will command more of the 
 necessaries and comforts of life now than they would 
 during the war. Yet such have been the improve- 
 ments in the machinery, even since the close of the war 
 (in 1815), that yarn is now sold at one-tliird of the 
 price which it commanded in that year ; as is shewn by 
 the following statement, the particulars of which were laid 
 before the Commons' Committee on Manufactures, Sec. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFA(;TURE. 
 
 355 
 
 by Mr. George Smith, of the firm of Jas. Massej & Son, 
 spinners, manufacturers, and commission agents, of 
 Manchester*: — 
 
 Prices of Warp, Weft, & Cotton- Wool from 1815 
 TO 1833. 
 
 
 Average selling 
 
 
 Price of 18 oz. of 
 
 
 
 
 Price of 30-hauks 
 
 Average selling 
 
 Cotton- Wool, re- 
 
 Average 
 
 selling 
 
 Years. 
 
 Water-Twist, of 
 
 Price of40-hanks 
 
 quired to make 
 
 Price of 
 
 a Four- 
 
 
 common quality, 
 
 Cop Weft, per lb. 
 
 lib. of the Twist 
 
 cut Warp. 
 
 
 per lb. 
 
 
 or Weft. 
 
 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 ISlj 
 
 — — 
 
 3 0* 
 
 1 10 
 
 28 
 
 "i 
 
 1816 
 
 — — 
 
 2 7\ 
 
 1 8f 
 
 26 
 
 n 
 
 1817 
 
 — — 
 
 2 6 
 
 1 lOi 
 
 25 
 
 Of 
 
 1818 
 
 2 9 
 
 2 6 
 
 1 lOi 
 
 25 
 
 91 
 
 1819 
 
 2 1 
 
 1 lOJ 
 
 1 H 
 
 20 
 
 9 
 
 1820 
 
 1 lOi 
 
 1 7i 
 
 1 n 
 
 18 
 
 0^ 
 
 1821 
 
 1 6i 
 
 1 H 
 
 101 
 
 15 
 
 101 
 
 1822 
 
 1 51 
 
 1 4J 
 
 9 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 1823 
 
 6| 
 
 1 41 
 
 9i 
 
 15 
 
 2^ 
 
 1824 
 
 1 7i 
 
 1 3^ 
 
 9^ 
 
 14 
 
 lOi 
 
 1825 
 
 1 7i 
 
 1 5h 
 
 1 li 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 1826 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 1 
 
 7^ 
 
 11 
 
 2| 
 
 1827 
 
 I 0^ 
 
 1 oi 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 H 
 
 1828 
 
 1 0| 
 
 m 
 
 7A 
 
 10 
 
 Oi 
 
 1829 
 
 1 0-' 
 
 Hi 
 
 61 
 
 9 
 
 H 
 
 1830 
 
 1 Oi 
 
 1 H 
 
 71 
 
 10 
 
 n 
 
 1831 
 
 10^ 
 
 llA 
 
 61 
 
 9 
 
 H 
 
 1832 
 
 llf 
 
 llA 
 
 7\ 
 
 9 
 
 82 
 
 To May \ 
 1833/ 
 
 llj 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 2i 
 
 Another table, presented to the Committee by Mr. 
 James Grimshaw, spinner and manufacturer, of Barrow- 
 ford, near Colne, shows the comparative prices of yarn 
 and of piece goods, from 1814 to ISSS-j': — 
 
 • Report, p. 569, 570. 
 
 t Report, p. 607- 
 
356 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Cost and selling Prick of one Piece of Calico, from 
 
 1814 TO 1833. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cost Price of one 
 
 Average Prices 
 
 
 Price of one 
 
 Price of one 
 
 Expense 
 
 Piece, first seven 
 
 sold for in Man- 
 
 Yeais. 
 
 Piece in 
 
 Piece in 
 
 of Sizing, 
 
 Years being 2d 
 
 chester through 
 
 
 Warp. 
 
 Weft. 
 
 &c. 
 
 quality 74's, rest 
 
 the Vear. 
 
 
 s d. 
 
 
 
 3d, 74's. 
 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 d. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 1814 
 
 9 5 
 
 7 5i 
 
 6 
 
 1 3 101 
 
 1 4 7 
 
 1815 
 
 7 IQi 
 
 6 3 
 
 _ 
 
 18 101 
 
 19 8f 
 
 1816 
 
 7 OJ 
 
 5 5| 
 
 
 
 16 4J 
 
 16 8» 
 
 1817 
 
 6 62 
 
 5 2 
 
 — 
 
 15 3 
 
 16 1 
 
 1818 
 
 6 9 
 
 5 4i 
 
 — 
 
 16 2J 
 
 16 81 
 
 1819 
 
 5 3i 
 
 4 2 
 
 — 
 
 13 OJ 
 
 13 9 
 
 1820 
 
 4 2i 
 
 3 6 
 
 — 
 
 11 IJ 
 
 12 11 
 
 1821 
 
 3 9| 
 
 2 6 
 
 5 
 
 9 lOi 
 
 9 8J 
 
 1822 
 
 3 8| 
 
 2 3 
 
 — 
 
 8 11 
 
 9 31 
 
 1823 
 
 3 8| 
 
 2 2J 
 
 — 
 
 8 8| 
 
 8 11| 
 
 1824 
 
 3 8| 
 
 2 2i 
 
 — 
 
 8 61 
 
 8 5f 
 
 1825 
 
 3 4 
 
 2 2 
 
 — 
 
 8 0^ 
 
 8 5| 
 
 1826 
 
 2 8 
 
 1 10 
 
 — 
 
 6 2^ 
 
 6 31 
 
 1827 
 
 2 61 
 
 1 91 
 
 — 
 
 6 31 
 
 6 6 
 
 1828 
 
 2 8 
 
 1 9 
 
 ~~~ 
 
 6 4^ 
 
 6 5| 
 
 1829 
 
 2 8 
 
 1 9 
 
 
 ,5 11 
 
 5 8 
 
 1830 
 
 2 9 
 
 1 10' 
 
 — 
 
 6 51 
 
 6 3J 
 
 1831 
 
 2 H 
 
 1 9^ 
 
 — 
 
 6 03 
 
 6 2i 
 
 1832 
 
 2 4 
 
 1 9 
 
 — 
 
 6 8| 
 
 5 8 
 
 1833 
 
 2 5 
 
 1 91 
 
 — 
 
 5 lOf 
 
 6 2 
 
 A comparison of the fiftli and sixth cohimns in the 
 above table will shew that the profits of the manufac- 
 turer have been small ; and it is certahi that in every 
 branch of the trade the profits of the capitalist have 
 been greatly reduced within the last twenty years. In 
 this respect, however, the cotton trade only resembles 
 almost every other branch of industry in the country : 
 the interest of money and the profits of capital have 
 fallen universally : but profits are still sufficient to allow 
 of a great accumulation of capital in the manufacture, 
 as is evident from the continual erection of new mills. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 357 
 
 and the remarkable extension and improvement of the 
 towns where the business is earned on. 
 
 The gain to the nation, from the production of 
 clothing at so much less cost, and of so much better 
 quality, must never be overlooked. Another table may 
 be added to the above, which will yet more strikingly 
 exhibit the reduction made* in the price of cotton 
 clothing by the effect of machinery : — 
 
 PRICE OF COTTON YARN, No. 100, FROM 1786 TO 1832. 
 
 In 
 
 the year 1786, 
 
 yarn 
 
 No. 100, sold for 
 
 38s. 
 
 . . . 1787 
 
 
 . 
 
 38s, 
 
 
 1788 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 35s. 
 
 
 1789 
 
 
 . 
 
 34s. 
 
 
 . 1790 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 30s. 
 
 
 1791 
 
 
 . 
 
 29s. 9d. 
 
 
 1792 
 
 
 . 
 
 16s. Id. 
 
 
 1793 
 
 
 . 
 
 15s. Id. 
 
 1794 
 
 
 . 
 
 15s. Id. 
 
 1795 
 
 spun 
 
 from Bourbon cotton 19s. 
 
 . . . 1796 
 
 
 Ditto 
 
 19s. 
 
 
 1797 
 
 
 
 19s. 
 
 
 1798 
 
 from Sea Island cotton 
 
 9s. lOd. 
 
 
 1799 
 
 
 
 lOs. lid 
 
 
 1800 
 
 . 
 
 . . . 
 
 9s. 5d. 
 
 
 1801 
 
 
 . 
 
 8s. 9d. 
 
 
 1802 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 8s. 4d. 
 
 
 1803 
 
 
 . 
 
 8s. 4d. 
 
 
 1804 
 
 
 . 
 
 7s. lOd. 
 
 
 1805 
 
 
 . 
 
 7s. lOd. 
 
 
 1806 
 
 
 . 
 
 7s. 2d. 
 
 
 1807 
 
 
 • 
 
 6s. 9d. 
 
 After 
 
 many fluctuations, in 
 
 
 . . 1829 
 
 it sold for 
 
 3s. 2d. 
 
 , , 
 
 1832 
 
 
 . . 
 
 2s. lid. 
 
358 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Thus the price of tliis kind of vara has fallen to 
 one-thirteenth of its price forty-six years since, whilst 
 its quality is greatly improved, inasmuch as it is better 
 spun. Manufactured goods have undergone a similar 
 reduction. 
 
 It is impossible to estimate the advantage to the bulk 
 of the people, from the wonderful cheapness of cotton 
 goods. The wife of a labouring man may buy at a 
 retail shop a neat and good print as low as foui-pence 
 per yai'd, so that, allowing seven yai'ds for the dress, the 
 whole material shall only cost two shillings and four pence. 
 Common plain calico may be bought for 2jd. per yard. 
 Elegant cotton prints, for ladies' di^esses, sell at from lOd. 
 to Is. 4d. per yard, and printed muslins at fiom Is. to 4s., 
 the higher priced having beautiful patterns, in brilliant 
 and permanent colours. Tlius the humblest classes 
 have now the means of as great neatness, and even 
 gaiety of dress, as the middle and upper classes of the 
 last age. A country-wake in the nineteenth century 
 may display as mucli finery as a drawing-room of the 
 eigliteenth ; and the peasant's cottage may, at tliis day, 
 with good management, liave as handsome furniture for 
 beds, ^rindows, and tables, as the house of a substantial 
 tradesman sixty yeai's since. 
 
 Tlie cotton manufacture, like every other extensive 
 branch of trade, has had its seasons of depression ; some 
 of them produced by periods of national disti'ess and 
 exigency, and some by causes peculiar to itself; but 
 from each of these it has recovered witli suq^rising 
 elasticity, and has afterwards sprung forwaid with an 
 unabated rapidity of increase. An enlightened merchant 
 and cotton spinner, Mr. Kirkman Finlay, of Glasgow 
 and London, spoke the language of experience before a 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 359 
 
 parliamentary committee, when he said — " I have seen 
 a great many overthrows in the cotton manufacture : in 
 1 788 I thought it was never to recover ; in 1 793 it got 
 anotlier blow; in 1799 it got a severe blow, and in 1803 
 again, and in 1810 ; and at particular periods one would 
 have thouo^ht that it was never to extend ajjain ; but at 
 every time that it received a blow, the rebound was 
 quite wonderful."* Tlie same well-informed ^vitness 
 pronounced the follo^ving opinion on the present state of 
 the trade : — " With respect to the cotton manufacture, 
 with which I am connected, I think its character is one 
 of great extension, of a rapid sale and activity, but 
 making very moderate returns of profit." " I attiibute 
 the low state of profit not to any want of demand, if we 
 compare the demand now with the demand at any former 
 period ; but to an extremely extensive production with 
 reference to the demand, arising out of a great compe- 
 tition, doubtless caused by the high rate of profit in 
 fonuer times, which, by attracting a large amount of 
 capital to the business, has necessaiily led to the low 
 rate of profit we now see." " I think tliat the stocks on 
 hand are inconsiderable ; that the payments are good ; 
 that if there is any tiling unhealthy, it arises from a 
 practice which has greatly prevailed of late yeai's, of tlie 
 manufacturer making large consignments of his pro- 
 ductions to foreign countries, and receiving bills in 
 advance, and discounting those bills with monied persons 
 in London and other parts of the country, which has led 
 to a gi'eater extension of the trade tlian otherwise would 
 have taken place." " I think the other branches of 
 
 • Report of the Select Committee of the Commons on Manufactures, Commerce, 
 and Shipping; (16th May, 1S33) p. 45. 
 
300 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the trade are perfectly healthy, whenever it has refer- 
 ence to the home trade, or to the nearer markets."* 
 
 Of the fifteen hundred thousand individuals whom 
 the cotton manufacture now supports, the greater 
 number are in the county of Lancaster. In the 
 year 1700, Lancashire numbered only 166,200 inha- 
 bitants, (about the present population of one of its 
 seaports, and less than that of its manufacturing metro- 
 polis;) in 1750, the population was 297,400; in 1801, 
 it had gi'o^vii to 672,565, and in 1831, to 1,336,854; 
 being an increase of more than eight fold in 130 years, 
 oifour and a half fold in the last 80 years, and of two 
 fold within the last 30 years ! The population of 
 Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, the principal seats of 
 the manufacture in Scotland, has increased in an almost 
 equal proportion. The parish of Manchester has in- 
 creased from 41,032 inhabitants in 1774, to 270,961 in 
 1831, (the date of the last census;) Liverpool, from 
 34,050, in 1770, to 165,175; Glasgow, from 28,300, 
 in 1763, to 202,426; Paisley, from 17,700, in 1782, to 
 57,466; Preston, from 6,000, in 1780, to 33,112; 
 Blackburn, from 5,000, in 1770, to 27,091; Bolton, 
 from 5,339, in 1773, to 43,396 ; Wigan, from 10,989, in 
 1801, to 20,774 ; Ashton, from 5,097, in 1775, to 33,597; 
 the parish of Oldham, from 13,916, in 1789, to 50,513. 
 
 Such are the amazing creations of the cotton ma- 
 chinery. At the beginning of the reign of George III. 
 (in 1760,) probably not more than forty thousand 
 persons! were supported by the whole cotton manu- 
 
 * Ibid. p. 35. 
 
 t My reasons for thinking that little more than 40,000 persons were supported 
 by the cotton manufacture in 1760 are as follows. The entire value of the cotton 
 goods produced at that time has been shewn (p. 217) to be £600,000 a year. The 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 3t)l 
 
 facture : machines liave been invented, wliicli enable 
 one man to produce as much yarn as two Imndred and 
 fifty or tlu'ee huncb*ed men could have produced then, 
 — which enable one man and one boy to piint as 
 many goods as a hundred men and a hundred boys 
 could have printed formerly : and the effect has been, 
 that now the manufacture supports fifteen hundred 
 thousand persons, or upwards of thirty -seven times 
 as many as at the former period ! Yet so profoundly 
 ignorant, or so blindly prejudiced, are some men, even 
 authors and members of parliament, that they still 
 publish solemn lamentations over the growth of ma- 
 
 quantity of cotton-wool imported was between 3 and 4,000,000 lbs. a year. It may 
 be supposed, that 3,000,000 lbs. would be consumed in the manufacture, which, at 
 Is. per lb. (about the price of cotton at that time,) would amount to £150,000. 
 The Hamburg, Scotch, and Irish linen yarn, used as warps for the cotton goods, 
 would cost about the same sum — £1.50,000. On a return of £600.000. the 
 profits of capital would not then be less than £80,000. After deducting the cost 
 of the raw material and the profits of capital, the remainder, £220,000, would be 
 the wages of labour. It may be presented thus — 
 
 Value of British cottons manufactured in 1760 £600,000 
 
 3,000,000 lbs. of cotton-wool, at Is. per lb. . . £150,000 
 
 Linen warp for the goods 150,000 
 
 Profits of capital 80,000 
 
 Wages of spinners, weavers, 8fc 220,000— £600,000 
 
 The wages of the spinners were then very low, not exceeding from 2s. to 3s. pel 
 week ; those of the weavers, dyers, fustian-cutters, &c. would be much higher ; and 
 it would probably be a fair average to suppose that each person employed earned 
 5s. per week. But £220,000 a year would only pay 16,924 work-people 5s. per 
 week each. As weavers and spinners were very generally of one family, it will be 
 sufficient if we allow 2.J individuals to be supported by the wages of each labourer: 
 16,924 multiplied by 2J, gives 42,310 persons supported by the cotton manufacture 
 in 1760. When it is remembered that the cotton manufacture was at this time 
 confined to the county of Lancaster, and that the whole population of that county 
 in 1750 was only 297,400, the conclusion we have arrived at, viz. that 42,310 
 persons were dependent on the cotton manufacture, will be thought rather too 
 large than too small a number. 
 
 2 z 
 
362 TPIE HISTORY OF 
 
 chinery ! It might liave been supposed, that the history 
 of the cotton manufacture would have for ever put an 
 end to the complaints against machinery, except on the 
 part of the workmen who were immediately suffering, 
 as some generally will for a time, from the changes in 
 manufacturing processes. The 150,000 workmen in 
 the spinning mills produce as much yarn as could have 
 been produced by 40,000,000 with the one -thread 
 wheel ; yet there are those who look on it as a calamity 
 that human labour lias been rendered so productive ! 
 These persons seem to cherish secretly the preposterous 
 notion, that, without machinery, we should have had as 
 many hands employed in the manufacture, as it would 
 require to produce the present quantity of goods by the 
 old processes ; not considering that the population of all 
 Europe would have been quite inadequate to such a 
 purpose ; and that, in reality, not one-fifth part of those 
 now employed as spinners ever would have been em- 
 ployed under the old system, because there Avould have 
 been little or no increased demand for the coarse and 
 high-priced goods then made. If a spinner can now 
 produce as much in a day as he could last century 
 have produced in a year, and if goods which formerly 
 required eight months to bleach, ai'e now bleached in 
 two days, surely these are the very causes of the 
 amazing extension of the manufacture, and are therefore 
 subjects of rejoicing, n3t of lamentation. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 363 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE MANUFACTURE. 
 
 The Statistics of the Cotton Manufacture very imperfect. — Difficulty of obtaining 
 accurate accounts of its extent and value. — Some valuable information collected 
 by the Factory Commissioners. — Cotton-wool imported and entered for consump- 
 tion in 1833. — Mr. Burn's statement of cotton yarn spun in England and 
 Scotland. — Number of spindles. — Mr. Kennedy's estimate in 1817 of cotton- 
 spinning Mr. S. Stanway's estimate of the number of persons employed in the 
 
 cotton-mills of England in 1832, their ages, sex, earnings, kinds of occupation, 
 and length of day's work. Tables from the Report of the Factory Commission. 
 — Examination of this estimate. — Number of power-loom weavers and power- 
 looms in Great Britain ; of hand-looms. — Valuable Statistical infonnation 
 obtained from the Factory Inspectors : Tables of the cotton mills, number of 
 persons employed, and steam and water power, in Lancashire and other counties 
 of England, Scotland, and Ireland. — Number of calico-printers, lace and 
 cotton-stocking makers. — Other employments connected with the cotton manu- 
 facture. — Mr. M'Culloch's estimate of the number of hands and capital 
 employed, wages, &c. — Mr. Burn's estimate made on different principles : he 
 neglects the evidence of the " real or declared value" of the exports : state- 
 ment to show that that value is worthy of reliance. — Mr. Burn's estimate of 
 the yearly value of the cottons exported. — Mr. Kennedy's estimate of the value 
 of the manufacture. — Objections to both, as too low. — Valne of the manufac- 
 ture in Scotland and Ireland. — Table of the estimated yearly value of the 
 British Cotton Manufacture.— Capital employed in the Cotton Manufacture.— 
 Exports of British cottons to foreign countries. — Topography of the manu- 
 facture ; descriptions of cotton goods made in Lancashire, and at what places. — 
 The great print-works and bleach- works, where situated. — Information ex- 
 tracted from the Population Returns of 1831, relative to the cotton manufac- 
 ture in Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Cumberland, 
 Lanarkshire, and Renfrewshire. — Table of inhabitants, and their occupations. 
 — Observations. — Other parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland where the 
 manufacture exists. — Conclusion from the whole. — Table of the extent and 
 value of the British Cotton Manufacture in 1833. — Illustrations of its vast 
 magnitude. 
 
 The statistics of the cotton manufacture, as of all the 
 other great manufactures of the country, are very 
 imperfect. Government has never taken measures for 
 ascertaining the number of persons employed and sup- 
 
361 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 ported by the manufacture, the amount of capital 
 engaged in it, the value of goods produced, the propor- 
 tions of wages, profits, and cost of raw material which 
 go to make up that value, the relative importance of the 
 several branches of the manufacture, or the localities in 
 which they are earned on. The Population Returns, 
 which might be expected to have shewn the numbers of 
 persons engaged in each department of industry, do not 
 even distinguish between those employed in the manu- 
 factures of cotton and of silk, in the counties of Lan- 
 caster and Chester. The records of the customs only 
 furnish, in such a manner as to give precise information, 
 the quantity of cotton-wool imported and entered for 
 consumption, and the quantity, or rather the measure- 
 ment, of cotton goods exported ; for the valuations must 
 be considered as but an approximation to the truth. 
 Up to 1830, the books of the excise shewed the extent 
 of the calico printing, but, since the repeal of the duty, 
 this means of information has ceased. 
 
 Nor has any private survey supplied the information 
 which orovernment has failed to collect. Political eco- 
 nomists, and well-informed individuals engaged in the 
 manufacture, have at different times made calculations 
 of the extent and value of the cotton trade : but they 
 have had so few accurate data on which to proceed, and 
 have been obliged to assume and conjecture on so many 
 points, that theii' calculations differ ^iddely from each 
 other, and none is entitled to claim authority. 
 
 It must be acknowledged, that great difficulty will 
 always attend the acquirement of full and exact informa- 
 tion concerning the extent and value of the cotton 
 manufacture ; for, thougli the hands directly employed 
 in the trade might be ascertained with tolerable accuracy, 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 365 
 
 there are many auxiliaries of whom it would not be 
 easy to say whether they properly belonged to the trade 
 or not — such as the men employed in building the 
 mills, in importing the raw material, in raising iron 
 from the mine for the construction of machines, &c. &c. 
 These depend on the cotton manufacture, but some of 
 them do not Avholly depend upon it ; and it is impossible 
 to say how many are thus dependent, or to what extent. 
 Even the farmer who raises food for the cotton manu- 
 facturer is really dependent upon this branch of industry, 
 because, if it did not exist, there would be a less demand 
 for agricultural produce j but no census or calculation 
 can follow all the chains of connexion which bind the 
 diflferent occupations of society together, or, where the 
 dependence is mutual, can decide precisely which is 
 the main spring of production. 
 
 Within the last two years, however, the materials for 
 judging of the extent of this vast and newly-created field 
 of industry have been materially increased. " His 
 Majesty's Commissioners appointed to collect informa- 
 tion in the manufacturing districts, as to the employ- 
 ment of children in Factories," justly appreciating the 
 importance of the interests which would be affected by 
 legislation, made their inquiries so comprehensive and 
 minute, that, if there had been time to comj^lete them, 
 we should have been in possession of a most valuable 
 and extensive body of statistical information. That 
 time was not afforded ; but yet so many answers were 
 received from the proprietors of factories, to the ques- 
 tions sent to them, as to furnish better grounds for 
 calculating the numbers, wages, and physical condition 
 of the work-people engaged in the cotton mills, than 
 existed previously. Some additional help may be 
 
366 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 derived from the evidence given before the Commons' 
 Committee on iManufactures, Commerce, and Shipping, 
 in 1833 ; and some from the " Tables of Revenue, 
 Population, Commerce," &c. compiled by the Board of 
 Trade. The appointment of Factory Inspectors presents 
 tlie means of gaining more complete and exact know- 
 ledge, concerning all the branches of industry car- 
 ried on in factories ; but as yet these officers have 
 scarcely had tune to obtain such particulars, even if their 
 attention had been directed to the object. It is to be 
 hoped, that by this or some other machinery, that full 
 and authentic information may be acquii-ed, which con- 
 stitutes the only sure guide of legislation, and the want 
 of whicli is discreditable to the first manufacturing 
 countiy in the world. 
 
 The quantity of cotton-wool imported and entered for 
 home consumption is known with certainty from the 
 books of the custom-house; and in 1833 it was as 
 follows : — 
 
 Quantity of Cotton- Wool imported Quantity entered for 
 
 into tlie United Kingdom, home consumption, 
 
 in the year 1833. in 1833. 
 
 lbs. lbs. 
 
 303,656,837 293,682,976 
 
 Particulars as to the quantity of cotton consumed in 
 the manufacture, the quantity of yarn produced, the 
 proportions spun in England and Scotland, and the 
 weight of yam exported from England, in the state of 
 yarn and of manufactured goods, will be found in the 
 subjoined table, extracted from " Burn's Commercial 
 Glance," an annual publication compiled by a Man- 
 chester commission merchant, chiefly from custom-house 
 reports, and which is considered by persons in the trade 
 to be as correct as such a document can be rendered — 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 367 
 
 Statement of Cotton spun in England and Scotland in the 
 Year 1833, and the quantity of Yarn produced, separately 
 shewing the quantity spun in England, and how disposed of. 
 
 
 Number 
 
 of bags 
 
 consumed. 
 
 Average 
 weight 
 of bags. 
 
 Total 
 
 weight ill 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Weekly 
 
 consumption of 
 
 bags, describing 
 
 each sort. 
 
 American Cotton .... 
 
 038,310 
 
 354 
 
 225,961,740 
 
 12,275 -1- 10 
 
 Brazil ditto 
 
 142,730 
 
 183 
 
 26,319,590 
 
 2,744 -1. 42 
 
 Egyptian ditto 
 
 13,228 
 
 220 
 
 2,920,500 
 
 254 -r- 20 
 
 East India ditto .... 
 
 72.569 
 
 330 
 
 24,277,770 
 
 1,395 -^ 29 
 
 West India ditto .... 
 
 10,652 
 
 300 
 
 3,195,600 
 
 204 -r- 44 
 
 Total number of Bags ^ 
 consumed • . S 
 
 877,489 
 
 lbs. 
 
 282,675,200 
 30,917,600 
 
 16,875 -r 41 
 
 Allowed for loss in spinning 1^ 
 
 oz. per lb. 
 
 
 
 Total quantity of yarn spun in England and 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Scotland ....... 
 
 
 251,757,600 
 
 Deduct yarn spun in Scotland in 1833 . . . 
 
 . . . 
 
 24,474,931 
 
 T»tal quantity of yarn spun in England 
 
 lbs. 227,282,669 
 
 HOW DISPOSED OF. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 
 Exported in yarn during the year 
 
 67,760,822 
 
 
 thread 
 
 1,187,601 
 
 
 manufactured goods 
 
 76,246,339 
 
 
 Estimated quantity of yarn sent to Scotland and 
 
 
 
 Ireland 
 
 5,500,000 
 
 
 Exported in mixed manufactures, not stated in 
 
 
 
 the above-named articles, consumed in Cotton 
 
 
 
 Banding, Healds, Candle and Lamp Wick, 
 
 
 
 Waddings, Flocks, and loss in manufacturing 
 
 
 
 Goods 
 
 12,000,000 
 
 
 Balance left for Home Consump 
 
 tion and St 
 
 ock . 
 
 64,587,907 
 
 227,282,669 
 
 The '^ Commercial Glance" for 1832 contained the 
 following calculation : — 
 
 The quantity of cotton yarn spun in England in 1832 was 
 222,596,907 lbs., averaging weekly 4,280,709 lbs. at 8^ oz. per 
 
368 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 spindle, shews the number of spindles used to be 7,949,208. The 
 capital invested in buildings and machinery, to produce the same, 
 at the present valuation of 17s. 6d. per spindle, shews the amount 
 to be £6,955,557. 
 
 The quantity of yarn manufactured in England in 
 
 the year, and exported in manufactured lbs. 
 
 goods 61,251,380 
 
 For home consumption .... 70,941,404 
 
 Total . . lbs 132,192,784 
 
 Divided by 52, shews a weekly consumption of lbs 2,542,169 
 Each loom averaging 12^ lbs. of yarn weekly, shews the number 
 employed in England 203,373. 
 
 Mr. Burn's calculation of the number of spindles 
 used in England approaches to 8,000,000 ; and if vre 
 add those used in the Scotch and Irish manufactui-es, 
 which will be about one-sixth of those in England, the 
 total number of spindles in the cotton manufacture of 
 the United Kingdom will be about 9,333,000. This 
 agrees very well with Mr. Kennedy's calculation in 
 1829, when he stated that about 7,000,000 mule- 
 spindles were at work in Great Britain : allowing for 
 the increase since that time, and for the thi'ostle spindles, 
 there will be a near approximation between the two 
 calculations. Mr. Bannat^Tie's opinion supports the 
 same conclusion. 
 
 Some reasons will hereafter be stated for diffeiino; 
 from Mr. Bui'u's estimate of the number of looms. 
 
 In 1817 Mr. Kennedy pubHshed the following esti- 
 mate, which has always been considered to be carefully 
 and justly made, in his paper " On the Rise and Pro- 
 gi-ess of the Cotton Trade :" — * 
 
 • Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, Vol. III. 
 second series, p. 134. 
 
THE COTTON M A JN U F A C T U R E . 369 
 
 MR. KENNEDY'S ESTIMATE IN 1817. 
 
 In the year 1817, from authentic documents and the best 
 estimates I could draw from them, the quantity of raw cotton 
 consumed or converted into yarn, in Great Britain and Ireland, 
 was 110,000,000 lbs. 
 
 Loss in spinning, estimated 1^ oz. per lb. 10,312,500 lbs. 
 
 Quantity of yarn produced . . . 99,687,500 lbs. 
 
 Number of hanks (supposing the average 
 to be 40 per lb.) 3,987,500,000 
 
 Number of spindles employed (each spindle 
 being supposed to produce 2 hanks per day, 
 and 300 working days in the year) . . 6,645,833 
 
 Number of persons employed in spinning, 
 (supposing each to produce 120 hanks per day) 110,763 
 
 Number of horses' power employed (sup- 
 posing 4h oz. of coal to produce 1 hank of 
 No. 40, and 180 lbs. of coal per day equal 
 to one horse's power) ..... 20,708 
 
 Another estimate has been formed, so recently as last 
 year, of the number of persons engaged in cotton spinning 
 and power-loom weaving in England, of the productive 
 power of each workman engaged in spinning, and of the 
 numbers and earnings of the difierent classes of workmen 
 in the mills. This calculation was drawn up by Mr. 
 Samuel Stan way, an eminent accountant in Manchester, 
 from the returns made by the mill-owners in the cotton dis- 
 trict of Lancashire, Cheshire, and Derbyshire, to a series 
 of questions prepared by himself, under the chrection of 
 Mr. John W. Cowell, the factory commissioner, and which 
 were in substance as follows — " What quality of work 
 Avere you engaged in spinning during the month ending 
 4th May, 1833 ; what was the total number of hours 
 
 3a 
 
370 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 wliich your mill worked duiiug that month ; and what 
 was the total amount of net earnings paid by you to the 
 total number of each denomination of operatives for 
 that number of hours' work, classing them as adults, 
 adolescents, and children, and according to their sexes." 
 Witli the questions were sent tabular foiTas, which, 
 being filled up, wei'e returned, to the number of 300 ; 
 and out of these Mr. Stan way selected 1.51 as being 
 both accurate and complete, 70 more as being accurate 
 so far as the replies extended, but not complete in all 
 particulars, and 4 from mills which work by night as 
 well as by day : from these 225 returns, he compiled 
 the subjoined tables. The 1st and 2nd tables were 
 compiled exclusively from the 151 complete returns; 
 tlie 3d and 4th from the Avhole 225 : — * 
 
 • Supplementary Report from Factory Commissioners, part I. pp. 123, 124, 136. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
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THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
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THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 375 
 
 These tables were compiled with the greatest care, 
 from returns which had every appearance of being 
 strictly faithful. The mills from which tlie returns 
 were made employed a number of operatives varying 
 from 16 up to 1576 in each, and the average number 
 of operatives in each was 292. So far as they go, 
 therefore, these tables may be regarded as presenting 
 an accurate statement of the numbers, earnings, age, 
 sex, and length of employment, of the several classes 
 of operatives in the cotton mills of England : and they 
 afford materials for calculating, with an approximation 
 to accuracy, the whole number of persons employed in 
 the mills, their distinct occupations, their remuneration, 
 and other particulars. It can, however, be only an 
 approximation, as improvements in the machinery are 
 constantly altering the number of workmen employed 
 in each department ; and the Factories Regulation Act 
 of 1833 has had the effect of causing thousands of 
 young children to be dismissed, whose place it has in 
 many cases been found unnecessary to supply, as their 
 work can be done by new contrivances with the 
 operatives that are left. The foUoAving calculation by 
 Mr. Stanway has reference to the quantity of yarn spun 
 in 1832, and to the state of things in the factories in 
 May, 1833 :— 
 
 Calculation of the Total Number of Persons employed 
 IX Cotton Mills in England. 
 
 " The subsequent calculation does not aim at fixing the whole 
 number of operatives dependent upon the cotton trade for subsist- 
 ence, but only of that part of the operative body which earns a 
 livelihood in cotton factories moved by power, and is employed 
 
37() THE HISTORY OF 
 
 in carrying on the preparing, spinning, weaving, and accessary 
 mechanical departments within the walls of them. 
 
 " It does not comprehend the* hand-loom weavers, printers, 
 bleachers, dyers, cotton-thread lace-makers, (an enormous and 
 growing branch of the cotton manufacture,) and many other 
 branches of manufacture, either arising out of, or immediately 
 depending upon the spinning of cotton by power. It comprehends 
 those operatives alone who habitually work in cotton factories. 
 It shews their body to consist of 212,800 persons, and to earn 
 annually the enormous sum of £5,777,434. 14s. Id. 
 
 " Calculation. The total quantity of cotton consumed in the 
 spinning of yarn in Great Britain in 1832, as stated in Burns 
 Co7nmercial Glance, was 277,260,490 lbs.; and of this quantity 
 27,327,120 lbs. was consumed in Scotland, leaving for the con- 
 sumption of England 249,933,370 lbs. 
 
 " The net loss of cotton in spinning is estimated variously by 
 different individuals. In the calculations of Mr. Kennedy, made 
 use of by him in a paper published in the " Transactions of the 
 Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society," it is taken at 
 li oz. per lb.; whilst Montgomery, in his "Theory and Practice 
 of Cotton Spinning," computes it at If oz., and Burn at If oz. ; 
 but as the amount taken by Mr. Kennedy is that which appears 
 to be generally considered correct, it is adopted in these calcu- 
 lations. 
 
 "If, then, from the quantity of cotton given above we deduct 
 U oz. per lb., or 23,431,253 lbs., we shall have the total weight 
 of yarn produced 226,502,117 lbs. 
 
 " The average number of hanks in each lb. of yarn spun is 
 considered, by apparently a majority of persons conversant with 
 the subject, to be 40. Montgomery takes the average counts 
 spun in Great Britain at 50s, which, taking into account the finer 
 average numbers spun in Scotland than in England, would fix the 
 counts nearly as above stated. 
 
 " The returns made to the Lancashire forms of inquiry, as given 
 in the previous tables, shew an average of finer counts than 40s ; 
 but as the returns were better made from the fine mills than from 
 the coarse, and from Manchester, where the finer yarn is spun, 
 than from the country, it is evident that lower numbers ought 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 377 
 
 to be taken than those shewn in the returns ; and, as the 
 general opinion appears to be in favour of 40s, this average 
 is adopted. 
 
 " Three mills in different situations, and of average capabilities, 
 made a return of the quantity produced by them in the month 
 ending the 4th of May, 1833; and as the average counts of the 
 whole were 39-98 hanks to the lb., and as they also gave the 
 number of the hands employed in spinning during that month, 
 and the duration of their labour, they furnish data from which 
 may be easily calculated the total number employed in factories, 
 in England, in preparing and spinning cotton. In the mill of the 
 first, 344 persons in the spinning department, working 276 hours, 
 produced 
 
 18,000 lbs. of 30s to 32s. 
 
 18,000 lbs. of 38s to 42s. 
 2,400 lbs. of 150s to 170s. 
 
 In the second mill, 245 hands, working 270 hours, produced 
 
 1,795 lbs. of 12s. 
 
 4,285 lbs. of 22s. 
 
 33,838 lbs. of 40s. 
 
 And in the third, 110 hands, working 286 hours, produced 
 16,700 lbs. of 40s. 
 
 " The average counts of the three being, as before stated, 39*98, 
 and the produce 95,018 lbs. 
 
 " The total number of hours worked will, therefore, be 
 
 344 X 276 +245 X 270+ 110 X 286= 192,554; and the pro- 
 duce of each person per hour ^ ' , ^z -49,346 lb. 
 
 " The usual estimate of 300 working days per annum, 
 of llj hours each, or 69 hours per week, would give — 
 •49,346 X 11-5 X 300= 1,702-437* lbs., the produce of each per- 
 son per annum, and — '—^ — = 133,045, the number of persons 
 
 r ' 1,702-437 ' '■ 
 
 employed in the preparation and spinning of cotton in England. 
 
 • In the Report, the number 1,702-437 (including a decimal) is erroneously 
 printed in two places thus — 1,702,437 ; which increases the sum a thousand fold. 
 
 3b 
 
378 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 " On an examination of Supplement Z, (Table IV. ante,) it will 
 be seen that in the 67,819 persons of whom returns were made to 
 the Commission, there were 42,401 engaged in preparing and 
 spinning cotton, 23,920 in the weaving department, and 1498 as 
 engineers, mechanics, roUer-coverers, &c. 
 
 " If, then, the same proportions are taken as existing in the 
 total number of cotton-workers which are found in the returns 
 made to the Lancashire Forms of Inquiry, the number of persons 
 engaged in the manufacture of cotton-cloth in factories will be 
 75,055, and of those employed as engineers, &c. 4700; making, 
 with the 133,045 in the spinning department, a general total of 
 212,800 persons engaged in cotton factories. 
 
 " Which total number of 212,800 persons may be divided and 
 distributed, by adopting the proportions given in the returns made 
 to the Lancashire Forms of Inquiry, so as to shew the probable 
 number of persons employed in each of the Eight Branches or 
 Departments of Cotton Working, and the aggregate amount of 
 their Net Earnings per month:" — 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
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380 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 By the same mode of calculation, Mr. Stanway found 
 that of the 83,257 cliildren under eighteen years of age, 
 there would be 24,665 boys and 19,038 girls under 
 fourteen years, and 18,080 boys and 21,474 girls 
 between fourteen and eighteen. The number under ten 
 years of aore would be 4234 bovs and 2901 oirls. He 
 
 » O ^ CI 
 
 thus concludes his calculation — 
 
 " The total net earnings per annum of the whole estimated 
 number of 212,800 persons will be £5,777,434. 14s. Id. 
 
 " And since the proprietors of the mills included in the three 
 lists previously given, employing 67,819 hands, employ also 183 
 persons in the counting-houses, and 1147 in the warehouses, 
 (within the mills,) adopting these proportions, there will be em- 
 ployed, with reference to tlie total number of 212,800 persons 
 engaged in factories, an additional number of 574 clerks and 3599 
 warehouse hands." 
 
 The above calculation is for Ensjland alone : it shews 
 216,973 persons to be employed in tlie cotton factories. 
 
 More than one-tliii'd of the mill operatives in England 
 are children, half of whom are under 14 years of age; 
 yet the wages of the whole, men, women, and children, 
 average within a fi-action 10s. 6d. per week. 
 
 The coiTectness of the total estimated number of 
 operatives in the spinning mills will be seen to depend 
 upon one point, namely, the quantity of yarn taken as 
 produced by each operative within a given time : if that 
 point is exactly ascertained, the whole quantity of yam 
 produced in England in a year being known, it is easy 
 to calculate how many operatives will be required to 
 produce it. Mr. Stanway finds, from the returns of 
 tlu'ee mills " of average capabilities," that the quantity 
 of yam of the average number (40s) produced by each 
 operative is neai'ly j lb., or the decimal '49,346 lb. in 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 381 
 
 the hour, which would make about 5ilbs. (5-67,470 lbs.) 
 per day, or 227 hanks of 10 hanks to the lb. Mr. 
 Kennedy conducted his calculation iu 1817 on similar 
 pnnciplcs, but he assumed a lower production lor each 
 workman, even allowing for the improvement that has 
 since taken place in machinery. He assumed that each 
 operative produced 120 hanks, of No. 40, per day. 
 From Mr. Kennedy's table, shewing the comparative 
 cost of yarn in 1812 and 1830, (quoted at p. 353,) it 
 appears that, owing to improvements in the machinery, 
 1 lb. of No. 40, which cost Is. for labour in 1812, cost 
 only 7id. for labour in 1830, or, iu other words, labour 
 had become more productive in the proportion of Is. 
 to 7id., or of 8 to 5. If we suppose the same improve- 
 ment in machinery between 1817 and 1833 as between 
 1812 and 1830, a workman who produced 120 hanks 
 per day in 1817 ought to produce 192 hanks in 1833. 
 But Mr. Stanway's calculation makes the workman 
 produce 227 hanks. The difference is considerable; 
 and as Mr. Kennedy's two tables would lead us to 
 estimate the productive power of the workman as less 
 than Mr. Stanway's, they would, of course, show a 
 greater number of workmen to be necessary for the pro- 
 duction of the same quantity of yarn. If a productive 
 power of 227 hanks per day for each man would require 
 133,045 workmen, to produce the quantity of yarn spun 
 in England in the year, a productive power of only 192 
 hanks per day would require 157,298 workmen. Mr. 
 Stanway has therefore erred, if at all, on the side of 
 moderation, in his estimate of tlie number of work- 
 men. 
 
 The returns above quoted shew not only the number 
 of operatives engaged in tlie spinning, but also those 
 
382 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 engaged in weaving by power-looms and in the acces- 
 sory departments. Of 67,819 operatives employed in 
 225 mills, 23,920 were power-loom weavers, warpers, 
 dressers, and overlookers in these departments. Were 
 the same proportion to hold in all the other cotton mills, 
 75,055 persons would be engaged in the departments 
 connected Avith power-loom weaving in England. But 
 Mr. Stanway's calculation proceeds on returns com- 
 prising less than one-third of the English cotton mills, 
 and as those returns include the large mills in Man- 
 chester and the neighbourhood, where power -loom 
 weaving is more generally introduced than among the 
 spinners in country places, it is probable the same pro- 
 portion would not hold throughout. Instead of multi- 
 plying the number actually returned, 23,920, by 3fth, 
 as Mr. Stanway has done, I am disposed to multiply it 
 by 2, wliich would shew the number of workmen en- 
 gaged in weaving, &c. in the mills in England to be 
 47,840, (instead of 75,055, calculated by Mr. Stanway.) 
 Add to these 9000 for the operatives engaged in con- 
 nexion with the power-loom in Scotland, and the total 
 number in Great Britain will be, at a low (perhaps too 
 low) computation, 56,840. 
 
 The above elements will assist us to estimate the 
 number of power -looms in England and in Great 
 Britain. Two looms are managed by each weaver; 
 but of the 47,840 operatives mentioned above, as em- 
 ployed in England, only 41,418 are weavers, the rest 
 being engaged in dressing and warping.* Twice 41,418, 
 therefore, 82,836, shews the number of power-looms in 
 
 * I find this proportion by taking out the warpers, dressers, and overlookers in 
 the weaving department, in ten different local returns, contained in the Supple- 
 mentary Report of the Factory Commission, parti, p. 125 — 133, and comparing 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 383 
 
 England; and add to them 15,000, the ascertained 
 number in Scotland, there will be 97,836 power-looms 
 in Great Britain. This calculation is founded on the 
 quantity of yarn produced in 1832. Messrs. Samuel 
 Greg and Co., the extensive spinners and manufacturers, 
 of Bury, &c., estimated the power-looms in England 
 and Scotland in 1833 at from 80,000 to 90,000.t 
 Mr. Bannatyne supposes that the number in Lancashire 
 in 1832 was 80,000.}: Mr. Kennedy had formed a 
 lower estimate, but he has recently stated that these 
 machines have increased beyond his means of estimating 
 them. It is certain that the number is constantly and 
 rapidly growing, and that the machine-makers have 
 generally more orders for them than they are able to 
 execute. We cannot be wrong in saying that there 
 are now at least 100,000 power-looms in Great Britain, 
 —85,000 in England, and 15,000 in Scotland. 
 
 I have in a former chapter adduced evidence, which 
 would lead to the conclusion that there are in England 
 alone 200,000 hand-looms in the cotton manufacture ; 
 iind if to these are added the 82,836 power-looms, we 
 shall have a total of 282,836 looms in this manufac- 
 ture in England, which is nearly one-third more than 
 the estimate of Mr. Burn, quoted at page 368. In 
 Great Britain the number of hand-looms, according to 
 the best evidence I can find, is 250,000, and of power- 
 looms 100,000,— total of cotton looms, 350,000. 
 
 There are a few hundred power-looms and some 
 
 their numbers with that of the workpeople actually engaged in managing the 
 power-looms : the proportion which these auxiliaries bear to the weavers is 
 1 to 61. 
 
 t Report quoted in the last note, p. 192. 
 
 t Encycl. Britannica. art. " Cotton Manufacture " 
 
384 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 thousands of liand-loom weavers in Ireland : as tlieir 
 number lias never been ascertained, they are not 
 included in the above estimate, but they would not 
 materially swell the number in Great Britain. 
 
 Since the foregoing part of this chapter was in type, 
 I have received a body of statistical information con- 
 cerning- the cotton mills of the United Kingdom, which, 
 though not complete, is highly valuable, as being the 
 first ever obtained from actual returns. Mr. Stanway's 
 calculation was indeed founded on retui'ns, but they 
 comprised less than one-fifth of all the cotton mills in 
 the kingdom; whereas those which I have received are 
 nearly complete as to the number of mills, and from a 
 large proportion of them returns have been made of the 
 workmen employed, and the amount of steam and water 
 power by which the mills are moved. 
 
 The inspectors of factories, Robert Richards, Esq. 
 Leonard Horner, Esq., Robert J. Saunders, Esq. and 
 Thomas Jones Howell, Esq. have obligingly furnished 
 me Avith the information they have acquired on these 
 points in their respective districts ; and as they have 
 visited the mills in person, or by their superintendents, 
 and have obtained regular returns from most of the 
 mill-owners in the course of the present yeai*, their 
 information may be relied upon as far as it extends. In 
 the largest and most important manufacturing disti'ict, 
 that of Mr. Richards, comprising Lancashu'e, the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire, Cheshii-e, the High Peak Hundred 
 of Derbyshire, part of Stafibrdshire, and the four 
 northern counties of Wales, it will be seen that the 
 returns are imperfect : they include nearly the whole 
 number of mills, but 241 out of 934 mills have not 
 returned the hands and power employed. The returns 
 
THE COTTON JI A N U F A CT U R E. 385 
 
 of Mr. Horner, whose district comprehends all Scot- 
 land, the four northern counties of England, and the 
 northern half of Ireland, appear to he as complete and 
 precise as can ever he expected. Those of Mr. vSaun- 
 ders, comprising the eastern, southern, half the central, 
 and half the western counties of England, are also 
 tolerably complete. The district of Mr. Howell, includ- 
 ing half the central and western counties of England, 
 the eight southern counties of Wales, and the southern 
 half of Ireland, yields very few cotton mills, and is 
 probably the most exact of any in its returns. 
 
 The folloTvdng are the returns furnished by Mr. 
 Rickai'ds, ^\'ith the assistance of his superintendent, 
 Mr. Heathcote: — 
 
 3c 
 
386 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 COTTON MILLS in the District assigned to Robert Rickards, Esq. Factory 
 
 Inspector, viz. Lancashire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Cheshire, the High 
 Peak Hundred of Derbyshire, the north of Staffordshire, and the four northern 
 Counties of Wales. 
 
 Cotton Mills in Lancashire. 
 
 Towns, &c. 
 
 Manchester A . . . . 
 B . . . . 
 C . . . . 
 D . . . . 
 
 E . . . . 
 Bolton A . . . . 
 
 IJ . . . . 
 
 Leigh 
 
 Ashton Mackerfield . . . 
 
 AVarrington 
 
 AVigan 
 
 St. Hel€n's 
 
 Over Darwen 
 
 Blackburn 
 
 Chorley 
 
 Preston 
 
 Garstang 
 
 Lancaster 
 
 Ul version e 
 
 Rochdale 
 
 Ashton-under Lyne . . . 
 Stayley Bridge .... 
 
 Haughton 
 
 Heap 
 
 Ramsbottom 
 
 Haslingden 
 
 Burnley 
 
 Accrington 
 
 Colne, &c 
 
 Bury 
 
 Rochdale, Todmorden, &c, 
 Oldham, 6cc 
 
 Total 
 
 
 Horse 1 
 
 
 
 JliUs. 
 
 Steam. 
 
 19 
 
 1059 
 
 24 
 
 1145 
 
 21 
 
 1266 
 
 16 
 
 81- 
 
 21 
 
 934 
 
 29 
 
 921 
 
 27 
 
 696 
 
 10 
 
 253 
 
 4 
 
 88 
 
 9 
 
 210 
 
 21 
 
 914 
 
 1 
 
 40 
 
 7 
 
 62 
 
 13 
 
 621 
 
 10 
 
 225 
 
 31 
 
 1042 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 180 
 
 4 
 
 22 
 
 38 
 
 1021 
 
 35 
 
 1200 
 
 21 
 
 1144 
 
 4 
 
 97 
 
 31 
 
 801 
 
 14 
 
 178 
 
 20 
 
 105 
 
 17 
 
 355 
 
 10 
 
 91 
 
 11 
 
 149 
 
 27 
 
 866 
 
 63 
 
 2022 
 
 89 
 
 2856 
 
 657 
 
 21387 
 
 Water. 
 
 10 
 
 None 
 
 156 
 
 359 
 
 None 
 
 None 
 
 None 
 
 None 
 
 6 
 
 70 
 
 40 
 
 20 
 
 60 
 
 38 
 
 68 
 
 133 
 
 151 
 
 33 
 
 105 
 
 25 
 
 160 
 
 217 
 
 14G 
 
 26 
 
 82 
 
 136 
 
 119 
 
 278 
 
 393 
 
 Total number 
 of Persons 
 employed. 
 
 2831 
 
 6335 
 8578 
 7796 
 
 5178 • 
 4802 
 6002 
 5299 
 I29I 
 
 390 
 1352 
 4831 
 
 150 
 
 643 
 4537 
 1178 
 6665 
 
 181 
 1515 
 
 474 
 4296 
 8396 
 7376 
 1055 
 4467 
 1533 
 1679 
 2040 
 
 727 
 1677 
 
 5567 * 
 12,990 • 
 18,352 • 
 
 137,352 
 
 * The asterisks indicate that in these lines the returns are not complete, except 
 as to the number of the mills : all the numbers printed in figures of a smaller size 
 are merely estimates: that for division D in Manchester is formed by taking an 
 average of all the other mills in that town, and multiplying the average by the 
 nvimber of mills in that division. The estimate of the hands, &c. in the mills at 
 Bury, the Rochdale and Todmorden district, and the Oldham district, is formed 
 by taking an average of all the other mills in the county, and multiplying it by 
 the number of mills from which there are no returns. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 387 
 
 Cotton Mills in Yorkshire. 
 
 
 No of 
 Mills. 
 
 Horse 
 
 Power. 
 
 Total number 
 
 
 Steam. 
 
 none 
 
 20 
 
 none 
 none 
 none 
 
 90 
 
 6 
 
 none 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 30 
 
 none 
 none 
 
 15 
 
 36 
 none 
 
 30 
 
 20 
 
 88 
 149 
 232 
 
 > 199 
 
 Water. 
 
 50 
 
 40 
 
 40 
 
 27 
 
 11 
 
 61 
 
 54 
 
 65 
 
 75 
 
 48 
 
 80 
 
 32 
 100 
 none 
 none 
 
 60 
 
 47 
 
 24 
 
 30 
 
 Hi 
 250 
 
 28 
 
 296 
 
 employed. 
 
 Sedbergh 
 
 2 
 3 
 1 
 3 
 2 
 6 
 4 
 2 
 2 
 3 
 8 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 5 
 5 
 1 
 11 
 43 
 4 
 5 
 8 
 3 
 2 
 2 
 4 
 1 
 4 
 
 198 
 186 
 
 Birstwith 
 
 88 
 
 Grassington 
 
 130 
 
 Kettlewell 
 
 38 
 
 SkiptOD 
 
 605 
 
 Gargrave 
 
 149 
 
 Addingham 
 
 288 
 
 Bingley 
 
 Ditto 
 
 271 
 164 
 
 Keighley, part 
 
 Haworth 
 
 253 
 65 
 
 Otley 
 
 Birstall 
 
 380 
 
 85 
 
 Ossett 
 
 80 
 
 
 170 
 
 Settle 
 
 333 
 
 Barnoldswick 
 
 172 
 
 Meltham 
 
 650 
 
 Saddleworth 
 
 819 
 
 Halifax, part of parish .... 
 
 Huddersfield 
 
 Barrowford 
 
 2178 
 193 
 
 Rishworth 
 
 
 Barkisland 
 
 Skircoat 
 
 19,i8« 
 
 Ovenden 
 
 
 Northowram 
 
 
 
 
 
 140 
 
 956 
 
 1,429% 
 
 9453 
 
 • Returns have not been received from these mills ; and the number of hai)ds, 
 &c. is estimated from the average of all the other mills in the county. 
 
388 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Cotton Mills in Cheshire. 
 
 
 No. of 
 Mills. 
 
 Horse Power. 
 
 Total number 
 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Water. 
 
 employed. 
 
 Congleton . . . 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 10 
 
 154 
 
 Bollington . . . 
 
 11 
 
 244 
 
 224 
 
 2047 
 
 Hyde 
 
 1.5 
 
 1048 
 
 216 
 
 7660* 
 
 Stockport . . . 
 
 3S 
 
 1529 
 
 97 
 
 5149t 
 
 Mottram .... 
 
 12 
 
 140 
 
 144 
 
 1016t 
 
 Disley .... 
 
 2 
 
 24 
 
 75 
 
 494 
 
 Nantwich . . . 
 
 1 
 
 36 
 
 36 
 
 110 
 
 Total . . 
 
 71 
 
 3039 
 
 802 
 
 19,630 
 
 Estimate for the four\ 
 mills not returned . J 
 
 
 in 
 
 45 
 
 1106 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 3210 
 
 847 
 
 20,736 
 
 * One large mill left out — iio return. 
 
 t No retxirn of water-power from Park Mill. 
 
 t Three mills left out of returns. 
 
 Cotton iliLLS in the North of Staffordshire, 
 Denbighshire, and Flintshire. 
 
 
 No. of 
 MUIs. 
 
 Horse Power. 
 
 Total number 
 
 
 St?am. 
 
 ■Water. 
 
 employed. 
 
 Staffordshire, "1 
 (northern part) . J 
 Denbighshire . . 
 Flintshire . . . 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 •- 284 
 J 
 
 65 
 
 isrr>" 
 
 Total . . 
 
 284 
 
 6-> 
 
 1876 
 
 * Returns have not been received from any of the mills : the number of 
 liands and horse-power is estimated from the average of all the other mills in 
 Mr. Ilickards's district. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 389 
 
 Cotton Mills in the High Peak Hundred of 
 Derbyshire. 
 
 
 No. of 
 MiUs. 
 
 Horse Power. 
 
 Total number 
 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Water. 
 
 873 
 
 48 
 921 
 
 employed. 
 
 Glossop .... 
 Hayfield .... 
 New Mills . . . 
 Chapel Firtli . . 
 Litton, &c. . . 
 Brough .... 
 CastletOD . . . 
 
 > 54 
 
 J 
 
 1 S 
 
 622 
 
 34 
 
 676 
 
 5543 
 
 308* 
 
 Total .... 
 
 56 
 
 5,851 
 
 • Returns liave not been received; an estimate is given. 
 
 Summary. 
 
 
 No. of 
 Mills. 
 
 Horse Power. 
 
 Total number 
 of Persons 
 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Water. 
 
 employed. 
 
 Lancashire . ... 
 
 657 
 
 21,387 
 
 2831 
 
 137,352 
 
 Yorkshire . . . 
 
 140 
 
 956 
 
 1429^ 
 
 9,453 
 
 Cheshire . . . 
 
 71 
 
 3210 
 
 847 
 
 20,736 
 
 Derbyshire, (High ^ 
 Peak Hundred) ^ 
 
 56 
 
 676 
 
 921 
 
 5,851 
 
 
 
 
 
 North of Stafford- 
 
 
 
 
 
 shire, Denbigh- 1 
 
 10 
 
 284 
 
 65 
 
 1,876 
 
 shire, and Flint- 
 
 
 
 
 
 shire . . . .^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total . . 
 
 934 
 
 26,513 
 
 6,093^ 
 
 175,268 
 
390 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 COTTON MILLS in the district assigned to Leonard HoRNER, Esq, Factory Inspector, viz. 
 the whole of Scotland, the northern half of Ireland, the counties of Northumberland, 
 Cumberland, Durham, and parts of Westmorland and Yorkshire. 
 
 
 Description of work 
 
 Number 
 
 Horse 
 
 Power. 
 
 Total 
 persons 
 of all 
 
 Between 
 13 & 18 
 
 Under 
 
 Counties and Towns. 
 
 
 
 13 years 
 
 
 in Mills. 
 
 of Mills. 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Water. 
 
 ages em- 
 ployed. 
 
 years of 
 age. 
 
 of age. 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lanarkshire. 
 
 
 f 
 
 Cotton spinning . 
 
 21 
 
 781 
 
 9 
 
 5443 
 
 1604 
 
 973 
 
 
 Cotton spinning & } 
 
 11 
 
 539 
 
 
 3819 
 
 1147 
 
 336 
 
 
 weaving . . j 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Glasgow ....<( 
 
 Cotton weaving . 
 Cotton spinning & } 
 silk throwing . S 
 
 30 
 1 
 
 831 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 5799 
 100 
 
 1433 
 50 
 
 149 
 
 27 
 
 v 
 
 Cotton spinning for ^ 
 thread . . . ] 
 
 2 
 
 85 
 
 
 490 
 
 239 
 
 60 
 
 Perthshire. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Stanley i 
 
 Cotton spinning & } 
 weaving . . j 
 
 1 
 
 
 200 
 
 850 
 
 275 
 
 161 
 
 Lanarkshire, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bute, & Dcm- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 BARTONSHIRE. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lanark 
 
 Cotton spinning . 
 
 1 
 
 
 300 
 
 940 
 
 180 
 
 38 
 
 Duntocher .... 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 1 
 
 40 
 
 80 
 
 370 
 
 100 
 
 55 
 
 Rothsay 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 1 
 
 
 60 
 
 436 
 
 158 
 
 85 
 
 Blantyre .... J 
 
 Cotton spinning & } 
 
 1 
 
 55 
 
 150 
 
 849 
 
 209 
 
 114 
 
 weaving . . ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Airdrie 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 1 
 
 CO 
 
 
 200 
 
 60 
 
 48 
 
 Busby 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 I 
 
 
 55 
 
 321 
 
 63 
 
 49 
 
 Duntocher .... 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 1 
 
 50 
 
 160 
 
 958 
 
 284 
 
 147 
 
 Rothsay 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 
 63 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 Luss ] 
 
 Cotton and Wool } 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 
 spinning . . 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Stirlingshire. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ballindalloch . . 
 
 Cotton spinning . 
 
 1 
 
 16 
 
 40 
 
 241 
 
 60 
 
 31 
 
 Culcreuch .... 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 1 
 
 
 35 
 
 228 
 
 59 
 
 38 
 
 Milngavie .... 
 
 Ditto ... 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 125 
 
 1 45 
 
 17 
 
 Deanston • - • ] 
 
 Cotton spinning & > 
 
 1 
 
 
 300 
 
 783 
 
 243 
 
 199 
 
 weaving . . ] 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Renfrewshire. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 Cotton spinning . 
 
 26 
 
 322 
 
 4»0 
 
 4974 
 
 1586 
 
 739 
 
 Cotton weaving . 
 
 3 
 
 28 
 
 10 
 
 288 
 
 70 
 
 21 
 
 Paisley ....< 
 
 Cotton spinning,! 
 thread ... J 
 
 5 
 
 72 
 
 
 449 
 
 136 
 
 48 
 
 
 Cotton spinning &) 
 weaving . . ) 
 
 4 
 
 70 
 
 66 
 
 888 
 
 304 
 
 119 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ayrshire. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Catrine ....\ 
 
 Cotton weaving &| 
 spinning . . 5 
 
 1 
 
 80 
 
 200 
 
 817 
 
 120 
 
 134 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Beith 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 
 Linlithgowshire. 
 
 Cotton spinning . 
 
 
 16 
 
 20 
 
 97 
 
 29 
 
 26 
 
 Aberdeenshire? 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 
 107 
 
 
 763 
 
 313 
 
 146 
 
 Cotton spinning & 
 weaving . . '. 
 
 
 
 250 
 
 .591 
 
 160 
 
 109 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dumfriesshire. 
 
 Cotton spinning . 
 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 108 
 
 36 
 
 12 
 
 M'lGTONSHIRF.. \ 
 
 Cotton spinning &) 
 weaving . . 5 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 92 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total •••• 
 
 125 
 
 3200 
 
 2480 
 
 31,099 
 
 9002 
 
 3880 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 391 
 
 COTTON MILLS in the district of Leonard Horner, Esq. (continued.) 
 
 Counties and 
 Towns. 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Antrim. < 
 
 Armagh. 
 
 Down. < 
 
 Derry. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Cdmberland. 
 Carlisle . 
 
 Description of Work 
 in Mills. 
 
 Cotton spinning 
 Cotton spinning 
 
 and weaving 
 Do. with flax 
 
 spinning . . 
 Cotton spinning 
 
 and weaving 
 Cotton spinning 
 Cotton spinning 
 
 and weaving / 
 Cotton spinning 
 
 Cotton spinning "^ 
 and winding j 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 Scotland 
 
 North of Ireland . . 
 England (Cumberland) 
 
 Grand Total . . 
 
 
 Horse 
 
 Power. 
 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Water. 
 114 
 
 7 
 
 125 
 
 2 
 
 91 
 
 25 
 
 1 
 
 90 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 30 
 
 2 
 
 26 
 
 
 1 
 
 40 
 
 50 
 
 1 
 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 372 
 
 234 
 
 12 
 
 98 
 
 78 
 
 125 
 
 3200 
 
 2480 
 
 15 
 
 372 
 
 234 
 
 12 
 
 98 
 
 78 
 
 152 
 
 3670 
 
 2792 
 
 Total 
 
 Persons of 
 
 all ages 
 
 employed. 
 
 Between 
 
 13&18 
 Years 
 of age. 
 
 Under 
 13 Years 
 of age. 
 
 977 
 
 294 
 
 81 
 
 567 
 
 125 
 
 49 
 
 555 
 
 1 
 
 209 
 
 77 
 
 196 
 
 61 
 
 36 
 
 230 
 
 57 
 
 40 
 
 282 
 
 102 
 
 29 
 
 82 
 
 40 
 
 4 
 
 2889 
 
 888 
 
 SIO 
 
 1635 
 
 558 
 
 118 
 
 31,099 
 
 9002 
 
 3889 
 
 2,889 
 
 888 
 
 316 
 
 1,635 
 
 558 
 
 118 
 
 35,623 
 
 10,448 
 
 4323 
 
392 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 COTTON MILLS in the District assigned to Robert J. Saunders, Esq. 
 Factory Inspector, comprising the Eastern, Southern, Half the Central, 
 and Half the "Western Counties of England. 
 
 Counties and Towns. 
 
 Nottinghamshire and 
 Derbyshire. 
 
 Mansfield and ) 
 
 neighbourhood j 
 Cromford, Belper, } 
 
 and Ashbourne S 
 Derby and neigh- ) 
 
 bourhood . . ) 
 Nottinghamshire \ 
 
 and Derbyshire) 
 Nottingham and J 
 
 neighbourhood j 
 
 Mansfield, Ches- "i 
 
 terfield, & neigh- > 
 
 bourhood . . .J 
 
 Derby and neigh 
 
 bourhood . . 
 Measham . . . 
 Tansley .... 
 Wirksworth . . 
 
 Staffordshire. I 
 
 Tamworth . . . y 
 
 Tamworth, Bur- ■\ 
 
 ton-upon-Trent, ^ 
 
 and neighbour- i 
 
 hood .... 3 
 
 Middlesex. 
 
 London and neigh- ) 
 bourhood ... .J 
 
 Description of Worlc in 
 
 Mills. 
 
 Cotton spinning for) 
 Hosiery ... .J 
 
 Do. ... 
 
 Do 
 
 Spinning candle-) 
 wick yarn . . S 
 
 Doubling yarn for) 
 lace . . . .) 
 
 Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Power-loom weav- | 
 ing, tapes, bob-<v 
 bins, &o. I 
 
 Cotton spinning &) 
 weaving • • • j 
 
 Spinning candle- 
 wick yarn . . 
 
 O w 
 
 Horse Power. 
 
 Steam. 
 
 Water. 
 
 8 
 
 70 
 
 Doubtful 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 500 
 
 2 
 
 
 280 
 
 3 
 
 85 
 
 Doubtful 
 
 7 
 
 92 
 
 48 
 
 7 
 
 48 
 
 45 
 
 4 
 
 28 
 
 40 
 
 3^ 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Y 
 
 16 
 
 59 
 
 2^ 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 45 
 
 200 
 
 4 
 
 54 
 
 44 
 
 Doubtful 
 
 438 
 
 1172* 
 
 Total Persons 
 of all ages 
 employed. 
 
 1000 to 1100 
 
 /2600byday, 
 \50 by night. 
 
 700 to 800 
 
 350 
 
 700 
 
 440 to 450 
 
 f 350 by day 
 \128bynigh 
 
 480 to 500 
 
 900 
 
 300 to 330 
 
 8128 mediun 
 
 * In this addition the mills whose water-power is " doubtful" are altogether 
 excluded. 
 
 N. B. In the above mills, containing 8,128 work-people, 3,250 
 are young persons between the ages of 11 and 18, and 320 a. 
 children aged from 9 to 11. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 393 
 
 In addition to the above total of 54 mills, there are 
 1 1 others connected with the cotton trade in tliis district. 
 Some of these are just commencing work ; others are 
 closed under temporary circumstances; and some are 
 employed in the fancy trade, where cotton-yarn and 
 worsted-yarn are wove together, or in the spinning 
 of Angola, where cotton and wool are spun toge- 
 ther. None of these mills are included in the above 
 table. 
 
 COTTON MILLS in the District assigned to Thomas Jones Howell, Esq. 
 including half the Central and Western Counties of England, the Eight 
 Southern Counties of Wales, and the Southern half of Ireland. 
 
 Dublin 
 
 KiLDARE , 
 
 Queen's County 
 
 Wexford 
 
 VVaterford ..., 
 Cork 
 
 Total 
 
 No. of 
 Mills. 
 
 Men 
 employed. 
 
 Women 
 employed. 
 
 Children 
 employed. 
 
 7 
 
 2^ 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1^ 
 
 > 
 
 185 
 446 
 
 230 
 593 
 
 95 
 257 
 
 14 
 
 
 031 
 
 823 
 
 352 
 
 Total number 
 of Persons 
 employed. 
 
 510 
 
 1296 
 
 1806 
 
 N.B. In the English and Welsh counties under Mr. Howell's 
 superintendence, there are no cotton mills. The moving power in 
 the mills has not yet been returned to Mr. Howell; but if we sup- 
 pose the power employed in the mills of the south of Ireland to bear 
 the same proportion to the number of work-people as in the north 
 of Ireland, (where we have Mr. Horner's return,) the mills in 
 Mr. Howell's district would be moved by 232 horse-power of steam 
 and 146 of water. 
 
 3d 
 
394 
 
 T H i: HISTORY OF 
 
 GRAND SUMMARY 
 OF Cotton Mills in the United Kingdom. 
 
 
 Number of 
 Mills. 
 
 Horse Power. 
 
 Number of Persons 
 Employed. 
 
 Districts of Factory 
 Inspectors. 
 
 Steam. 
 
 AVater. 
 
 
 934 
 
 152 
 
 54 
 
 14 
 
 26,513 
 
 3,670 
 
 438 
 
 232 
 
 6,093i 
 2,792 
 1,172 
 14G 
 
 10,203| 
 
 175,268 
 
 
 35,623 
 
 
 8,128 
 
 
 1,806 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 1,154 
 
 30,853 
 
 220,825 
 
 
 
 In ENGLAND & WALES 
 
 In SCOTLAND 
 
 In IRELAND 
 
 1000 
 
 125 
 
 29 
 
 27,049 
 
 3,200 
 
 604 
 
 30,853 
 
 7,343i 
 
 2,480 
 
 380 
 
 10,203^ 
 
 185,031 
 
 31,009 
 
 4,695 
 
 
 
 Total in the United Kingdom 
 
 1,154 
 
 220,825 
 
 The above returns are avowedly incomplete as 
 regards the districts of Mr. Rickards and Mr. Saunders. 
 In the former, I learn from the Inspector that he is con- 
 vinced he has not yet received an account of all the 
 mills ; and it will be seen that, owing to tlie incomplete- 
 ness of the returns from the mills known to the Inspec- 
 tors, several of the numbers have been supplied by esti- 
 mate. In Mr. Saunders's statement, several mills in 
 which cotton is worked are omitted, from the causes 
 assigned. In Mr. Horner's statement, at least one mill 
 (in the north of Yorkshire) is omitted. We shall pro- 
 bably not err on the side of excess, if we take the opera- 
 tives in the cotton mills of England and Wales (instead 
 of 185,031) at 200,000, those of Scotland at 32,000, 
 and those of Ireland at 5,000 ;— total 237,000. These 
 mills are moved by power about equal to that of 44,000 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 395 
 
 horses, of which 33,000 horse-power is that of steam- 
 engines, and 11,000 is that of water-wheels. 
 
 It must be remarked, tliat this result, obtained for the 
 greatest part from actual returns, corresponds very 
 closely with Mr. Stanway's calculation, after deducting 
 the supposed excess in his estimate of the number of 
 power-loom weavers. His estimate, reduced on this 
 account, would make the number of mill operatives 
 in England 195,585. The near approximation of 
 the numbers justifies confidence in their general 
 accuracy. 
 
 The following table shews the increase in the number 
 of mills in the townships of Manchester and Salford, 
 within twelve years : — 
 
 Number of Cotton Mills at work in the Townships of 
 Manchester and Salford, in different Years. 
 
 
 1820 
 
 1823 
 
 1826 
 
 1829 
 
 1832 
 
 Manchester 
 
 Salford 
 
 44 
 4 
 
 12 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 49 
 5 
 
 12 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 63 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 1 
 2 
 
 63 
 10 
 13 
 3 
 2 
 1 
 2 
 1 
 
 68 
 7 
 
 Chorlton on Wedlock 
 Ardwick ••. 
 
 12 
 3 
 
 
 2 
 
 Newton 
 
 Pendleton 
 
 Beswick ......••••.> 
 
 1 
 2 
 1 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 66 
 
 72 
 
 92 
 
 95 
 
 96 
 
 There are tliree other gi*eat branches of the cotton 
 manufacture, in which we possess some means of esti- 
 mating tlie number of workmen employed. In the 
 
396 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 lace-inaking aud embroidering, it has been seen that 
 Mr. Felkin estimates the number of hands employed at 
 159,000; and in the cotton hosiery, the same gentleman 
 estimates the hands at 33,000. 
 
 An estimate has been given, at p. 284, of the wages 
 paid to the operative calico printers, which amounted in 
 1830 to £1,000,000 a year, or £19,230 a week. Sup- 
 posing the average wages of the adults and children in 
 this line to be 10s. a week,* the number of hands would 
 be 38,460. But tliis was in 1830, since which time 
 the repeal of the excise duty has considerably extended 
 the printing trade ; and we may probably assume 4.5,000 
 men, women, and cliildi'eu, to be now engaged in that 
 trade. 
 
 If, then, we take the number of tlie workmen em- 
 ployed in the spinning and weaWng factories of the 
 United Kingdom, as above given, and the other classes 
 of workmen whose number has been estimated, we shall 
 have before us the following calculations of the hands 
 employed m several great branches of the British cotton 
 manufacture, viz. 
 
 In the spinning and wea^ing factories . 237,000 
 
 In hand-loom weaving 250,000 
 
 In the lace-making and embroidery . . 159,000 
 
 In the hosiery 33,000 
 
 In calico-printing 45,000 
 
 These would make 724,000 : but, in addition to these, 
 there are the bleachers, the dyers, the calenderers, the 
 
 * The average wages paid to the hands in the print-works of Messrs. Thomson 
 and Chippendale, Clitheroe, were stated by Mr. Thomson to the Committee on 
 Manufactures (Report, p. 222) to be 12s. 3d. per week ; but, this being an esta- 
 blishment of the first class, where the finest work is done, and the best wages paid, 
 probably the average wages of all the print-works would not exceed 10s. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 397 
 
 fustian-cutters, the sizers, the winders and draw-boys 
 for the hand-loom weavers, the embroiderers of muslins, 
 the machine-makers, the engravers and designers, the 
 makers of steam-engines, cards, rollers, sj)indles, shuttles, 
 jennies, looms, &c. &c. ; there are all those engaged 
 in the mercantile department in Manchester, Glasgow, 
 and other places, with their clerks and warehousemen ; 
 there are the classes engaged in the packing department, 
 namely, the packers, paper makers, canvass manu- 
 facturers, trunk and packing-case makers, &c. ; there 
 are the seamen by whom the cotton is imported and 
 the manufactured goods are exported, the carriers by 
 land and water in this country, the porters, &c. There 
 are also considerable numbers of men constantly em- 
 ployed in building the mills and warehouses required 
 for carrying on the manufacture. If all these, most of 
 whom may be regarded as directly employed in the 
 manufacture, could be enumerated, they would swell to 
 an enormous amount. And if we should add those who 
 are employed in aid of the manufacture, namely, the 
 cotton growers in America, India, Brazil, &c. ; the 
 workmen in this country who provide the metals, 
 timber, leather, coal, bricks, stone, &c., used for build- 
 ings, machinery, implements, and fuel; the agricul- 
 turists who gi-ow food for the manufacturing popu- 
 lation, and the tradesmen who provide them witli the 
 necessaries of life; all of whom are unquestionably 
 supported by the cotton manufacture of Great Britain, 
 and would be thrown out of bread by its failure ; tlie 
 importance of this vast branch of productive industry 
 would then rise in our estimation to its just magnitude, 
 and would much exceed the calculations usually made 
 
398 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 of tlie capital it employs and the population it main- 
 tains. 
 
 But as it is impossible to estimate with even an 
 approach to accuracy many of the classes last men- 
 tioned, it is usual to comprise only those more directly 
 engaged in the manufacture, in the calculations made 
 of its extent and value. One mode of calculating; the 
 number of workmen, is to take the whole value of the 
 goods produced, as nearly as it can be ascertained, and 
 divide it into cost of raw material, profits of capital, 
 and wages of labour ; then to form an average of the 
 workmen's wages, and to see how many workmen the 
 whole amount paid for labour will remunerate. The 
 ground of this calculation is the " real or declared value" 
 of the cotton goods exported, as entered in the books 
 of the Custom-house ; together with a universal opinion 
 that the value of the goods consumed at home nearly 
 equals that of the exports. Another mode of calculation 
 is to ascertain the quantities of each different kind of 
 goods exported, and to assume an average price per 
 yard or per lb. : the value of the whole exports may be 
 thus estimated, and this, being nearly doubled, would 
 shew the entire value of the manufacture. The former 
 of these methods has been pursued by Mr. M'CuUoch, 
 in the Edinhurgli Review, and subsequently in his 
 Dictionary of Commerce, the second edition of which 
 contains a careful revision and modification of his esti- 
 mate.* The latter method is that of Mr. Burn, in liis 
 Commercial Glance. 
 
 * In the first edition of his " Dictionary," Mr. M'CuUoch estimated the annual 
 value of the manufactured goods at £36,000,000, and the amount of the capital 
 employed at £56,000,000. In the second edition he has reduced the annual 
 value to £34,000,000, and the capital also to £34,000,000. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 399 
 
 Mr. M'Culloch assumes the annual value of the 
 manufactured goods to be £34,000,000 ; which he 
 founds partly on the estunate of the late Mr. Huskisson, 
 who in 1823 stated the whole value of the cotton manu- 
 facture of the United Kingdom to be thirty-three millions 
 and a half; and partly on the " real or declared value" 
 of the cotton exports, which was £19,428,664 in 1830, 
 £17,257,204 in 1831, and £17,398,392 in 1832. In 
 this estimate he has the concurrence of Mr. Dugald 
 Bannatyne, who, in the Enci/cloptecUa Britannica, 
 calculates the value of the manufactured goods at 
 £34,000,000 a year. Mr. M'Culloch then:' proceeds 
 as follows : — 
 
 *' The average annual quantity of cotton wool imported, after 
 deducting the exports, may be taken at about 260,000,000 lbs. 
 weight. It is supposed, that of this quantity about 20,000,000 lbs. 
 are used in a raw or half-manufactured state, leaving a balance of 
 240,000,000 lbs. for the purposes of manufacturing, the cost of 
 which may be taken, on an average, at 7d. per lb. Deducting, 
 therefore, from the total value of the manufactured goods, or 
 £34,000,000, the value of the raw material amounting to 
 £7,000,000, there remains £27,000,000 ; which of course forms 
 the fund whence the wages of the persons employed in the various 
 departments of the manufacture, the profits of the capitalists, the 
 sums required to repair the wear and tear of buildings, machinery, 
 &c., the expense of coals, &c. &c., must all be derived. If, then, 
 we had any means of ascertaining how this fund is distributed, we 
 should be able, by taking the average of wages and profits, to 
 form a pretty accurate estimate of the number of labourers, and 
 the quantity of capital employed. But here, unfortunately, we 
 have only probabilities and analogies to guide "us. It may, how- 
 ever, be confidently assumed, in the first place, that in consequence 
 of the extensive employment of highly valuable machinery in all 
 the departments of the cotton manufacture, the proportion which 
 
400 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the profits of capital, and the sum to be set aside to replace its 
 wear and tear, bears to the whole value of the manufacture, must 
 be much larger than in any other department of industry. We 
 have heard this proportion variously estimated at from a fourth to 
 a half of the total value of the manufactured goods, exclusive of 
 the raw material ; and, as the weight of authority seems to be 
 pretty much divided on the subject, we shall take an intermediate 
 proportion. Assuming, therefore, that the profits of the capital 
 employed in the cotton manufacture, the wages of superintendence, 
 &c., the sum required to replace the wear and tear of machinery, 
 buildings, &c., and to furnish coals, &c., amount together to 
 one-third of the value of the manufactured goods, exclusive of the 
 raw material, or to £9,000,000; a sum of £18,000,000 will remain 
 as the wages of the spinners, weavers, bleachers, &c., engaged in 
 the manufacture ; and taking, inasmuch as a large proportion of 
 children under sixteen years of age are employed, the average rate 
 of wages at only £22. 10s. a year, we shall have (dividing 18,000,000 
 by 22-5) 800,000 as the total number of persons directly employed 
 in the different departments of the manufacture. 
 
 " We should mistake, however, if we supposed that this number, 
 great as it certainly is, comprised the whole number of persons to 
 whom the cotton manufacture furnishes subsistence, exclusive of 
 the capitalists. Of the sum of £9,000,000, set apart as the profit 
 of the capitalists, and the sum required to furnish coal, and to 
 defray the wear and tear of machinery, &c., a large proportion 
 must annually be laid out in paying the wages of engineers, 
 machine -makers, iron -founders, smiths, joiners, masons, brick- 
 layers, &c. It is not easy to say what this proportion may 
 amount to ; but taking it at a third, or £3,000,000, and supposing 
 the rate of wages of each individual to average £30 a year, the 
 total number employed in the various capacities alluded to, will be 
 (3,000,000 divided by 30) 100,000, and a sum of £6,000,000 will 
 remain, to cover the profits of the capital employed in the various 
 branches of the manufacture, to repair the different parts of the 
 machinery and buildings as they wear out, and to buy coal, flour, 
 &c. The account will, therefore, stand as follows : — 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 101 
 
 Total value of every description of cotton goods £. 
 
 annually manufactured in Great Britain . . 34,000,000 
 
 Raw material, 240,000,000 lbs. at 7d. per lb. £7,000,000 
 
 Wages of 800,000 weavers, spinners, 
 
 bleachers, &c. at £22. 10. a year each 18,000,000 
 
 Wages of 100,000 engineers, machine- 
 makers, smiths, masons, joiners, &c. 
 at £30 a year each 3,000,000 
 
 Profits of the manufacturers, wages of super- 
 intendence, sums to purchase the ma- 
 terials of machinery, coals, &c. . . 6,000,000 
 
 34,000,000 
 
 " The capital employed may be estimated as follows : — 
 
 Capital employed in the purchase of the raw material 4,000,000 
 Capital employed in the payment of wages . . . 10,000,000 
 Capital invested in spinning-mills, power and hand- 
 looms, workshops, warehouses, stocks on hand, &c. 20,000,000 
 
 £34,000,000 
 
 " Now, this sum of £34,000,000, supposing the interest of 
 capital, inclusive of the wages of superintendence, &c. to amount 
 to 10 per cent., will yield a sum of £3,400,000, which, being 
 deducted from the £6,000,000 profits, &c. leaves £2,600,000 to 
 purchase materials to repair the waste of capital, the flour required 
 (or dressing, the coals necessary in the employment of the steam- 
 engines, to effect insurances, and to meet all other outgoings. 
 
 " The aggregate amount of wages, according to the above esti- 
 mate, IS £21,000,000 ; but there are not many departments of the 
 business in which wages have to be advanced more than six months 
 before the article is sold. We therefore incline to think that 
 £10,000,000 is a sufiicient (perhaps too great) allowance for the 
 capital employed in the payment of wages. 
 
 " If we are nearly right in these estimates, it will follow — allow- 
 ance being made for old and infirm persons, children, &c., 
 dependent on those Avho are actually employed in the various 
 departments of the cotton manufacture, and in the construction, 
 
 3e 
 
402 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 repair, &c. of the machinery and buildings required to carry it 
 on — that it must furnish, on the most moderate computation, 
 subsistence for from 1,200,000 to 1,400,000 persons!"* 
 
 The point of greatest importance in this calculation 
 is the assumed value of the whole manufacture, viz. 
 £34,000,000. If this should he invalidated, the calcu- 
 lation founded upon it would be wortldess. Mr. Hus- 
 kisson and Mr. IM'Culloch founded then* estimate chiefly 
 on the " real or declared value" of the exports, recorded 
 in the books of the Custom-house. Mr. Burn altogether 
 disregards this as a criterion, makes his estimate quite 
 independently of it, and arrives at a very different con- 
 clusion. As Avill soon appear, he estimates the value 
 of the exports several millions below the " real or 
 declared value :" and Mr. Kennedy adopts Mr. Burn's 
 calculation, thereby giving it the sanction of his authority. 
 But I cannot see the reasonableness of wholly neglect- 
 ing a record of value resting on the testimony of the 
 exporters, who must be the best judges. Tlie exporters 
 have no motive for declai'ing the value of the cotton goods 
 at the Custom-house to be either more or less than it 
 actually is, as there is neither duty to be paid, nor 
 drawback or bounty to be received. Tliere is at some 
 of the ports a loose manner of making these declara- 
 tions ; but even there it is most improbable that the 
 declarations should be always very greatly over the 
 value ; and at the ports of Liverpool and London there 
 is reason to believe that the declarations approach very 
 near the actual value. 
 
 * In a former part of this work I have supposed, with Mr. M'Culloch, that the 
 number of individuals to whom the cotton manufacture affords subsistence is from 
 1,200,000 to 1,400,000 persons; but further examination leads me to conclude that 
 the number cannot be less than 1,500,000. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 403 
 
 I have made careful inquiries at Manchester from 
 large exporters, and I am assured that the declared 
 value must approach Avdthin 2^ to 5 per cent, of the 
 actual value, and that the former is quite as likely to be 
 below the latter as above it. The advice to the shipping 
 agent, who makes the declaration for entry at the Cus- 
 tom-house, is sent off after the merchant has made all 
 the entries in liis own books. It is therefore the most 
 natural and convenient practice to give the actual invoice 
 amount of the goods in round sums, that is, omitting 
 shillings and pence, and perhaps fractions of £5. For 
 example, if a bale came to £S2. 10s., the exporter might 
 call it either £80 or £85 : if it came to £89, some might 
 enter it as £85, others as £90. That the exporter should 
 make a false declaration, A^dthout any thing to gain by 
 it, is not to be conceived. One of my infoimants states, 
 that if there is any material inaccuracy, it is at the ports 
 of Hull and Goole, from which goods are exported by 
 the German houses to Germany ; as those houses do not 
 regularly send the value to their shipping agents, but 
 generally content themselves with mentioning the marks 
 and contents of the bales. We might therefore suspect 
 inaccuracy in the '' declared A'alue" at these ports, 
 though there would be no reason to suppose that the 
 declai'ations erred on one side more than on the other. 
 But I have endeavoured to test this pomt, and the result 
 is such as to prove that, notwithstanding the loose way 
 in which the declarations are made, there is not any 
 serious inaccuracy in the " real or declai'ed value" of the 
 exports at Hull and Goole. The method I pursued was 
 as follows : — I took out the number of yai'ds of white and 
 printed cottons exported to Germany and the United 
 Netherlands in each year, from 1827 to 1832 inclusive. 
 
404 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 and ascertained what would be tlieir price per yard 
 according- to the " declared value :" and then did the 
 same T\dth the w^hite and printed cottons exported to the 
 United States, China, the East Indies, and Brazil. The 
 results were as follow: — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Quantity of 
 
 
 
 
 Quantity of 
 
 
 Price 
 
 
 \\Tiite and 
 
 
 Price 
 
 
 White and 
 
 
 per 
 
 
 Printed Cot- 
 
 
 per 
 
 
 Printed Cot- 
 
 Declared 
 
 Yard, 
 
 
 tons exported 
 
 Declared 
 
 Yard, 
 
 
 tons exported 
 
 Value 
 
 accord - 
 
 
 to the United 
 
 Value 
 
 accord- 
 
 Years. 
 
 to Germany 
 
 of the 
 
 ing to 
 
 Years. 
 
 Slates, China, 
 
 of the 
 
 ing to 
 
 
 and the 
 
 same. 
 
 the de- 
 
 
 the East 
 
 same. 
 
 the de- 
 
 
 Netherlands. 
 
 
 clared 
 value. 
 
 
 Indies, and 
 Brazil. 
 
 
 clared 
 value. 
 
 
 Yards. 
 
 £. 
 
 Pence. 
 
 
 Yards. 
 
 £. 
 
 Pence. 
 
 1827 
 
 57,410,133 
 
 2,090,413 
 
 81 
 
 1827 
 
 126,241,083 
 
 4,732,432 
 
 9 
 
 1828 
 
 52,779,261 
 
 1,832,346 
 
 8.1 
 
 1828 
 
 136,865,275 
 
 4,974,790 
 
 H 
 
 1829 
 
 52,419,444 
 
 1,581,237 
 
 7| 
 
 1829 
 
 122,363,499 
 
 4,851,202 
 
 9| 
 
 1830 
 
 54,350,773 
 
 1,596,983 
 
 7 
 
 1830 
 
 147,735,846 
 
 4,974,429 
 
 8 
 
 1831 
 
 54,806,140 
 
 1,313,566 
 
 5| 
 
 1831 
 
 138,245,272 
 
 4,382,860 
 
 n 
 
 1832 
 
 71,496,009 
 
 1,661,886 
 
 5| 
 
 1832 
 
 145,920,479 
 
 3,641,209 
 
 G 
 
 Both these tables indicate a gradual decline in the 
 value of the goods from 1827 to 1832, and, as might be 
 expected, the decline is steadier in the first than in the 
 second table, owing to the greater uniformity in the 
 qualities and prices of goods sent to the European 
 markets than of those sent to the distant markets of 
 America and the East. But the decline in price, as 
 indicated by the " declared value," corresponds very 
 nearly with the actual decline in the price of calico in 
 the Manchester market during the same six years, as will 
 be seen from the following table, furnished to the Factory 
 Commission by Mr. John Howard, of Manchester : — * 
 
 * Supplementary Report, part I. p. 186. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 405 
 
 Average Price of a Piece of Calico |^72, Stockport count, 
 
 WEIGHING NOT LESS THAN 5 Ibs. 2 OZ. 
 
 Years. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Years. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 1827 
 
 10 
 
 1830 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 1828 
 
 9 6 
 
 1831 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 1829 
 
 8 8 
 
 1832 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 The decline in the price of cotton twist corresponds 
 still more nearly with the decline in the " declared 
 value" of the exported goods, as is shewn by the fol- 
 lowing table of the prices of one kind of twist, furnished 
 to the Factory Commission by Messrs. Samuel Greg 
 and Co.* — 
 
 Average Price of Twist per lb. 
 
 From Dec. 1825 to July, 1826 
 
 July, 1826 — Dec. 1826 
 
 Dec. 1826 — July, 1827 
 
 July, 1827 — Dec. 1827 
 
 Dec 1827 —July, 1828 
 
 July, 1828 —Dec. 1828 
 
 Dec. 1828 —July, 1829 
 
 July, 1829 — Dec. 1829 
 
 Dec. 1829 —July, 1830 
 
 July, 1830 — Dec. 1830 
 
 Dec. 1830 —July, 1831 
 
 July, 1831 — Dec. 1831 
 
 Dec. 1831 —July, 1832 
 
 July, 1832 — Dec. 1832 
 
 If the prices of the goods exported to Germany and 
 the Netherlands, as indicated by the " declared value," 
 
 * Supplementary Report, part I. p. 186, 
 
 
 
 d. 
 
 
 . . . 16 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 97 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 77 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 96 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 43 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 28 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 72 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 82 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 37 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 76 
 
 
 
 . 12 
 
 •61 
 
406 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 are compared either with the prices of the goods ex- 
 ported to America and tlie East, or mth the actual 
 prices of calico and twist in Manchester, there will be 
 found so great a correspondence between them as clearly 
 to prove that the former approximate closely to the 
 truth. We may, then, rely on the " real or declared 
 value" of the cotton exports, and reason from it : and, 
 if so, Mr. M'Culloch's estimate (£34,000,000) cannot 
 materially exceed the actual value of the cotton goods 
 annually produced in the United Kingdom; for tlie 
 average of the '' declared value" of the exports for 
 1830, 1831, and 1832, was £18,028,087, and it is 
 admitted that the domestic consumption is to nearly as 
 great a value as the foreign export. 
 
 Mr. Burn, in his " Commercial Glance," gives a 
 detailed estimate of the value of cotton exports, including 
 however England only. Tliis would lead to a conclu- 
 sion as to the total value of the manufacture, considerably 
 differing from that whicli has been given above. Mr. 
 Burn's table is as follows ; — 
 
THE COTTON M A N [' F A C T T R E. 
 
 40' 
 
 C 
 
 s p » 
 <3 2 "^ 
 
 M S 3 
 
 e 2: H »^ n a H f <; 2 
 
 3 — O P i» s: s: c — 
 
 
 ankeens . . 
 elveteens, &r. 
 ace, &c. . . 
 icks, &c. . . 
 amasks . . 
 ounterpanes 
 lawls, ike. . 
 apes, &c. 
 osiery . . 
 nenumerated 
 
 
 mities . . 
 iltings and R 
 wns and Lenr 
 licoes, Printe 
 licoes, Plain 
 mbrics and M 
 tton & Linen, 
 ngliams . . 
 itation Shawl 
 
 C 
 
 M 
 
 o 
 
 •a 
 
 
 
 "^ • S g • a- <'• p • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s S 
 
 
 
 
 
 — — 
 
 
 ^ — 
 
 — ^ i. 
 
 S-K=?' 
 
 •.i oc ^ 
 
 tc tc bS ts w 
 
 -^-Ci i^---^-;o 
 
 CO o "CC M o in ^S "^ «< 
 t^ -a to ii OC M , ^■' =^ a^ 
 
 
 wC — :cCTwwoC!w 
 
 
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 «;C-=toMlc^CiOT 
 
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 ^ C; .;- ii a -M O tn -i in 
 
 XOoOwoccXH-inS' 
 
 |i| 
 
 OOW — CCC-l-lOhS 
 
 e<5'OGce5--co*»ioo- 
 
 •ot* — li^O'-u.iU — woc!Mc»W5ow-^o 
 
 
 
 >-hSiUlsStObSls5«C!-' 
 
 rt ? 3 
 
 hSOOOtoCJOOOOS. 
 
 en 
 
 
 
 n _j 
 
 J^ 5" 
 
 ^f^o 
 
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 tc C -J IC M to 
 
 
 wQceeA. cc <s c-. X 
 
 -awh-MO^ lS>.^s 
 
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 XO — — CCWwSl — 
 
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 CM — tSMOO ©CCUlW»WiTifel>SCKK.Z | 
 
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 SXCQOOOCXOOCCOOOfcSOCCOSg 
 
 — tc 
 
 to hS 
 J- bS ^t* J- J- © 
 
 — MOD -lQClClc;C5»-Cl»-hSt- MW=- 
 TiC-.JCjSU)^ COCC — GCW--4© C5JS » 
 
 MCKOOCCX^-CCGO — CCOOCnOOCCtoIsS 
 
 — cit«©©0©ocn<n03i;^OOOM9 
 
 '^3 tJ 
 
 — u.tSi-'ln-J M — i-i N-i_iinhS„ 
 
 >— — ClOtoCflOtC-IClO — O-^ — oi«o- 
 
 ©'CW©0i-i©0'>:Wi.itoCnto"-©C5Wr- 
 
 OtwOO00OC0©tooOWCiW0iO©cn~ 
 
 K^* 1^^^ ■«>>.* ^-d .M^ tJ^ .d4>^ ,Mh ^M 4<M *iHi- t^^K^ tJ^tOHf^ - 
 
 •i"§- S 2 
 
 = re ^ 3 rt 
 
 tCto — tC bS — — tObStCW — SO-i—bStoMtSK-- 
 
 OinC30iC»'WXMtCC)i'iyCnW»-toOI>Sa 
 
 "5 5"* a 
 o s — — 
 c X r c 
 
 3'5 w 
 
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 l«©K< ceo — Mto>-«to— Clin — ^4•— OtChSbShS 
 
 wcnc ■»i«ocaos;ic-»3 — loooccsiSktoeo® — ©o 
 
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 its ° = 
 
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 9- ^ 
 
408 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Thus Mr. Bum makes tlie cotton exports of England 
 to be of the value onl}^ of £12,829,548. The "real or 
 declared value" of the cotton exports of Great Britain, 
 in the books of the Custom-house, for 18.33, was 
 £18,4.59,000. The exports from England and Scot- 
 land are not given separately in any official returns ; 
 and I am therefore unable to compare the value of the 
 English exports as " declared" by the exporters at the 
 Custom-house, with that stated by Mr. Burn. But the 
 cotton goods exported directly from Scotland are of 
 tridal amount, as nineteen-twentieths of the goods 
 manufactured for the foreign market in Scotland are 
 exported, not from Scotch ports, but from Liverpool. 
 Considering the English exports, therefore, as com- 
 prisiug nearly the whole cotton exports of Great Britain, 
 it follows that Mr. Burn's estimate falls short of the 
 " real or declared value" by no less than Jive milUons 
 and a half. With every disposition to rely on the 
 practical knowledge of this autlior, I must place still 
 greater dependence on the official record, for tlie 
 reasons above given ; and I am therefore driven to the 
 conclusion, that Mr. Burn must be mistaken in some of 
 the data on which he has built his calculation. 
 
 All estunates founded on an assumed average value 
 of the o;oods must be liable to considerable errors, 
 owing to the many descriptions and diversified qualities 
 of goods, which render it difficult to strike the average 
 correctly : and a very slight inaccuracy in the sums 
 which fonn the elements of the calculation will produce 
 an important error in the results. 
 
 ]\Ir. Kennedy, whose assistance I have frequently had 
 to acknowledge, was last year so obliging as to make 
 for me an estimate, along with other well-infoiTued 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 409 
 
 merchants and manufacturers, of the annual value of the 
 cottons produced in the United Kingdom. The following 
 is the result of their calculations; it is founded on 
 Mr. Burn's estimate for 1832, contained in his 
 " Glance," and therefore supports that estimate, but, at 
 the same time, is necessarily liable to any errors into 
 wliich Mr. Burn may have fallen : — 
 
 Estimate of the Value of the Cotton Goods and Yarn 
 PRODUCED IN Great Britain and Ireland, in the Year 
 
 1832. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 How disposed of. 
 
 Exported 
 
 Descriptions of Goods. 
 
 'Yarn 
 
 Thread .... 
 Goods .... 
 Yarn to Scotland ^ 
 and Ireland . ' 
 
 Mixed Manufactures 
 
 LHoME Consumption 
 
 Quantity in 
 lbs. weight. 
 
 72,000,000 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 62,000,000 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 12,000,000 
 71,000,000 
 
 lbs. 223,000,000 
 SCOTLAND.— Value supposed l-8th of the English . . , 
 IRELAND. —Value supposed I-8lh of the Scotch . . . 
 
 £4,.500,000 
 
 500.000 
 
 6,747,000 
 
 375,000 
 
 600,000 
 9,000,000 
 
 £21,722,000 
 
 2,700,000 
 
 338,000 
 
 ^£21,700,000 
 
 * The above table of Mr. Kennedy's was given in my sketch of the History of 
 the Cotton Manufacture, published in my father's " History of the County 
 Palatine of Lancaster" last year, where it attracted the attention of Mr. M'Culloch, 
 who, in the second edition of his " Dictionary of Commerce" has made the follow- 
 ing forcible remarks upon it: — "Mr. Kennedy, to whose opinion, on a matter of 
 this sort, the greatest deference is due, considers this estimate (£34,000,000) as a 
 great deal too high. We cannot, however, bring ourselves to believe that such is 
 really the case. It appears from the official accounts, that the real or declared 
 value of the cotton fabrics exported in 1832 amounted to £12,622,880, and that of 
 the twist to £4,726,796. Now it appears from the statement in Burn's Glance, 
 (for 1832) and other good authorities, that the weight of the cotton yarn retained 
 at home to be wrought up into fabrics for domestic use is about 10 or 12 per cent. 
 
 3f 
 
410 THE niSTORT OF 
 
 On this estimate I must make the same observation as 
 on Mr. Burn's, namely, that it cannot be reconciled w ith 
 the official record of the " declared value" of the exports, 
 which in 1832 was £17,398,392. If the latter ap- 
 proaches to coiTectness, Mr. Kennedy's estimate must be 
 several millions below the real value of the manufacture. 
 A presumption that it is so, is afforded by the Scotch 
 and Irish manufactures, each of which is here valued 
 at only about one-half the estimates made by other 
 good authorities. Dr. Cleland, of Glasgow, whose 
 reputation as a statistician is liigh, and who had (as he 
 assures me) the aid of the most eminent merchants and 
 manufacturers of that city, calculated in 1818 that 
 "there were 105,000,000 yards of cotton cloth manu- 
 factured in Glasgow and its neighbourhood, the value of 
 Avhich could not be less than £5,200,000, and that 
 nearly one-half of these goods were exported.''^ Since 
 1818, the quantity of cottons manufactured in vScotland 
 has doubled, but the nominal value is probably not 
 higher than at that time : this is, however, nearly twice 
 as much as Mr. Kennedy's estimate of the Scotch 
 manufacture. The value of the Irish cotton manufac- 
 
 greater than the weight of the yarn exported in the shape of manufactured goods. 
 But without taking this greater weight into account, if we suppose that the fabrics 
 retained at home are nearly equal in point of quality to those exported, the value 
 of the manufacture must be at least £30,000,000, viz. fabrics exported £12,622,000, 
 twist exported £4,721,000, and fabrics consumed at home £12,622,000. But a 
 very large proportion of our exports consist of comparatively coarse fabrics destined 
 for the West Indies, Brazil, &c. ; and we have been assured, by those well 
 acquainted with the trade, that the value of the fabrics made use of at home cannot 
 be less, at an average, than from 30 to 40 per cent, above the value of those 
 exported ; but taking it only at 30 per cent, it will make the total value of the 
 manufacture £34,000,000. We do not well see how this statement can be shaken. 
 The exporters have no motive to exaggerate the real value of the goods and yarn 
 sent abroad ; but unless they have done so to a very great extent, it will be difficult 
 to impeach the above conclusion." — Dictionary, p. 443. 2d edit, 
 t Dr. Cleland's Statistics of Glasgow, p. 138. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 411 
 
 tiire, which that gentleman takes at £338,000, is esti- 
 mated by Mr. Bannatyne at £700,000.* It is scarcely 
 necessary to remark, that the estimates of Dr. Cleland 
 and Mr. Bannatyne, of the value of the Scotch and 
 Irish manufactures, indirectly support the estimate I 
 have formed of the English manufacture, from the 
 proportions which are well known to exist between the 
 three. 
 
 I now oifer a mode of calculating the value of the 
 manufacture, different from any hitherto adopted, and 
 which would be very satisfactory if we possessed all the 
 particulars requisite to carry it out. Mr. M'CuUoch 
 takes an assumed value of the whole manufacture, and 
 divides it into its constituent parts, of wages, profit, 
 cost of raw material, &c. I propose — reversing the 
 operation — to ascertain as many of the constituent parts 
 as possible, and, by adding them together, to find the 
 whole value. We have ascertained, with considerable 
 precision, the number of factory operatives employed in 
 the cotton trade, and the returns made to Mr. Cowell 
 and Mr. Stanway establish the rate of wages they 
 receive. There is pretty satisfactory evidence as to the 
 number of hand-loom weavers, and their wages ; as to 
 the number of calico printers, lace workers, and stocking 
 makers, Avith their wages respectively. The value of 
 the raAv material is kno\\ii. And an estimate may be 
 made of the profits of capital, wear and tear of ma- 
 chinery, and other expenses. There are still many 
 classes of workmen, the combined amount of whose 
 wages can merely be guessed, and the sum I have put 
 down under this head is offered only as a conjecture. 
 I proceed to mention the particulars : — 
 
 • Eiicycl. Britannica, art. " Cotton Maiuifactiiie." 
 
412 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Estimated Yearly Value of the British Cotton 
 Manufacture. 
 
 WAGES OF 
 237,000 *Operatives engaged in spinning and power- £. 
 
 loom weaving .... 6,044,000 
 
 250,000 tHand-loom weavers, at 7s. per week each 4,375,000 
 
 45,000 tCalico printers, at 10s. per week each . 1,170,000 
 
 159,300 §Lace-workers (including 100,000 employed 
 
 in embroidering, and 30,000 in mending, 
 
 pearling, drawing, and finishing) . 1,000,000 
 
 33,000 IjMakers of cotton hosiery . . • 505,000 
 
 Bleachers, dyers, calenderers, fustian-cutters, 
 
 machine makers, makers of steam- 
 engines, cards, rollers, spindles, shuttles, 
 looms, and reeds ; smiths, joiners, builders - 
 (of all classes), millwrights, carriers, 
 carters, warehousemen, &c. &c. &c. say 4,000,000 
 Raw material (spun in 1833,) 282,675,200 lbs.1l at7d. 
 
 per lb • 8,244,693 
 
 Profits of capital, sums paid for materials of machinery, 
 
 coals, flour for dressing, and other outgoings** 6,000,000 
 
 Total . . £31,338,693 
 
 • Mr. Stanway, from the returns of the mill-owners, ascertained that 67,819 
 mill operatives in England received £141,635. 5s. 7fd. as wages for a month of 
 four weeks : at the same rate, 237,000 mill operatives, the number m the United 
 Kino-dom, would earn £6,434,453 per year. But as wages in Scotland are 
 10 per cent, and in Ireland 15 or 20 per cent, lower th:m in England, and as two 
 weeks' wages in the year ought to be deducted for holidays, the amount of wages 
 paid will be about £6,044,000. 
 
 + See p. 238. In my estimate of the number of weavers, I have not reckoned 
 the winders, draw-boys, &c. who assist them, and who must amount to a great 
 many thousands ; but, in the supposed average of their ivages, I include those 
 earned by the assistants of the weavers as well as by the weavers themselves. 
 For particulars concerning the weavers' wages, see the next chapter. The sum 
 of 7s. per week, for the gross wages of all the hand-loom weavers, is, I am 
 convinced, a fair estimate. The calculation is for 50 weeks in the year. 
 
 + See pp. 284 and 396. , ^ . 
 
 § See p 343. The wages paid to the women and children employed in em- 
 broidering, mendin-, &c. the lace must be extremely low. Mr. Felkin estimates 
 the whole value of \he lace manufactured in Englandat £1,850.650 ; deduct the 
 cost of the yarn, £635,000, and there remains the sum of £1,215,650 ; of which, 
 probably £1,000,000 consists of wages to the work-people. 
 
 II See p. 345. 
 
 ^ The quantity stated by Burn in the " Commercial Glance. 
 ' I adopt this sum from Mr. M'Culloch, thinking it a moderate estimate. 
 
 .«* 
 
THE COTTON 3f A NUF ACT URE. 413 
 
 The only item in the above estimate which I feel to 
 be subject to considerable doubt is the sum of £4,000,000 
 as the wages of tlie bleachers, dyers, machine makers, 
 and numerous other classes of workmen not otherwise 
 specified. It does not appear unreasonable, but I dis- 
 tinctly acknowledge it to be only conjectural. The 
 total sum arrived at by this calculation seems to be 
 strongly supported by the " real or declared value" of 
 the cotton exports. 
 
 On the whole, after an attentive consideration of all 
 the official and unofficial evidence which has been pre- 
 sented, I am of opinion that the annual produce of the 
 cotton manufacture of the United Kingdom must be 
 betAveen £30,000,000 and £34,000,000 ; and that the 
 number of individuals directly employed iu the manu- 
 facture, with those dependent on them for subsistence, 
 must amount to fifteen hundred thousand. 
 
 The estimates of the amount of capital invested in the 
 cotton manufacture are attended with still greater uncer- 
 tainty than estimates of the yearly produce. Mr. Ken- 
 nedy, however, who is perhaps the best authority on 
 this subject, is of opinion, after careful calculation, that 
 the fixed capital employed in the spinning of cotton 
 alone, tliat is, in all the spinning macliinery, mills, and 
 other apparatus, amounts to £7,000,000 ; and that the 
 fixed capital engaged in the processes of throwing or 
 doubling, testing, winding, warping, dressing, weaving, 
 bleaching, dyeing, printing, and in hosiery and lace 
 frames, may amount to £8,000,000; and that the 
 floating capital requisite to keep all the machinery 
 in motion, and to carry on the spinning and other 
 branches of manufacture, may be £15,000,000- This 
 
414 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 would make a total of £30,000,000 ; and may be thus 
 shewn: — 
 
 Fixed capital invested in the spinning business, £. 
 
 (including mills, machines, &c.) 7,000,000 
 
 Fixed capital invested in the preparation of the 
 
 yarn, weaving, bleaching, dyeing, printing, and 
 
 in hosiery and lace frames 8,000,000 
 
 Floating capital employed in all the above 
 
 branches . . . / 15,000,000 
 
 30,000,000 
 
 In the first of these items, as in other instances, it 
 seems to me that JMr. Kennedy eiTS on the side of 
 moderation. Mr. Burn states (p. 368 aiite) that 
 17s. 6d. per spindle is the present valuation for mills 
 and machinery in the cotton spinning business ; at which 
 rate, as there are about 9,333,000 spindles in the United 
 Kingdom, the whole of the mills and machinery would 
 be worth £8,166,375. A highly respectable and intel- 
 ligent cotton spinner, to whom 1 have submitted the 
 question, says, after ascertaining the cost of the ma- 
 cliinery in liis own extensive works — " At a moderate 
 estimate, and certainly considerably below the actual 
 cost, I find that the machinery employed in spinning 
 cotton amounts to £60 for each individual employed, 
 including water-wheels, steam-engines, shafts and gear- 
 ing, straps, drums, &c. &c., but exclusive of the money 
 sunk in buildings, land, weirs, embankments, &c." 
 Now, we have estimated the mill operatives at 237,000, 
 of whom about 57,000 are engaged in power-loom 
 weaving; the remainder, 180,000, are engaged in cotton 
 spinning and doubling, and this number, at £60 each, 
 (which excludes the buildings, land, kc.) would shew 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 415 
 
 the value of the spinning machinery alone to be 
 £10,800,000. That this is not too high an estimate, 
 seems probable from the statement of Mr. Holland 
 Hoole, who says (in his " Letter to Lord Althorp, in 
 Defence of Cotton Factories," p. 8,) — " A cotton factory, 
 upon the fire-proof principle, adapted for the employ- 
 ment of 1000 persons, cannot be built, filled with 
 machinery, and furnislied with steam-engines and gas- 
 works, for a less sum than £100,000." This calcula- 
 tion, therefore, is £100 for each individual employed : if 
 it were correct, the value of the spinning mills and 
 macliinery would be £1 7,200,000. Amidst these widely 
 different estimates, we shall scarcely err on the side of 
 excess, if we take the valuation given by one of my 
 informants to the machinery alone, namely, £10,800,000, 
 as the value of the mills and machinery together. The 
 capital invested in factories and machinery for power- 
 loom weaving is estimated, by the practical gentleman 
 already mentioned, to amount to £24 for each indi- 
 vidual employed; and, as at least 57,000 individuals 
 are employed in that department, the whole capital 
 must amount to £1,368,000. Add this to the capital 
 invested in the spinning mills, and it will make a total 
 sum of £12,168,000. On the whole, Mr. M'CuUoch's 
 estimate of the amount of capital directly employed in 
 the manufacture, namely, £34,000,000, appears to me 
 very moderate. 
 
 The foreign countries to which our cotton manu- 
 factures are exported, will be seen from the following 
 official return, taken from the " Tables of Revenue, 
 Population, Commerce, &c. for 1833," page 167. The 
 return is for 1832, being the latest that has been made 
 up in this detailed manner : — 
 
416 
 
 THE H,ISTOKY OF 
 
 Exports of Cotton Manufactures, 1832. 
 
 An Account of the Quantity and Declared Value of British Cotton Manufactured 
 Kxported from the United Kingdom, distinguishing the Ile^cription of Goods, and the 
 Countries whereto the same were Exported, in the year 1832. 
 
 Goods 
 various 
 
 a 
 
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 2>T3 
 
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 = *- c • c ■£. ; 
 
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THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 417 
 
 The topograpliy of the cotton manufacture and of its 
 principal branches requires some observations. Five 
 gi'eat districts may be specified as seats of the cotton 
 manufacture : — 1st. Manchester, with from thirty to fifty 
 miles in every direction round it. 2d. Glasgow, the 
 same, but extending to Perth, Aberdeen, and through 
 many parts of the Highlands. 3d, Nottingham, taking 
 in Derby, Warwick, Lichfield, &c. 4th. Carlisle, 
 branching out in every direction, so as to meet the 
 Manchester and Glasgow divisions. 5th. The Irish 
 counties of Antrun, Armagh, Dublin, Kildare, and 
 others to a small extent. 
 
 Of these, the Lancasliii'e district is much more 
 important, for the quantity, variety, and excellence of 
 its productions, than all the others together. In that 
 county, the original seat of the British cotton manu- 
 facture, the departments of spinning, manufacturing, 
 bleaching, and printing, are all carried to the highest 
 perfection. The Manchester mills supply the finest 
 yarns for the manufacture of muslins at Glasgow, and 
 of lace at Nottingham; and almost every description 
 of cotton goods, except lace and hosiery, is made in 
 Lancashire. 
 
 The following table, for which I am indebted to a 
 Manchester manufacturer and dealer, shews the prin- 
 cipal descriptions of goods manufactured in Lancashire, 
 with a topograpliical arrangement of the great branches 
 of the trade : — 
 
 36 
 
418 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Descriptions of Cotton Goods made in Lancashire 
 
 WITH THE PLACES WHERE MANUFACTURED. 
 
 Descriptions of Articles. 
 
 Stout Printing Calicoes 
 
 Stout Calicoes for domestic'v 
 purposes, viz. sheeting, coarse J- 
 shirting, &c ) 
 
 Common Printing Calicoes . 
 
 Superfine Printing Calicoes ^ 
 and Muslins .... 5 
 
 Furniture Dimities, Garment ^ 
 and Pocket, do. ... 5 
 
 Cotton Velvets, Velveteens 
 Beaverteens, Swandowns 
 Pillows, Moleskins, &c. . 
 
 Striped Cottons, Ticks, 
 Checks, &c 
 
 Ginghams 
 
 Gingham Handkerchiefs poc-^ 
 ket and neck, Romols and I" 
 PuUicats -' 
 
 Cambric Muslins .... 
 
 Jaconet Muslins 
 
 Cotton Shirtings .... 
 
 Counterpanes and Bed Quilts 
 India Dimities, Satteens, Jeans 
 Quiltings for Waistcoats . . 
 Quillings for Toilet Covers . 
 Coloured Cotton Table Covers,) 
 
 damask and figured . . j 
 
 Nankeens 
 
 Small Wares 
 
 Fancy Muslins 
 
 Hat Linings, Umbrella cloths, -i 
 
 &c S 
 
 Cotton Shawls 
 
 Coarse Chambrays .... 
 Fabrics of Linen and Cotton ^ 
 
 for Trowsers . . . S 
 
 Fabrics of Cotton & Worsted ^ 
 
 for do S 
 
 Whether made 
 by Hand-looms 
 or Power-looms. 
 
 Power. 
 Chiefly Power. 
 
 Hand. 
 Hand. 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Power & Hand 
 
 Chiefly Hand. 
 Hand. 
 Hand. 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Places where manufactured. 
 
 i Hyde.Ashton, Duckenfield, Stock- 
 * port, Stayley-bridge, Manchester. 
 
 Todmorden, and various other places. 
 
 Blackburn, Burnley, Colne. 
 Bolton, Chorley, Preston. 
 
 Edenfield, Bury, Hebden-bridge, 
 Bolton. 
 
 ^ Oldham, Warrington, Manchester, 
 t Lymm, Bury, Heywood. 
 
 Manchester, Stockport, Eccles. 
 
 Manchester, Ashton, Preston, Chorley. 
 
 Manchester, Failsworth, &c. 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Bolton. [chester. 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Blackburn, Chorley, Preston, Man- 
 
 ChieflyPower* 
 
 Stockport, Manchester, Preston, and 
 
 
 various other places. 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Bolton. 
 
 Chiefly Hand. 
 
 Bury, Bolton, Manchester. 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Manchester, Bolton, Bury. 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Manchester. 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Manchester. 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Prestwich, Eccles, Stand, Radcliffe 
 
 Chiefly Power. 
 
 Manchester. 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Bolton, Chorley, Manchester. 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Manchester, Failsworth, 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Bolton, 
 
 Hand. 
 
 Manchester, Eccles. 
 
 Manchester. 
 
 Newton and Failsworth. 
 
 The hand-looms in this branch are gradually disappearing, 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 419 
 
 The following account of the places wliere several of 
 the branches of manufacture are carried on is from 
 Mr. Bannatyne's article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica: 
 — " The manufacture of dimities has been exclusively 
 confined to the north of England: the finer qualities are 
 made at Warrington, and the coarser in the western 
 part of Yorkshire. Balasore handkerchiefs were first 
 manufactured about Preston and Chorley, where they 
 still continue to be made. The manufacture of ging- 
 hams was for a long time confined to Lancashire, but 
 for many years it has been extensively introduced at 
 Glasgow, although Lancashire continues to be the cliief 
 seat of this branch. Pullicat handkerchiefs were first 
 made about the year 1785 at Glasgow; where the 
 manufacture of them has been carried to a great extent. 
 They were not made in Lancashire till some time after- 
 wards, and the manufacture of tliem there has never 
 been to the same amount. Blue and white checks and 
 stripes for exportation were at first of a linen fabric, but 
 were afterwards woven with linen warp and cotton weft. 
 A great proportion of these goods are now made wholly 
 of cotton. This manufacture is carried on in Lancasliire, 
 and in the county of Fife, and to a small extent at 
 Aberdeen; its chief seat, liowever, is Carlisle. The 
 manufacture of cotton cambric was separated into two 
 branches; into cambric to be used as garments in a 
 white or printed state ; and into cambric made in imita- 
 tion of French linen cambric, to be used for the same 
 purposes as that article. The first is made nearly alto- 
 gether in Lancashire, where the manufacture of it is 
 carried on to a great extent ; and the second, of much 
 less amount, wholly at Glasgow. Bandana handker- 
 chiefs, and Bandana cloths for garments, were first 
 
420 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 made bv Mr. Henry Monteith, at Glasgow, about tlie 
 year 1802, and are now manufactured there to a consi- 
 derable amount." 
 
 The calico printing is earned on chiefly in the imme- 
 diate neighbourhood of ^Manchester, in the valleys lying 
 betwixt Blackburn, Clitheroe, and Bury, and in the 
 neighboui'hoods of Glasgow, Dublin, and London. The 
 principal bleachers liave their works in the vicinity of 
 Bolton, BlackbuiTi, Manchester, and Glasgow. 
 
 Tlie Population Returns of 1831, though they furnish 
 but little of tliat exact and definite information which 
 might have been expected in illustration of the numbers 
 emploved in the cotton manufacture, present never- 
 theless certain important facts wliich may assist us in 
 forming our conclusions. They shew the total popula- 
 tion of the counties, towns, &c. in wliich the manu- 
 facture exists ; the number of families engaged in 
 manufactui-es, trade, and handicraft ; the number of 
 adult males employed in manufacture or in making 
 manufactuiing macliiueiy, &c.; and they also give at 
 the end of each county some brief and general account 
 of the manufactui'es earned on therein, and, in notes 
 to the paiishes, occasional intimations of the gi*eat 
 increase of manul'actures, as accounting for the rapid 
 increase of population. I shaU select from the Returns 
 such particulars as thi'ow any light on our inquiry, but 
 confining: the selections to those counties in which the 
 cotton is the gi'eat and predominating mauufactui-e. 
 These counties ai-e Lancashire, Cheshne, Nottingham- 
 shire, Derbyshire, Cimiberland, Lanaiksliire, and Ren- 
 frewshu'e. — 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 421 
 
 
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422 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 I add the observations attached to the Population 
 Returns for the different counties, so far as they relate 
 to the cotton manufacture : — 
 
 Lancashire. " The manufactures of Lancashire produce such 
 a variety of articles as cannot be described, or even distinctly 
 enumerated ; the predominating manufacture is that of cotton, 
 producing cotton cloth, muslin, calico, cambric, ginghams, fustians, 
 swandowns, fancy quiltings, other fancy work, and small wares. 
 These are produced by manufacturers exhibiting a division of 
 labour not easily defined ; carders of the raw material, cotton yarn 
 spinners by machinery, bleachers, warpers, cutters and drawers, 
 rovers, power-loom and hand weavers, dressers, dyers, designers 
 and drawers of patterns, engravers, block-cutters, block-printers, 
 crofters, finishers, sizers. Many of these operations are in common 
 with the silk manufacture, which has been largely introduced into 
 Lancashire, and is too much mingled with the cotton manufacture 
 to be here distinguished,* The males upwards of twenty years 
 of age employed in these manufactures are but in small proportion 
 to the boys and females; yet the number of men is not much less 
 than 97,000 ; of these in the hundred of Amounderness are 
 mentioned 3000 at Preston, 230 at Kirkham, and about 1000 
 collectively at Goosnargh, Wood Plumpton, and forty other places. 
 In the hundred of Blackburn, 8700 men are employed in the very 
 extensive parish of Whalley ; 3350 in the township of Blackburn, 
 and 3500 in the other townships of that large parish; the township 
 of Ribchester (in the parish of Pubchester) contains 250 ; besides 
 these, nearly 2000 in several other places in Blackburn hundred. 
 In the hundred of Ley land, Chorley contains 1200 males employed 
 
 * The silk manufacture in Lancashire, though rapidly growing, is quite insig- 
 nificant in comparison with the cotton manufacture. In 1832 there were in 
 Manchester, Salford, and Newton, only sixteen silk mills, (Tables of Revenue, SfC. 
 partii. p. 102.) and I believe there are very few others in the county; and the whole 
 number of looms engaged in the silk manufacture in Lancashire was 14,000, of 
 which from 8 to 9000 were employed in weaving silk alone, and from 5 to 6000 
 in weaving mixed goods. (See Report of the Commons' Committee on the Silk 
 Trade in 1832.) A very small deduction must, therefore, be made from the 
 manufacturing classes in Lancashire on this account ; though the remark in 
 the Population Returns might lead to the supposition that the silk manufacture 
 was comparable in extent with the cotton. — Author. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 423 
 
 in the cotton manufacture, the township of Leyland 400, and the 
 residue of that parish in various townships collectively 2300 ; in 
 other places 450. In the hundred of Lonsdale north of the Sands, 
 about 100 males at Colton, and 40 at other places; in Lonsdale 
 south of the Sands, about 140, chiefly at Caton, Scotforth, and 
 Hulton. In the hundred of Salford, the town of Manchester 
 contains about 12,000 men employed in the cotton and silk 
 manufacture; Salford 3500, including many makers of machinery; 
 Oldham 4000 ; and Crompton, in that parish, 4200 ; Great Bolton 
 and Little Bolton 6100; Bury 1600; and Tottington 1500; 
 Spotland and Castleton (in Rochdale parish) 2000 ; Middleton 
 township 1100; Chorlton Row, near Manchester, 1900; Heaton 
 Norris 1 100 ; and other townships in the great parish of Manchester, 
 about 4000 collectively; Pendleton 850; and, besides all these, 
 are 18,000 in the numerous manufacturing townships of this 
 populous hundred of Salford. In the hundred of West Derby, the 
 town of Wigan contains 2600 ; the parish of Leigh 2800 ; and other 
 places about 3000. The makers and repairers of spinning jennies, 
 looms, and other machinery employed in the cotton, silk, and 
 woollen manufactures, are very numerous, but are mostly connected 
 with the cotton factories in such a manner as to preclude any 
 distinct mention. 
 
 " It would be improper to close this attempt at enumerating the 
 manufactures, and estimating the number of persons therein em- 
 ployed, without offering two observations : 1st. That the column of 
 the abstract which assigns 60,546 males to " labour not agri- 
 cultural" does not include less than 50,000 of these, in the 
 hundreds of Salford and West Derby, in Manchester and at 
 Liverpool, who assist in various capacities in manufacture, and 
 commerce dependant on manufacture. 2d. That the column of 
 "retail trade and handicraft" includes 86,079 men, of whom 
 a large portion, (as may be seen in the above specification,) would 
 be attributed to manufacture in other counties,* where not placed 
 in comparison with the more extensive manufactures of Lan- 
 cashire." — Vol. i. p. 308. 
 
 Cheshire. " The hundred of Macclesfield appears to be the 
 principal manufacturing district in Cheshire : upwards of 6000 
 
 * How well justified this remark, is, will appear from the following enumera- 
 tion of trades included under the head " retail trade and handicraft," all of which 
 
424 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 males (adults) are employed in manufacturing cotton and calico ; 
 nearly 1000 in silk ; and about 5500 in cotton and silk pro- 
 miscuously." — Vol. i. p. 68. 
 
 Cumberland. " In the .county of Cumberland the manu- 
 facture of cotton (including the makers of the machinery and the 
 weavers by machinery) employs about 2200 males upwards of 
 twenty years of age; calico and ginghams 300," &c. — Vol. i. p. 98. 
 
 Derbyshire. " Various kinds of manufacture exist in the 
 county of Derby ; in which males upwards of twenty years of age 
 so employed may be classed as follows : — In the cotton-yarn and 
 silk manufacture about 1700; framework and twist 1400; cotton 
 and silk hosiery 1200; calicoes and ginghams 600; lace and twist 
 
 are more or less connected with the cotton manufacture, and some of them are 
 entirely and absolutely dependent upon it : — 
 
 Bleacher 135 
 
 Boat-builder, Shipwright 989 
 
 Boiler-maker 7 
 
 Broker 330 
 
 Brush-maker 220 
 
 Builder 323 
 
 Bricklayer 1785 
 
 Brickmaker 684 
 
 Lime-burner 75 
 
 Plasterer 1326 
 
 Slater 496 
 
 Mason 3203 
 
 Calenderer 81 
 
 Card-maker 2 
 
 Carpenter 6267 
 
 Wheelwright 1487 
 
 Sawyer 1363 
 
 Carrier, Carter 2367 
 
 Colour-maker 4 
 
 Copperplate Printer, Engraver 504 
 
 Currier 393 
 
 Drysalter, Colouring materials 92 
 
 Dyer 1915 
 
 File-cutter 81 
 
 Fustian-shearer 1 
 
 Iron-founder 846 
 
 Lace-dealer 37 
 
 Millwright 64 
 
 Moulder 13 
 
 Nailor 540 
 
 Pattern card-maker 2 
 
 Pattern-drawer, Designer .... 5 
 
 Reed-maker 37 
 
 Roller-maker 12 
 
 Rope-maker 802 
 
 Shuttle-maker 14 
 
 Sizer 43 
 
 Skinner 6 
 
 Small-ware dealer 14 
 
 Spindle and Fly-maker ...... 6 
 
 Starch-maker 4 
 
 Tanner 290 
 
 Tinman 470 
 
 Turner 722 
 
 Vitriol-maker 5 
 
 Wharfinger , 41 
 
 Whitesmith 1135 
 
 Wire-drawer 22 
 
 Wire- worker 31 
 
 Several of these trades, as the bleachers, calenderers, dyers, fustian-shearers, 
 sizers, makers of boilers, cards, colours, pattern-cards, reeds, rollers, shuttles, 
 spindle and fly, &c., are employed directly and almost exclusively in connexion 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 425 
 
 net 450; tape 60; paper 40; and about 1,400 not accurately 
 distinguishable, who are employed in making hosiery, lace, lace- 
 frames, and frame-work machinery, tape, needles, the preparation 
 of dye colours, &c." — 'Vol. i. p. 116. 
 
 Nottinghamshire. " The manufacture of stockings and lace 
 is so considerable in the county of Nottingham, as to employ 
 13,600 males upwards of twenty years of age; of these, at 
 Nottingham 4740; at Radford 1300; at Mansfield 800; at 
 Sutton-in-Ashfield nearly 800 ; at Basford 750 ; at Snenton 430 ; 
 at Kucknall-Torkard, at Beeston, at Linton, and at Carlton, 
 upwards of 300 each; at Bulwell, Greasley, and Calverton, about 
 280 each; at Kirby-in-Ashfield, Mansfield-wood-house, Stapleford, 
 Southwell, Lambley, Ruddington, and Selstone, between 200 and 
 100 each. In most of the places here named the manufacture 
 of stockings, lace, frame-work, machinery, and the materials of 
 the lace manufacture are so conjoined or intermingled as not to be 
 distinguishable in a general description ; 50 linen weavers are 
 mentioned at Newark, and 19 at Howton ; sacking is made at 
 West Retford, candle-wicks at Gamston." — Vol. i. p. 488. 
 
 Lanarkshire. " The populous county of Lanark embraces 
 every department of the cotton manufacture, from the imported 
 raw material to the finished article. In Lanark (the county town) 
 are 750 men, mostly employed in weaving ; at Hamilton nearly as 
 many ; at New Monkland 680 ; at Lismahago 640 ; at Avondale 
 500 ; at Govan 450 ; at Rutherglen 400 ; at East Shilbride 300 ; 
 
 with the cotton manufacture. Other trades assist in making machinery for the 
 same manufacture, as file-cutters, iron-founders, millwrights, moulders, nailors 
 tinmen, turners, whitesmiths, wire-drawers, wire-workers, &c. Other trades are 
 auxiliary to the calico-printing, as colour-makers, copperplate printers and 
 engravers, drysalters, pattern-drawers, designers, vitriol-makers, &c. Others are 
 to a considerable extent engaged in the building of cotton mills, warehouses, &c., 
 as builders, bricklayers, brickmakers, plasterers, slaters, masons, carpenters, 
 sawyers, &c. Others contribute to convey the raw material and manufactured 
 goods, as shipwrights, wheelwrights, carriers, carters, wharfingers, &c. And others 
 supply various articles connected with the manufacturing and mercantile depart- 
 ment, as brush-makers, curriers, tanners, skinners, rope-makers, starch-makers, 
 &c. It will be observed that some of the above trades have very incorrect num- 
 bers affixed to them : for example, there is reckoned only one fustian-shearer, 
 whereas there are several hundreds in Manchester alone : the fustian-shearers 
 h.ive in all cases but this one been ranked (more properly) in the class of manufac- 
 turing operatives. The same remark applies to the "bleachers," &c. — Author. 
 
 'dn 
 
426 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 at Dalserf 250 ; at Bothwell 240 ; and below that number down to 
 160 ; weavers are employed at Carluke, Old Monkland, Blantyre, 
 and Cambusnethan. The entire number exceeds 7000 ; but of 
 these several are employed in flax-dressing and weaving linen ; 
 hosiers also, lace-makers, and nailors, are mentioned in some of 
 the returns ; and there are iron-works of some extent at Shotts. 
 But this summary of the manufacturing industry of Lanarkshire is 
 of little importance as compared with the manufactures of the city 
 of Glasgow, which (like many other ancient towns) is governed by 
 a municipal jurisdiction distinct from that of the county at large ; 
 and this peculiarity has produced a considerable misfortune in the 
 execution of the Population Act, as it is the only place in Great 
 Britain from which the returns have not been obtained, further 
 than an extract by Dr. Cleland, who supplied the enumeration as 
 entered in the preceding pages, with the notes appended to it. 
 Nothing more can be said of the manufactures of Glasgow than 
 that 19,913 males, upwards of twenty years of age, are so em- 
 ployed ; which number rather surpasses that enumerated in the 
 central townships of the parish of Manchester." — Vol. ii. p. 1002. 
 
 Dr. Cleland' s Notes. " There are 328 steam-engines in the 
 city of Glasgow and suburbs ; viz. in manufactories, 181 ; 
 collieries^- 62 ; stone-quarries, 7 ; steam-boats, 78 ; horse-power, 
 
 7,596 ^ Average power of engines, 25 -. 
 
 " The first steam-engine for spinning cotton in Scotland was 
 put up at Springfield, opposite the Steam-boat Quay, in January, 
 1792, by Messrs. Scott, Stevenson, and Co. In the city and 
 suburbs there are 44 cotton mills, in which there are 1344 spinners, 
 591,288 mule spindles, 48,900 throstle spindles. These are ex- 
 clusive of other extensive establishments belonging to Glasgow 
 manufacturers in the country ; viz. Messrs. James Finlay and Co. 
 at Deanston, Ballandalloch, and Catrine ; William Dunn, at 
 Duntocher, Faifly, and Milton ; David Laird and Co. at Stanley ; 
 and the Rothsay Spinning Company in Bute, &c. In 29 of the 
 principal mills there are 6574 workers ; viz. males, 2587, females, 
 3987, of the following ages, viz. from 9 to 10 years, 242 ; 10 to 12, 
 824; 12 to 14, 896; 14 to 16, 693; 16 to 18, 734; 18 to 24, 724; 
 21 and upwards, 2461. 
 
 " There are in the city and suburbs 63 steam-loom mills, which 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 427 
 
 contain 14,1"27 looms. Exclusive of these there are 32,013 
 hand-loom weavers; viz. in the city and vicinity, 18,537; in the 
 country, working for Glasgow manufacturers, 13,476, 
 
 " Among the numerous extensive manufactories, the following 
 are unequalled for ingenuity and extent. Messrs. Henry Monteith 
 and Co. dyeing, discharging, and printing works, at Dalmarnock ; 
 Messrs. Charles Tennant and Co. chemical works, at St. Rollox, 
 for the manufacture of sulphuric acid, chloride of lime, soda, and 
 soap. This manufactory, the most distinguished and extensive of 
 any of the kind in Europe, occupies ten acres of ground, and 
 within its walls there are buildings which cover 31,346 square 
 yards of ground. There are upwards of 100 furnaces, retorts, or 
 fire-places. The platina vessels in one apartment alone cost 
 upwards of £9000. Messrs. James and William Campbell and Co. 
 retail warehouses, in Candleriggs-street, contain 26,928 square feet 
 of Hoor. In these premises the public are supplied with every 
 kind of soft goods, and purchasers of a halfpenny lace or a penny- 
 worth of thread are equally attended to as those who make larger 
 purchases ; 64 persons attend the customers. The amount of 
 sales in 1831-2 was £312,207. 5s. 8d. Although Messrs. James 
 Morrison and Co., Messrs. Leaf, Son, and Cole, and Mr. Wynn 
 Ellis, of London, turn more money annually, there is no house in 
 the king's dominions that serves so many customers as Messrs. 
 Campbell's, of Glasgow." — Vol. ii. p. 1001. 
 
 Renfrewshire. " The county of Renfrew is second only to 
 the adjoining county of Lanark in the manufacture of cottons and 
 of cotton yarn, extending partially to silk goods. In the town of 
 Paisley (including the Abbey Parish) 6000 males upwards of 
 twenty years of age are thus employed ; at Eastwood 737, at 
 Neilston 623, at Kilbrachan 577, at Lochwinnoch (with some 
 mixture of woollen) 275, at Renfrew 212, at Houstoun and 
 Killellan 187, at Cathcart and Mearns about 100 each." — 
 Vol. ii. p. 1022. 
 
 The above remarks apply only to the counties where 
 the cotton manufacture is by far the largest branch of 
 manufacturing industry. The whole population of those 
 counties is 2,753,685; in 1750 it was only 791,850, 
 
428 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 SO tliat the increase within 80 years has been nearly 
 2,000,000. Of the present population 649,180 are adult 
 males : of these 1 73,453, or more than one-fourth, are 
 directly employed in manufacture or in making manu- 
 facturing machinery. But of all the other classes, 
 except the agi'icultural labourers, a large proportion 
 are engaged in employments connected with the cotton 
 manufacture, and many of them as closely as the 
 spinners and weavers themselves. It is observed in the 
 Population Returns for Lancashire, that " the column 
 of the abstract which assigns 60,546 males to ' labour 
 not agricultural,^ does not include less than 50,000 of 
 these, in the hundreds of Salford and West Derby, in 
 Manchester and at Liverpool, who assist in various 
 capacities in manufacture, and commerce dependent on 
 manufacture." This remark would no doubt apply to 
 the other counties as well as to Lancashire ; so that of 
 106,228 labourers in all the counties " employed in 
 labour not agi'icultural," probably 80,000 are engaged 
 in the numberless departments of labour auxiliary to 
 the cotton trade. It is further stated in the notes on 
 Lancashire, that " the column of * retail trade and 
 handicraJV includes 86,079 men, of whom a large 
 portion (as may be seen in the above specification) 
 would be attributed to manufacture in other counties, 
 where not placed in competition with the extensive 
 manufactures of Lancasliire." It will be seen by the 
 selections made from the trades enumerated as " retail 
 trade and handicraft," in Lancasliii'e, at page 424, 
 that this remark is fully justified ; and out of the 
 181,210 male adults under that column in the cotton 
 counties, a considerable proportion, though I cannot 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 429 
 
 even conjecture what proportion, must be aiding in this 
 great manufacture. Of the 30,792 " capitalists, bankers, 
 professional, and other educated men," also, a large 
 number must belong to the cotton trade. Less than 
 one-fifth of the male adults of the cotton counties are 
 engaged in agTicultural labour : of the remaining four- 
 fifths, by much the larger proportion must be engaged 
 more or less (hrectly in the production or sale of cotton 
 fabrics. 
 
 But this is not all. The manufacture is by no 
 means confined to the seven counties enumerated. 
 Thousands of workmen are employed in Yorkshire in 
 the same branch. There are many cotton mills on 
 the C alder, the Au*e, and the Wharf, in Saddle worth, 
 the valley of Todmorden, Halifax, Skip ton, Keighley, 
 Bingley, Addinghara, &c.; and in most of these places 
 weaving is also practised. Cotton is likewise worked, 
 in some of its forms, in parts of Staffordshire, Leicester- 
 shire, Gloucestershire, Flintshire, Denbighshire, West- 
 morland, and Middlesex ; in the Scottish counties of 
 Dumbarton, Stirling, Perth, Aberdeen, Ayr, Linlith- 
 gow, Dumfries, Bute, and Wigton j and in the Irish 
 counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Derry, Dublin, 
 Queen's County, Kildare, Wexford, Waterford, and 
 Cork. 
 
 Tlie Population Returns do not include L'eland, where, 
 as appears from the reports of the Factory Inspectors, 
 nearly 5000 operatives are employed in the cotton mills, 
 and where a considerably larger number are employed as 
 hand-loom weavers, calico-printers, bleachers, &c. The 
 Irish cotton trade, though not comparable with that of 
 England or Scotland, has greatly increased of late years. 
 
430 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 and is absorbing the liands wliich have been tin-own idle 
 in the linen manufacture by the successful competition of 
 cottons. In 1801, when the cotton manufacturers of 
 Ireland were protected by duties of 68 per cent, ad valorem 
 on gi'ey and white cottons imported, and of 46 per cent, 
 on prints, the quantity of raw cotton imported was only 
 1,575,789 lbs. A gradual reduction of these miscalled 
 protecting duties brought them down to 10 per cent, in 
 1816; and the manufacturers declared that this would 
 ruin them ; yet in 1817 the import of the raw material 
 had increased to 3,286,429 lbs. ; and in 1825 (the last 
 year in which the amount of Irish imports was taken 
 separately) it was not less than 6,768,453 lbs. In the 
 year 1832, one cotton establishment, near Dublin, sent 
 upwards of one hundred thousand pieces of prints to 
 Manchester and London,* 
 
 Looking, then, at the information given in the Popu- 
 lation Returns concerning the counties where the 
 manufacture chiefly prevails, and at the wide extent 
 of country besides in which it exists in England, Scot- 
 land, and Ireland, the conclusion drawn from other 
 data is fully home out, namely, that at least fifteen hun- 
 dred thousand persons derive their subsistence from the 
 cotton manufacture. 
 
 I reduce the conclusions at which I have arrived, as 
 to the extent and value of the cotton manufacture, into 
 the following tabular form : — 
 
 • Mr. W. Stanley's Commentaries on Ireland, p. 162. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 431 
 
 Extent and Value of the British Cotton Manufacture 
 
 IN 1833. 
 
 Cotton wool imported lbs. 303,656,837 
 
 consumed in the manufacture lbs. 282,675,200 
 
 Yarn spun (deducting H oz. per lb. for loss) lbs. 256,174,400 
 
 Number of hanks spun (averaging 40 to the lb.) hanks 10,246,976,000 
 
 Length of yarn spun (840 yards to the hank) miles 4,890,602,182 
 
 Value of the cotton-wool consumed, at 7d per lb £ 8,244,693 
 
 Value of the cotton exports — goods £13,754,992 
 
 yarn 4,704,008 
 
 18,459,-000 
 Value of cotton manufactures consumed at home .... 12,879,693 
 
 Total value of the manufacture £ 31,338,693 
 
 Capital employed in the manufacture £ 34,000,000 
 
 Quantity of cotton goods exported (in 1832) — 
 
 White or plain cottons yards 259,493,096 
 
 Printed or dyed cottons 201,552,407 
 
 yds. 461,045,503 
 
 Number of persons supported by the manufacture 1,500,000 
 
 Number of operatives in the spinning and weaving 
 
 factories In England 200,000 
 
 In Scotland 32,000 
 In Ireland 5,000 
 
 237,000 
 
 Wages earned by the factory operatives £6,044,000 
 
 Power moving the factories — Steam 33,000 horses. 
 
 Water 11,000 . . 
 
 horse-power 44,000 
 
 Number of spindles 9,333,000 
 
 Number of power-looms 100,000 
 
 Number of hand-loom weavers 250,000 
 
 Wages earned by do £4,375,000 
 
 It may assist to form a conception of the immense 
 extent of the British cotton manufacture when it is 
 stated, that the yarn spun in this country in a year 
 would, in a single thread, pass round the globe's 
 circumference 203,775 times; it would reach 51 tunes 
 
43*2 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 from tlie earth to tlie sun ; and it wonld encircle the 
 eai-th's orbit eight and a half times ! 
 
 The wi-ought fabrics of cotton exported in one year 
 would form a gii-dle for the globe, passing eleveti times 
 round the equator ! 
 
 Tliis manufacture furnishes nearly one-half of the 
 exports of Britisli produce and manufactures ; it supports 
 more than one-eleventh part of the population of Great 
 Biitain ; and it supplies almost every nation of the world 
 with some portion of its clothing. 
 
 None of the kingdoms of Hanover, Wii'temberg, or 
 Saxony, has a population exceeding that engaged in the 
 manufacture of cotton in this island. 
 
 The receipts of our manufacturers and merchants for 
 this one production of the national industry, are equal 
 to two-thirds of the whole public revenue of the king- 
 dom. 
 
 To complete the wonder — this manufacture is the 
 creation of the genius of a few humble mechanics ; it 
 has sprung up from insignificance to its present 
 magnitude within little more than half a century; 
 and it is still advancing with a rapidity of increase 
 that defies all calculation of what it shall be in future 
 ages. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 433 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES. 
 
 Inquiry into the physical and moral condition of the Operatives in the Cotton 
 Manufacture. — The Factory Operatives. — Their Wages. — Tables of Wages, 
 Prices of Provisions, &c. at Manchester and Glasgow ; at the mills of Mr. Tho- 
 mas Houldsworth, of Manchester, and Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Hyde. — High 
 wages of the factory classes. — Account of Mr. Ashton's establishment — Objec- 
 tions made to factory labour as unhealthy, severe, and destructive to morals and 
 life, especially to children. — These objections grossly exaggerated. — Popular 
 agitation on the subject. — Factory labour very light, though long continued ; 
 not nearly so injurious as many indispensable and common employments. — 
 Prejudices concerning the effect of the steam-engine combated. — Mr. Thack- 
 rah's opinion on the unhealthiness of cotton mills : Dr. Kay's. — Evidence to the 
 contrary. — Tables of health of mill operatives. — Medical evidence received by 
 the Factory Commission. — Evidence of the operatives themselves : tables of 
 health of fine s'pinners. — Testimony of the Factory Inspectors to the health and 
 comfort of the work-people. — Legislative interference to protect children ia 
 factories. — Factories Regulation Act of 1833. — Some of its provisions found to 
 be impracticable. — State of morals in factories. — Influence of masters. — Im- 
 provements of which the factory system is susceptible. — Other classes of opera- 
 tives in the manufacture. — Hand-Loom Weavers. Their deplorably low 
 wages : hours of labour. — Tables shewing the decline of weavers' wages at 
 Bolton, Burnley, and Glasgow, from 1795 to 1833. — Occasions and immediate 
 causes of the decline — historical review. — Permanent causes — 1st. Easy nature 
 of the employment; 2d. Less confining than factory labour; 3d. Surplus of 
 labour — qualified and explained ; 4th. The power-loom. — Proposed Boards 
 of Trade to regulate wages — impracticable ; proposed tax on power-looms — 
 absurd. — Desirable to facilitate the abandonment of the hand-loom. — Evils and 
 advantages of large towns. — Intelligence of the manufacturing classes. 
 
 We have seen the effects of the cotton manufacture, in 
 increasmg the commerce, population, and wealth of the 
 kingdom, and in adding to the personal and domestic 
 comforts of all classes. The plnlanthropist and the poli- 
 tical philosopher will, however, inquire, what is the 
 physical and moral condition of the vast population 
 employed in this manufacture ? The workmen who 
 
 3i 
 
434 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 coiisti'iict or attend upon all these machines are not to 
 be confounded with the machines themselves, or their 
 wear and tear regarded as a mere arithmetical question. 
 Tliey are men, — reasonable, accountable men ; they are 
 citizens and subjects ; they constitute no mean part of 
 the support and strength of the state ; on their intelli- 
 gence and virtue, or their vices and degradation, depend 
 in a considerable measure not only the character of the 
 present age, but of posterity; their interests are as 
 valuable in the eyes of the moralist, as those of the 
 classes who occupy higlier stations. Yet the inquiry 
 should be, not if the manufacturing population are sub- 
 ject to the ills common to humanity, not if there is not 
 much both of vice and misery in the crowded towns of 
 Lancashire ; but, what is the condition of the working 
 classes of the cotton district, compared Avith that of the 
 workuig classes elscAvhere ? It is the destiny of man to 
 earn his bread by the sweat of liis brow ; idleness, im- 
 providence, intemperance, and dissoluteness, are found 
 in every community, and are invariably the parents of 
 Avretchedness ; every where, people of all ages and con- 
 ditions are liable to disease and death. If our inquiries, 
 therefore, are not discriminating, we may fall into the 
 greatest errors. 
 
 The principal considerations will be, the command 
 which the working classes have over the necessaries and 
 comforts of lifcy theu' health, their intelligence, and 
 their morals. 
 
 The rate of wages has a very important bearing on 
 the first and second of these considerations. It may be 
 remarked generally, that the smiths, mechanics, joiners, 
 bricklayers, masons, and other artisans, employed in the 
 construction of buildings and machinery for the cotton 
 manufacture, earn excellent wages, work moderate 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 435 
 
 hours, and liave uiicloubtedly a greater command of 
 necessaries and comforts than at any former period. 
 The spinners, dressers, dyers, printers, power-loom 
 weavers, and all classes of work-people employed in aid 
 of machinery, are also well remunerated for their 
 labour j in the mills, the hours of labour are limited by 
 law to twelve per day, and nine on Saturday * The 
 hand-loom Aveavers employed in making plain goods, on 
 the contrary, are in a deplorable condition, both in the 
 large towns and in the villages; their wages are a 
 miserable pittance, and they generally work in confined 
 and unwholesome dwellings. 
 
 Much valuable information has been collected within 
 the last eighteen months, by the Factory Commissioners 
 and the Factory Inspectors, illustrative of the condition 
 of the operatives in cotton factories; and it is such as 
 to dissipate the clouds of misrepresentation whicli 
 declaimers had breathed forth on the subject. In 
 regard to the remuneration for their labour, it is estab- 
 lished, that no large class of workmen in the kingdom 
 are receiving better wages. The tables given in the 
 last chapter, from the Supplementary Report of the 
 Factory Commissioners, compiled from actual returns 
 bearing every mark of accuracy, state the average weekly 
 net earnings of 48,645 hands (adults and children) in 
 the principal cotton districts of Lancashire and Che- 
 sliire, and the average net monthly earnings of 67,819 
 hands in the same places. It ai)pears that the latter 
 number, including 19,247 men, 20,962 women, and 
 27,610 cliildren, earned £141,635 in the mouth enchng 
 4th May, 1833, which is equal to 10s. 5H. per week 
 
 * The law only prohibits the working of young persons under eighteen years of 
 age more than twelve hours a day in factories ; but as such young persons form 
 nearly one-half of the hands, and are employed in many of the operations, the 
 effect is to limit the labour of adults to the same period. 
 
436 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 for all the hands mdiscriminately, men, women, and 
 children. The respective earnings of the dijfferent 
 classes of mill operatives will be seen from the following- 
 tables extracted from the same source : — * 
 
 Average Net Weekly Earnings of the different Classes of Operatives in 
 the Cotton Factories of Manchester, Stockport, Diickenfield, Stayley- 
 bridge, Hyde, Tintwistle, Oldham, Bolton, &c. &c., drawn from the returns 
 of 151 mills, employing 48,645 persons, in May, 1833 : — 
 
 Denomination of 
 
 Process in which 
 
 employed. 
 
 Cleaning and f 
 spreading cot- < 
 ton . . . . I 
 
 Carding . 
 
 Mule-spinning .<( 
 
 Throstle- spin- I 
 ning . . ^ 
 
 Weaving . . .<( 
 
 Reeling 
 
 Roller covering 
 
 Attending the 
 steam-engine 
 and ma 
 machines 
 
 / 
 
 :1 
 
 and making ( 
 
 Class of Operatives. 
 
 Carders or overlookers 
 
 Jack-frame tenters . < 
 
 Bobbin-frame tenters 
 Drawing tenters . . 
 Overlookers . . . 
 
 Spinners 
 
 Piecers . . 
 
 Scavengers . 
 
 Overlookers 
 
 Spinners 
 
 Overlookers 
 
 Warpers 
 
 Weavers 
 
 Dressers 
 Reelers . . 
 
 Roller coverers . . 
 
 Engineers, firemen, 
 mechanics, &c. 
 
 Classification as respects 
 Age and Sex. 
 
 Male and female "1 
 adults, and some ^ 
 non-adults ... J 
 
 Male adults . . . 
 
 Principally female ^ 
 adults . . . . ^ 
 Do. do. . . 
 Do. do. . . 
 
 Male adults . . . 
 
 Male and female "1 
 adults, but princi- > 
 pally the former . j 
 
 Male and female "^ 
 adults and non- f 
 adults, but princi- i 
 pally the latter . J 
 
 Male and female 
 non-adults . . . 
 
 Male adults . . . 
 
 Female adults and 1 
 non-adults . . .J 
 
 Male adults . . . 
 
 Male and female ~l 
 adults .... J 
 
 Male and female ^ 
 adults, male and ' 
 female non-adults, ^ 
 but chiefly females ' 
 
 Male adults . . . 
 
 Female adults and "1 
 non-adults . • .J 
 
 Male and female \ 
 adults .... J 
 
 Male adults . . . 
 
 Average 
 ■Weekly 
 
 Net 
 Earnings. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 8 3 
 
 23 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 29 
 
 5^ 
 5| 
 3 
 
 25 
 
 8 
 
 5 4J 
 
 2 lOJ 
 22 4i 
 
 7 9 
 
 2G 3i 
 
 12 3 
 
 10 10 
 
 27 93 
 7 llj 
 
 12 11 
 
 20 6 
 
 * Supplementary Report of the Factory Commissioners, part i. pp. 
 Supplements H and E. 
 
 124-5, 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 437 
 
 Dr. James Mitchell was employed under the Factory 
 Commission to draw out tables showing the wages, 
 health, &c. of the factory operatives ; and the following 
 resiUts were deduced from returns embracing 7,1 14 opera- 
 tives in some of the principal cotton mills of Lancashire : — * 
 
 Wages of Operatives in the Cotton Mills of Lancashire, specifying their 
 did'erent Affes. 
 
 
 MALES. 
 
 FEMALES. 
 
 AGE. 
 
 Number 
 Employed. 
 
 Average 
 Weekly Wages. 
 
 Number 
 EmployeJ. 
 
 Average 
 Weekly Wages. 
 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Below 11 
 
 246 
 
 2 3i 
 
 1.55 
 
 2 4| 
 
 From 11 to 16 
 
 1,169 
 
 4 n 
 
 1,123 
 
 4 3 
 
 16 to 21 
 
 736 
 
 10 2^ 
 
 1,240 
 
 7 31 
 
 21 to 26 
 
 012 
 
 17 2^ 
 
 780 
 
 8 5 
 
 26 to 31 
 
 355 
 
 20 4^ 
 
 295 
 
 8 73 
 
 31 to 36 
 
 215 
 
 22 8' 
 
 100 
 
 8 9^ 
 
 36 to 41 
 
 168 
 
 21 7i 
 
 81 
 
 9 81 
 
 41 to 46 
 
 98 
 
 20 3i 
 
 38 
 
 9 31 
 
 46 to 51 
 
 88 
 
 16 7| 
 
 23 
 
 8 10 
 
 51 to 56 
 
 41 
 
 16 4 
 
 4 
 
 8 4J 
 
 56 to 61 
 
 28 
 
 13 61 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 61 to 66 
 
 8 
 
 13 7 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 66 to 71 
 
 4 
 
 10 10 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 71 to 76 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 76 to 81 
 
 1 
 
 8 8 
 
 
 
 
 3,770 
 
 3,844 
 
 
 As it is of gi-eat interest to know what have been the 
 wages received at former periods as compared with the 
 present, and what the command which those wages 
 relatively gave the workmen over the necessaries and 
 comforts of life, the following statement, compiled by 
 the Chamber of Coimnerce at Manchester, and published 
 in the Tables of Revenue, &c.,f printed under the 
 direction of the Board of Trade, is introduced : — 
 
 * Supplementary Report of the Factory Commissioners, part i. p. 33. 
 t Tables of Revenue, &c.. Part i. p. 165. 
 
438 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 
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THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 439 
 
 The following tables, from the same source as the last,* bring 
 down the information to the year 1832: — 
 
 Statement of the Prices of Provisions in the Town of Manchester, in 
 each Year, from 1 826 to 1832, both inclusive. 
 
 Beef, best* . per lb. 
 
 coarse . . . . 
 
 Bacon 
 
 Bread Flour . per 12 lbs. 
 
 , AV heaten . per lb. 
 
 Cheese 
 
 Malt . , . . per 9 lbs. 
 Meal .... per 10 lbs. 
 Potatoest . . per 252 lbs 
 Pork .... per lb. 
 
 1826 
 
 1827 
 s. d. 
 
 1828 
 s. d. 
 
 1829 
 s. d. 
 
 1830 
 
 s. d. 
 
 1831 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 6i 
 
 6 
 
 6;^ 
 
 6 
 
 5^ 
 
 6 
 
 4| 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 33 
 
 3 
 
 3J 
 
 7i 
 
 8 
 
 7^ 
 
 71 
 
 6^ 
 
 7 
 
 2 5 
 
 2 5 
 
 2 7 
 
 2 9 
 
 2 7 
 
 2 6 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 If 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 la 
 
 7^ 
 
 7^ 
 
 8 
 
 61 
 
 71 
 
 8 
 
 2 1 
 
 2 4 
 
 2 2 
 
 2 2 
 
 2 I 
 
 2 4 
 
 I 71 
 
 1 81 
 
 1 7 
 
 I 5 
 
 1 6 
 
 1 6 
 
 9 9 
 
 4 9 
 
 5 8 
 
 6 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 3 
 
 63 
 
 7 
 
 61 
 
 61 
 
 5 
 
 5J 
 
 1832 
 
 7 
 2 4 
 If 
 
 7i 
 2 2 
 
 1 3 
 4 3 
 5i 
 
 * Contract Prices at the Royal Infirmary. t Contract Prices at the Workhouse. 
 
 The other Prices are such as were charged by Retail Shopkeepers. 
 
 Statement of the Weekly Rates of Wages paid to the undermentioned 
 Description of Workmen in Manchester, in the Year 1832. 
 
 s. d. s. d. 
 
 Spinners, Men . 20 to 25 
 
 Women 10 . . 15 
 
 Stretchers . . 25 .. 26 
 
 Piecers (Boys 
 
 and Girls) .47.. 70 
 Scavengers . . 1 6 . . 2 8 
 
 IN the card room. 
 Men . . . . 14 6 .. 17 
 Young Women .90.. 96 
 Children . . .60.. 70 
 Throstle Spinners 5 0.. 96 
 Reelers . . . 7 0.. 90 
 
 weavers by rowER 
 
 Men ... 13 
 
 Women . . 8 
 Dressers, Men . 28 
 Winders and 
 
 Warpers . 8 
 Mechanics . . 24 
 
 16 10 
 12 
 30 
 
 11 
 26 
 
 weaving by hand. 
 
 Quality. Woven by s. d. s. d. 
 
 Nankeens, Fancy . Men . . 9 to 15 
 Common . Children or 
 
 Women .60.. 80 
 
 Best . . Men . . 10 .. 13 
 
 Checks, Fancy . Men . . 7 . . 7 6 
 
 Common . Children .60.. 70 
 
 Cambrics All ages .60.. 6' 6 
 
 Quillings Men and 
 
 Women . 9 
 
 Fustian Cutters, all ages . . 10 
 Machine Makers, Men ... 26 
 Iron Founders, Men .... 28 
 Dyers & Dressers, Men . . . 15 
 Young Men . 12 
 Boys ... 5 
 
 Tailors, Men 18 
 
 Porters 14 
 
 Packers 20 
 
 Shoemediers 15 
 
 Whitesmith 22 
 
 Sawyers 24 
 
 Carpenters 24 
 
 Stone Masons 18 
 
 Bricklayers 17 
 
 Bricklayers' Labourers ... 12 
 
 Painters 18 
 
 Slaters 3 
 
 Plasterers 19 
 
 Spademen 10 
 
 Tables of Revenue, &c. Part ii. p. 101. 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 0. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 per day. 
 
 to 21 
 
 . . 15 
 
 12 
 12 
 30 
 30 
 20 
 
 14 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 24 
 
 28 
 
 22 
 
 20 
 
440 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Let US HOW examine the remuneration obtained by 
 the factory workmen in the gi'eat seat of the Scotch 
 cotton manufacture, GlasgoAV. It has been seen that 
 the average Avages of the factory operatives of Lan- 
 cashire and Cheshire, inchidiug men, women, and 
 cliildi'en, are witliin a fraction of 10s. 6d. per week. 
 According to returns, in 1833, from twenty-nine spin- 
 ning mills in Glasgow and the neighbourhood, emplopng 
 5,273 hands, it appears that the average wages of men, 
 women, and cliildren were 8s. lid. The difference is 
 chiefly owing to a gTcater proportion of women and 
 children being employed here than in Manchester : of 
 the 5,273 incUviduals, 3,260 are under eighteen years 
 of age, and only 1,311 are twenty-one years or upwards. 
 The average wages of the men are 21s. lid.; the 
 average wages of the youngest children 2s.* In 
 Lancashire there is nearly an equal number of males 
 and females in the mills ; but in a subjoined return from 
 the Glasgow mills, the numbers are, 4,631 males, and 
 7,445 females. In Scotland, also, the habits of the 
 working population are more frugal than in England, 
 and their food of a cheaper kind ; which accounts for 
 wages being somewhat lower. 
 
 A table was drawn out by Dr. Mitchell for Glasgow, 
 like that which has been quoted for Lancashire : — f 
 
 * Letter to Lord Ashley, on the Cotton Factory System. By Kirkman 
 Finlay, Esq. 
 
 t Supplementary Report of the Factory Commissioners, part i. p. 33. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 141 
 
 Wages of Operatives in the Cotton Mills of Glasgow, 
 
 SPECIFYING THEIR DIFFERENT AGES. 
 
 
 Males. 
 
 AGE. 
 
 Number 
 employed. 
 
 Average 
 Weekly 
 Wages. 
 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Below 11 
 
 283 
 
 1 llf 
 
 From 11 to 16 
 
 1519 
 
 4 7 
 
 — 16 — 21 
 
 881 
 
 9 7 
 
 — 21 — 26 
 
 541 
 
 18 6 
 
 — 26 — 31 
 
 358 
 
 19 Hi 
 
 — 31—36 
 
 331 
 
 20 9 
 
 — 36 — 41 
 
 279 
 
 19 81 
 
 — 41 — 46 
 
 159 
 
 19 6 
 
 — 46 — 51 
 
 117 
 
 19 2 
 
 — 51—56 
 
 69 
 
 17 9| 
 
 — 56 — 61 
 
 45 
 
 16 1| 
 
 — 61—66 
 
 17 
 
 17 7 
 
 — 60 — 71 
 
 15 
 
 15 9i 
 
 __ 71 _- 76 
 
 U 
 
 10 11 
 
 — 76 — 81 
 
 5 
 
 9 6 
 
 — 81—86 
 
 
 
 
 
 — 80 — 91 
 
 1 
 
 S 
 
 
 4631 
 
 
 Number 
 employed. 
 
 256 
 
 2162 
 
 2452 
 
 1252 
 
 074 
 
 255 
 
 218 
 
 92 
 
 41 
 
 18 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 Average 
 Weekly 
 Wages. 
 
 7415 
 
 s. d. 
 1 lOi 
 
 82 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 IJ 
 
 5 5 
 4 
 
 3k 
 
442 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The " Tables of Revenue, Commerce,"&c.,* contain 
 tlie follomng statement, compiled by Dr. Cleland : — 
 
 Daily Wages of Persons employed in the Cotton Mills of Glasgow and its 
 Neighbourhood, in April, 1832. 
 
 Work and W^es of Cotton 
 Spinners. 
 
 Men on piece-work . . 
 
 Women reelers and 
 winders 
 
 Lads and girls employed 
 in the preparation- 
 room, or as piecers to 
 the spinners, and paid 
 by the day .... 
 
 Children do do. do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 do. do. do. 
 
 Lads and Girls 
 
 Fine Numbers. 
 
 At wheels containing 
 from 252 to 300 spin- 
 dles, earn 4s. 6d. per 
 day 
 
 Coarse Numbers. 
 
 I Earn Is. 4d. per day 
 
 From 14 to 17 years 
 of age, earn Is. 4d. per 
 day 
 
 From 10 to 14 years 
 years of age, earn 1 Od. 
 
 .per day 
 
 Under ten years of 
 age earn 5d. per day 
 
 At wheels from 180 
 to 300 spindles, earn 
 ' 3s. 6d. to 4s. Gd. per 
 day. 
 
 Earn Is. 2d. per day. 
 
 Do. 
 
 do. 
 
 f Earn 8d. per day. 
 
 f Earn 4d. per day. 
 
 ~j At wheels from 120 
 
 I to 180 spindles, earn 
 
 from 2s. to 3s. per day. 
 
 " Remarks. — The wages of cotton-spinners did not vary during the 10 years 
 preceding 1820, and very little since that period. 
 
 " The prices quoted are all net to the workers. 
 
 " The hours of labour in Glasgow and the vicinity used to be 12^, but since 
 the restrictive acts of parliament of 1818-19 the period has been reduced to 
 12 hours. The former acts regarding whitewashing and cleanliness are 
 scrupulously attended to." 
 
 Tables will now be given, shewing the earnings of 
 different classes of workmen, at different periods from 
 
 Part ii. p. 108. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 443 
 
 1804 to 1833, ill two first-rate cotton mills, one in 
 Manchester, and tlie other at Hyde. The first, though 
 applying directly to only a small class of workmen, viz. 
 tlie fine spinners, contains much information in small 
 space, and presents conclusions applicable in some 
 degi'ee to other branches of business : — 
 
 Wages and Work of Fine Cotton Spinners, at different periods, from tlie 
 Wages-Books of Mr. Thomas Houldsworth, of Manchester.* 
 
 
 Work 
 
 
 turned off 
 
 b 
 
 bv one 
 
 s 
 
 spinner per 
 
 •" 
 
 week. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Nos. 
 
 1804 
 
 12 
 
 180 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 200 
 
 1814 
 
 18 
 
 180 
 
 
 13i 
 
 200 
 
 183S 
 
 22i 
 
 180 
 
 
 19 
 
 200 
 
 Wages per Week. 
 
 Gross. 
 
 Piecers. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 ,S'. d. 
 
 GO 
 
 27 6 
 
 C7 6 
 
 31 
 
 72 
 
 27 6 
 
 90 
 
 30 
 
 54 8 
 
 21 
 
 65 3 
 
 22 C 
 
 s. d. 
 
 32 G 
 
 36 G 
 44 6 
 GO 
 
 33 8 
 42 9 
 
 Hours 
 of Work 
 
 per 
 Week. 
 
 74 sup. 
 
 74 sup. 
 
 74 
 
 74 
 
 69 
 
 69 
 
 Prices from 
 
 Greenwicli 
 
 Hospital 
 
 Records. 
 
 Flour 
 per sack 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 83 
 
 
 
 83 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 6 
 
 70 
 
 6 
 
 45 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 
 
 Flesh 
 per lb. 
 
 d. d. 
 6 to 7 
 
 G to 7 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 Quantities which 
 
 a Week's net 
 
 Earninijs would 
 
 purchase. 
 
 lbs. 
 Flour. 
 
 117 
 124 
 175 
 239 
 
 210 
 267 
 
 lbs. 
 Flesh. 
 
 62J 
 
 73 
 
 67 
 
 90 
 
 67 
 
 85 
 
 " The sack of flour is taken at 2S0 lbs. 
 
 " The above is the result of an average of several men's work, 
 at the different periods. 
 
 " There are 1 1 1 spinners at present employed in the mill ; their 
 average net earnings is 33s. 3d. each per week. There are in the 
 same mill 917 persons employed in card-rooms, doubling, reeling, 
 and piecing; their net earnings now average 7s. Id. per week. 
 To shew the rate of wages at different periods in these depart- 
 ments, the following table has been obtained from the wages-books 
 of the concern : — 
 
 • Tliis and the following table are taken from the Report of the Conimoiis' 
 Committee ou Manufactures, Commerce, and Shipping, pp. 319, .120. 
 
444 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Wages of Carders, Reelers, and Doublers, at 
 different periods. 
 
 Years 
 
 Card-room Males 
 
 Reelers 
 Doublers 
 
 Females 
 
 1806 
 
 1811 
 
 1815 
 
 1818 
 
 1824 I 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 15 6 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 18 6 
 
 18 
 
 17 9 
 
 35 
 
 35 
 
 40 
 
 40 
 
 40 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 19s to 30s 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 10 6 
 
 10 6 
 
 9 6 
 
 9 G 
 
 1833 
 
 s. d. 
 
 15 
 
 17 9 
 
 30 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 " Plecers' wages, with the exception of those of big piecers, who 
 constitute one-third of the whole, have not varied sixpence per 
 week within the last twenty years. Big piecers' wages are now 
 8s. 6d. to 9s. 6d. ; they were, in 1814, from 9s. 6d. to 10s. 6d. 
 
 " Mechanics' wages, blacksmiths, turners, filers, machine makers, 
 and fitters-up, are now from 27s. to 31s. per week. Within the 
 last twenty years they have been as high as 28s. to 35s. ; but then 
 they worked half an hour to one hour per day longer." 
 
 The following tables were furnished to me by 
 Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Hyde, and have since been 
 communicated by him to the Factory Commissioners, and 
 published in their reports. No one can see without 
 admiration the extensive and admirably-managed works 
 of Mr. Ashton, whose work-people display, both in their 
 persons and their dwellings, as much of health, comfort, 
 and order as can, perhaps, be found in any equal 
 number of the operative classes in the kingdom : — 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 445 
 
 A Statement of the clear average Earnings of Spinners, Dressers, and 
 Weavers, in the employ of Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Hyde, in the county 
 of Chester, cotton manufacturer, in the years undermentioned. 
 
 Years. 
 1816 
 
 1821 
 
 1826 
 
 Description. 
 
 Weekly 
 
 Spinners, 1st class 
 
 2d & 3d do. 
 
 Dressers 
 
 Weavers* 
 
 Spinners, 1st class 
 
 2d & 3d do. 
 
 Dressers 
 
 Weavers 
 
 Spinners, 1st class 
 
 2d & 3d do. 
 
 Dressers 
 
 Average. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 1 17 
 
 1 10 
 
 1 10 
 
 14 
 
 1 15 6 
 
 17 3 
 
 1 10 
 
 14 
 
 1 15 
 
 17 
 
 1 10 
 
 Years. Description. 
 
 1826 
 1831 
 
 1832 
 
 Weekly Average. 
 £. s. d. 
 
 Weavers 13 
 
 Spinners, 1st classt . 1 14 9 
 2d & 3d do. 1 8 
 4th do. . . 19 8 
 
 Dressers 1 10 6 
 
 Weavers 12 
 
 Spinners, 1st class . .115 
 2d & 3d do. 1 8 2 
 4th do . 10 
 
 Dressers 1 10 6 
 
 Weavers 12 
 
 * The weavers, all of whom are employed in attending the power-loom, are for the most 
 part young girls. 
 
 t In this and the following year, the total number of hands in Mr. Ashton's employ, was 
 twelve hundred ; and their average earnings amount to twelve shillings weekly for every 
 description of hands, fifty -two weeks in each year. 
 
 Average Prices paid by Messrs Ashtons, of Hyde, for Weaving 72| Power 
 Loom Calico, for eacii piece of 28 yards ; and for Uplands and Brazil 
 Cotton per pound, from vphich the same are made ; with the average 
 Rlarket Price for which such pieces sold in the years undermentioned. 
 
 1814 
 1815 
 1816 
 1817 
 1818 
 1819 
 1820 
 1821 
 1822 
 1823 
 
 Weaving 
 
 per 
 
 Piece 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 I 
 
 8 
 
 per 
 Pound. 
 
 s. d. 
 2 6 
 1 8 
 1 8 
 1 10 
 1 10 
 1 2 
 1 1 
 11 
 10 
 10.! 
 
 Market Price 
 
 per Piece of 
 
 28 yds. 
 
 Years 
 
 £. «. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 1 8 
 
 
 
 1824 
 
 I 5 
 1 2 
 
 6 
 
 
 1825 
 
 1 
 
 7| 
 
 1826 
 
 1 1 
 
 U 
 
 1827 
 
 17 
 
 8 
 
 1828 
 
 15 
 
 9| 
 
 1829 
 
 15 
 
 82 j 
 
 1830 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 1831 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 
 per 
 Piece. 
 
 s. d. 
 1 8 
 
 per 
 Pound. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 lOi 
 
 1 2 
 
 8 
 
 7J 
 
 7 
 
 61 
 
 (JA 
 
 6J 
 
 Market Price 
 
 per Piece of 
 
 28 yds. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 14 
 
 from 14 
 
 to 18 6 
 
 10 6 
 
 10 3 
 
 10 2 
 
 8 9 
 
 8 3 
 
 8 9 
 
446 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Tlie eleven tables now given establish beyond all 
 controversy that the 237,000 work-people employed in 
 the cotton-mills of Great Britain are in the receipt of 
 wages amply sufficient to yield them not merely the 
 necessaiies of life in food, clothing, and habitation, but 
 also many comforts and some superfluities, — to enable 
 the adult workmen, witli proper management and 
 frugality, to educate theu' childi-en, and to provide 
 against sickness and old age, — and to admit of cliildren 
 contributing materially to the support of necessitous 
 parents. Where a spinner is assisted by his own 
 children in the mill, as is very frequently the case, his 
 income is so large that he can live more generously, 
 and clothe himself and his family better, than many of 
 the lower class of ti'adesmen ; and, though improvidence 
 and misconduct too often ruin the happiness of these 
 families, yet there are thousands of spinners in the 
 cotton districts who eat meat every day, wear broad 
 cloth on the Sunday, dress then' wives and children 
 well, furnish their houses ^itli mahogany and carpets, 
 subscribe to publications, and pass through life with 
 much of humble respectability. 
 
 Wages, it will be seen, have declined in nominal 
 amount since the war, but not so much as the prices of 
 provisions and clotliing ; so that the workmen are now 
 receiving higher real wages than at any former period. 
 The rate of payment has in many cases been reduced on 
 a given quantity of work, yet without diminishing the 
 receipts of the workmen — the improvements in ma- 
 chinery enabling them to throw oflF a greater quantity 
 of work in the same time, and thus compensating for 
 the reduced rate of payment. For instance, it appears 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 447 
 
 from the last table that the power-loom weaver was paid 
 3s. per piece in 1814, and only Is. 4d. per piece in 
 1832; but such was the improvement in the power-loom 
 between those periods, that, instead of receiving less 
 than one-half the money wages, his receipts per week 
 only declined from 14s. in 1814, to 12s. in 1832 — the 
 latter sum at this time beings higher real wao^es than the 
 fonner sum at the close of the war. Owino^ to the 
 improvement in the dressing -macliine, the dressers 
 received liigher wages in 1833, when they were paid 3d. 
 a cut, than they received many years before, when they 
 were paid lOd. a cut. 
 
 Allusion has been made to the estabhshment of 
 Mr. Thomas Ashton, at Hyde. Of this establishment, 
 a very pleasing account has been pubHshed hj a 
 physician in Manchester, to the accuracy of which I can 
 beai* personal testimony ; and as the particulars shew 
 what has been done by a humane and enlightened 
 manufacturer for the happiness of his work-people, and 
 what means the cotton trade affords to elevate the 
 condition of the operatives who work ^nth machinery, 
 the example deserves to be held up for the emulation of 
 other manufacturers. It also' presents a most striking 
 specimen of the effects of the cotton trade, in increasing 
 the population and wealth of the country : — 
 
 •'Twelve hundred persons are employed in the cotton factories 
 of Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Hyde. This gentleman has erected 
 commodious dwellings for his work-people, with each of which he 
 has connected every convenience that can minister to comfort. 
 He resides in the immediate vicinity, and has frequent opportunities 
 of maintaining a cordial association with his operatives. Their 
 houses are well furnished, clean, and their tenants exhibit every 
 
448 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 indication of health and happiness. Mr. Ashton has also built a 
 school, where 640 children, chiefly belonging to his establishment, 
 are instructed on Tuesday in reading, writing, arithmetic, &c. A 
 library, connected with this school, is eagerly resorted to, and the 
 people frequently read after the hours of labour have expired. An 
 infant school is, during the week, attended by 280 children, and in 
 the evenings others are instructed by masters selected for the pur- 
 pose. The factories themselves are certainly excellent examples of 
 the cleanliness and order which may be attained, by a systematic 
 and persevering attention to the habits of the artisans. 
 
 " The effects of such enlightened benevolence may be, to a 
 certain extent, exhibited by statistical statements. The population, 
 before the introduction of machinery, chiefly consisted of colliers, 
 hatters, and weavers. Machinery was introduced in 1801, and the 
 following table exhibits its consequences in the augmentation of 
 the value of property, the diminution of poor-rates, and the rapid 
 increase of the amount assessed for the repairs of the highway, 
 during a period in which the population of the township increased 
 from 830 to 7138:— 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 449 
 
 Township of Hyde, in the Parish of Stockport, in the 
 County of Chester. 
 
 
 Estimated 
 
 
 
 tn 
 
 
 
 Value of 
 
 Property 
 
 assessable 
 
 to the 
 
 Sums assessed 
 
 Sums assessed 
 
 1 
 
 
 Year. 
 
 for the Relief 
 of the Poor. 
 
 for the Repairs 
 of the Highway. 
 
 c 
 p 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 
 Poor's-rate. 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 £. s. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 
 1801 
 
 693 10 
 
 533 12 
 
 2 11 6 
 
 830 
 
 Machinery introduced. 
 
 2 
 
 697 
 
 394 19 4 
 
 51 19 5 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 697 
 
 3;}6 8 
 
 52 3 0| 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 697 10 
 
 325 10 
 
 52 5 0-1 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 724 
 
 385 17 4 
 
 100 6 Hi 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 786 
 
 339 6 
 
 110 12 lU 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 829 
 
 276 6 8 
 
 172 7 9i 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 898 10 
 
 223 1 4 
 
 177 6 10 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 915 
 
 286 16 8 
 
 152 17 9 
 
 
 
 1810 
 
 935 
 
 345 10 
 
 146 18 3i 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 945 10 
 
 417 6 4 
 
 199 19 3^ 
 
 1806 
 
 
 12 
 
 975 15 
 
 471 8 4 
 
 168 11 1 
 
 
 Riots, machinery broken 
 
 13 
 
 986 
 
 687 7 8 
 
 148 18 Hi 
 
 
 in various places. Pow- 
 
 14 
 
 997 
 
 630 6 8 
 
 144 18 8i 
 
 
 er-looms introduced. 
 
 15 
 
 1029 15 
 
 608 18 
 
 99 9 3i 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 1079 5 
 
 390 2 
 
 156 9 5i 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 1109 15 
 
 502 3 6 
 
 150 2 81 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 1142 
 
 421 2 
 
 171 15 9 
 
 
 
 19 
 
 1242 
 
 431 6 
 
 201 8 7i 
 
 
 
 1820 
 
 1272 
 
 355 4 8 
 
 229 11 7 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 1371 15 
 
 274 7 
 
 265 1 1 
 
 3355 
 
 New county-rate made : 
 
 22 
 
 1429 5 
 
 435 10 6 
 
 440 12 0.2 
 
 
 from this time the county- 
 
 23 
 
 1570 
 
 479 8 
 
 454 8 8.3 
 
 
 rate, together with tlie 
 
 24 
 
 1792 
 
 348 17 
 
 506 2 2i 
 
 
 salary of the serving offi- 
 
 25 
 
 1957 
 
 398 11 
 
 524 19 31 
 
 
 cer, averages £200 per 
 
 26 
 
 2093 10 
 
 438 7 6 
 
 573 10 7| 
 
 
 annum. 
 
 27 
 
 2354 15 
 
 479 6 3 
 
 598 10 5 
 
 
 
 28 
 
 2533 
 
 502 7 4 
 
 732 4 3J 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 2623 
 
 790 11 9 
 
 681 19 61 
 
 
 
 1830 
 
 2727 
 
 649 16 
 
 578 10 1 
 
 
 Vestry built tbis year. 
 
 31 
 
 2783 
 
 *834 18 9 
 
 359 5 5^ 
 
 7138 
 
 
 Total in 31 years 
 
 13,991 13 7 
 
 8,405 19 7 
 
 
 Average . . . 
 
 451 10 
 
 271 7 2 
 
 
 " This table exhibits a cheering proof of the advantages which 
 may be derived from the commercial system, under judicious 
 management. We feel much confidence in inferring, that where 
 
 A considerable balance in the overseer's hands. 
 
 3l 
 
450 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 30 little pauperism exists, the taint of vice has not deeply infected 
 the population; and concerning their health, we can speak from 
 personal observation. The rate of mortality, from statements* with 
 which Mr. Ashton has politely furnished us, appears to be exceed- 
 ingly low. In thirteen years (during the first six of which, the 
 number of rovers, spinners, piecers, and dressers was one hundred, 
 and during the last seven, above two hundred,) only eight deaths 
 occurred, though the same persons were, with rare exceptions, 
 employed during the whole period. Supposing, for the sake of 
 convenience, that the deaths were nine ; then, by ascribing three to 
 the first six years, and six to the last seven, the mortality during 
 the former period was one in 200, and during the latter, one in 233. 
 The number of weavers during the first six years was 200, and 
 during the last seven 400, and in this body of workmen 40 deaths 
 occurred in thirteen years. By ascribing thirteen of these deaths 
 to the first six years, and twenty-seven to the last seven, the mor- 
 tality, during the former period, was one in 92, and during the 
 latter, one in 103. 
 
 " These facts indicate that the present hours of labour do not 
 
 * " Minute of deaths among the sphiners, piecers, and dressers, employed at 
 the works of Mr. Thomas Ashton, in Hyde, from 1819 to 1832, 13 years, viz.: — 
 Spinners. Rd. Robinson, James Seville, David Cordingley, Eli Taylor. Piecers. 
 Jas. Rowbotham, Wm. Green. Dressers. John Cocker, Samuel Broadhurst. 
 
 " There are employed at these works 61 rovers and spinners, 120 piecers, and 
 38 dressers: total 219; among whom there are at this time 10 spinners, whose 
 ages are respectively from forty up to fifty-six years ; and among the dressers there 
 are 12, whose ages are equal to that of the above spinners. We have no orphans 
 at this place, neither have we any family receiving parochial relief; nor can we 
 recollect the time when there was any such. The different clubs or sick lists 
 aiYiong the spinners, dressers, overlookers, and mechanics, employed here, allow 
 ten or twelve shillings per week to the members during sickness, and from six to 
 eight pounds to a funeral ; which applies also to the member's wife, and in some 
 cases, one-half or one-fourth to the funeral of a child. The greatest amount of 
 contributions to these funds have in no one year exceeded five shillings and six- 
 pence from each member. 
 
 " The weavers (chiefly young women) have also a funeral club, the contributions 
 to which are four-pence per member to each funeral. In the above period of thir- 
 teen years, there have happened among them only forty funerals. 
 
 " Total number of persons employed, twelve hundred, who maintain about two 
 thousand. 
 
 " Hyde, 27th March, 1832." " Joseph Tinker, Book-keeper." 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 451 
 
 injure the health of a population otherwise favourably situated ; 
 but that, when evil results ensue, they must chiefly be ascribed to 
 the combination of this with other causes of moral and physical 
 depression"* 
 
 Mr. Ashton's is far from being a solitary case. He 
 himself has informed me that he does not consider liis 
 establishment materially different, as regards the wages, 
 comforts, and health of the work-people, from many 
 others at Hyde, Ashton, Duckenfield, Stayley-bridge, 
 &c. In this district, however, the first quality of yarn 
 is spun, and, on the Avhole, the best wages paid. 
 
 But it has been represented by declamatory writers, 
 and even by some parliamentary orators, that the high 
 wages of the cotton spinners are earned by the entire 
 sacrifice of health and comfort, — that the labour of the 
 mill is so severe, incessant, and prolonged, as to destroy 
 the constitution and to exhaust the mental energies of 
 the workmen, — that they breathe a heated and polluted 
 atmosphere, loaded with dust and fibres of cotton, which, 
 entering the lungs, soon produce consumption, — that 
 the exhaustion of their bodies by labour drives them to 
 intemperance as a relief and a stimulus, — that thus their 
 lives are passed in an alternation of depressing drudgery 
 and maddening excitement, Avithout any healthy exercise 
 of the mental faculties, or any rational enjoyment. It is 
 pretended that the mill operatives are placed in cruel 
 competition with machinery, whose relentless speed 
 strains their faculties to the utmost, admits not of a 
 moment's intennission from toil, makes no allowance for 
 human feebleness, but unnaturally taxes flesh and sinews 
 
 * The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes employed in the 
 Cotton Manufacture in Manchester. By James Phillips Kay, M. D. 2d edition, 
 pp. 100—104. 
 
452 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 to keep pace with wheels and arms of iron. By these 
 rlietoricians, the steam-engine is represented as a tyrant 
 power, and a curse to those who work in conjunction 
 with it. Above all, it is alleged that tlie cliildren who 
 labour in mills are the victims of frightful oppression and 
 Idlling toil, — that they are often cruelly beaten by the 
 spinners or overlookers, — that their feeble limbs become 
 distorted by continual standing and stooping, and they 
 gi'ow up cripples, if indeed they are not hurried into 
 pi'emature graves, — that in many mills they are com- 
 pelled to work thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen hours per 
 day, — that they have no time either for play or for 
 education, — and that avaricious taskmasters, and idle, 
 unnatural parents, feed on the marrow of these poor 
 innocents. To such representations it is an appropriate 
 finish to call the factories, as has often been done, hells 
 upon earth. 
 
 Views such as these have been repeatedly given of 
 factory labour, with an amplification of detail and a 
 strength of language, Avhich have induced many to think 
 they must be true. A year or two ago, the subject 
 became one of powerful agitation among the Avorking 
 classes of the manufacturing districts, being made so 
 chiefly by a few individuals, who were mainly, though 
 not altogether, influenced by humane motives, but 
 whose imagination and feelings were much stronger 
 than their judgments. These individuals maintained, 
 with apparent reason, that no cliild ought to work more 
 than ten hours per day, and that the mills, which then 
 worked eleven, twelve, and in some cases even longer, 
 should be prevented by law from working more than ten 
 hours. A cause in itself good, was injured by the out- 
 rageous violence and unreasonable demands of its pro- 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 453 
 
 moters, who continually presented the most liideous 
 caricatures of the eiFects of factory labour, reviled the 
 inill-owners as monsters, and shewed themselves per- 
 fectly blind to the eifect which so great a restriction on 
 industry must produce on our foreign trade, and on the 
 earnings of the workmen. The latter, with few excep- 
 tions, united in the clamorous demand for a " ten hours 
 bill;" not because they believed that the children were 
 oppressed, but because they ignorantly imagined their 
 own labour would be shortened by such a bill from 
 twelve hours to ten, without any reduction being made 
 in their wages. This ridiculous delusion was inculcated 
 by the leaders of the outcry, who treated our foreign 
 trade as of no importance, and as rather an injury than 
 a benefit to the country, — thus evincing inconceivable 
 ignorance and folly, and proving themselves utterly 
 unfit to legislate for the vast manufacturing interests of 
 Britain. For a while, however, declamation prevailed. 
 A Committee of the House of Commons was appointed 
 to inquire into the efiects of factory labour on children ; 
 and a mass of ex parte evidence was received, which was 
 full of the grossest exaggerations and mistatements. 
 
 The investigations made by the Factory Commissioners, 
 who the next year examined many of tlie mills, and ques- 
 tioned the workmen, and still more those of the Factory 
 Inspectors appointed the same year, who have visited 
 nearly every mill in the country, have amply proved 
 that the \'iews above mentioned, of the nature and efiects 
 of labour in mills, contain but a very small portion of 
 truth. That there have been instances of abuse and 
 cruelty in some of the manufacturing establishments, is 
 doubtless true ; that the labour is not so healthful as 
 labour in husbandry, must be at once admitted ; and 
 
454 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 some cbildi'en have unquestionably suffered from work- 
 ing beyond tbeir strength. But abuse is the exception, 
 not the rule. Factory labour is far less injurious than 
 many of the most common and necessaiy employments 
 of civilized life. It is much less ii'ksome tlian that of 
 the Aveaver, less arduous than that of the smith, less 
 prejudicial to tlie lungs, tlie spine, and the limbs, than 
 those of the shoemaker and the tailor. Colliers, miners, 
 forgemen, cutlers, macliine-makei's, masons, bakers, 
 cora-millers, painters, plumbers, letter-press printers, 
 potters, and many other classes of artisans and labour- 
 ers, haye emplo\Taents which in one way or another ai'e 
 more inunical to health and longevity than the labour of 
 cotton mills. Some classes of professional men, stu- 
 dents, clerks in counting-houses, shopkeepers, milliners, 
 6cc., are subject to as great, and in many cases to much 
 gi'eater, confinement and exhaustion, than the mill 
 operatives. 
 
 The human frame is liable to an endless variety of 
 diseases. Many of the children who are born into the 
 world, and who attain the age of ten or twelve years, 
 are so weakly, that under any cii'cumstances they Avoiild 
 die early. Such children would sink under factory 
 labour, as they would under any other kind of labour, 
 or even ^-ithout labour. But it is no reasonable gi'ound 
 of objection to tliis or to any other employment, that it 
 is unsuited to delicate and infirm persons. If we would 
 abandon every occupation wliicli may accelerate the 
 natiu-al tendency to disease or decay, the most indis- 
 pensable occupations of civilized men must be given up. 
 The works of medical ^liters shew us that there is no 
 trade or occupation which might not be injurious to 
 persons subject to one kind of Aveakness or anotlier. A 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 455 
 
 man who hesitated m his clioice of a trade till he found one 
 which was free from all objection, would starve before 
 he had decided how he should live. Labour is the con- 
 dition of subsistence ; but there are many constitutions 
 which cannot sustain labour : tliis, then, is an evil of our 
 destiny as men, and is not a gi'ound of complaint against 
 necessary occupations. Food cannot be obtained with- 
 out toil, but toil is a less e\'il than hunger : clotliing 
 cannot be made without exertion and application, but 
 these are to be endured rather than nakedness. A 
 physician might, if so disposed, get up a case against 
 any employment of civilized or savage life, sufficient to 
 excite public sympathy and abhorrence ; but so long as 
 men cannot live without working, they must work in 
 spite of inconvenience. 
 
 These obvious truths, so nearly approaching to 
 truisms, would not have been presented to my readers, 
 if they had not been absolutely forgotten by many of the 
 declaimers on factory labour, who have thought it suffi- 
 cient to collect a few instances of deformity and injury 
 out of nearly half a million of work-people in the cotton, 
 woollen, flax, and silk mills of Great Britain, and have 
 then leaped to the conclusion, that their labour was 
 dreadfully pernicious. I do not deny that such instances 
 have occurred, but I confidently deny tliat they have 
 been in such numbers as to warrant the conclusion 
 dra\Mi from them. 
 
 In opposing one error, I shall endeaA'our not to fall 
 into an opposite error. I am far from contending, that 
 the labour of mills is of the most agi'eeable and healthful 
 kind ; or that there have not been abuses in them, which 
 required exposure and correction; or tliat legisla- 
 tive interference was not justifiable, to protect children 
 
456 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 of tender years from being overworked. It must be 
 admitted that the hours of labour in cotton mills are 
 long, being twelve hours a day on five days of the week, 
 and nine hours on Saturday : but the labour is light, 
 and requires very little muscular exertion. Attention 
 and gentle exercise ai'e needed ; the greater number of 
 operatives are employed iu clearing the cotton from the 
 cai'ds, — shifting the cans at the drawing frames, — 
 removing and replacing bobbins at the roving frames, 
 throstles, and mules, — piecing the threads wliich break 
 at those machines, — sweeping up the waste cotton, — 
 adjusting the cloth in the power-looms, — \vinding, warp- 
 ing, and dressing the warp. The severest labour in 
 mills is that of the women who clean the cotton by beat- 
 ing it with wands, but this is only in the fine spinning 
 mills, machines being used for the purpose wliere the 
 lower numbers are spun. The work of the spinners, who 
 are adult males, requires moderate exertion and great 
 care. It is not true to represent the work of the 
 piecers, doflFers, &c., as continually straining the facul- 
 ties. None of the species of work in which children 
 and young persons are engaged in mills require con- 
 stant attention ; most of them admit even of the atten- 
 tion being remitted every few minutes ; and where the 
 eye must be kept on the watch, habit makes the task of 
 observation perfectly easy. It is scarcely possible for 
 any employment to be lighter. The position of the 
 body is not injurious : the general attitude is erect, 
 but the children walk about, and have opportunity 
 of frequently sitting if they are so disposed. On 
 visiting mills, I have generally remarked the coolness 
 and equanunity of the work-people, even of the chil- 
 dren, whose manner seldom, as far as mv observation 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 457 
 
 goes, indicates anxious care, and is more frequently 
 sportive than gloomy. The noise and whirl of the 
 machinery, which are unpleasant and confusing to a 
 spectator unaccustomed to the scene, produce not the 
 slightest effect on the operatives habituated to it. 
 
 The only thing which makes factory labour trying even 
 to delicate children is, that they are confined for long- 
 hours, and deprived of fresh air : this makes them pale, 
 and reduces their vigour, but it rarely brings on disease. 
 The minute fibres of cotton which float in the rooms, and 
 are called y/y, are admitted, even by medical men, not to 
 be injurious to young persons : it might have been sup- 
 posed that they would have impeded respiration, or irri- 
 tated the bronchial membrane, but extensive observation 
 proves that they do so in very few cases. Workmen 
 of more advanced years occasionally suffer from this 
 cause : a " spinners' phthisis" has been described by 
 medical men, and it is attributed to the irritation pro- 
 duced by the dust and cotton inhaled : but it is admitted 
 that the cases are scarcely, if at all, more numerous than 
 in other employments. 
 
 The temperature of the mills varies from 60° to 75° 
 Fahr. — the fine spinning mills only being of the latter 
 temperature. The ventilation is good in some mills, 
 and defective in others. The workmen are no where 
 crowded together; nor can they be, from the space 
 occupied by the machines; the air, therefore, is not 
 vitiated from being frequently breathed. 
 
 As the unhealthiness of factory labour has been so 
 often and so strongly alleged, and as the point is one of 
 great importance, I shall state some of the evidence on 
 both sides. And, first, as to the common prejudice that 
 the steam-engine causes an incessant and unnatural 
 
 3 M 
 
458 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 sh'aiii on the j^owers of those who work in conjunction 
 with it; no opinion has been more strongly expressed, 
 or perliaps more generally believed, except among 
 manufacturers themselves, yet none appears to me more 
 utterly destitute of foundation. There is the semblance 
 of truth in such passages as the following, written by 
 able men, who, no doubt, fully believed what they 
 ^sri'ote : — 
 
 " While the engine works, the people must work. Men, 
 women, and children are thus yokefellows with iron and steam ; 
 the animal machine — fragile at best, subject to a thousand 
 sources of suffering, and doomed, by nature in its best state, to a 
 short-lived existence, changing every moment, and hastening to 
 decay — is matched with an iron machine insensible to suffering 
 and fatigue."* 
 
 " The operatives are engaged in an employment which absorbs 
 their attention, and unremittingly employs their physical energies. 
 They are drudges who watch the movements, and assist the ope- 
 rations, of a mighty material force, which toils with an energy ever 
 unconscious of fatigue. The persevering labour of the operative 
 must rival the mathematical precision, the incessant motion, and 
 the exhaustless power of the machine. "f 
 
 These passages will be appreciated rightly after 
 reading the following just and unanswerable remarks of 
 a close observer of factory labour, Mr. Tufnell, one 
 of the Factoiy Commissioners, who tells us, that " he was 
 liimself a short time ago impressed with the common 
 prejudice respecting steam-engines, nz. that employ- 
 ment at them tended to degi-ade a man into a machine, 
 and deaden all the powers of liis mind." He says — 
 
 * The Effects of Arts, Trades, and Professions on Health and Longevity. By 
 the late C. Turner Thackrah, Esq. Second Edition, p. 82. 
 
 t Dr. Kay on the Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes of 
 Manchester, p. 24. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 459 
 
 " Of all the common prejudices that exist with respect to factory 
 labour, there is none more unfounded than that which ascribes to 
 it excessive tedium and irksomeness above other occupations, 
 owing to its being carried on in conjunction with ' the unceasing 
 motion of the steam-engine.' In an establishment for spinning 
 or weaving cotton, aZ^ the hard work is performed hy the steam- 
 engine, which leaves for the attendant no manual labour at all, 
 and literally nothing to do in general, but at intervals to perform 
 some delicate operation, such as joining the threads that break, 
 taking the cops off the spindles, &c. And it is so far from being 
 true that the work in a factory is incessant, because the motion of 
 the steam-engine is incessant, that the fact is, that the labour is 
 not iyicessant on that very account, because it is performed in 
 conjunction with the steam-engine. Of all manufacturing em- 
 ployments, those are by far the most irksome and incessant, in 
 which steam-engines are not employed ; and the way to prevent an 
 employment being incessant, is to introduce a steam-engine into it. 
 And these remarks, strange as it may appear, apply peculiarly to 
 the labour of children in cotton factories. Three-fourths of the 
 children so employed are engaged in piecing at the mules, which, 
 when they have receded a foot and a half or two feet from the 
 frame, leave nothing to be done ; not even attention is required 
 frovi spinner or piecer, but both stand idle for a time, which, if 
 the spinning is fine, lasts in general three-fourths of a minute, or 
 more. Consequently, in these establishments, if a child remains 
 during twelve hours a day, for nine hours he performs no actual 
 labour* A spinner told me, that during those intervals he had 
 read through several books. The scavengers, who have been said 
 to be ' constantly in a state of grief, always in terror, and every 
 moment they have to spare stretched all their length upon the 
 floor in a state of perspiration, 'f I have seen idle for four minutes 
 at a time, and certainly could not find that they displayed any 
 symptoms of the condition described in this extract from the 
 Report of the Factory Committee. "| 
 
 * " A piecer, however, generally attends two mules, whose motion is alternate, 
 and then his leisure is six hours instead of nine." 
 
 t See " Report of Factory Committee," p. 325. 
 
 X Report by Mr. Tufnell ; Supplementary Report from the Factory Com- 
 missioners, part i. p. 205. 
 
460 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 " In power-loom weaving the manual labour seems to be really 
 nothing, as those who work at it frequently follow the motion of 
 the lay, by leaning on it with their arms, with the view of taking 
 exercise : it is also the healthiest of mill occupations."* 
 
 This is the true \ie\v of the matter. Instead of the 
 workmen being " drudges," it is tlie steam-engine wliich 
 is their drudge: and as to their motions "rivalling the 
 mathematical precision, the incessant motion, and the 
 exhaustless power of the macliine," notliing can be more 
 mistaken. It is the very reverse of the fact. All the 
 precision, power, and incessant motion belong to the 
 machines alone ; and the work-peoi)le have merely to 
 supply them witli work, to oil theii* joints, adjust their 
 slight inaccuracies, and piece the threads broken by 
 the mechanical spinner. 
 
 I shall now quote the opinions of a skilful physiologist, 
 the late Mr. Thackrah, of Leeds, whose work on " The 
 Effects of Arts, Trades, and Professions, and of Civic 
 States and Habits of Living, on Health and Longerity," 
 displays acute observation and independent thought; but 
 who looked with the eye of a medical man on all employ- 
 ments, and in almost all found some mischief; and who 
 seems ever to have had in view, (as, perhaps, a medical 
 man ought,) rather the training up of men to that high 
 \igour which would fit them for the Grecian games, 
 than theii* necessary subjection to the toils of trade and 
 handicraft in an age of severe commercial competition. 
 That gentleman was much more accustomed to the 
 AvooUen and flax mills of Leeds than to the cotton mills 
 of Manchester; but ha^-ing attentively, though only for a 
 
 * Report by Mr. Tufnell ; Supplementary Report from the Factory Commis 
 sioners, part i. p. 206. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 461 
 
 short time, observed the latter, he thus records his 
 opinions : — - 
 
 " Cotton Workers, persons, I mean, who are employed in the 
 several processes by which the plant is formed into yarn for weav- 
 ing, are subjected to considerable heat, and to some injurious 
 agencies. I shall first refer to the process and operatives, as I 
 found them in a large mill at Manchester, and one, I believe, of 
 the best conducted. In the first process, the machining, or clean- 
 ing and opening the cotton, no increase of temperature is required; 
 the labour is light; the operatives are not crowded, nor is there any 
 defect in ventilation. Much dust is necessarily produced in the 
 process, and light flakes of cotton float in the room; but the atmos- 
 phere is scarcely fouled, for a machine revolving 1200 times in a 
 minute, produces a current of air, which, enclosed by a casing of 
 wood, conveys the dust through a sort of chimney, quite out of the 
 building. The children in this room made no complaint. The 
 oldest man in it had been sixteen years at the employ. He was 
 thin, but not sickly. 
 
 " In the carding and preparing room, the temperature is above 
 60°, a heat necessary to the working of the cotton and the machi- 
 nery. The dust is not great ; the labour is light, and the operatives 
 are not crowded. The children, however, are puny. Head-ache 
 and gastric disorders are frequent, especially among beginners. 
 Common catarrh and coughs of short duration are found amongst 
 the operatives, but not rheumatism or any urgent disease. 
 
 " In the spinning rooms, the temperature is 60° to 70°. Par- 
 ticles of cotton float like thistle down, but there is little dust. The 
 machines are small, and the muscular exertion is good. 
 
 " In the dressing department, where the paste is applied to pre- 
 pare the material for weaving, the heat of the room is greater than 
 in any other process. We found it 98°, but were informed that it 
 is generally rather higher. The men, however, appear healthy : 
 some complained of ' aching of the bones,' but serious disease is 
 rare, except as the result of intemperance. They do not experience 
 inflammation of the lungs, pleurisy, or rheumatism. There are 
 few examples, however, of men at the employ as old as 58. 
 
 " Cotton lueavers in large mills we remarked to look better and 
 be more healthy than the other operatives. At Manchester we saw 
 
462 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 300 weavers, chiefly young women, at work in one room. This was, 
 however, nearly three-fourths of an acre in area, well ventilated 
 and lightsome. Scarcely any dust is produced by the weaving of 
 cotton. 
 
 " In this mill 1500 persons are employed, and more than half of 
 these are under the age of fifteen. It is said that none are admitted 
 under that of nine, but several children, from their appearance, 
 we should have supposed a year or two younger. There are few 
 persons who have been more than thirty years in the cotton mills ; 
 and this circumstance is ascribed by the masters and overlookers to 
 the better wages of other employments, and the consequent seces- 
 sion of operatives when they attain full age and strength. Most of 
 the children are barefoot. The work commences at half past five 
 A. M., and ends at seven p. m., and intervals are allowed of half an 
 hour for breakfast, and one hour for dinner. The mechanics have 
 half an hour also for afternoon meal ; but this is not allowed to the 
 children and other operatives. We were mformed that at many 
 mills no time is allowed for breakfast, though the work commences 
 as early as half past five. At other mills, moreover, it appears 
 that the dust is much greater, particularly in the carding rooms; 
 and less attention is paid to the health and comfort of the 
 operatives. 
 
 " I stood in Oxford Road, Manchester, and observed the stream 
 of operatives as they left the mills at twelve o'clock. The children 
 were almost universally ill-looking, small, sickly, barefoot, and ill- 
 clad. Many appeared to be no older than seven. The men, 
 generally from sixteen to twenty-four, and none aged, were almost 
 as pallid and thin as the children. The women were the most 
 respectable in appearance, but 1 saw no fresh or fine-looking indi- 
 viduals among them. And in reference to all classes, I was struck 
 with the marked contrast between this and the turn-out from a 
 manufactory of cloth. Here was nothing like the stout fullers, the 
 hale slubbers, the dirty but merry rosy-faced pieceners. Here I 
 saw, or thought I saw, a degenerate race, — human beings stunted, 
 enfeebled, and depraved, — men and women that were not to be 
 aged, — children that were never to be healthy adults. It was a 
 mournful spectacle. On conversing afterwards with a mill-owner, 
 he urged the bad habits of the Manchester poor, and the wretched- 
 ness of their habitations, as a greater cause of debility and ill health 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 463 
 
 than confinement in factories ; and from bim, as well as from other 
 sources of information, it appears that the labouring classes in that 
 place are more dissipated, worse fed, housed, and clothed, than 
 those of the Yorkshire towns. Still, however, I feel convinced 
 that, independently of moral and domestic vices, the long confine- 
 ment in mills, the want of rest, the shameful reduction of the 
 intervals for meals, and especially the premature working of chil- 
 dren, greatly reduce health and vigour, and account for the 
 wretched appearance of the operatives." 
 
 " We had no reason to believe that in the cotton mills urgent 
 diseases are often produced, or the immediate mortality great. 
 Disorders of the nervous and digestive systems are frequent, but 
 not severe. Bronchitis and some pulmonary maladies are occa- 
 sionally formed amongst the adult operatives, but neither promi- 
 nent in feature, as far as we have observed, nor generally preva- 
 lent. Dr. Kay, however, whose residence at Manchester, and 
 charge at the Ardwick dispensary, aftbrd him more ample and 
 continued opportunities of observing these operatives, describes a 
 ' spinners' phthisis,' inflammation of the bronchial membrane 
 terminating in consumption. He found it to occur chiefly where 
 coarse cotton was manufactured, or comparatively little attention 
 paid to ventilation, and protection of the operatives from dust. To 
 me the principal physical effect of the heat and confinement 
 appears to be exhaustion of the nervous system — that reduction of 
 the vital power, which both renders the animal machine particu- 
 larly susceptible of disorder, and prevents its lasting to its natural 
 duration." p. 144 — 148.) 
 
 Dr. Kay, who made extensive inquiries into the con- 
 dition of tlie working- chisses generally, and especially of 
 those inliabiting the worst parts of Manchester, at the 
 time wlien the cholera was expected to visit that town, 
 observes — 
 
 " The wages obtained by the operatives in the various branches of 
 the cotton manufacture arc, in general, such, as with the exercise 
 of that economy without which wealtii itself is wasted would be 
 sufficient to provide them with all the decent comforts of life — the 
 
404 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 average wages of all persons employed (young and old) being from 
 nine to twelve shillings per week."* But he adds, " The popula- 
 tion is crowded into one dense mass, in cottages separated by nar- 
 row, unpaved, and almost pestilential streets; in an atmosphere 
 loaded with the smoke and exhalations of a large manufacturing 
 city. The operatives are congregated in rooms and workshops 
 during twelve hours in the day, in an enervating, heated atmo- 
 sphere, which is frequently loaded with dust or filaments of cotton, 
 or impure from constant respiration, or from other causes. They 
 are engaged in an employment which absorbs their attention, and 
 unremittingly employs their physical energies. They are drudges 
 who watch the movements, and assist the operations of a mighty 
 material force, which toils with an energy ever unconscious of 
 fatigue. The persevering labour of the operative must rival the 
 mathematical precision, the incessant motion, and the exhaustless 
 power of the machine. Hence, besides the negative results — the 
 abstraction of moral and intellectual stimuli — the absence of variety 
 — banishment from the grateful air and the cheering influences of 
 light, the physical energies are impaired by toil and imperfect 
 nutrition. The artisan too seldom possesses sufficient moral dignity, 
 or intellectual or organic strength, to resist the seductions of appe- 
 tite. His wife and children, subjected to the same process, have 
 little power to cheer his remaining moments of leisure. Domestic 
 economy is neglected, domestic comforts are too frequently un- 
 known." " His house is ill furnished, uncleanly, often ill venti- 
 lated, perhaps damp ; his food, from want of forethought and 
 domestic economy, is meagre and innutritious ; he generally 
 becomes debilitated and hypochondriacal, and, unless supported 
 by principle, falls the victim of dissipation." Yet Dr. Kay imme- 
 diately adds — " In all these respects it is grateful to add, that 
 those among the operatives of the mills, who are employed in the 
 process of spinnijig , and especially of fine spinning, (who receive a 
 high rate of wages, and who are elevated on account of their skill,) 
 are more attentive to their domestic arrangements, have better fur- 
 nished houses, are consequently more regular in their habits, and 
 
 • Dr. Kay on the Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes of 
 Manchester, p. 43. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 465 
 
 more observant of their duties, than those engaged in other branches 
 of the manufacture."* 
 
 This author seems to be of opinion, that the rate of 
 mortality is not high in Manchester, but he considers the 
 working classes generally to be suffering under a state 
 of physical depression. Yet he admits that great im- 
 provements are taking place — "■ Some years ago," he 
 says, " the internal arrangements of mills, (now so much 
 improved,) as regarded temperature, ventilation, clean- 
 liness, and the proper separation of the sexes, &c., were 
 such as to be extremely objectionable."! 
 
 Mr. Thackrah allows the labour of the mills to be 
 light, and not unhealthful, except from being too long 
 continued, and Dr. Kay states that it is well remune- 
 rated ; the picture given by the former of the appearance 
 of the operatives, and that given by the latter of their 
 toil, seem to me highly coloured, as indeed has been 
 abundantly proved of one part of Dr. Kay's description. 
 I proceed to adduce opinions and conclusions of a very 
 different nature, given by medical men, by tlie Factory 
 Commissioners and Inspectors, and by the operatives 
 themselves. 
 
 Dr. Mitchell, the actuary, of London, to whom the 
 returns obtained by the Factory Commissioners were sub- 
 mitted, drew up tables of sickness from them, and com- 
 pared them with the results of similar inquiries made 
 amongst the workmen in the employment of the East 
 India Company — a very favourable specimen of work- 
 men, — amongst the workmen at the government dock 
 
 • Dr. Kay on the Condition of the Working Classes of Manchester, pp. 24-20. 
 t Ibid. p. 80. 
 
 3 N 
 
466 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 yards, and the children at Cluist's Hospital, After 
 stating the results in a tabidar form, he expresses the 
 follo^ving opinion on the whole : — 
 
 " Taking all in all, from the documents brought 
 before me, / have seen no grounds for warranting me in 
 believing that factory labour in any material degree dif- 
 fers in its effects on health from other labour ; and at 
 all events, the results ascertained from this long and 
 laborious investigation appear to me to afford ananswer- 
 able evidence that the laudatory and condemnatory 
 exaggerations of both parties are alike unfounded in 
 truth."* 
 
 I extract from Dr. Mitchell's report the tables shew- 
 ing the sickness in the cotton factories of Lancashii'e and 
 Glasgow, and, for the purpose of comparison, those 
 shewing the sickness in the woollen factories of the 
 north of England, and among the workmen in tlie 
 employ of the East India Company : — 
 
 *• Supplem. Report of Factory Commissioners, parti, p. 61. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 467 
 
 Sickness in the, Cotton Factories, Lancashire. 
 
 
 MALES. 
 
 FEMALES. 
 
 AGE. 
 
 Average 
 
 Duration of 
 
 Sickness per 
 
 Annum for 
 
 every Person 
 
 employed. 
 
 Average 
 Duration of 
 Sickness per 
 
 Annum for 
 
 every Person 
 
 sick. 
 
 Average 
 Duration of 
 Sickness per 
 Annum for 
 every Person 
 employed. 
 
 Average 
 
 Duration of 
 
 Sickness per 
 
 Annum for 
 
 every Person 
 
 sick. 
 
 
 Days and 
 Decimal Parts. 
 
 Days and 
 Decimal Parts. 
 
 Days and 
 Decimal Parts. 
 
 Days end 
 Decimal Paris. 
 
 Under U 
 
 2.46 
 
 13.04 
 
 8.03 
 
 
 From 1 1 to 16 
 
 3.SI 
 
 1458 
 
 4.25 
 
 11.98 
 
 16 to 21 
 
 4.42 
 
 16.43 
 
 5.56 
 
 12.63 
 
 21 to 26 
 
 4.91 
 
 18.27 
 
 6.85 
 
 16.42 
 
 26 to 31 
 
 6.88 
 
 22.14 
 
 8.62 
 
 18.51 
 
 31 to 36 
 
 3.8,5 
 
 12.19 
 
 9.29 
 
 21.77 
 
 36 to 41 
 
 4.13 
 
 13.75 
 
 C.16 
 
 19.19 
 
 41 to 46 
 
 5.09 
 
 14.25 
 
 14.67 
 
 14.41 
 
 46 to 51 
 
 7.18 
 
 30.31 
 
 20.34 
 
 26.43 
 
 51 to 56 
 
 3.47 
 
 13.10 
 
 15.75 
 
 21.00 
 
 56 to 61 
 
 12.68 
 
 11.5 
 
 15.75 
 
 21.00 
 
 Sickness in Cotton Factories, Glasgow, &c. 
 
 Under 11 
 
 1.01 
 
 3.61 1 
 
 2.63 
 
 14.90 
 
 From 11 to 16 
 
 4.80 
 
 12.35 
 
 6.18 
 
 13.81 
 
 16 to 21 
 
 5.52 
 
 17.14 
 
 0.3S 
 
 15.54 
 
 21 to 26 
 
 9.11 
 
 20.12 
 
 8.16 
 
 18.96 
 
 26 to 31 
 
 7.0.> 
 
 16.05 
 
 7.38 
 
 19.81 
 
 31 to 36 
 
 7.05 
 
 16.93 
 
 6.05 
 
 13.05 
 
 36 to 41 
 
 8.50 
 
 22.58 
 
 4.16 
 
 16.00 
 
 41 to 46 
 
 5.12 
 
 16.41 
 
 11 94 
 
 20.36 
 
 46 to 51 
 
 4.84 
 
 20.57 
 
 11.72 
 
 40.60 
 
 51 to 56 
 
 4.911 
 
 16.41 
 
 16.50 
 
 25.85 
 
 56 to 61 
 
 3.27 
 
 8-84 
 
 15.0 
 
 30.2 
 
 Sickness in the Wool Factories, North of England. 
 
 Under 11 
 
 2.01 
 
 11.75 
 
 1 8.90 
 
 35.32 
 
 From 1 1 to 16 
 
 3..)9 
 
 11.04 
 
 6.40 
 
 14.84 
 
 16 to 21 
 
 5.31 
 
 17.14 
 
 6.98 
 
 1996 
 
 21 to 26 
 
 7.42 
 
 19.97 
 
 13.70 
 
 29.34 
 
 26 to 31 
 
 10.n3 
 
 25.25 
 
 13.54 
 
 30.53 
 
 31 to 36 
 
 7.01 
 
 21.85 
 
 22..52 
 
 50.85 
 
 36 to 41 
 
 5.43 
 
 15.37 
 
 15.21 
 
 24.75 
 
 41 to 46 
 
 10.56 
 
 23.88 
 
 8.42 
 
 26.90 
 
 46 to 51 
 
 12.90 
 
 35.46 
 
 19.16 
 
 40.83 
 
 51 to 56 
 
 7.49 
 
 21.76 
 
 12. 
 
 22 00 
 
 56 to 61 
 
 5.19 
 
 41.8 
 
 126.00 
 
 126.00 
 
468 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Sickness of the Labourers in the Service of the 
 East India Company. 
 
 Age. 
 
 Average duration 
 of sickness per 
 
 annum for every 
 man employed. 
 
 Average duration 
 of sickness for 
 every mau sick. 
 
 
 Days and decimal 
 parts. 
 
 Da;/B and decimal 
 parts. 
 
 16 to 21 
 
 402 
 
 13-96 
 
 21 — 20 
 
 5-40 
 
 17-22 
 
 26 — 31 
 
 4-43 
 
 20-18 
 
 31 —36 
 
 4-55 
 
 21-44 
 
 36 — 41 
 
 5-57 
 
 28-84 
 
 41 —46 
 
 518 
 
 22-83 
 
 46 — 51 
 
 5-43 
 
 23-59 
 
 51 —^6 
 
 6-80 
 
 28-61 
 
 56 — 61 
 
 7-21 
 
 28-28 
 
 61 — 66 
 
 10 24 
 
 31-25 
 
 66 — 71 
 
 0-93 
 
 26-89 
 
 71 — 76 
 
 10-60 
 
 29-67 
 
 76 — 81 
 
 12-67 
 
 38-88 
 
 Dr. Bissett Hawkins, one of the medical gentlemen on 
 the Factory Commission, circulated a series of questions 
 among the most experienced medical men in Man- 
 chester, Preston, Derby, and Knutsford;* and the 
 ansAvers to these questions are given in his report.f To 
 the question — 
 
 • The medical men who replied to the queries were — (in Manchester) 
 S. A. Bardsley, M.D., James L. Bardsley, M.D. Physician to the Infirmary, &c., 
 John Alexander, M.D. of the Dispensary for Children, John Mitchell, M.D., 
 Mr. Thomas Fawdington, Mr. W. R. Whatton, Mr. Robert Mann, C. Phillips, M.D., 
 Charles Henry, M.D., George Shaw, M.D. Physician to the Salford Dispensary, 
 Edward Carbutt, M.D. Physician to the Infirmary, J. D. Hulme, M.D., Edward 
 Lyon, M. D. Mr. Roberton, Thomas Jarrold, M. D. and Mr. J. Boutflower, jun. 
 (in Preston,) Mr. James Harrison, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Moore ; (in Derby) R. F. 
 Forester, M. D., Mr. Douglas Fox, Dr. Baker, Mr. Hill, Mr. Evans, Mr. Charles 
 Borough, and Dr. Bent; {m Knutsjord) Mr Peter Holland, 
 f Supplementary Report, part i. p. 229 — 254. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 469 
 
 "Have you observed that the persons employed in 
 factories usually attain old age /*" The majority of the 
 medical men reply in the ajfirmative : some state that 
 the factory operatives are not shorter lived than others, 
 but that they are not fit for that labour as they grow 
 old, and turn to other employments, such as keeping a 
 shop : some state that old men are seldom found in 
 factories : but Dr. Carbutt satisfactorily accounts for 
 this, by remarking that the average age of the cotton 
 factories themselves does not exceed twenty years, and 
 therefore it is very unlikely that any considerable propor- 
 tion of the operatives who work in them should be old. 
 
 " Is the mortality amongst factory children greater 
 than in other classes P" To this question, nineteen of 
 the medical mtnesses reply in the negative ; two speak 
 with hesitation, but fear the mortality is greater; one 
 only answers distinctly in the affirmative : five can give 
 no opinion. Several of the witnesses consider the 
 mortality among the factory to be less than among other 
 children. Dr. Shaw says — " I think I might go 
 further, and say that the mortality amongst factory 
 cliildren is less than amongst other working classes. 
 Factory labour is better remunerated than any other 
 kind of labour, consequently the children generally ai'e 
 better fed and lodged ; they are less exposed to the 
 vicissitudes cf climate ; greater attention is paid to 
 their comfort, at least in the silk and cotton factories of 
 Manchester, many of which I have frequently inspected." 
 Mr. Holland, who has for forty years professionally 
 attended the apprenticed cliildren at Messrs. Greg's 
 factory at Styall, in Cheshire, says, that in the last 
 twenty-two years, with an average of 90 cliildren, there 
 have been only 17 deaths, of which three died from 
 
470 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 accidental causes wholly unconnected with their work ; 
 thus reducing the deaths to 14, or about one in 140, 
 wliicli could by any possibility be attributed to causes 
 connected with factory labour. Nothing can be more 
 satisfactory than the replies to the above question. 
 
 " Are the wives of factory artisans equally prolific as 
 those of other classes?'"' Sixteen witnesses answer 
 affirmatively ; only two incline to a different opinion. 
 
 " WJiat proportion do miscarriages, still births, and 
 fatal cases of pregnancy among the classes engaged in 
 factory labour bear to those occurring in other situa- 
 tions .^" Only six witnesses offer an opinion on this 
 point, of whom five (including a surgeon of the Man- 
 chester Lying-in Charity,) state that the labours of 
 factory women are equally safe with those of other 
 women. 
 
 " Are there are any diseases or accidents to which 
 factory children are particularly subject ?" Eight 
 witnesses reply in the negative, as to diseases : most of 
 them state that the children are liable to accidents from 
 machinery, though not severe, and much less frequent 
 now than formerly, owing to the general casing of the 
 machinery. Several are of opinion, that the children 
 are subject to swelled ankles, from long standing, and 
 in some instances to distortion of the knee-joint^ and 
 that a scrofulous or consumptive tendency is increased 
 by this occupation. 
 
 " Have you remarked that the factory classes are 
 more or less addicted to the use of spirits than other 
 persons of similar means P'' Nineteen witnesses reply 
 that the factory classes are not more addicted to the 
 use of spirits than others ; two, the contrary. Some 
 add the remark, that intemperance is the great bane of 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 471 
 
 the working classes, but that factory labourers, from the 
 regularity Avith wliich they must be at their work, are 
 less frequently in the public-houses and di'am-shops 
 than other classes. 
 
 " Ai^e the children of factory operatives inferior in 
 stature to those of your other classes, afid to those of the 
 inhabitants of the rural clistricts in your neighbour- 
 hood?'''' The general tenor of the replies to this ques- 
 tion is, that the children are less robust, and of some- 
 what lower stature, than children brought up in rural 
 districts, but not inferior to those living in towns and 
 differently employed. 
 
 " Has the factory life any tendency to check the 
 complete growth in those of either sex who have reached 
 the aye of puberty P'' Ten reply that it has; six, that 
 it has not. Mr. Brown says, "As examiner to the 
 recruiting service in this town, I have had abundant 
 opportunities for observation ; numbers of factory ope- 
 ratives, from the age of 18 to 24, have presented them- 
 selves for examination; but I cannot undertake to 
 say that I have been able to discover any perceptible 
 diiference of stature legitimately attributable to the 
 previous employment in which the recruit had been 
 engaged." 
 
 " Have you met with many instances in which adults 
 employed in factories have been compelled to quit their 
 employment through diseases apparently induced by their 
 occupation ?" Thirteen reply substantially in the 
 negative ; nine in the afSiTaative. 
 
 "Are the factory operatii^es more or less attentive to 
 cleanliness and ventilation in their dwellings than other 
 persons of similar means ?" Eighteen of the medical 
 men answer that they are equally or more attentive to 
 
472 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 cleanliness than other operatives; four, that tliey are 
 less so. Dr. Charles Henry, of Manchester, remarks — ' 
 " There is decidedly more comfort and cleanliness [unong 
 those who work in factories, than among that class who 
 work in their o>vn dwellings. I regard the factory ope- 
 ratives, as a body, as decidedly superior in their com- 
 mand of the comforts of life, and even of luxuries, to any 
 part of our population." Dr. Jai-rold, on the other 
 hand, says — " Women bred in factories can have no 
 domestic habits, and are consequently inattentive to 
 cleanliness. They make wi-etched wives. The door is 
 commonly open iu all classes, but seldom the window." 
 
 The sum of all this medical evidence is decidedly 
 favourable, and it completely negatives the absurd impu- 
 tations which have been cast on factory labour. It may 
 be added, that Mr. Tufnell, in his report, gives strong 
 reasons for thinking that factory labour is not unhealthy, 
 that very few instances of deformity are now found in 
 mills, and that the cases which do occur ai'e attributable 
 to the fault of the children or young persons, in stopping 
 the throstle T\'ith their knee, instead of stopping it with 
 then* hands. Formerly, distortion of the limbs was more 
 frequent, owing to the lowness of the old water-frames, 
 wliich obliged the children to stoop.* 
 
 Tlie testimony of the operatives themselves in regard 
 to their health is not unimportant. The following tables 
 were presented to the Factory Commission, as containing 
 the results of an inquiry made by a committee of the 
 master spinners, into the state of the work-people in the 
 principal mills in Manchester where fine yarn is spun. 
 A series of questions was sent to each mill, and the 
 operative spinners furnished the answers, which were 
 
 * Supplementary Report, part i. p. 200. 
 
THE COTTOxN MANUFACTURE. 
 
 473 
 
 then collated, and the results drawn out by a gentleman 
 not engaged in the manufacture, John Shuttleworth, 
 Esq. Distributor of Stamps, who swore to the accuracy of 
 his deductions. The information it contains is important 
 
 and interesting : — 
 
 Manchester Fine Mills, working Sixty-nine Hours per 
 Week. (19 Mills.) 
 
 General Statement of the Age, Time of Employment, and Health of 
 Spinners, and their Opinions respecting the Effect of Factory Labour on 
 Health, with Averages and Proportions deduced therefrom. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 fi 
 
 
 JS 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 "" 
 
 a 
 
 o — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 *« 
 
 «o 
 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 •*-* 
 
 00 
 
 
 '5. 
 
 
 a 
 ■a 
 
 ic 
 
 
 £ 
 *« 
 
 •a 
 § 
 
 c 
 
 P^ 
 
 rt " 
 
 ^■6 
 
 ■""•a 
 
 ^ a 
 
 
 to 
 
 s 
 
 HZ 
 
 ^ 
 
 JS 
 
 >. 
 
 fS 
 
 o 
 
 £ c 
 
 5^ 
 
 2^ 
 
 553^ 
 
 XI 
 
 i 
 
 in 
 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 i 
 
 II 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 •3 
 C 
 
 1 
 
 '6^ 
 
 5 
 
 p. 
 
 3 >..2, 
 
 
 >i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 as 
 
 3i 
 
 ^s.= 
 
 837 
 
 27,367 
 
 19,133 
 
 255 
 
 6,29Gi 
 
 621 
 
 171 
 
 45 
 
 3,233 
 
 488 
 
 180 
 
 558 
 
 99 
 
 Average ages of spinners 32J years. 
 
 Average number of years 
 they have worked in 
 mills 22|do. 
 
 Proportion of spinners 
 
 absent sick in 1832 . . 30^ per cent. 
 
 Average duration of each 
 
 case of sickness . . . 24f days. 
 
 Proportion of sickness to 
 total number of spin- 
 ners 7^ days. 
 
 Proportion of spinners 
 who report they have 
 good health .... 74 per cent. 
 
 Do. do. pretty good 20i do. 
 
 Do. do. indifferent 5^ do. 
 
 Number of piecers to 
 each spinner .... 3. 85 
 
 Proportion of piecers who 
 are relatives of spin- 
 ners for whom they 
 work 15 per cent. 
 
 Opinions of Spinners as to the Health 
 of their Piecers. 
 
 Proportion who think 
 
 health is injured by 
 
 the present duration of 
 
 factory labour . . .21 ^percent 
 Proportion who think 
 
 health is not injured . 663 do. 
 Proportion who have no 
 
 opinion 12 do. 
 
 3 
 
474 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 General Statement of the Ages and Marriage of Spinners' Wives; their 
 Health, the number of Children born, the numbers alive and dead of 
 different Classes of Children, and the number Distorted and Mutilated, 
 with Averages and Proportions deduced therefrom. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Worked 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Never 
 
 Worked 
 
 in otlier 
 
 
 
 'O 
 
 
 
 
 -a 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■;3 
 
 
 
 
 
 worked. 
 
 in Mills. 
 
 employ- 
 ment. 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ;^ 
 
 3 
 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■w 
 
 •a 
 
 E 
 1-1 
 
 .0 
 E 
 
 3 
 
 °E 
 
 13 
 
 Q 
 
 < 
 
 s 
 
 >< 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 '•3 
 
 2 
 
 
 0) 
 
 1 
 
 > 
 < 
 
 1 
 
 < 
 
 ■a 
 
 
 S 
 '^ 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 
 S 
 
 ^ 
 
 to 
 
 < 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 707 
 
 15,376 
 
 28 
 
 esi 
 
 7907 
 
 419 
 
 152 
 
 108 
 
 3166 
 
 1922 
 
 1244 
 
 1225 
 
 1221 
 
 640 
 
 18 
 
 59 3 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 Proportion of spinners 
 
 married . . 84 per cent. 
 Do. unmarried . . 16 
 
 Average years of wives 
 
 when married . • . 2I5 •• 
 Proportion of wives alive 90i . . 
 Do. dead 3| . . 
 
 Average years married . 11| •• 
 Proportion of wives whose 
 husbands report them 
 to have good health .62 
 Do. pretty good . . 22^ • . 
 Do. indifferent . . 15| 
 Proportion of children to 
 
 each married spinner . 4^ children 
 
 Proportion of spinners' 
 
 children alive 61 per cent. 
 Do. dead 39 
 
 Proportion of spinners' 
 children who never 
 worked in mills, alive .50 
 Do. do. dead 50 
 
 Proportion of do. who 
 have worked in mills, 
 
 alive 97J .. 
 Do. dead 2? .. 
 
 Do. in other employments, 
 
 alive 94 . . 
 Do do. dead 6 . . 
 Propoi'tion of spinners' 
 children who are dis- 
 torted 1 in 214 
 
 Do. that have worked in 
 mills, who have been 
 mutilated by machinery 1 in 92 
 
 From these tables it appears, that 837 spinners had 
 worked in mills not less than 22f years each on the 
 average; that 74 per cent, of them stated themselves to 
 have good health, 20^ per cent, pretty good health, and 
 only 52^ per cent, indifferent health ; that of their wives 
 96i per cent, were living, and only 3| per cent, dead ; 
 ihat the averao^e number of years they had been married 
 was 1 1 i, and their average number of children in that 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 475 
 
 time 42^. The number of children distorted was only 
 one in 214. 
 
 The Factory Commissioners caused 1933 of the chil- 
 dren, whom they saw in the Sunday schools of Man- 
 chester and Stockport, to be weighed and measured: an 
 equal number were tahen Avho Avere employed in fac- 
 tories, and who were not so employed, of different 
 ages, from nine to seventeen ; and the results were as 
 follows : — 
 
 lbs. Inches. 
 
 Boys employed in factories weighed 75.175; measured 55.282 
 Boys not employed in factories weighed 7^.680 ; measured 55.563 
 Girls employed in factories weighed 74.739; measured 54.951 
 Girls not employed in factories weighed 75.049; measured 54.979 
 
 This result shews a very slight difference to the disad- 
 vantage of the cbildren employed in factories. 
 
 I may finally mention, that the four Factory Inspectors, 
 whose reports to the Home Secretary have been printed 
 by order of the House of Commons,* bear strong testi- 
 mony to the healthfulness of factory labour, or at least 
 negative the supposition that it is more unhealthful than 
 other occupations. Mr. Leonard Horner, the Inspector 
 for Scotland, the four northern counties of England, and 
 the north of Ireland, says, 
 
 " It is gratifying to be able to state, that I have not 
 had a single complaint laid before me ; either on the part 
 of the masters against their servants, or on the pait of 
 the servants against their masters ; nor have I seen or 
 heard of any instance of ill-treatment of children, or of 
 injury to their health by their employment.'' (p. 10.) 
 
 Mr. Rickards, who is the Inspector of the gi-eat manu- 
 facturing district of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, pai't 
 
 • Reports of Inspectors of Factories, Pari. Papers, No. 596; sess. 1834. 
 
476 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 of Derbjsliive, and North Wales, encloses a most satis- 
 factory letter from Mr. Harrison, surgeon, of Preston, 
 Avlio states that 1,656 children in the factories under his 
 medical superintendence had good health, and that he 
 had not met with a single instance of deformity referrible 
 to factory labour. Mr. Rickards adds — 
 
 " The general tenor of all the medical reports in my 
 possession confirms Mr. Harrison's view of the effects 
 of factory labour on the health of the younger branches 
 of working hands. It is decidedly not injurious to 
 health or longevity, compared with other employ- 
 mentsy (p. 43.) 
 
 Mr. Saunders, the inspector of the eastern, southern, 
 and part of the central and western counties of Eng- 
 land, says — 
 
 " With some few exceptions, I have much satisfaction 
 in stating, that I found the mills and factories remark- 
 ably clean, and apparently well regulated; and nothing 
 came under my notice that would lead me to suppose 
 that the operatives, whether adults, young persons, or 
 children, were unhealthy, or so severely oppressed by 
 labour, as has been strongly represented." (p. 62.) 
 
 This opinion is supported by that of Mr. Poyser, sur- 
 geon, of Wirksworth, who has the medical superin- 
 tendence of the cotton mills of Messrs. Arkwright, of 
 Cromford, and who says of the mill operatives, that 
 " their general health is usually good," and that " the 
 ratio of mortality is less in this class of people than 
 in that of tlie poor who have no fixed employment, 
 or whose occupation exposes them to the inclemency of 
 the weather." (p. 68.) 
 
 I have entered at so great length into this subject, 
 because of the extreme misrepresentations which have 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 477 
 
 been published upon it, and of the extensive effect which 
 they produced, — an effect, whicli, if not counteracted by 
 the establishment of the truth, would have caused multi- 
 tudes to look with dissatisfaction, and even horror, on 
 this great manufacture, and on the noble inventions 
 wliich have raised it into a cliief support of the national 
 prosperity. 
 
 Abuses have undoubtedly existed in cotton mills, 
 especially in employing children at too early an age, and 
 for too long hours. The legislature has properly inter- 
 fered to remedy this evil. In 1802, at the instance of 
 the late Sir Robert Peel, a law was passed, prohibiting 
 the employment of apprentices for more than twelve 
 hours a day. In 1819, the same gentleman obtained an 
 Act extending this prohibition to the labour of all children 
 under sixteen years of age, and making it illegal to 
 employ any children under nine years of age in cotton 
 factories. This law was imperatively called for, to put 
 an end to the cruel practice which then existed in many 
 mills, and to which the owners had a strong temptation, 
 of causing the children to work fourteen or sixteen hours 
 a day. Young children are proper objects of legislative 
 protection, not being themselves free agents, but under 
 the joint control of their parents and their masters; the 
 former of whom, though their natural guardians, often 
 allowed them to be over-worked for the sake of the higher 
 wages they earned. In 1 83 1 , Sir John Hobhouse brought 
 in a bill in the House of Commons, to shorten the term 
 of labour for young persons under eighteen years of age 
 in all factories to Hi hours a day, but in this object he 
 was defeated: his bill passed, but it left the term of 
 labour twelve hours, and was conjfined in its operation 
 to the cotton mills. In 1832, Mr. Sadler attempted to 
 
478 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 reduce the hours to ten per day, and Lord Asliley 
 renewed the attempt in 1833, but without success. 
 Lord Altliorp, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, justly 
 considering the subject of great importance, and also of 
 much difficulty, supported a motion by Mr. John Wilson 
 Patten, appointing the Commission which lias been several 
 tunes referred to, for the purpose of collecting informa- 
 tion in the manufacturing districts themselves relative 
 to the condition of the factory children. 
 
 On the recommendation of tlie Commissioners a bill 
 ■was drawn up, which ulthnately passed into a law, 
 (3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 103,) and of which the following 
 is the substance : — 
 
 1. That after the 1st of January, 1834, no person under 18 years of age 
 shall be allowed to work in the night, that is, between half-past eight, p.m. 
 and half-past five, a.m., in any cotton or other factor)', in which steam or 
 Tvater, or any other mechanical power, is or shall be used to propel the machi- 
 nery, excepting in lace factories. 
 
 2. That no person under 18 shall be employed more than 12 hours in one 
 day, nor more than 69 in one week. 
 
 3. That there shall be allowed, in the course of every day, not less than 
 1^ hour for meals to every person restricted to the performance of twelve 
 hours' work. 
 
 4. That after the 1st of January, 1834, no child, except in silk mills, shall 
 be employed, who shall not be nine years old. 
 
 5. That after the 1st of March, 1834, no child, except in silk mills, shall 
 be employed in any factory more than 48 hours in any one week, nor more 
 than nine hours in any day, who shall not be 11 years old ; nor after the 1st of 
 March, 1835, who shall not be 12 years old ; nor after the 1st of Jlarch, 1836, 
 who shall not be 13 years old : and that these hours of work shall not be ex- 
 ceeded even if tiie child has worked during the day in more factories than one. 
 
 G. That children and young persons whose hours of work are regulated 
 shall be entitled to two holidays and eight half-holidays in every year. 
 
 7. That children whose hours of work are restricted to nine hours a day, 
 are not to be employed Avithout obtaining a certificate from a physician or 
 surgeon, certifying that they are of the ordinary strength and appearance of 
 children of the age before mentioned, which certificate is to be countersigned 
 by some inspector or justice. 
 
 8. That it shall be lawful for his INIajesty to appoint during pleasure, 
 four persons to be inspectors of factories, with extensive powers as magistrates, 
 to examine the children employed in the factories, and to inquire respecting 
 
THE COTTON M A N U T A C T U R E. 479 
 
 their condition, employment, and education ; and that one of the secretaries of 
 state shall have power, on the applicatiori of an inspector, to appoint super- 
 intendents to superintend the execution of the Act. 
 
 9. That those inspectors are to make all rules necessary for the execution 
 of the Act, and to enforce the attendance at school, for at least two hours 
 daily, out of six days in the week, of children employed in factories, from 
 whose weekly wages a deduction not exceeding Id. in every shilling for school- 
 ing, shall be made. 
 
 10. That no child shall be employed who shall not, on Monday of every 
 week, give the factory master a certificate of his or her attendance at 
 school for the previous week. 
 
 11. That the interior walls of every mill shall be -Whitewashed every year 
 
 12. That a copy or abstract of the Act shall be hung up in a conspicuous 
 part of every mill. 
 
 13. That the inspectors shall regularly, once a year, report their proceed- 
 ings to one of the secretaries of state. 
 
 The Act also contains regulations extending the hours of work where 
 time shall be lost by the want of, or an excess of, water in mills situated upon 
 a stream of water; respecting the steps to be taken in order to obtain re- 
 gular certificates of age for the children requiring them ; respecting the 
 erection of schools where necessary ; and respecting the proceedings to be 
 had before inspectors and magistrates, for enforcing the Act, and the right to 
 appeal from their decisions. , 
 
 Some of the provisions of this Act have proved to be 
 quite impracticable. All the Inspectors declare, that 
 the clauses requiring the education of the younger chil- 
 dren, and forbidding those children to be worked more 
 than 48 hours in tlie week, that is, eight hours in the 
 day, have only had the effect of compelling the masters 
 to discharge the children between nine and eleven years 
 of age. If the Act should continue in force, all children 
 under twelve years of age would be discharged in 
 March, 1835, and this would make it impossible in 
 many cases to carry on the mills, as children above that 
 age could not be had in sufficient numbers. The In- 
 spectors, therefore, state, that the Act must be amended 
 in these respects, and there can be no doubt that this 
 amendment will take place next session. It is found 
 impossible to compel the education of the children, and 
 the attempt to do it has only produced hardship to tliem 
 
4S0 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 and their parents, from the number who have lost theh' 
 employment. The commissioners had hoped that the 
 mauulactiirers might obtain relays of children, each set 
 working not more than eight hours a day, whilst those 
 aboye 13 years of age worked twelve hours. But 
 neitlier can the chikh'en be obtained, nor Anil tlie masters 
 submit to the inconvenience caused by the chano^e of 
 hands. Mr. Richards, Mr. Saunders, and Mr. Howell, 
 the Inspectors, are of opinion that children of ten 
 years of age may be properly allowed to work twelve 
 hours a day ; but Mr. Horner would fix eleven as 
 the ag-e under which children should not be allowed to 
 work those hours. 
 
 Feeling most sensibly the importance of education to 
 the working classes, and the undesirableness of working 
 cliildren at a tender age, I am yet convinced that very 
 many of the poor have not the means either of educating 
 their children, or of supporting them in idleness ; and 
 that, therefore, to forbid the admission of such cliildren 
 into mills is, in fact, to consign them to the streets, and 
 to depiive them of that food which tlieir work might 
 procure. By fixing the limitation too low, great hard- 
 ship is inflicted on the working classes : it is an ill- 
 judging humanity, which defeats its own end. More- 
 over, all restrictions on industry sliould be imposed with 
 a delicate and cautious hand. England has manufac- 
 turing rivals ;* and if parliament were, from a false 
 
 • To show the danger of too great an interference with industry, it may be 
 stated that the French cotton mills work fourteen and a half or fifteen hours a 
 day, according to M. Mimerel, the cotton spinner, who was delegated by the 
 chambers of commerce of Lille, Roubaix, and Turcoing, to give evidence before 
 the Commission of Inquiry instituted by the French government, (in November, 
 1834.) Children of eight, and even of six years old, work these hours. Mr. 
 Bannatyne informs us, that in Switzerland the working hours at the cotton mills 
 a-re fourteen hours a day, and in the Rhenish provinces of Prussia they are fifteen 
 or sixteen. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 481 
 
 liumanity, to limit the persevering industry of our 
 workmen, one of our principal advantages over other 
 nations would be sacrificed, and the labourers themselves 
 would be the greatest sufferers. It may be justifiable to 
 forbid children below ten years of age working 12 hours 
 a day: but when the extreme lightness of the work, the 
 necessities of the working classes, and the prosperity of 
 the trade by which they live, are considered, it appears to 
 me undesirable and dangerous to fix any higher limit. 
 
 It has been alleged that great immorality prevails 
 among factory operatives, owing to young persons of 
 both sexes being thrown so much together. The 
 morality or immorality of the operatives must be af- 
 fected by the character of the masters and overlookers, 
 and by theii' negligence or care in watching the conduct 
 of those under them. It is to be feared that licentious- 
 ness prevails in some mills, yet this is certainly very far 
 from general. Mr. Tufuell made particular inquiiies 
 on this point, and he declares that " the whole current of 
 testimony goes to prove that the charges made against 
 cotton factories, on the gTOund of immorality, are calum- 
 nies."* He examined several clergymen and mi- 
 nisters of religion, who concurred in representing the 
 morals of factory operatives to be quite as good as those 
 of other work-people. Great numbers of the factory 
 workers attend Sunday-schools, either as teachers or 
 learners.f Several of the female teachers in the Stock- 
 port Sunday-school, who work in factories, and whose 
 own characters are above all suspicion, stated that the 
 factory females in general were quite as moral as those 
 
 * Supplementary Report of Factory Commissioners, part i. p. 201. 
 
 t Mr. Holland Hoole, in a " Letter to Lord Althorp, in Defence of Cotton 
 Factories," states, that in his mill there are 7G8 persons of all ages, of whom 
 " 298 attend Sunday-schools, without any influence or inducement on the part of 
 their employers, and 41 of them are teachers in these schools." — p. S. 
 
 3p 
 
482 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 ill other occupations. From a return given by Mr. 
 Tufnell, it would appear that four times as many 
 illegitimate children are born among the females who 
 do not attend factories in Stockport, as among those 
 who do, in proportion to their numbers. It may be 
 feared that this proportion would not generally hold. 
 There cannot be a doubt that the master is to blame, 
 where any great immorality prevails in a mill. 
 
 It were earnestly to be wished that master manufac- 
 turers were generally alive to the great influence which 
 they possess, and to the responsibility which conse- 
 quently rests upon them. On their regulations, much 
 of the health, the morals, and the comfort of their work- 
 people depends. If a medical man were engaged to pay 
 a weekly visit to every mill, which would be a trivial 
 expense, it would be impossible for any child to grow 
 deformed, or for a person of any age to work himself 
 into disease, because the evil would be checked in its 
 origin. If immorality were punished by dismission, as 
 it might be with great propriety, a most powerful check 
 to vice would be established. If the children were 
 encouraged to attend Sunday schools, they would gene- 
 rally attend them. 
 
 The factory system is not to be judged as though it 
 were insusceptible of improvement. Much has been 
 done to improve it of late years. More may still be 
 done. There are not a few mills in Lancasliire, York- 
 shire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Scotland, where ven- 
 tilation, cleanliness, and even neatness, are enforced, 
 gi-eatly to the advantage both of the master and of 
 the workmen ; where strict regulations exist against 
 immorality of conduct or language ; where schools are 
 taught, in which every child employed in the manu- 
 factory receives instruction, and where the girls 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 483 
 
 leani sewing and knitting; where tliere are libraries 
 for the use of the work-people, and rewards for the 
 children who attend Sunday schools ; where there are 
 benefit societies, which afford relief to the subscribers in 
 sickness or in misfortune ; and where medical men are 
 employed to inspect the workpeople weekly. No man 
 can reflect on tlie matter without perceiving, tliat a 
 humane, religious, and intelligent manufacturer has the 
 power of bringing to beai* on his Avorkpeople a variety of 
 strong inducements to virtue and industry ; — that by an 
 apparatus of means like those above mentioned, by tlie 
 appointment of steady overlookers, and by his own 
 \4gilant superintendence, much, very much, might be 
 done to make a factory rather a school of virtue than of 
 vice. If it be contended, that a mere sordid cupidity 
 actuates the manufacturers, and that they will never be 
 induced to take these measures for the improvement of 
 their operatives ; I reply, that the mill-owners are 
 neither more under the influence of avarice, nor less 
 under the influence of better motives, than any other 
 class of men. On the contrary, many of them are men 
 of enlarged minds and humane feelings ; most of them 
 have the means of instituting these improvements, which 
 would require but a trifling expenditure ; and nearly all, 
 from their very habits of business, are accustomed to 
 those extended views and calculations, which enable 
 them to look forward with confidence to a distant advan- 
 tage from an immediate outlay. Some from benevo- 
 lence, some from emulation, some from shame, and 
 more, perhaps, than all from a conviction that it would 
 actually tend to profit, may follow the examples already 
 set; and in ten or twenty years hence, the factories 
 of England may be as much improved in the moral 
 
484 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 character of their operatives, as they have heeii in times 
 past in the beauty and efficiency of their machinery. 
 Tliat it is the imperative duty of masters to use all the 
 means they possess of benefiting and improving those 
 who are under their control, no man of correct 
 principles can doubt ; and I believe the conviction is 
 strengthening and spreading, that it is eminently the 
 interest of a manufacturer to have a moral, sober, well- 
 informed, healthy, and comfortable body of workmen. 
 
 It would be impossible to enter into a particular 
 investigation of the numerous kinds of labour requisite 
 to the completion of the manufacture, as to their rate 
 of remuneration, their healthfulness, and the physical 
 and moral condition of the workmen. It has already 
 been remarked, that the calico printers, bleachers, dyers, 
 engravers, calenderers, and various classes of mecha- 
 nics, earn excellent wages, and, of course, have a great 
 command of the necessaries and comforts of life. As a 
 general remark, it may be said that their wages are 
 proportioned to the skill, care, and exertion required 
 from them. Their state of health and morals does not 
 differ from those of other classes of artisans and la- 
 bourers whose employments resemble theirs. 
 
 The hand-loom weavers, however, form so numerous 
 a class, and are in a condition so diffei'ent from all other 
 labourers employed on cotton, that they call for a distinct 
 notice. This is the only class whose implements of 
 labour have undergone scarcely any improvement for the 
 last seventy years, and it is the only class that has sunk 
 into distress and degradation. A new mode of weav- 
 ing has indeed been invented, but this class adheres to 
 the old. It has been seen that the power-loom weavers 
 are in circumstances of great comfort, but the hand- 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 485 
 
 loom weavers earn miserably low wages, and are in a 
 state perhaps below that of any other class of labourers 
 in tlie country. There is, however, a distinction to be 
 made among tlie hand-loom weavers, according to the 
 kind of goods on which they are employed. Those 
 employed in weaving fancy articles, which require skill 
 and care, and in weaving quiltings, which require 
 strength as well as care, obtain much better wages than 
 the weavers of plain goods, which require very little 
 strength or skill. It is only the latter whose state is so 
 utterly deplorable. 
 
 " The hand-loom weavers," says Dr. Kay, speak- 
 ing of those living in Manchester, "labour fourteen 
 hours and upwards daily, and earn only from five to 
 seven or eight shillings per week. They consist chiefly 
 of Irish, and are affected by all the causes of moral and 
 physical depression Avliich we have enumerated. Ill- 
 fed, ill-clothed, half-sheltered, and ignorant — weaving 
 in close, damp cellars, or crowded, ill-ventilated work- 
 shops — it only remains that they should become, as is 
 too frequently the case, demoralized and reckless, to 
 render perfect the portraiture of savage life." The 
 statement that the weavers work fourteen or sixteen 
 hours per day lias been so often made, that it is 
 now generally believed. The fact, however, is, that 
 they work these long hours only two or three days 
 in the week, and they generally, notwithstanding their 
 poverty, spend one or two days in idleness ; their 
 week's labour seldom exceeds fifty -six or fifty - 
 eight hours,* whilst that of the spinners is sixty- 
 nine hours. This irregularity on the part of the weavers 
 
 • The weavers themselves admit that ten hours and a half a day is considered 
 by them " hard work :" Richard Needham and William Pilling, weavers, of Bol- 
 ton, stated this to the Committee on Manufactures, &c. (Report, p. 700.) The 
 
486 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 is to be ascribed in some degree to the wearisome 
 monotony of their labour, from which they seek refuge 
 in company and amusement; and also to their degraded 
 condition, which makes them reckless and impro- 
 vident. 
 
 The weekly wages of several classes of hand-loom 
 cotton weavers, in each year from 1810 to 1825, has been 
 given in a table at p. 438 ; and their wages in 1832 
 are given in a table at p. 439. The former states the 
 wages of the weavers of calicoes at the astonisliingly low 
 rate of 4s. 3d. in the year 1825 ; but these goods were 
 chiefly woven by women and children. The latter 
 table does not mention the prices paid for calicoes ; but 
 it shews that in 1832, the average wages for weaving 
 common checks, common nankeens, and cambrics, all of 
 which are woven principally by women and children, 
 were from 6s, to 6s. 6d., 7s., and 8s. ; the wages for 
 fancy checks, woven by men, were 7s. to 7s. 6d. ; and 
 for fancy nankeens and quiltings, from 9s. to 12s., 13s., 
 and even 15s. Mr. George Smith, of the firm of James 
 Massey and Son, of Manchester, gave evidence before 
 the Committee of the House of Commons on Manufac- 
 tures, Commerce, &c., in July, 1833, that the weavers 
 of calicoes in the neighbourhood of Burnley and Colne 
 earned little more than 4s. per week net wages : these, 
 however, were almost all children : of the whole immber 
 of hand-loom cotton weavers in the kingdom, which he 
 estimated at 200,000, he supposed that 30,000 earned 
 this low rate of wages ; whilst the remaining 1 70,000 
 would only earn 6s. or 7s. a week : in the neighbour- 
 same account of the duration of their day's labour was given oy Mr. Joshua 
 jVIilne, of Cronipton, as on the authority of the weavers themselves, (p. 659.) 
 Mr. James Grimshaw, of Barrow ford, stated the working hours of the weaveis la 
 be sixty hours per week. (p. GOO.) 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 487 
 
 liood of Manchester he thought the average would be 
 7s.* Mr. Jolm Makin, a manufacturer, of Bolton, stated 
 before the Committee of the Commons on Hand-loom 
 Weavers, in July, 1834, that a weaver of the kind of 
 cambric most commonly produced there, namely, a six- 
 quarter 60-reed cambric, 120 shoots of weft in an inch, 
 could only weave one piece in a week, the gross wages 
 for wliich were 5s. 6d. — subject to a deduction of about 
 Is. 4d.| Hugh Mackenzie, a hand-loom weaver of 
 Glasgow, informed the same Committee that the average 
 net wages of the weavers of plain goods in that city 
 and neighbourhood would scarcely amount to 5s. per 
 week.;^ Mr. William Craig, a manufacturer of hand- 
 kerchiefs and ginghams at Glasgow, stated the net 
 wages of weavers in that department to be 4s, 6d. to 5s. 
 a week ;§ and Mr. Thomas Davidson, a manufacturer of 
 fancy lappet goods in that city, stated the wages of the 
 plain weavers to be from 5s. to 5s. 6d. net on the 
 average, and that the plain weavers were two-thirds or 
 three-fourths of all the hand-loom weavers in Scotland, 
 whilst the remaining one-third or one-fourth earned on an 
 average about 8s. a week.|| On the proceedings of the 
 Committee on Hand-loom Weavers, it may be observed, 
 that the selection of the Avitnesses, and the mode of 
 examining them, shew some disposition to make out a 
 case; and the most unfavourable view of the weavers' 
 condition is presented. 
 
 The folloAAing statement, drawn up by Dr. Cleland 
 for the Board of Trade, appears in the " Tables of 
 Revenue,'"&c., for 1832, (part i. p. 107) :— 
 
 • Report, pp. 562, 567. t Report, Q. 4498, 5006. J Report, Q. 677 
 
 § Ibid, a 1314. II Ibid. Q. 2102, 2121. 
 
488 
 
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THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 489 
 
 The rapid declension in the wages of weaving is 
 shown by the following tables, the first of wliich was 
 given in to the Committee of the Hand-loom Weavers by 
 Mr. Makiii, of Bolton ;* and to the Committee on Manu- 
 factures by Richard Needham, a weaver, of Bolton: — t 
 
 Wages paid for Weaving a Six-Quarter 60-Reed Cambric, 120 picks in one 
 incli, in Bolton. 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 WAGES. 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 WAGES. 
 
 «. d. 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 WAGES. 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 WAGES. 
 
 
 S. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 
 .V. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 1795 
 
 33 
 
 3 
 
 1805 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 1815 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 1825 
 
 8 6 
 
 1796 
 
 33 
 
 3 
 
 1806 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 1816 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 1826 
 
 7 
 
 1797 
 
 29 
 
 
 
 1807 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 1817 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 1827 
 
 6 6 
 
 1798 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 1808 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 1818 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 1828 
 
 6 
 
 1799 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 1809 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 1819 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 1829 
 
 5 6 
 
 1800 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 1810 
 
 19 
 
 6 
 
 1820 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 1830 
 
 5 6 
 
 1801 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 1811 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 1821 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 1831 
 
 5 6 
 
 1802 
 
 29 
 
 
 
 1812 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 1822 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 1832 
 
 5 6 
 
 1803 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 1813 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 1823 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 1833 
 
 5 6 
 
 1804 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 1814 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 1824 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 1834 
 
 5 6 + 
 
 Another table of the wages paid for weaving an 
 ordinary kind of calico, furnished by Mr. Geo. Smith, 
 of Manchester, to the Committee on Manufactures, &c., 
 irom his father's books, shews the same rapid declen- 
 sion :§ — 
 
 • Report, Q. 5032. t Report, p. 699. 
 
 X After making deductions for expenses, the clear wages of tlie weaver are 
 only 4s. lid. per week. 
 ^ Report, p. 564. 
 
 3q 
 
490 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Wages paid for Weaving the 2d quality of 74's Calico, in the Neighbourhood 
 of Burnley and Skjpton. 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 WAGES. 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 WAGES. 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 WAGES. 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 WAGES. 
 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 . d. 
 
 
 S. d. 
 
 
 S. 
 
 d. 
 
 1802 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 1810 
 
 6 2 
 
 1818 
 
 3 3 
 
 1S26 
 
 
 3 
 
 1803 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 1811 
 
 3 9 
 
 1819 
 
 2 5 
 
 1827 
 
 
 5 
 
 1804 
 
 C 
 
 
 
 1812 
 
 4 7 
 
 1820 
 
 2 7 
 
 1828 
 
 
 8 
 
 1805 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 1813 
 
 5 7 
 
 1821 
 
 3 2 
 
 1829 
 
 
 1 
 
 1806 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 1814 
 
 5 10 
 
 1822 
 
 2 7 
 
 1830 
 
 
 5 
 
 1807 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 1815 
 
 4 1 
 
 1823 
 
 2 2j 
 
 1831 
 
 
 7 
 
 1808 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 1816 
 
 2 10 
 
 1824 
 
 1 10 
 
 1832 
 
 
 h 
 
 1809 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 1817 
 
 2 8 
 
 1825 
 
 2 2i 
 
 1833 
 
 
 44 
 
 The witness added, that the cloth was two inches 
 narrower now than in 1802, and that a loom will turn 
 out more pieces now than it would then, as the yai-n is 
 now delivered out to the weaver sized, which was not 
 the case formerly. This last observation applies to most 
 other kinds of weaving. It must also be constantly 
 borne in mind, that the wages paid during the war were 
 in a depreciated currency, and that they are now paid 
 in a currency of full value : this makes a considerable 
 difference in the price of pro^-isions, clotliing, &c., of 
 which a greater quantity may be obtained for the same 
 money. 
 
 These tables naturally draw our attention to the 
 occasions on which the ojreat fall in the wages of weav- 
 ers took place, and to the immediate causes of that 
 fall. It may first be observed, that the wages of weav- 
 ing had previously risen even more rapidly than they 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 491 
 
 afterwards fell. Before the invention of the fly-shuttle 
 and the spinning machines, the weavers' wages were very- 
 moderate ; and when the greater difficulty of weaving 
 without the fly-shuttle, and the greater strength required 
 by the coarse goods then made, are considered, it may 
 be doubted whether the weavers then earned higfher 
 wages in proportion to their labour than at present. 
 The fly-slmttle, which enabled a weaver to turn out 
 twice as many webs as before, was the first cause of a 
 material improvement in wages. As the price of goods 
 did not fall in proportion to the increased facility of 
 production, the weaver gained considerably by the in- 
 vention. Then came, in rapid succession, the grand 
 inventions of the spinning jenny, the water-frame, and 
 the mule, which caused the unparalleled extension of 
 the manufacture w^e have already seen, and enabled the 
 cotton weavers to produce a great variety of delicate 
 fabrics before unknown to their looms. Calicoes, mus- 
 lins, cambrics, nankeens, and many other tissues, began 
 to be woven in England, and as they could be afforded 
 much below the prices formerly paid for the Indian 
 goods of those qualities, the demand for them was great 
 and urgent ; weavers were in the utmost request, and 
 their wages rose to a rate exceeding those of any other 
 class of workmen : common weavers, of steady and 
 industrious habits, soon rose into manufacturers, and 
 many fortunes were made at the loom. Tliis induced 
 multitudes to learn the trade, and it continued to attract 
 hands long after the demand was satisfied. An em- 
 ployment so easily learnt, and so handsomely remu- 
 nerated, became ine\dtably surcharged with labourers. 
 Then came the reaction. Wages must have fallen even 
 TNith an unvarying trade : but at every shock which the 
 
492 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 raauufacture received from external or internal circum- 
 stances, a great and sudden decline took place, which, 
 from the constant pressure of a surplus body of labourers, 
 could never be recovered. From 1795 to 1807, as 
 will be seen by the above tables, wages gradually 
 receded; notwithstanding a depreciating currency, except 
 in the year 1802, when the peace of Amiens opened 
 the markets of Europe for a short space to English 
 commodities. The year 1808 was that of the American 
 embargo, when an extremely small supply of cotton 
 reached this country, and thousands of weavers were 
 thrown out of employment. Hence the price of weaving 
 calicoes fell from 4s. 9d. in 1807, to 2s. 9d. in 1808.* 
 The revival of trade, the flush of paper money, and 
 the famine price of corn, raised wages again; and they 
 were sustained by the re-opening of the continental 
 markets, and the quantities of English goods poured in 
 upon them. In the year 1814, the national fever was 
 at its height. Before 1816, all its debilitating conse- 
 quences were felt. The foreign markets were glutted ; 
 the merchants received no returns ; the exchanges fell ; 
 government issued no more orders to the manufacturers ; 
 the American war closed to us a large market, and 
 
 * In the year 1808, Mr. William Radcliffe, the joint inventor of the dressing 
 machine, gave evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons, appointed 
 to inquire into the claims of the Rev. Dr. Cartwright to a parliamentary grant for 
 the invention of the power-loom ; when he gave the following statement in 
 writing : — " To that part of your question, whether I think the general adoption 
 of the loom by power will operate to the prejudice of the weavers in the old way ? 
 I answer, No. In the first place, their situation for the last twelve or eighteen 
 months has been such, that it cannot be made worse, as, during this time, generally 
 speaking, they have neither been able to pay rents or buy themselves clothes ; 
 all their earnings have barely been sufficient to keep them alive; and those who 
 have families to support are obliged to work from 16 to 18 hours in the day to do 
 this." — Radcliffe's Origin of Power- Loom Weaving, p. 50. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 493 
 
 deprived us of the supply of cotton-wool ; the Bank of 
 England rapidly contracted its issues ; the paper-bubble 
 burst; banks and commercial men failed in fearful 
 numbers; a wretched harvest plunged the farmers into 
 alarm and distress ; and many of the disbanded soldiers 
 and sailors, turning to the loom as the easiest trade they 
 could learn, came into competition with the weavers. 
 Under tlie accumulated disasters of this crisis, the 
 weavers received their severest blow. The wages of 
 cambric weavers fell from 24s. in 1814 to 12s. in 1816, 
 and those of calico weavers from 5s. lOd. in the former 
 year to 2s. lOd. in the latter. Before they could in 
 any degree recover, the power-loom rose into formidable 
 competition witli the hand-loom. The commercial crisis 
 of 1825-6 was the final calamity. And thus, under 
 reiterated strokes, the hand-loom weavers have been 
 pressed down, and have never, till within the last two 
 years, had even a glimpse of improvement. During 
 that time their wages have risen about 10 or 15 per 
 cent., but the weavers still remain the most depressed 
 and degraded class of English labourers. 
 
 These were the occasions and direct causes of the 
 lamentable fall in weavers' wages; but their effects could 
 not have been so serious if there had not been pei'ma- 
 nent causes, belonging to the nature of the employment 
 itself. Of these, the first and grand cause is, the easy 
 nature of the employment. The weaving of calicoes is 
 one of the simplest of manual operations, understood in 
 a few moments, and completely learnt in a few weeks. 
 It requires so little strength or skill, that a child eight 
 or ten years of age may practise it.^' A man brought 
 
 * Before the Cominittee on Manufactures, Commerce, &c. Mr. James Grimsliaw, 
 manufacturer, of Barrowford, near Colne, when asked — " What would be the age 
 
494 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 up to any otlier employment may also very shortly learn 
 to weave. From the facility of learning the trade, and 
 from its being carried on under the weaver's own roof, 
 he naturally teaches liis cliildren to weave as soon as 
 they can tread the treadles, if he cannot obtain places 
 for them in a factory. Thus they begin at a very early 
 age to add to the earnings of the family, and the wife 
 also toils in the same way to increase their scanty 
 pittance. But it is obvious that that wliich is only a 
 child's labour, can be remunerated only by a child's 
 wages. There are large departments of hand-loom 
 weaving which are almost entirely given up to women 
 and children, and thek wages go far to regulate all the 
 rest. The men, where they are able, procure better 
 kinds of work; and where they are not able, they must 
 put up with the most paltry earnings. 
 
 The second cause for the low wages of weavers is, 
 that theu' employment is in some respects more agree- 
 able, as laying them under less restraint than factory 
 labour. Being carried on in their own cottages, their 
 time is at their own command : they may begin and 
 leave off Avork at their pleasure : they are not bound 
 punctually to obey the summons of the factory bell: if 
 they are so disposed, they can quit their loom for the 
 public-house, or to lounge in the street, or to accept 
 some other job, and then, when urged by necessity, they 
 
 of the youngest person working in such a family ?" replied, " I know there are 
 plenty of weavers' children who begin to weave as young as eight years, by 
 weaving alongside the father, and the father comes to regulate it if any thing goes 
 amiss." " Then it is within your knowledge that a child of eight years is actually 
 employed in managing a loom ? A very common case." — Report, p. 601. Mr. Geo. 
 Smith informed the same Committee that children began to weave at ten to twelve 
 years old. p. 56^. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 495 
 
 may make up for lost time by a great exertion.* In 
 short, they are more independent than factory operatives; 
 they are their own masters ; they receive their materials, 
 and sometimes do not talve back the web for several 
 weeks; and — Avhat is a lamentable, but far too common 
 occurrence — they have the power, in case of urgent 
 necessity or strong temptation, to embezzle a few cops 
 of their employers' weft in order to buy bread or ale.f 
 All this makes the weaver's occupation more seductive 
 to men of idle, in'egular, and dissipated habits, than 
 other occupations. It is a dear-bought, miserable liberty, 
 but, like poaching or smuggling, it is more congenial to 
 some tastes than working under precise restrictions for 
 twice the remuneration. The mention of this unques- 
 tionable fact by no means implies a charge against the 
 weavers, that they are all of loose habits and morals; but 
 it helps to account for many continuing at the loom, 
 notwithstanding the ^vTetcheduess of their circum- 
 stances. 
 
 A third cause for the low wages of hand-loom weavers 
 is, the surplus of hands, which there is now, or was for a 
 long time, in the employment. This arises in part out 
 of the two former causes. The families of the weavers 
 themselves would keep up a full supply of workmen ; but 
 
 • This cause is assigned by Mr. John Kingan, manufacturer, of Glasgow, in 
 his evidence before the Committee on Hand-loom Weavers; Q. 165. 
 
 f This embezzlement is to a deplorable extent: Mr. Makin, of Bolton, assigned 
 it as one considerable cause of the depression of wages: the embezzled yarn is 
 bartered for drink at the public-house, or sold directly to disreputable persons, who 
 manufacture goods from it, and undersell the respectable manufacturer. The latter 
 is compelled to lower his wages, that he may not be driven out of the market, and 
 thus the fraud of the weavers increases their own suffering. — Report of Hand-loom 
 Weavers' Committee Q. 5030. 
 
496 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 others, who are destitute, take up the occupation, espe- 
 cially the Irish, who have heen compelled or tempted to 
 come to Great Britain. Many of these have been linen 
 weavers, who have lost their employment, from the use 
 of linen having heen in some degree superseded by calico 
 shirting and sheeting w^oven by the power-loom.* Large 
 colonies of Irish are settled in Manchester, Glasgow, and 
 other manufacturing towns. Accustomed to a wretched 
 mode of living in their own country, they are contented 
 with wages which would starve an English labourer; 
 unless indeed it have the effect, as seems too probable, 
 of di'agging many of the English down to their own 
 level. 
 
 On this third cause, however, it is necessary to explain 
 and qualify. The fact of a present redundancy of labour 
 at the hand-loom, though generally believed, is by no 
 means certain. The evidence before the two committees 
 of the House of Commons, on Manufactures, &c. in 
 1833, and on Hand-loom Weavers in 1834, fully 
 proves that neither in Lancashire nor in Scotland is 
 there any number of weavers unemployed. Hugh Mac- 
 kenzie, in answer to the question — " Is there sufficient 
 employment in the muslin line?" replied — " In the city 
 of Glasgow there lately was an apparent shade of dul- 
 ness; but there is not a hand going idle that I know of."t 
 Mr. Makin, of Bolton, said, " Their wages are lower 
 than ever I have known them at any former period ; their 
 employment is complete; I do not suppose that there 
 is or needs to be one weaver out of employment, and 
 
 * Evidence of Mr. W. Craig, of Glasgow, before the Committee on Hand-loom 
 Weavers; Q. 1354, 1358. 
 
 t Report on Hand-loom Weavers; Q. 665. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 497 
 
 that has been the case for the last tliree or four years."* 
 Tlie same manufacturer also said — " With reference to 
 the hand-loom, I cannot state that there is such an 
 increase of production ; in the power-loom it has greatly 
 increased ; but I do not suppose that there are many 
 more hand-looms in employment than there were seven 
 years ago ; I do not know a weaver's joiner who has 
 made a new pair of looms tliis seven years : there is a 
 species of hand-loom called the dandy, which is a sort of 
 medium between the power and the hand-loom, and 
 in that particular branch there has been a large in- 
 crease. "f Mr. George Smith stated that, " the hand- 
 loom weavers (near Burnley) were in full employment ."| 
 Mr. Milne said the same thing of tlie weavers at 
 Crompton.§ Combining these strong assertions with 
 the fact that the wages of hand-loom weavers have 
 improved 10 or 15 per cent, within the last two years, 
 it seems to be clear that there cannot now be a surplus 
 of hands in this line ; and a glimpse of hope is afforded 
 that the weavers have seen the worst, that necessity has 
 driven some of them to other employments, that the 
 other branches of the manufacture have been able to 
 absorb them, and that at least the victims of so much 
 misery are not increasing in numbers. This is the first 
 
 • Report on Hand-loom Weavers; Q,. 4972. 
 
 t Report, Q. 5037. Mr. Makin explains that the dandy-looni is " about the 
 same dimensions as a power-loom, constructed of wood or iron as may be, to 
 which there is machinery adapted to move the cloth onwards as it is woven, and 
 thereby prevent the necessity of the weaver stopping to draw the yarn forward 
 to be woven." Q. 5038. Mr. Makin adds, that good wages may be made by a 
 dandy-loom weaver, but that the labour is severe and over-exciting. Q. 5044. 
 
 I Report of Committee on Manufactures, &c. p. 567. 
 
 § Ibid, p. 658. 
 
 3 R 
 
498 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 shade of imi)rovement in their condition for nearly twenty 
 years. During that long period their numbers have 
 seemed to be redundant, but the causes of that redun- 
 dancy naay have been met and counterbalanced l)y 
 still stronger causes, namely, the wi-etchedness of the 
 weaver's lot, which has driven him to other employ- 
 ments, and the ever-increasing demand for cotton 
 goods, which keeps power-looms, dandy-looms, and 
 hand-looms all in request. It is still, however, to be 
 feared that there is a tendency to a superfluous number 
 of weavers, in the circumstances before mentioned, and 
 that, on the next check given to tlie trade, this will be 
 made manifest. There can be no reasonable hope that 
 the weavers will ever again earn satisfactoiy wages. 
 
 This is forbidden by the fourth cause of their depres- 
 sion, namely, the power-loom. The invention of me- 
 chanical weaving has been generally alleged as the 
 principal cause of the distress of the hand-loom weavers ; 
 but causes have been assigned mucli more efficient, and 
 wliich produced a gi'eat part of the effect before the 
 power-loom came into use. It lias been seen that the 
 wages of the hand-loom weavers fell much more before 
 1818 than they have done since, yet in the latter year 
 there were only 2000 power-looms in Lancashire. 
 Tlie manufacturers themselves who employ hand-loom 
 weavers, are of opinion that machinery has had little to 
 do with the depression of that kind of labour. Mr. 
 Kingan, of Glasgow, when asked before the Hand-loom 
 Weavers' Committee if the power-loom had caused the 
 depression of wages, replied, " Not in Scotland : I do 
 not think it has had much effect there, for one reason 
 alone ; the article which the power-loom manufacturer 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 499 
 
 made was not made by the hand in Scotland Avlien it 
 was erected ; it was a new description of goods that was 
 made by power, thick and heavy goods, cambrics and 
 printing cloths, all of which were brought from Lan- 
 cashire."* Mr. Makin, of Bolton, said to tlie same 
 Committee — " I conceive, that if the power-loom had 
 not been in existence at all, the same result which has 
 now ensued would have happened, or nearly so.""!" Still, 
 I cannot doubt that the power-loom has at least con- 
 tril)uted to depress the wages of plain weavers, with 
 whose productions it comes in competition ; and, by 
 driving some hands from plain to fancy weaving, it 
 must have also caused tlie other branches to be sur- 
 charged with labourers. The rapid multiplication of 
 power-looms is an infallible proof of their superior 
 advantages. Some descriptions of fine goods, as cam- 
 brics and muslins, have also been woven by them, 
 though not extensively ; and, it is more than probable 
 that they will soon be applied to the weaving of many 
 kinds of fancy goods, for which they are not now 
 calculated. Mechanical ins^enuitv is an overmatch for 
 unassisted industry. The workmen who adhere to the 
 old processes will, in spite of every effort, be driven into 
 indigence, whilst those who adopt the new are living in 
 comfort and abundance. 
 
 The weavers themselves generally ascribe their low 
 wages to the power and disposition of the masters to 
 reduce them, whilst the men, scattered in their distant 
 habitations, are not able to make the same resistance by 
 combinations as tlie factory operatives. Probably there 
 is some truth in this opinion. Under orchnary circum- 
 
 • Report, Q. 183, 342. t n)ifl. Q. 4900. 
 
500 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 stauces, workmen have nearly if not quite as much 
 power over the rate of wages as masters : but from the 
 multitude of disadvantages which press upon the hand- 
 loom weavers, they are making a doA\ii-hill retreat, and 
 have no vantage ground on which to rally. The masters 
 have therefore lowered the wages till the men are 
 brougrht to the brink of starvation. But for this evdl 
 there is no remedy. The strength of tlie masters con- 
 sists in their having the power-loom to resort to, and in 
 being able so easily to obtain hand-loom weavers. It is 
 the nature of the employment which is the cause; the 
 power of the masters to reduce wages is only an 
 effect. 
 
 Local boards of trade, with authority to regulate 
 wages, have been proposed as a remedy for the condition 
 of the hand-loom weavers ; the weavers have petitioned 
 for them, and some of the manufacturers, as well as 
 some members of parliament, have recommended them. 
 But the more intelligent witnesses, who appeared before 
 the Hand-loom Weavers' Committee, acknowledged that 
 no laws could be made by such boards, which would not 
 either be so liable to evasion as to become wholly worth- 
 less, or so rigorous as to endanger the driving of capi- 
 talists out of the trade. The proposition has also been 
 made to tax tlie power-loom, in order that the hand- 
 loom weaver may be able to compete with it. Legislators 
 who concur in this recommendation, would of course 
 have taxed the jenny and the water-frame, to enable the 
 one-thread wheel to maintain a competition with those 
 macliines ; and laid such a duty on chlorine, that it 
 would have been no cheaper to bleach with that acid 
 than with sour milk ! When parliament shall legislate 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 501 
 
 to fix wages and to fetter ingenuity, it will be high 
 time to forget tliat this is the country of Arkwright and 
 Adam Smith. 
 
 Instead of seeking to bolster up hand-loom weaving 
 by restricting mechanical improvements, the course of 
 prudence and true humanity is, to facilitate the aban- 
 donment of the liand-loom, and the transference of the 
 weavers to other employments. The continual extension 
 of the manufacture affords a hope that this, the only 
 remedy for the sufferings of that numerous class, may in 
 lime be effected. 
 
 There are certain evils, affecting the health and 
 morals of the working classes, which belong to large 
 towns generally, not to this manufacture in particular. 
 There are also advantages in large towns, and those of 
 no small moment, especially in the facility of obtaining 
 religious and general instruction, which go far to coun- 
 terbalance the evils, and which may at some future day, 
 if they do not now, fully counterbalance them. But 
 these points do not come within the province of this 
 history to discuss. It may be remarked, generally, that 
 there is mucli gi-eater activity, both in tlie principles of 
 good and evil, in towns than in the country ; that in 
 most large towns there are evils which urgently require 
 improved police regulations, as well as the interposition 
 of philanthropy and Christian principle ; but that those 
 very places also furnish the means of intellectual, moral, 
 and social improvement in much greater abundance 
 than districts where the population is more scattered. 
 
 In point of intelligence, there can be no doubt that a 
 manufacturing population far exceeds an agricultural 
 one. The opportunities of associating with each other, 
 tlie facilities of obtaining books and newspapers, and 
 
502 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the discussions in their unions, combinations, and clubs, 
 stimulate and sharpen the intellects of the working 
 classes in towns ; whilst the solitary labourer in hus- 
 bandry too often grows up in stupid ignorance and 
 inertness. Yet there are too many proofs of want of 
 information among the working classes in towns, and of 
 their liability to delusion; and every one acquainted 
 with these classes must acknowledge the necessity of a 
 better system of education, by which not merely the 
 elements of knowledge, but the principles which govern 
 social relationships, and the higlier principles of morals 
 and religion, should be taught to the whole popu- 
 lation. 
 
 In the foregoing remarks on the physical and moral 
 condition of the operatives Avorking in mills and at the 
 hand-loom, I am not conscious of havins^ been swaved 
 by prejudice or partiality. I wish not to conceal evils 
 which really exist, but rather to expose them in order to 
 recommend their removal. I am equally indisposed to 
 exaggerate those evils, because this would be unjust, and 
 would rather frustrate than promote the application of 
 suitable remedies. Much prejudice and ignorance exist 
 on these subjects. It is my wish and duty, regardless 
 of that prejudice, to establish the truth ; and with this 
 view I have examined all the evidence within my reach, 
 and have given it the weight to which it seemed entitled. 
 I may add, that whilst my opportunities of observation 
 have been good, I liave neither interest nor connexion 
 to bias my judgment. 
 
THE COTTON M A NUF A CT L' R K. 503 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Critical period at which the Cotton Manufacture arose in England. — Vast exporta- 
 tions of cottons. — National importance of the manufacture. — Inquiry whether 
 England is likely to maintain her superiority in the manufacture. — Some 
 advantages possessed over her by other countries : greatly overbalanced by the 
 pre-eminent advantages of England, which remain unimpaired. — No symptom of 
 a decline, but the reverse. — Disadvantages of other countries where the manu- 
 facture exists, compared with England. — The cotton manufacture of the United 
 States : advantages and disadvantages of the Americans : they can compete with 
 England only in plain and heavy goods. — Progress and extent of the American 
 manufacture. — The cotton manufacture of France: great natural and political 
 disadvantages of that country : alarm of the French spinners and manufacturers 
 at the proposition to admit English goods under any rate of duty. — Slight and 
 partial relaxation of the French tariff. — Statements shewing the comparative 
 cost of cotton spinning and manufacturing in France and England. — French 
 manufacture of bobbin-net. — Estimates of the value and extent of the cotton 
 manufacture in France ; population engaged in it; their wages: imports of cotton- 
 wool ; exports of cotton goods. — The cotton manufacture of Switzeiiand; of 
 Belgium ; of Prussia, Austria, Saxony, and Lombaidy ; of Hindoostan. — Inquiry 
 into the policy of allowing the exportation of cotton yarn : reasons against it ; 
 answered: the exportation shewn to be desirable. — Concluding remarks on the 
 cotton manufacture, as a source of prosperity to ?2ngland, and as a main support 
 of her universal commerce ; the moral advantages which that commerce may be 
 the means of imparting to other nations. 
 
 The Cotton Manufacture arose in this country at a 
 ciitical period of our liistory. England had just lost her 
 American colonies; but that loss was more than com- 
 pensated by this new source of prosperity springing up 
 at home. Tlie genius of our mechanics repaired the 
 errors of our statesmen. In the lonjTr and fearful stiujrffle 
 which followed the French revolution, this country Avas 
 mainly supported by its commerce ; and the largest 
 though the newest branch of that commerce was fur- 
 nished bv the cotton manufacture. To Arkwrisfht and 
 
504 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Watt, England is far more indebted for her triiimplis 
 than to Nelson and Wellington. Without the means 
 supplied by her flourishing manufactures and trade, the 
 country could not have borne up under a confhct so 
 prolonged and exhausting. 
 
 In the article of cottons alone, the exports amounted, 
 between 1793 and 1815, to £250,000,000.* From 
 1816 to 1833 inclusive, the declared value of the cotton 
 exports was £306,167,518. Within the last half cen- 
 tury, cottons to the enormous value of £570,000,000 
 have been sent from this country to foreign markets. It 
 is ob\'ious that a trade of this magnitude must have 
 contributed largely to sustain the revenue, to prevent 
 the national resources from being intolerably oppressed 
 by taxation, and therefore to uphold the power and guai'd 
 the tranquillity of the state. 
 
 The question has been much canvassed, whether 
 England is likely to maintain the superiority she has 
 gained among the nations of the world, in regard to the 
 cotton manufacture. There are those who prognosticate 
 that she has already reached the highest point, and is 
 destined rapidly to decline from it. These individuals 
 apprehend a competition too formidable to be withstood, 
 on the part of several foreign nations : — from the United 
 States of America, where the spinning machinery is 
 equal to that of England, where there are thousands 
 of English workmen, where ingenuity and enterprise 
 eminently mark the national character, and where the 
 finest cotton is grown within the States themselves; — 
 from Belgium, Switzerland, and other countries of 
 
 • The official value of the cotton exports from 1793 to 1815 was £225,954,439 : 
 but the real value (of which the records have been destroyed) would at that time 
 exceed the official value, and may be fairly estimated at £250,000,000. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 505 
 
 Europe, where the manufacture exists, and is rapidly 
 extending, and where hibour is lower-priced than in 
 England; — and from the East Indies, where one or two 
 spinning mills have been established, and where, in 
 weaving, if not in spinning, the natives are supposed to 
 have a great advantage, from their having so long been 
 habituated to the employment, and from the excessively 
 low rate of wages they require. 
 
 It is true that each of these countries has, in some 
 respects, an advantage over England. It is true that 
 tlie cotton manufacture has acquired a great extent in 
 the United States, and is advancing rapidly in Germany 
 and Switzerland. These facts ought to induce our legis- 
 lature to repeal the duties on the raw materials of the 
 manufacture, — to place the English manufacturer more 
 on a level with his foreign competitors in the article of 
 food, which forms the chief element in the price of 
 labour, — to remove every restriction that prevents the 
 widest possible extension of English commerce, — and to 
 avoid any measure that would burden or fetter our 
 manufacturers, in their race of competition with foreign 
 nations. There is ample ground for the exercise of 
 precaution. It would be infatuation to trifle with the 
 safety of a manufacture which affords subsistence to a 
 million and a half of our population. 
 
 Yet we see no ground for apprehending that England 
 will lose her present manufacturing pre-eminence. All 
 the natural and political causes which originally made 
 this a gi'eat manufacturing and commercial nation, 
 remain unimpaired. The exhaustless beds of coal and 
 iron-stone, the abundance of streams with an available 
 fall of water, the inland navigation and well-situated 
 seaports, the national tranquillity, the security for person 
 
 3 s 
 
506 THE HIS T (> R Y U F 
 
 and property, tlie maritime superiority, — all these advan- 
 tages, in the happiest comhination, contribute to place 
 England at the head of manufacturing countries. There 
 is no decay in the energy of the national character; 
 the national institutions are becoming more pure and 
 popular. 
 
 There are also advantages derived from the established 
 ascendancy of our manufactures, the importance of which 
 it would be difficult to over-estimate. " Our master 
 manufacturers, engineers, and artisans are more intel- 
 ligent, skilful, and enterprising than those of any other 
 country; and the extraordinary inventions they have 
 already made, and their familiarity with all the principles 
 and details of the business, will not only enable them to 
 perfect the processes already in use, but can hardly fail 
 to lead to the discovery of others. Our establishments 
 for spinning, weaving, printing, bleaching, &c. are infi- 
 nitely more complete and perfect than any that exist 
 elsewhere ; the division of labour in them is carried to an 
 incomparably greater extent; the workmen are trained 
 from infancy to industrious habits, and have attained 
 tliat peculiar dexterity and sleight of hand in the per- 
 formance of their separate tasks, that can only be 
 acquired by long and unremitting application to the 
 same employment."* 
 
 Another advantage consists in the almost unlimited 
 amount of capital at the disposal of the English manu- 
 facturer and merchant, each of whom is enabled to make 
 his purchases on the best terms, to effect every improve- 
 ment in his machmery or modes of doing business, to 
 push Ms enterprises with the utmost vigour, to sell for 
 
 * Mr. M'Culloch on the Cotton Manufacture; Edinburgh Review, No. 91. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 507 
 
 the smallest proportional profit, and to wait the longest 
 time for liis return. 
 
 The usual rate of profit in England is lower than in 
 any of the countries whose competition has been feared; 
 and on this account, English manufactures can be sold 
 cheaper than those of other countries ; especially owing 
 to the extensive employment of machinery, which causes 
 the price of the goods to be regulated more according to 
 the profits of capital, than according to the wages of 
 labour. Since the introduction of the power-loom, the 
 maintenance of English superiority is rendered much 
 more secure. This country excels every other in the 
 making of machines, and in the means of working them 
 advantageously; and besides this, for the reason just 
 mentioned, our manufacturers are interested in having 
 their goods produced as much as possible by machinery. 
 The power-loom changes the mode of manufacture, 
 from that in which we labour under a considerable 
 disadvantage, to that in which we possess the greatest 
 superiority. 
 
 No symptom has yet appeared, to indicate a decline, 
 or even a stagnation, in the cotton manufacture of 
 England. Every year, witli scarcely an exception, 
 presents an increase in the raw material imported, and 
 the manufactured goods exj)orted. The course of 
 mechanical and cliemical improvement is not stopped. 
 New markets are opening to the enterprise of our mer- 
 chants, who are ever ready to supply them. 
 
 With so many natural and acquired advantages, 
 Avhich in their combination are altogether unrivalled, 
 and with an entire absence of any symptom of declen- 
 sion, there is good reason for believing that the cotton 
 manufacture of this country will continue to flourish; 
 
508 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 and, if it does not, as in the nature of tilings is impos- 
 sible, still advance with the same giant strides as in the 
 period that immediately followed the great mechanical 
 inventions, we yet feel a confident expectation that its 
 course will be steadily onward. 
 
 In each of the countries mentioned as likely to com- 
 pete successfully with England, there are circumstances 
 unfavourable to such competition. In the United States, 
 the high rate of profit, the expensiveness of machinery, 
 and a rate of wages higher even than in England, will 
 for a long course of years prevent the manufacturer from 
 selling his goods so cheap as the English manufacturer; 
 whilst the advantage of having the raw material pro- 
 duced within the boundaries of the republic is small, 
 seeing that the cotton is not grown within many hundred 
 miles of the manufacturing states. 
 
 The freight of cotton from New Orleans is half as 
 much to Providence or Boston as it is to Liverpool, and 
 the difference between the two is little more tlian yd. 
 per lb. Add the amount of duty in England, 5-16"'' of 
 a penny per lb. ; and the total difference to the disad- 
 vantage of the English manufacturer will be f '*'' of a 
 penny per lb. The American has a further advantage 
 in his great command of water-power, which is cheaper 
 than steam-power : it has been calculated by an American 
 cotton manufacturer,* who gave evidence before the 
 Committee of our House of Commons on Manufactures, 
 &c. that the cost of twelve horse-power would be only 
 £3. 10s. in America, whilst it would be £12. 10s. in 
 England, — the former being water-power, and the latter 
 steam-power. The cost of weaving is also less in the 
 United States, because there a girl attends four power- 
 
 * Mr. James Kempton ; Report on Manufactures, Commerce, &c. p. 167. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 509 
 
 looms, whereas in England a girl only attends two.* 
 Further, the flour used for dressing the yarn is cheaper 
 there than here. But the American lahours under 
 several disadvantages, which counterbalance these ad- 
 vantages: 1st. He pays higher wages: tlie average 
 wages in the cotton mills of England are 10s. 6d. ; in 
 America they are 14s. lld.t 2d. His machinery is 
 much dearer: a carding engine costs from £40 to £50 
 in America, which would cost only from £30 to £40 in 
 England^ throstles cost from £l. 4s. to £l. 6s. per 
 spindle in America, which are only 8s. to 9s. in Eng- 
 land; mules cost from 13s. to 14s. per spindle in 
 America, which are not more than 4s. 6d. to 5s. in 
 England; cU'essing machines cost from £80 to £90 in 
 America, wliich in England cost only from £30 to £35; 
 looms cost from £12 to £16 in America, and not more 
 than £7. lOs. to £8. 10s. in England.J 3d. The interest 
 of money and the profits of capital are considerably 
 higher in the United States than in this country, which, 
 of course, makes the price of goods higher. 4th. Owing 
 to the climate, the raw material goes further in England^ 
 where some of the waste cotton can be spun ; whereas 
 the American manufacturer only puts good cotton into 
 his yarn. On the whole, it may be said that the Americans 
 are capable of rivalling the English in coai'se and stout 
 manufactures, in which large quantities of the raw 
 material are used, especially in an article called " do- 
 mestics," which they consume largely, and export to 
 
 * Mr. Jas. Kempton ; Report on Manufactures, Commerce, &c. p. 1 67. Mr. Kemp- 
 ton ascribes this curious fact in part to the better machinery, which, he says, the 
 Americans have for weaving coarse goods. 
 
 f Papers laid before Congress, lotli February, 1833. 
 
 J Evidence of Mr. Kempton, Report on Manufactures, &c. p. 150. 
 
510 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 some extent ; but that in all other kinds of goods, in all 
 whicli require either fine spinning or hand-loom weav- 
 ing, the English possess, and must long continue to 
 possess, a very gi'eat superiority. In the words of the 
 witness already quoted — •' the Americans cannot econo- 
 mically produce fine manufactures ; in making fine yarn, 
 they lay aside all theu' advantages, and have to take up 
 all their disadvantages."* It is even stated, that the 
 American " domestics" are now imitated at Manchester 
 at a cheaper rate.f Our manufacturers have therefore 
 little to fear from American competition. 
 
 The growth of the cotton manufacture in America has 
 been rapid. The fii'st cotton mill was erected in Rhode 
 Island in 1791, but as late as 1807 there were not in the 
 Union more than 15 mills, producing about 300,000 lbs. 
 of yarn in a year. The embargo of 1808, the differences 
 with England, and, above all, the war, gave a great 
 stimulus to the manufacturing interest, and led the 
 Americans to indulge the desire of supplying themselves 
 with the cottons and Avoollens their population requu-ed. 
 High protecting duties were therefore established, which 
 Ibrced the growth of manufactures. In 1810, the number 
 of cotton mills had increased to 102, and in 1831 to 795. 
 The quantity of cotton worked in the United States was 
 500 bales in the year 1800; 1000 bales in 1805; 
 10,000 bales in 1810; 90,000 bales (or 27,000,000 lbs.) 
 in 1815; and 77,557,316 lbs. in 1831. The exports 
 of American cotton manufactures ai'e inconsiderable, 
 and do not seem to be on the increase : in 1829 
 
 * Evidence of Mr. Kempton, Report on Manufactures, &c. p. 169. 
 t Evidence of Mr. Joshua Bates before the Committee on Manufactures, &c. 
 p. 57. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 511 
 
 they amounted to 1,259,457 dollais; in 1830 to 1,318,183 
 dollars; and in 1832 to 1,229,574 dollars. Of the latter 
 amount, the printed or coloured cottons were 104,870 
 dollars, white cottons 1,052,891 dollars, and other kinds 
 71,813 dollars. 
 
 The following particulars as to the extent of the 
 manufacture in 1831 ai*e draAMi from the Report of a 
 Committee of Congress in 1832, and founded on returns 
 cai'efully obtained from tlie different states: — 
 
 In twelve states there are . . . . mills 795 
 
 spindles 1,246,503 
 
 looms 33,500 
 
 The weight of cotton consumed .... 77,557,3161bs. 
 Allowing 2 07,. per lb. for loss 9,694,664 
 
 Total weight of yarn produced 67,862,652 
 
 Weekly amount 1,305,051 
 
 Averaging 16^02. per spindle weekly. 
 If the 33,506 looms were employed, and the whole 1,305,051 lbs. 
 of yarn manufactured, each loom must have consumed at an average 
 39 lbs. weekly, shewing that the goods manufactured were of a very 
 heavy description. It also appears from statements made by the 
 same Committee, that 
 
 The number of males employed was . . 18,539 
 . . . females 38,927 
 
 Total number emnloyed in spinning and 
 
 manufacturing 57,466 
 
 The amount paid for wages in the year was 10,294,444 dollars, 
 or £2,144,780, being £42,895 per week; averaging 14s. lid. for 
 each person employed. 
 
 They state that the consumption of flour in their manufacture 
 was 1,641,253 lbs. or 8,374 barrels, (196 lbs. each,) averaging 
 weekly 31,562 lbs., or nearly 1 lb. for each loom. 
 
512 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 The capital invested in buildings and machinery in the cotton 
 manufacture was £8,461,476 sterling, and the Committee thought 
 that to this sum, returned by the manufacturers, an addition of from 
 one-fourth to one-third might be made. 
 
 By the new American tariff, foreign cottons pay an ad valorem 
 duty, which averages 40J per cent, at present, but will be gra- 
 dually reduced so as to be only 20 per cent, on the 30th June, 
 1842. 
 
 If the English cotton manufacture is in little danger 
 from that of the United States, it is certainly not in 
 greater peril from the same manufacture in France. 
 The French consume a somewhat larger quantity of 
 cotton-wool than the Americans, and are indeed second 
 only to England, though their production is only 
 ahout one-fourth that of the English. In the silk 
 manufacture the French are unequalled, tliough our 
 own country is pressing hard upon them in this respect : 
 they are pre-eminent in taste and fancy, possess much 
 ingenuity, and rank very high in chemical knowledge. 
 But they labour under such serious disadvantages 
 for conducting manufactures on the large scale, that 
 there is not the least prospect of their ever successfully 
 competing witli this country in the manufacture of 
 cotton. 
 
 1st. The national character and habits of the French 
 ai-e unfavourable. Thougli tliey have an abundance of 
 energy, they lack that close attention and persevering 
 application, which are indispensable to the attainment 
 of the highest skill, and to regularity of operations in 
 an extensive manufactory. Tlie weavers, and even 
 many of the spinners, cannot be induced to work the 
 year round at their looms or mules, but in the montlis 
 of summer and vintage turn to agricultural pursuits for 
 
THE COTTON M A NU F A C T U I{ E. 513 
 
 relaxation ; — a practice which, however agreeable and 
 healthful, is incompatible with high proficiency in any 
 manual art, and most seriously interrupts the operations 
 of the manufactory. It is the combination of perse- 
 verance with activity and intelligence, that makes the 
 English artisan unrivalled.* 
 
 2d. The political state of France is unfavourable. 
 Wars, invasions, and revolutions, and the liability to 
 their recurrence, have shaken credit, and prevented the 
 manufacturing establishments from gaining that duration 
 and firmness which are needful to the perfection of their 
 arrangements, and to the full development of mercantile 
 enterprise. 
 
 3d. France has natural disadvantages, especially in the 
 comparative scarcity of fuel and iron. Coal is not 
 largely found in that country, nor is it raised without 
 considerable expense, and the supply of wood is inade- 
 quate to the wants of the manufacturer : the manufac- 
 turers of Paris use the coal brought from Mens, but it 
 costs them ten times the price given for tliat article at 
 Manchester.t Iron is also far from abundant, and is 
 therefore dear. 
 
 4th. The artificial state into which French manu- 
 facturing industry has been brought, from being 
 propped up on every side with protections, and therefore 
 incapable of free movement, greatly aggi'avates the 
 natural disadvantages of the country. Coal and iron 
 
 • M. Roman, delegate from Alsace to the Commission of Inquiry, who has 
 travelled in England to inspect our manufactures, said, with much justice — " U y 
 a, dans I'ouvrier Anglais, un espece de croisement du caractere Fran^ais et du 
 caract^re Allemand, un melange de Saxon et de Normand, qui lui donne, en m6me 
 temps, I'attention et la vivacit^." 
 
 t Evidence of M. Sanson Davillier, of Paris, before the Commission of Inquiry 
 instituted by the French government in the latter part of the year 1834. 
 
 3'r 
 
514 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 might be imported far more cheaply tlian they can be 
 raised in France, but duties nearly prohil)itory are 
 levied upon those articles when imported, to protect tlie 
 domestic iron and coal proi)netors. Of course, these 
 duties fall directly upon machinery, which is in conse- 
 quence double the price in France that it is in England. 
 The protection of tlie proprietors of iron and coal mines 
 renders it necessary to protect the makers of machinery ; 
 and the protection of the latter renders it indispensable 
 to protect the cotton manufacturer. The system is a 
 grand senes of blunders, and all its parts must stand or 
 fall together. So long as they stand, the body of the 
 French nation will pay for it dearly, in the liigh price of 
 theu' cotton and other goods ; and if it should fall, their 
 manufacturers will atone for an unfair monopoly by 
 extensive ruin. The manufacturers have been seduced 
 by absurd legislation into a false and dangerous position, 
 where they enjoy no real advantage, and from whence 
 they have no retreat. They have the monopoly of the 
 home market and of the French colonies, except in so far 
 as the smuggler disturbs them ; but they hold it under 
 perpetual alarm, and on conditions which prevent them 
 from ever enjoying an export trade of any moment. 
 
 5th. As an elfect of the political and natural causes 
 already mentioned, the manufacturing estabUshments in 
 France are small : they are scattered in many parts of 
 the country, in order to supply the wants of the inhabit- 
 ants ; and each spinner and manufacturer is obliged to 
 make a variety of articles, to suit his customers. It is 
 a necessary consequence of this state of things, that the 
 attention both of the manufocturer and of his workmen 
 is divided amons; several kinds of work, and thev are 
 prevented from acquiring excellence in any ; Avhereas 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 515 
 
 the concentration of the manufacturers in England, and 
 the extent of their market, enables each to confine 
 himself to one or to a few articles, which he brings to 
 the higliest perfection, as well as makes with the gi'eatest 
 economy of time and money. 
 
 (3th. The defective roads and inland navigation of 
 France render the carriage of raw materials and goods 
 expensive. 
 
 7tli. The duty on the importation of the raw material 
 is 2 per cent, more in France than in England. 
 
 8tlj. Capital is much less plentiful in France, and 
 fetches a liiglier interest. 
 
 These, with other minor causes, place the French 
 cotton spinner and manufacturer in so disadvantageous 
 a position, when compared with the English, as to 
 forbid all prospect of successful competition. In the 
 investigation now pending, before a Commission of 
 Inquuy appointed by the French minister, every ^ntness 
 in the cotton trade hitherto examined has declared that 
 their trade would be ruined in all its departments, if 
 English cottons were admitted, even under a high duty. 
 The delegates from the Chambers of Commerce of 
 Rouen, St. Quentin, Lille, Alsace, Troyes, Amiens, 
 Calais, and many other seats of the cotton manufacture, 
 represent their constituents as feeling the utmost alann 
 at the proposition to remove the prohibition on foreign 
 manufactures established by the law of February, 1810, 
 which they declare to be their " charter of industry," 
 and their " tutelary aegis."* 
 
 The French cotton manufacture was established under 
 the continental system of Napoleon, and in 1810 it 
 consumed 25,000,000 lbs. of cotton-wool. At tlie peace 
 
 • Evidence of M. Leniarchand, of Rouen. 
 
516 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 it seemed in danger of utter extinction, from the influx 
 of the cheaper cottons of England ; and, to avoid this 
 event, whicli would have been attended with great 
 though only temporary distress, the government took the 
 course of re-establishing and making permanent the 
 prohibitory system. Under that system the trade con- 
 tinued till the present year, when a very slight and 
 partial relaxation was made. 
 
 By an alteration in the tariff made by a royal ordon- 
 nance, dated 8th July, 1834, cotton yarns of the high 
 numbers, namely, those above No. 142 French, which 
 answers to No. 189 English, were admitted on payment 
 of a duty of 7 francs per kilogi'amme, or about 2s. Tfd. 
 per lb., which is a duty of from 27 to 33 per cent, 
 ad valorem on the qualities chiefly used. It is declared 
 by several French spinners tliat the introduction of 
 English yams, consequent on this law, has put an end 
 to the spinning of those yarns in France. The admis- 
 sion will be favourable to the manufacturers of lace and 
 muslins, but injurious to the spinners. The fine 
 English yarns were, however, extensively introduced 
 before by the smuggler.* 
 
 * The relaxation in the French tariff was obtained by the able representations 
 of Mr. George Villiers and Dr. Bowring, the English commissioners at Paris, 
 acting under the instructions of Mr. Poulett Thomson, then the Vice-President of 
 the Board of Trade, who used great exertions to obtain a freer commercial inter- 
 course between England and France. The following passages from the " First 
 Report on the Commercial Relations between France and Great Britain,'' by 
 Messrs. Villiers and Bowring, throw some light on the comparative state of cotton 
 spinning in the two countries ; — " Of English manufactures, cotton twist is among 
 those whose fraudulent introduction into France is the most extensive and irre- 
 pressible. It makes its way both by land and sea, in spite of all interdictions, to 
 a continually increasing amount. The qualities principally in demand are the 
 higher numbers, which the French mills cannot produce, or produce only at an 
 extravagant price. An official return states, that the French No. 180, which can 
 be bought in England at fr. 18 per kilogramme, sells in France at from fr. 39 to 
 
TUL COTTON M A N U F A CT U R K. 517 
 
 It is stated, in the reply of tlie Chamber of Com- 
 merce at Lyons to the circular of the Minister of 
 Commerce, tluit English cotton yarns ai*e from 45 to 
 75 per cent, cheaper than French. M. Lemarchand, of 
 Rouen, stated that a protecting duty of 40 per cent, 
 ad valorem on English yams would not save the French 
 spinners from being ruined by their admission ; and 
 M. Mimerel, delegate from Lille, Roubaix, and Tur- 
 coing, M. Roman, from the departments of Alsace, 
 and several other spinners, gave evidence to the same 
 purport. 
 
 M. Mimerel gave in calculations, to shew the com- 
 parative cost of producing 2000 kilogrammes of yarn 
 No. 100 (French) by 800 spindles, in France and in 
 England. He estimates that — 
 
 fr. 40. The same quality of French manufacture, to which no risk of seizure 
 attaches, will, it is said, produce fr. 42 — the 2 or 3 fr. of difference being paid for 
 the additional security. The numbers principally introduced are from 170 to 200, 
 and are employed chiefly for the fabrication of bobbinet (tulle). But there is also 
 a large demand for English cotton chains at Tarare ; and they are so necessary for 
 the existence of that manufacture, that, by the connivance of the Custom-house 
 authorities, no seizures take place after the article is lodged in the warehouse of 
 the manufacturer. He has thus to support an additional cost of from 30 to 40 per 
 cent., the whole of which, by the connivance of the government, goes to the contra- 
 band traders. The amount of illicit introduction is calculated at above fr. 12,000,000. 
 There is also a large introduction of English tulle (bobbinet), estimated at more 
 than fr. 15,000,000 ; which sells at from 7 to 8 per cent, above the price of French 
 of the same nominal quality." (p. 48.) It is supposed that the quantity of English 
 manufactures smuggled annually into France is not less than from £2,000,000 to 
 £2,500,000 sterling; of which about five-sixths are cottons and bobbin-net. (p. 52.) 
 
518 THE HISTORY () F 
 
 Cotton-wool costs per lb 
 
 Duty on 2000 kil. of cotton-wool is . 
 
 A horse-power of steam costs 
 
 Machinery, costing twice as much in 
 France as in England, its annual de- 
 preciation is twice as great . . . 
 
 Cost of spinning machines per spindle . 
 
 Repairs of machinery, for 800 spindles 
 
 Cost of lighting 
 
 Capital required to produce this quantity 
 
 of yarn 26,000 — 
 
 Interest of ditto (at 3 per cent, in Eng 
 land, and 5 per cent, in France) . 
 
 From all these items he deduces a difference of 28 
 per cent, against the French ; in addition to which, he 
 states that there is the difference in the cost of the work- 
 mansliip, which is less in England than in France, in 
 proportion to the quantity and quality of the vvork,^ — the 
 difference in the general expenses, which are greater 
 in France, — and, after all, the indisputably superior 
 quality of the Englisli yarn. 
 
 Another calculation was given by M. Ernest Feray, 
 of the house of Feray and Co., cotton spinners at 
 Essonne and Rouval : it is as follows — 
 
 In England. 
 
 In France. 
 
 2fr. 
 
 2 fr. 40 c. 
 
 14,000 — 
 
 44,000 fr. 
 
 240 — 
 
 720 — 
 
 800 — 
 
 1,600 — 
 
 20 — 
 
 40 — 
 
 200 — 
 
 400 — 
 
 50 — 
 
 160 — 
 
 26,000 — 
 
 44,000 — 
 
 780 — 
 
 2,200 — 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 519 
 
 Cost of a Spinning Mill of 25,000 Spindles. 
 
 AT ESSONNE. 
 
 Francs. 
 
 Cost of the first establish- 
 ment, buildings, and ma- 
 chinery, 800,000 francs ; 
 annual depreciation, at 7^ 
 per cent 60,000 
 
 Interest of capital, at 5 per 
 cent 40,000 
 
 Fuel for the steam-engine, 2^ 
 loads of Blanzy coal, at 45 
 fr, per load of 15 hectol. 
 per day, for 300 days .... 33,750 
 
 Fuel for warming the mill . 8,000 
 
 Lighting with oil, at 115 fr. 
 per 100 kilogrammes .... 8,000 
 
 To obtain 150 kilog. of yarn, 
 172,500 kil. of cotton must 
 be used, on which the 
 duty, at 22 francs the 100 
 kilogrammes, is 37,950 
 
 Cost of 172,500 kil. of cotton, 
 at 3 fr. 33 c. — cotton being 
 10 per cent, dearer at 
 Havre than Liverpool ; and 
 adding 1 per cent, for the 
 difference of the expense 
 of carriage to the place of 
 manufacture 574,425 
 
 Insurance, at 7 fr. per 1000 
 fr. on 800,000 fr. (the 
 Companies now demand 
 10 fr.) 5,600 
 
 Total 787,725 
 
 604,075 
 
 Difference 183,650 
 
 AT MANCHESTER. 
 
 Francs. 
 
 Cost of the first establish- 
 ment, buildings and ma- 
 chinery, 500,000 francs ; 
 annual depreciation, at 7\ 
 per cent. 37,500 
 
 Interest of capital, at 4 per 
 cent 20,000 
 
 Fuel for the steam-engine, 2 J 
 loads of Oldham coal, at 
 5 fr. CO c. per load of 15 
 hectol. per day for 300 days 4,875 
 
 Fuel for warming the mill. . 1,200 
 
 Lighting with gas, at 5s. per 
 
 1000 cubic feet 2,000 
 
 Duty in England, reduced to 
 3 fr. 50 c. per 100 kilo- 
 grammes 6,000 
 
 Cost of 172,500 kil. of cotton, 
 
 at 3 fr. per kil 517,500 
 
 Insurance, at 5 fr. per 1000 
 
 fr. on 500,000 fr 2,500 
 
 Total 604,075 
 
520 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 M. H. Barbet, manufacturer of incliennes at Roaen, 
 gave in an estimate to the Commission, shewing that an 
 establislnnent, calculated to produce 50,000 pieces of 
 that article in a yeai% would cost for its outfit 450,000 
 francs in France, and 270,000 francs in England, 
 and that the annual expenses of the former would be 
 182,000 francs, and of the latter 74,750 francs. Ac- 
 cording to M. Sanson Davillier, the delegate of the 
 Chamber of Commerce of Paris, a manufactory of 300 
 power-looms would cost 610,000 francs to be estab- 
 lished at Palis, and only 221,250 francs at Man- 
 chester. 
 
 The manufacture of bobbin-net in imitation of the 
 Nottingham manufacture, has been carried on for about 
 ten years at Calais and Douai, chiefly witli thread 
 smuggled from England ; the number of lace-frames is 
 about 1S50; but the manufacturers have been con- 
 ducting a losing trade. According to M. Abiet, lace 
 manufacturer at Douai, English net is 58:g^ per cent, 
 cheaper than French net; and, as has been seen, very 
 large quantities of the former are introduced by the 
 contraband trade. 
 
 In examining the evidence of the French manufac- 
 turers, it must not be forgot that their object was to 
 make out a case for the continued prohibition of English 
 cottons, on which account we may reasonably suspect 
 their statements of being coloured, thougli, perhaps, 
 unintentionally. It is the opinion of Dr. Bowring, 
 whose judgment, from the minute attention he has given 
 to the subject, and from the opportunities he has enjoyed, 
 is entitled to great respect, that the adcHtional cost of 
 French cotton goods above those of England is on tlie 
 average from 30 to 40 per cent. ; that the inferiority of 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 521 
 
 French macliinery is about 25 per cent. ; and the in- 
 feriority of French labour, that is, the result of the 
 labour of a given number of hands for a given number 
 of hours, is about 20 per cent. 
 
 A statement, which may be suspected of exaggera- 
 tion, was submitted to the French Ministerial Com- 
 mission by M. Mimerel, as to the extent and value of 
 the French cotton manufacture. The folloAving are the 
 particulars : — 
 
 Annual production of cottons in France 
 
 Wages and carriage 
 Raw materials, including cotton-wool, dye- 
 wares, bleaching materials, &c. 
 Interest of capital 
 Depreciation of machinery, &c. 
 Keeping up the machinery, &c. 
 Profits of producers 
 
 Francs. 
 
 600,000,000 
 400,000,000 
 
 110,000,000 
 30,000,000 
 15,000,000 
 15,000,000 
 30,000,000 
 
 600,000,000 
 
 The estimate of 600,000,000 francs, or £24,000,000 
 sterling, as the value of the cottons produced annually 
 in France, seems enormous. Equally exaggerated does 
 another estimate of the same witness appear, namely, 
 that the French cotton manufacture employs 800,000 
 operatives. As the whole import of cotton-wool into 
 tliat country is only about 80,000,000 lbs., whilst that of 
 England is 300,000,000 lbs., it is e\ident that the 
 annual value of the goods produced must either have 
 been estimated by us much too low for England, (at 
 from £30,000,000 to £34,000,000,) or by M. Mimerel 
 
 3u 
 
522" THE HISTORY OF 
 
 much too high for France, (at £24,000,000.) It is, 
 indeed, to be recollected, that French cottons are dearer 
 than Englisli, and that the nominal value of their annual 
 production must therefore be proportionably higher. 
 Still, the estimate here given must be much above the 
 truth. In 1817 the late Count Chaptal stated* that 
 the value of the cotton goods manufactured annually in 
 France was from 200,000,000 to 300,000,000 francs : 
 the extent of the manufacture is much gi-eater now than 
 in 1817, but, owing to the fall in the prices, the money 
 value cannot have very greatly increased. 
 
 Tlie estimated number of operatives, 800,000, seems 
 ridiculous, when compared with the number who are 
 estimated to work up almost an equal quantity of cotton 
 in the United States, namely, 57,466. It is to be re- 
 membered, however, that the Americans produce scarcely 
 any fine or fancy goods, and print but few of their 
 cloths ; they chiefly make a heavy fabric, wi'ought not 
 by hand, but by the power-loom : whilst in France, on 
 the contrary, every species of fine and fancy manufac- 
 ture is carried on, as well as printing, and almost all 
 the French weavers work at the hand-loom, and are 
 absent from work for some months in the year. 
 
 The estimates given in by the witnesses before the 
 Commission, (who were usually delegated by the local 
 Chambers of Commerce,) as to the number of workmen 
 employed in their respective districts, give some coun- 
 tenance to the statement of M. Mimerel. According to 
 these estimates, the whole number of persons employed 
 in spinning, weaving, printing, bleaching, dyeing, and 
 the other branches, in the principal seats of the cotton 
 manufacture, were as follows : — 
 
 • See his Letter in the Encyl. Brit. art. " Cotton Manufacture." 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. .523 
 
 Number of 
 workmen. 
 
 In the arrondissement of Lille, where there are 150 
 spinning mills . . ..... 100,000 
 
 In Alsace, &c. — including the departments of the 
 Haut and Bas Rhin, Vosges, Haute Saone, and Doubs, 
 in all which there are 56 spinning mills . . . 110>000 
 
 In Normandy, &c. — including the departments of 
 Seine-Inferieur, Somme, Pas-de-Calais, I'Aisne, I'Eure, 
 
 and la Manche 129,170 
 
 In the neighbourhood of St. Quentin . . . 75,800 
 
 At Amiens 18,000 
 
 At Troves 15,000 
 
 These make a total of 447,970;* and they do not 
 include the cotton districts of Paris, Tarrare, Lyons, 
 Nismes, Montpellier, and several others. If the above 
 are at all to be relied upon, there may, perhaps, be 
 nearly 600,000 persons employed in the whole cotton 
 manufacture of France ; but the probability seems to be 
 in favour of a lower number. 
 
 The wages given to the French workmen, though 
 considerably lower per day or per week than those of 
 the English worlanen, are really higher in proportion to 
 the quantity of labour done. The English workman is 
 better worth the higher rate of wages, than the French 
 workman is worth the lower. This is the general testi- 
 mony of the French manufacturers. The following are 
 the wages given in three of the principal cotton districts 
 of France : — 
 
 • As the sittings of the Commission are not finished, I have not been able to 
 ascertain any further particijlars than those above mentioned. 
 
524 
 
 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Cotton Districts. 
 
 Descriptions of Work-people. 
 
 — 
 
 
 Daily 
 
 Wages. 
 
 
 
 
 francs, cents 
 
 . francs, cents. 
 
 At Lille . . . 
 
 Spinners men 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 — women 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 to 1 
 
 25 
 
 
 Other cotton workers 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 75 
 
 to 2 
 
 
 
 
 Do. Do. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 to 1 
 
 25 
 
 
 children . 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 to 
 
 60 
 
 In Alsace . • . 
 
 Spinners men 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 23 
 
 to 3 
 
 
 
 
 — women 
 
 
 
 
 75 
 
 to 2 
 
 
 
 
 children . 
 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 to 
 
 50 
 
 
 Calico weavers men 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 to 1 
 
 25 
 
 
 — children . 
 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 to 
 
 50 
 
 
 fine weavers men 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 to 2 
 
 50 
 
 
 printers men 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 to 3 
 
 
 
 
 engravers do. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 50 
 
 to 5 
 
 
 
 
 other operatives do. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 to 1 
 
 50 
 
 
 — women 
 
 
 
 
 90 
 
 to 1 
 
 50 
 
 
 — children . 
 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 to 
 
 50 
 
 
 bleachers men 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 40 
 
 to 1 
 
 60 
 
 
 ^ men 
 
 town operatives \ women . 
 ^ children 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 50 
 
 to 3 
 
 
 
 At St. Quentin 
 
 
 
 
 90 
 
 to 1 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 to 1 
 
 25 
 
 
 ^ men 
 
 country operatives ? women . 
 V. children 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 to 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 70 
 
 to 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 to 
 
 60 
 
 The progress of the French manufacture within the 
 last twelve years may be judged of from the following 
 table, extracted from the Havre Price Current, corrected 
 and revised by a board of merchants : — 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
 
 525 
 
 Statement of the Imports of Cotton into France, the Deliveries from 
 the Warehouses, and the StoclLS on hand in each Year from 1822. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Imports. 
 
 Deliveries. 
 
 Stocks, .31st Dec. 
 
 
 Bales. . 
 
 Bales. 
 
 Bales. 
 
 1822 
 
 205,861 
 
 215,199 
 
 42,545 
 
 1823 
 
 169,845 
 
 172,312 
 
 40,078 
 
 1824 
 
 251,074 
 
 243,958 
 
 47,194 
 
 1825 
 
 204,572 
 
 216,460 
 
 35,306 
 
 1826 
 
 320,174 
 
 281,001 
 
 74,479 
 
 1827 
 
 290,617 
 
 279,693 
 
 85,403 
 
 1828 
 
 206,132 
 
 239,723 
 
 54,812 
 
 1829 
 
 242,230 
 
 264,750 
 
 29,292 
 
 1830 
 
 282,752 
 
 250,784 
 
 61,260 
 
 1831 
 
 218,393 
 
 243,843 
 
 35,810 
 
 1832 
 
 259,159 
 
 272.463 
 
 22,506 
 
 By multiplying the bales by 300, (their average 
 weight in lbs.) the above numbers will be reduced into 
 lbs. The quantity imported in 1832 was 7 7, 74 7, 700 lbs. 
 and the quantity delivered for consumption 8 1,738, OOOlbs. 
 
 In the course of the inquiries of tlie commission, the 
 minister stated that the value of cotton goods exported 
 from France in 1833 was 56,000,000 francs, or 
 £2,240,000 sterling. By far the larger part of these 
 goods is sent to the French colonies. In the yeai' 
 ended 30th September, 1831, French cottons were 
 imported into the United States to the amount of 
 1,540,732 dollars, or £321,155 sterling. 
 
526 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 It would be suj)erfliious to enter into detail con- 
 ceminof the cotton manufacture in tlie other countries 
 of Europe, seeing that none of them is in the least 
 likelj to compete successfully ^nth that of Great Britain. 
 The Swiss manufacture well, and print beautifully : their 
 yarns are 20 per cent, below the French prices, but still 
 they cannot compete with the English, except in the 
 low numbers. The consumption of cotton in 1831 was 
 56,000 bales, or 18,816,000 lbs. The want of coal,— 
 the limited water-power, already fuUy occupied, — and 
 the expense of bringing the raw material from Genoa 
 or Trieste, — must always keep down the mauufactm-e in 
 that country. 
 
 The Belgian cotton manufacture at Ghent, established 
 during the war, sunk before English competition. Tlie 
 enactment of a protecting system by the governmeut of 
 the United Netherlands, and the monopoly wliich the 
 Belgian manufacturers enjoyed of the supply of the 
 Dutch colonies, forced up the manufacture to a very 
 flourisliing state. But the separation of Holland and 
 Belgium, wliich has been followed by the loss to the 
 latter of the trade with Dutch colonies, has crushed 
 the manufacture again, and the weavers and spinners 
 are at this moment in a state of the deepest distress. 
 
 In Prussia, Austria, Saxony, and Lombardy, tliis 
 manufacture exists, and is spreading; but in each of 
 these countries it is as yet insignificant. They are aU 
 very disadvantageously situated as regards the supply 
 of the raw material ; they are also more liable to be dis- 
 turbed by wars and political commotions than England ; 
 and none of them can pretend to compete with England 
 in this branch of industry. 
 
THE COTTON MANUFACTURE. 527 
 
 The Hindoo weaver, low as are his wages, has no 
 chance of comi)ctiug witli tlie power-h)om. The very 
 lowness of tlie remuneration he obtains, is an evidence 
 of the feebleness and inefficiency of his exertions. It 
 ^vill always be found that the energetic labours of free, 
 intelligent, well-paid, and well-fed workmen, will be 
 cheaper to the employer than the nerveless toil of half- 
 starved slaves and barbarians. The Hindoo weaver, 
 not\vithstanding the ancient civilization of his country, 
 is more nearly allied to the latter class than to the 
 former ; and the apprehension that he will ever beat out 
 of the market the skilled labour of England, aided by 
 machinery, is altogether visionary. The attempt to 
 work a spinning-mill in Calcutta, with machinery sent 
 from England, has proved an utter failure. 
 
 Tlie fear entertained of tlie competition of other 
 nations, has at different times led the manufacturers to 
 remonstrate loudly against permitting the exportation 
 of English yarn. Our gi*eatest advantage over other 
 nations, they have ai'gued, is in our spinning machinery; 
 foreigners cannot produce yarn comparable to ours ; but 
 if they obtain our yarn, they can easily manufacture it 
 into cloth; they therefore buy our yarn, but not our 
 manufactured goods ; and thus they deprive England of 
 all that profitable employment for her weavers, which 
 she might otherwise secure. The argument is plausible, 
 and it has again and again been used by the manu- 
 facturers of Manchester, Bolton, Stockport, and other 
 places, in applications to parliament to prohibit the 
 exportation of cotton yarn, from the year 1800, about 
 which time yarn was first exported, to the year 1818, 
 and even occasionally to the present day. The names 
 
528 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 of the largest manufacturers in Lancashire were attaclied 
 to such petitions. 
 
 It is quite true that several of the continental nations 
 buy large quantities of English yarn, and weave it into 
 cloth. Russia, for example, receives our yarn to the 
 value of £1,087,662 a year, and only imports English 
 cotton manufactures to the value of £142,463. But it 
 does not follow, as is often taken for granted, that if we 
 were to refuse to Russia the produce of our spinners, 
 she would be compelled to take the produce both of our 
 spinners and our weavers. Yarn may be bought in 
 other countries besides England ; and though it should 
 be of inferior quality, the same imperial mandate, which 
 now compels the Russians to wear their home-made 
 cotton manufactures dearer or worse than they might 
 be obtained from England, might equally compel them 
 to purchase the yarn of France, Germany, or America, 
 rather than English manufactured goods. The policy 
 recommended by our weavers, therefore, might injure 
 the spinners, without benefiting themselves. That a 
 prohibition to export cotton yarn would operate as a 
 powerful stimulus to the establishment of spinning mills, 
 and to the dilio^ent cultivation of that branch of industry, 
 in other countries, is abundantly evident. That it 
 would provoke other governments altogether to exclude 
 English manufactures, is highly probable. The ulti- 
 mate result of such a policy would therefore be rather to 
 lessen than to increase the demand for the produce of 
 English labour, and to render other countries far more 
 independent of us than they are at present. 
 
 If the exportation of yarn had really diminished the 
 exportation of manufactured goods, there might seem 
 
THE COTTON M ANUFACTURi:. 529 
 
 to be justice in tlie assertion, that England has lost a 
 source of profitable employment which she might other- 
 wise have enjoyed. But this is not the case. The 
 export of manufactured goods has been constantly on 
 the increase. Not a single weaver, therefore, has been 
 thrown out of employment by the exportation of yam, 
 though an ad(htional number of spinners has found 
 employment. New capital has been continually invested 
 in the trade. The extension of the manufacture has 
 been sufficiently rapid and gi*eat to satisfy any ordinary 
 ambition or cupidity. There is no likelihood that tlie 
 total value of our cotton exports would have been higher 
 than at present, if the exportation of yai'n had been pro- 
 hibited ; but the reverse. 
 
 The principle wliich alone would justify a prohibition 
 of the exportation of yam, would requii*e that we should 
 export no article except in its last and most finished 
 state — that we should sell to foreigners not plain goods, 
 l)ut dyed and printed cloths ; not cottons in tlie piece, 
 but made up into garments and drapery; not our sheep's 
 wool, but finished woollen and worsted cloth ; not iron 
 and steel, but cutlery, tools, and macliines ; not tools 
 and macliines, but the articles they are intended to 
 make. On the same principle, America ouglit to manu- 
 facture all her OAvn cotton, Russia her flax. Saxony her 
 wool, Sweden lier iron, Italy her silk ; and governments 
 should take upon them to prescribe in what channels 
 capital and industry should flow, from the beginning to 
 the end of their course, instead of leaving that to be 
 decided by the sagacity of individuals, under the sure 
 guidance of self-interest. Such iiiterfurence would be 
 about as wise as it would be to prop and train every 
 
 ax 
 
530 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 tree of the forest. If the history of the Avoollen manu- 
 facture, which presents a long series of idle interpo- 
 sitions on the part of the legislature, — each new law 
 proclaiming the inefficiency and folly of those that pre- 
 ceded it — had not heen enough to shew the futility of 
 the meddling policy,* the history of the cotton manu- 
 facture ought at least to have given confidence to all 
 connected with that trade, that the let-alone policy was 
 the wisest and best. There is room for the industry of 
 other nations beside our own. We shall not he starved 
 by allowing them to live. The poorest states have 
 generally been those, whose pettifogging legislation 
 has grasped at every advantage, and sponged every 
 foreio;ner : the richest are those which have given 
 perfect freedom to domestic industry, and unrestricted 
 permission to all the world to buy and sell at their 
 marts. 
 
 In concluding this History of the British Cotton 
 Manufacture, the author may be permitted to express 
 
 * The history of the woollen manufacture furnishes a case exactly in point, to 
 prove the inutility of attempting to engross every branch of manufacturing industry 
 to ourselves. In the reign of James I. (1608,) a royal proclamation was issued, 
 prohibiting the exportation of woollen cloths in the white state ; this was expressly 
 intended to deprive the Netherlands of a branch of employment which engaged 
 many hands in that country, namely, the dyeing and finishing of English woollens; 
 and it was expected that our continental customers would then be obliged to obtain 
 the finished cloths from England, which, of course, would bring a great additional 
 amount of employment to our dyers. The result not merely disappointed the 
 greedy expectations which dictated this act, but it distressed our manufacturers, 
 without benefiting our dyers. The foreign demand for English cloths was dimi- 
 nished ; tlic government of the N ether lands retaliated upon us by prohibiting the 
 importation of all English woollens; and the king was obliged in 1615 to acknow- 
 ledge his folly, by repealing the prohibition he had enacted. 
 
THF COTTON M A N U F A C T U R IJ. 531 
 
 a seiitiineiit lie litis often felt during- its composition, 
 namely, that his subject derives interest not merely 
 I'rom the magnitude of the branch of industry which 
 he has attempted to describe, but from the wonderful 
 extent of intercourse which it has established between 
 this country and every part of the globe ; — not merely 
 from the fact, that Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, and 
 indeed several large counties of England and Scotland, 
 owe to the cotton manufacture a great proportion of 
 their wealth and populousncss, but that the Americas 
 and the East are by the same means united in new 
 and powerful bonds of amity with England -, — nor even 
 merely From the contemplation of the rich and mutually 
 advantageous commerce wliicli this manufacture has 
 enabled Englishmen to maintain with all the nations 
 of the world, but from the moral benefits which such a 
 commerce, centerhig in and radiating from a country 
 at the head of civilization, may be tlie means of spread- 
 ing to the less enlightened parts of the earth. No 
 nation ever had a more universal commerce than this : 
 no manufacturers ever clothed so many of the human 
 family, as the cotton manufacturers of England. From 
 so extended an intercourse, it may reasonably be antici- 
 pated that the minds of our population, as well as their 
 outward circumstances, will be enriched and improved ; 
 seeino- that it is the natural effect of such intercourse to 
 impart knowledge and to remove prejudice. But it is 
 also their privilege to be enabled to communicate to 
 other nations a share of their own advantages. The 
 civilization of England flies abroad on the wings of its 
 commerce. Philanthropy could not desire a more 
 powerful agent for diffusing light and liberty through 
 
532 THE HISTORY, ETC. 
 
 the world. It will be a proud distinction for the manu- 
 facturers of England, if their trade should minister 
 to the moral improvement of the human species. To 
 produce such an effect is worthy of their ambition ; and. 
 if accomplished, it \n\\ be a more honourable achieve- 
 ment than all their triumphs in science and tlie arts. 
 
 THE END. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A. Byssus — Egyptian Manufactures. Page 16. 
 
 There is a passage in Herodotus which has been understood as 
 shewing that the Egyptians manufactured cotton, and used cotton 
 cloth as wrappings for their mummies. In his description of the 
 mode of embalming (book ii, c. 86.), that author says, the body was 
 closely wrapped in bandages of cloth, the quality of which he indi- 
 cates by the words ffivSovog Pvamvijg. These words are rendered by 
 the translators (Lnrcher and Beloe) "cotton:" several other writers 
 have given the same meaning to fHaaog, or byssus ; yet the meaning 
 of this word is, at best, very doubtful. Isidore (Orig. 1. xix. c. 27.) 
 says distinctly that it was an exceedingly white and soft kind oi flax. 
 Julius Pollux (lib. vii. 12.) says that it denotes the finest flax, cotton, 
 and the silky beard of the pinna marina. Pausanias states {In Eliacis 
 1. 1.) that byssus grew in Egypt, Judea, India, and Elis ; which is true 
 of flax, but cotton certainly did not at that time grow in any part of 
 Greece. There has been much controversy on this Avord, and it has 
 even been doubted whether byssus belonged to the vegetable, animal, or 
 mineral kingdom. In all probability Herodotus, by aivSovog jivaaivriq, 
 meant linen made of a fine and peculiar kind of flax, or a cloth of 
 delicate texture, without reference to the material of which it was 
 made. That (ivaaog meant cotton is rendered highly improbable by 
 the fact, that no mummy-coverings have yet been found which are 
 made of this material, but all of linen. 
 
 I had intended to discuss tliis question more at length, but am 
 spared that labour by the successful investigations of Mr. Thomson, 
 of Clitheroe, who has lately set at rest this vexatu questio, by a disco- 
 very which reduces a great deal of the learning that has been 
 expended upon it to the character of old lumber. The difficulty of 
 ascertaining whether the mummy-cloths (of which the specimens are 
 exceedingly numerous) were made of linen or cotton, has at length been 
 overcome ; and though no chemical test could be found out to settle 
 
634 APPENDIX. 
 
 the question, it lias been decided by that important aid to scientific 
 scrutiny, the microscope. Mr. Thomson's discovery was embodied in a 
 paper read by him last year to the Royal Society. I have been 
 favoured with his permission to transfer the whole to my work, and 
 he has also kindly presented me with the interesting engraving 
 wliich accompanied it. The paper contains so much curious and 
 valuable information that it will be read with interest: — 
 
 " O/i the Mummy Cloth of Egypt; with Observations on some 
 Manufactures of the Ancients. By James Thomson, Esq., 
 F.R.S. 
 
 " The inquiries which form the subject of the followmg paper were 
 undertaken many years ago : circumstances which it is unnecessary 
 here to explain, have delayed their jjublication ; but the results were 
 communicated to numerous individuals. The revival lately of similar 
 inquiries by others apparently unacquainted with what is already 
 known, induces me to believe that this communication may not be 
 wholly without interest. 
 
 " Mjr attention was attracted to the subject of Egyptian manufac- 
 tures by the late Mr. Belzoni in the year 1822, during the exhibition 
 of a model of the ancient tomb discovered by that enterprising travel- 
 ler in Egypt. He had the goodness to present to me various speci- 
 mens of cloth, chiefly from the mummies in his possession, one of which 
 he had entirely denuded. 
 
 " On my remarking that these fabrics scarcely deserved the appella- 
 tion of " fine linen," which from all antiquity had been bestowed on 
 the linen of Egypt, and that the observations of Dr. Hadley, in the 
 Philosophical Transactions for the year 1764, had thrown some doubt 
 on the supposed fineness of this linen, he informed me that during his 
 researches in Egypt, in those tombs and mummy-])its which he had 
 explored, he had met with cloth of every degree of fineness, from the 
 coarsest sacking to the finest and most transparent muslin, a fact 
 which I subsequently found in a great degree confirmed by the acqui- 
 sition of some interesting specimens of mummy cloth sent to this 
 country by the then Consul - general of Egypt, the late Mr. Salt. 
 The subject appearing to me sufficiently interesting to deserve inves- 
 tigation, and having collected a variety of specimens of cloth, my first 
 care was to ascertain of what material they were made. This question 
 had already engaged the attention of various inquirers, and given 
 birth to learned dissertations. 
 
 " Rouelle, in the Memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences for the 
 year 17G0 ; Larehcr, the translator of Herodotus, in the notes to that 
 
APPENDIX. 535 
 
 celebrated work ; and tlic loariiod John Reinhold Forstor, who wrote a 
 tract De Bi/sso Anti(/Horicm, had all endeavoured to prove from tlieir 
 own examination that the munnny cloth of Eg:ypt was cotton : and 
 this opinion, on their authority, was adopted by the learned of Europe. 
 It is singular that neither in the memoir of Rouelle, nor in the notes 
 of Larcher, nor in the dissertation of Dr. Forster, in which this opinion 
 is expressed, are any grounds assigned for, or any jiroofs given of, 
 this opinion. The amount of their assertion is, that having examined 
 the bandages of various mummies, which arc designated by thoni, 
 and some of which I have myself since carefully examined, they found 
 all those which were free from resinous matter to be cotton. I am 
 forced to confess, that with all the attention I could bestow upon them, 
 and with the assistance of various intelligent manufacturers, I was 
 unable to arrive at such a conclusion. Some were of opinion that the 
 cloth was cotton ; others that it was linen ; and some again, that tlicre 
 were in the collection specimens of both, — a proof that our means of 
 judging were unworthy of confidence. 
 
 "The great difference in the specific gravities as well as in the con- 
 ducting power of linen and cotton, is sufficient to enable us, by careful 
 experiments, to discriminate accurately between them ; and there are 
 few individuals who have been accustomed to the use of both cotton 
 and linen who cannot readily distinguish, by that delicate sense of 
 touch diffused over the whole body, between the two fabrics: but 
 such tests require much larger portions of the material than I had at 
 my disposal, many of the specimens submitted to my examination 
 not being larger than a shilling. I found the difference of smell in 
 the burnt fibres, and the degree of polish which each kind of cloth 
 took on being rubbed with a glass stopper, as well as other empirical 
 modes suggested to me, liable to great uncertainty, and I souglit in 
 vain for any chemical test. It occurred to me, that the supposed unfit- 
 ness of cotton lint, compared with linen, for dressing wounds had 
 been accounted for by the difi'erent form of their fibres, tlie one being 
 sharp and angular, and the other round and smooth ; and, in fact, I 
 found in the 12tii volume of the Philosophical Transactions, for the 
 year 1678, this structure ascribed to them by that early microscopic 
 observer, Mr. Leuwenhoek. It seemed to me, therefore, tliat the most 
 simple mode of distinguishing between cotton and linen would be to 
 subject the fibres to examination under a powerful microscope. Not 
 being possessed of such an instrument, nor accustomed to its manage- 
 ment, my friend Mr. Children undertook, through Sir Everard Home, 
 to solicit the assistance of Mr. Bauer, whose lal)0ur3 are well known 
 to the scientific world, and whose microscopic drawings have for a 
 series of years enriched the Transactions of the Royal Society. I trans- 
 mitted to him various fibres of cotton and linen, both manufactured 
 
536 APPENDIX. 
 
 and in their raw state, as well as fibres of unravelled mummy cloth, 
 and in a few days I received from him a letter, in which he pro- 
 nounced every specimen of mummy cloth subjected to his examination 
 to be linen. 
 
 " This letter was accompanied by a beautiful drawing, exhibiting 
 tlie fibres of both raw and unravelled cotton as flattened cylinders, 
 twisted like a corkscrew, whilst the fibres of linen and various 
 mummy cloths were straight and cylindrical. 
 
 " Repeated observations having established beyond all doubt the 
 power of the microscope accurately to distinguish between the fibres 
 of cotton and linen, I obtained, through the kindness of various indi- 
 viduals connected with the British Museum, the Royal College of 
 Surgeons, the Hunterian Museum of Glasgow, as well as other public 
 institutions, both at home and abroad, a great variety of cloths of 
 human mummies, and of animals and birds, which being subjected to 
 the microscope of Mr. Bauer, proved without exception to be linen ; 
 nor has he, amongst the numerous specimens we have both collected 
 during many years, been able to detect a single fibre of cotton ; a fact 
 since recently confirmed by others, and proving incontestably that the 
 mummy cloth of Egypt was linen. 
 
 § II. 
 
 '' The filaments of cotton, when viewed through a powerful instru- 
 ment, such as the improved achromatic microscope of Ploessl of Vienna, 
 which for magnifjang power and clearness of vision Mr. Bauer has 
 found superior to every other he has had an opportunity of using, 
 appear to be transparent glassy tubes, flattened, and twisted round 
 their own axis. A section of the filament resembles in somej^egree a 
 figure of 8, the tube originally cylindrical having collapsed most in 
 the middle, forming semi-tubes on each side, which give to the fibre, 
 when viewed in certain lights, the appearance of a flat ribbon with a 
 hem or border at each edge. The uniform transparency of the 
 filament is impaired by small irregular figures, in all probability 
 wrinkles or creases arising from the desiccation of the tube. The 
 twisted and corkscrew form of the filament of cotton distinguishes it 
 from all other vegetable fibres, and is characteristic of the fully ripe 
 and mature pod, Mr. Bauer having ascertained that the fibres of the 
 unripe seed are simple untwisted cylindrical tubes, which never twist 
 afterwards if separated from the plant ; but when the seeds ripen, even 
 before the capsule bursts, the cylindrical tubes collapse in the middle, 
 and assume the form already described, and Avhich is accurately deli- 
 neated in the accompanying drawing. 
 
 " This form and character the fibres retain ever after, and in that 
 

 INSERT FOLDOUT HERE 
 
APPENDIX. 537 
 
 respect undergo no change through the operation of spinning, weaving, 
 bleaching, printing, and dyeing, nor in all the subsequent domestic 
 operations of washing, &c., till the stuff is worn to rags ; and then 
 even the violent process of reducing tliose rags to pulp fortlie j)urpose 
 of making paper, effects no change in tlie structure of these fibres. 
 * With Ploessl's microscope,' says Mr. Bauer, ' I can ascertain whe- 
 ther cotton rags have been mixed with linen in any manufactured 
 paper whatever.' 
 
 " The elementary fibres of flax (lirmm usitatissimum) are also trans- 
 parent tubes, cylindrical, and articulated or jointed like a cane. This 
 latter structure is only observable by the aid of an excellent instru- 
 ment. They are accurately delineated in the annexed engraving. 
 
 Explanation of the Plate. 
 
 " First row of figures : A. Fibres of tlie unripe seed of cotton. In 
 that state the fibres are perfect cylindrical tubes. At* is a fibre 
 represented as seen under water, showing that the water had graduallv 
 entered and enclosed several air-bubbles, proving the tube to be quite 
 hollow and without joints. 
 
 " B. The first two fi.bres are from ripe cotton and are already 
 twisted, though the pod or capsule is not yet burst, and is still on the 
 growing plant. The other three fibres are of raw cotton prepared for 
 manufacture. 
 
 C. Various fibres of unravelled tlireads of manufactured cotton. The 
 fibres of cotton in the annexed drawing are represented -f^ of an inch 
 in length, and are magnified 400 times in diameter. In thickness these 
 fibres vary from ^^ to 5^ part of an inch. The twists or turns in a fibre 
 of cotton are from 300 to 800 in an inch. 
 " Second row of figures : 
 "Fig. 1. Fibres of raw flax before spinning. 
 " Fig. 2, Fibres of unravelled tlireads of manufactured flav. 
 " Fig. 3. 4. 5. Fibres of the unravelled threads of various mnmmy 
 
 cloths. 
 " Fig. 6. Fibres of unravelled threads of the cloth of Dr Granville's 
 mummy, supposed to be cotton. Tlie specimens are all flax, 
 and the fibres remarkably strong and large. 
 " Fig. 7. Fibres of unravelled threads of several Ibis mummies, 
 " Fig. 8. Fibres of unravelled threads of the mummy of an ox's 
 
 head. 
 " All the annexed figures of fibres of flax represent each ^ of an 
 inch in length, and are magnified 400 times in diameter. They vary- 
 in thickness from ^ to ^^^ ])art of an inch. 
 
 3y 
 
538 APPENDIX. 
 
 i III. 
 
 " Of the productions of the loom amongst the nations of antiquity, 
 with the exception of those which form the subject of this paper, we 
 know only what is to be gathered from the few scattered notices in 
 ancient writers. Even the great work of Pliny, the encyclopaedia of 
 that day, and with all its defects an invaluable collection of facts, 
 affords but scanty information. Of the manufactures of the Egyptians 
 and of their domestic arts our knowledge is more ample, but we are 
 more indebted to their monuments than to their historians ; and the 
 paintings which adorn their tombs, and which are fresh at the present 
 day as from the hand of the artist, have revealed to us more than all 
 the writers of antiquity. 
 
 " Of the products of the Egyptian loom, however, we know scarcely 
 more than tlie mummy-pits have disclosed to us ; and it would be as 
 unreasonable to look through modern sepulchres for specimens and 
 proofs of the state of manufacturing art amongst ourselves, as to 
 deduce an opinion of the skill of the Egyptians from those fragments 
 of cloth which envelop their dead, and have come down, almost un- 
 changed, to our own time. The curious or costly fabrics which 
 adorned the living, and were the pride of the industry' and skill of 
 Thebes, have perislied ages ago. There are, however, amongst these 
 remains some which are not unworthy of notice, which carry us back 
 into the workshops of former times, and exhibit to us the actual 
 labours of the weavers and dyers of Egypt more than two thousand 
 years ago. 
 
 " The great mass of the mummy cloth employed in bandages and 
 coverings, whether of birds, animals, or of the human species, is of 
 coarse texture, especially that more immediately in contact with the 
 body, and which is generally impregnated with resinous or bitumi- 
 nous matter. The uppfer bandages, nearer the surface, are finer. 
 Sometimes the whole is enveloped in a covering coarse and thick, and 
 very like the sacking of the present day ; sometimes in cloth coarse 
 and open, like that used in our cheese-presses, for which it might 
 easily be mistaken. In the College of Surgeons are various specimens 
 of these cloths, some of which are very curious. 
 
 " The beauty of the texture and peculiarity in tlie structure of a 
 mummy cloth given to me by Mr. Belzoni was very striking. It was 
 free from gum, or resin, or impregnation of any kind, and had evi- 
 dently been originally white. It was close and firm, yet very elastiir. 
 Tlie yarn of both warp and woof was remarkably even and well spun. 
 Tlie thread of the warp was double, consisting of two finer threads 
 twisted together. The woof was single. The warp contained 90 
 threads in an inch ; the woof, or weft, only 44. The fineness of thise 
 
APri:M>ix. 539 
 
 materials, estimated after the manner of cotton yarn, was about 30 
 hunks in the pound. 
 
 " The subsequent examination of a great variety of mummy clotlis 
 showed that the disparity between the warp and woof belonged to the 
 system of manufacture, and that the warp generally had twice or 
 thrice, and not seldom four times, the number of threads in an inch 
 that the woof had : thus, a cloth containing 80 threads of warj) in the 
 inch, of a fineness about 24 hanks in the pound, had 40 threads in the 
 woof; another with 120 threads of warp of 30 hanks, had 40; and a 
 third specimen only 30 threads in the woof. These have each respect- 
 ively, double, treble, and quadruple the number of threads in the 
 warp that they have in the woof. This structure, so different from 
 modern cloth, which has the proportions nearly equal, originated, 
 probably, in the difficulty and tediousness of getting in the woof when 
 the sliuttle was thrown by hand, which is tlie practice in India at the 
 present day, an<l which there are weavers still living, old enough to 
 remember the universal practice in this country. 
 
 " I have alluded to some specimens of mummy cloth sent to this 
 country by the late Mr. Salt. I am unacquainted with their historj' 
 or origin further than that they were brought from Thebes, and were 
 contained in the outer packing-case of a mummy now in the British 
 Museum. They were evidently the spoils of some other mummy, but 
 when and where opened I have in vain endeavoured to learn. There 
 were various fragments of different degrees of fineness ; some fringed 
 at the ends, and some striped at the edges. They merit a more parti- 
 cular description. 
 
 " My first impression on seeing these cloths was that the finest 
 kinds were nnislin, and of Indian manufacture, since we learn from 
 the " Periplus of the Erythrean Sea," ascribed to Arrian; but more 
 probably the work of some Greek merchant, himself engaged in the 
 trade, that muslins from the Ganges were an article of export from 
 India to the Arabian Gulf; but this suspicion of their being cotton 
 was soon removed by the microscope of Mr. Bauer, which shewed 
 that they were all, without exception, linen. Some were thin and 
 transparent, and of very delicate texture. The finest appeared to be 
 made of yarns of near 100 hanks in the pound, with 140 threads in the 
 inch in the warp, and about 04 in the woof. A specimen of muslin in 
 the Museum of the East India House, the finest production of the 
 Dacca loom, has only 100 threads in an inch in the warp, and 84 in 
 the woof, but the surprising fineness of the yarns, which, though spun 
 by hand, is not less than 2-50 hunks in the pound, gives to this fabric 
 its unrivalled tenuity and lightness. 
 
 " Some of tlie cloths were fringed at the ends, and one, a sort of 
 scurf about four feet long and twenty inches wide, was fringed at both 
 ends. Three or four threads twisted to;rethcr with the fingers to form 
 
540 APPENDIX. 
 
 a strons: one, and two of these again twisted together and knotted at 
 the middle and at the end to prevent unravelling, formed the fringe, 
 precisely like the silk shawls of the present day. 
 
 '' The selvedges of the Egyptian cloths generally are formed with 
 the greatest care, and are well calculated by their strength to protect 
 the cloth from accident. Fillets of strong cloth or tape also secure 
 the ends of the pieces from injury, shewing a knowledge of all the 
 little resources of modern manufacture. Several of the specimens, 
 both of fine and coarse cloth, were bordered with blue stripes of 
 various patterns, and in some alternating with narrow lines of another 
 colour. Tiie width of the patterns varied from half an inch to an inch 
 and a quarter. In the latter were seven blue stripes, the broadest 
 about half an inch wide nearest the selvedge, followed by five very 
 narrow ones, and terminated by one an eighth of an inch broad. Had 
 this pattern, instead of being confined to the edge of the cloth, been 
 repeated across its whole breadth, it would have formed a modern 
 gingliam, which we can scarcely doubt was one of the articles of Egj^- 
 tian industry. A small pattern about half an inch broad formed the 
 edging of one of the finest of these cloths, and was composed of a strij>e 
 of blue, followed by three narrow lines of the same colour, alternating 
 with three lines of a fawn colour, forming a simple and elegant border. 
 These stripes were produced in the loom by coloured threads pre- 
 viously dyed in the yarn. The nature of the fawn colour I was unable 
 to determine. It was too much degraded by age, and the quantity too 
 small, to enable me to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. Though 
 I had no doubt the colouring matter of the blue stripes was indigo, I 
 subjected the cloth to the following examination. Boiled in water 
 for some time, the colour did not yield in the least ; nor was it at all 
 affected by soap, nor by strong alkalies. Sulphuric acid, diluted only 
 so far as not to destroy the cloth, had no action on the colour. Chlo- 
 ride of lime gradually reduced, and at last destroyed it. Strong nitric 
 acid dropped upon the blue turned it orange, and, in the same instant, 
 destroyed it. These tests prove the colouring matter of these stripes 
 to be indigo. 
 
 " This dye was unknown to Herodotus, for he makes no mention 
 of it. It was known to Plinj", who, though ignorant of its true 
 nature and the history of its production, has correctly described the 
 most characteristic of its properties, the emission of a beautiful purple 
 vapour when exposed to heat. Had his commentators been ac- 
 quainted with the sublimation of indigo, it would have saved 
 many learned doubts. We learn from the " Periplus," that it was 
 an article of export from Barbarik^ on the Indus to Egypt, where 
 its employment by the manufacturers of that country, probably from 
 a remote period, is clearly established by the specimens here 
 described. 
 
APPENDIX. 541 
 
 " Amongst the various cloths for whicli I am indebted to the curators 
 of the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow, is one of a pale brick or red 
 colour. My attention was lately recalled to this specimen by observing 
 a similar colour in the outer coverings of two fine mummies presented 
 to the University of London by Mr. Morrison, one of which has been 
 recently unrolled. Having obtained specimens of both, I subjected 
 them, with that from Glasgow, to the following experiments. Treated 
 with cold water, the colour was not aifected. Boiling distilled water 
 ;», r. er^^ niinii+oa TiPfirlv TPmnvpil the whole. Diluted suluhuric or. 
 
 were derived has not been ascertained, yet we may fairly presume 
 that it goes back to a period so far remote as to make the preservation 
 so long of delicate and fugacious colouring matter like carthamus, or 
 even the more permanent one of indigo,very surprising, and proves that 
 substances which readily yield to the combined and destructive agency 
 
•540 APPENDIX. 
 
 a strong one, and tw^o of these again twisted together and knotted at 
 the middle and at the end to prevent unravelling, formed the frino-e 
 precisely like the silk sliawls of the present day. 
 
 " The selvedges of the Egyptian cloths generally are formed with 
 the greatest care, and are well calculated by their strength to protect 
 the cloth from accident. Fillets of strong cloth or tape also secure 
 tlie ends of the pieces from injury, shewing a knowledge of all the 
 little resources of modern manufacture. Several of the specimens, 
 both of fine and coarse cloth, were bordered with blue strines of 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 Relative to the Form of the Fibres of Cotton. 
 By James Thom.sox, F.R.S. 
 
 In the first volume of the " Bulletin de la Societe Industrielte de Mul- 
 hausen," published in 1828, is a memoir, by Mr. Josue Heilman, 
 entitled '• Observation;? Microscopiques sur la forme, la finesse, et la 
 force des filamens de Coton," in which he ascribes to tlie fibres of 
 Cotton the same form precisely given to them in the drawing of Mr. 
 Bauer, dated Feb. 11, 18-22, which accompanies my paper " On Mumm v 
 Cloth." 
 
 Mr. Heilman's " Observations" are accompanied by a drawing of 
 Mr. Edward Koechlin, of the fibres of cotton. "Whoever will take the 
 trouble to compare the two drawings, will detect internal evidence 
 of the one being derived from the other. !Mr. Heilman's paper being 
 published in 1828, and mine in 1834, renders some explanation 
 necessary. 
 
 In 1822 or 1823, Mr. Edward Koechlin was in England, and during 
 a visit he paid to me at Primrose, he saw Mr. Bauer's drawing, and 
 requested permission to copj' it, wliich was readily] granted. It is 
 from this drawing and Mr. Koechlin's communication, that Mr. 
 Heilman's " Observations Microscopiques" are derived. 
 
 The paltry fraud of appropriating to himself the observations of 
 others, without acknowledgment, might have passed unnoticed by me 
 for ever, liad not the friends of Mr. Bauer considered this explanation 
 necessary. 
 
 quainted with the sublimation of indigo, it would have saved 
 many learned doubts. We learn from the " Periplus," that it was 
 an article of export from Barbarik^ on the Indus to Egypt, where 
 Its employment by the manufacturers of that country, probably from 
 a remote period, is clearly established by the specimens here 
 described. 
 
APPENDIX. 64 1 
 
 " Amongst the various cloths for which I am indebted to the curators 
 of the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow, is one of a j»ale brick or red 
 colour. My attention was lately recalled to this specimen by observing 
 a similar colour in the outer coverings of two fine mummies presented 
 to the University of London by Mr. Morrison, one of which has been 
 recently unrolled. Having obtained specimens of both, I subjected 
 them, with that from Glasgow, to the following experiments. Treated 
 with cold water, the colour was not affected. Boiling distilled water 
 in a few minutes nearly removed the whole. Diluted sulphuric or 
 muriatic acid had no action on it ; but a feeble alkali, whether carbon- 
 ated or caustic, destroyed the colour immediately. Examined with a 
 lens, the specimens from Glasgow exhibited S7iiall distinct grains or 
 concretions, of a red colour, disseminated through the fibres of the 
 cloth. Notwithstanding the fugitive nature of the colouring matter 
 of safflower, the carthamus tinctorius of botanists, I am strongly dis- 
 posed to consider the three specimens here examined as having been 
 dyed with that plant. The small granular particles of a red colour 
 observed in the Glasgow specimen are sometimes found in cloth dyed 
 with carthamus. There is also in the covering of the mummy of the 
 London University which is unstripped, a rosy hue peculiar to this 
 dye. The resistance of the colour to acids, and its instant yielding to 
 the weakest alkalies, is characteristic of Safflower. Lastly, carthamus 
 has long been an article of cultivation in Egypt, and the first pro- 
 cesses em^iloyed by the European dyers were derived, with the dye 
 itself, from that country, where in all jJrobability it has been culti- 
 vated and used for ages, and is 1)o this day an article of considerable 
 export. 
 
 " In the Glasgow mummy there was, moreover, a narrow slip of 
 cloth about four inches broad, extending from the crown of the head 
 to the feet, of a yellowish colour, of which portions were still fresh. 
 On examination, no mordant appeared to have been used to fix this 
 dye, and washing in cold water greatly impaired it. Comparative 
 experiments made on this col our, and on that afforded by carthamus 
 to simple water before the pink dye is extracted, left little doubt of 
 their being identical. They were slightly and similarly affected by 
 solutions of alumina and of iron, and a])i)eared to have very feeble 
 affinities for either vegetable fibre or any of the earthy or metallic 
 bases. 
 
 " Though the age of tlie mummies from which these specimens 
 were derived has not been ascertained, yet we may fairly i)resume 
 that it goes back to a period so far remote as to make the preservation 
 so long of delicate and fugacious colouring matter like carthamus, or 
 even the more permanent one of indigo,very surprising, and proves tliat 
 substances which readily yield to the combined and destructive agency 
 
542 APPENDIX. 
 
 of heat or light and moisture, are almost unalterable when secured 
 from the action of the latter. Portions of the blue cloth which had 
 resisted in the dark and dry sepulchres of Thebes for ages, lost, by a 
 few days' exposure on the grass, nearly all their colour. 
 
 " Mummj' cloth not stained or discoloured by resin or bitumen is 
 generally of a pale-brown or fawn colour, which has been supjjosed 
 to arise from some astringent preparation employed by the Egyptians 
 for its preservation. All this cloth imparts to water a brown colour, 
 in which I have sought in vain for any trace of tannin. In none of 
 the specimens I have examined did either gelatine or albumen, or 
 solutions of iron, afford any jjrecipitate ; but the subacetate of lead 
 jiroduced a cloud, indicating the presence of extractive matter. I am 
 inclined to think that if astringent matter has been found, it is in 
 tliose bandages which have received a prejiaration of gum or resin, 
 and Avhich are distinguished from the others by their stiflPness. These 
 I have not examined. All these cloths, whether fine or coarse, are 
 more or less rotten. Of the numerous specimens which have fallen 
 under my notice, the outer covering of the fine mummy in the London 
 University has suffered least : it is comparatively sound. Whether 
 this be an argument against its high antiquity, I know not ; but the 
 {•loth is evidently ancient Egyptian : nor is it, I believe, pretended 
 that in those factitious mummies manufactured by the Arabs, of 
 which several were found by Blumenbach in the British Museum, the 
 bandages and envelopes are not genuine. Of the ancient cloth there 
 is such an accumulation in the mummy pits and sepulchres of Egypt, 
 as to have become an object of speculation in Europe, for the purpose 
 of making paper. The inquiries, therefore, which form the subject of 
 this communication are not affected by any question of the integrity 
 of those mummies from whence the specimens were derived, of which, 
 however, no doubt is entertained. 
 
 " The period during which the custom of embalming prevailed in 
 Egypt, embraces a long succession of ages. From the first of the 
 Pharaohs to the last of the Ptolemies, with whom this ancient rite is 
 supposed to have become almost extinct, chronologists reckon more 
 than twenty centuries during which the art was practised which has 
 handed down to us these scanty remains of Egyptian industry, the 
 only vestiges of the labours of the ancient loom now in existence. 
 They prove the arts of spinning and weaving flax to have attained 
 a high degree of perfection, many of the specimens of mummy cloth 
 here described being of a quality to excite admiration even at the 
 l)resent day, and tlie finest of these fabrics approaching in excellence 
 our delicate muslins. The coloured borders establish the fact of 
 indigo having been known and used as a dye in Egypt, from a remote 
 a^ra. 
 
APPENDIX. 543 
 
 " During this long period, industry and tlic iirts of life connectorl 
 with civilization must have made consideniblo |irogr((Ss, which we. 
 shall, however, remain unable satisfactorily to trace till more accurate 
 knowledge of the ancient language and characters of the Egyptians 
 shall have interpreted the dates, and fixed the chronology of their 
 monuments and paintings. In the tomb of Beni Hassan is a repre- 
 sentation of a loom (figured in Count Minutoli's Travels) of such pri- 
 mgeval simplicity as to resemble the first rude efforts of savage art 
 to form a web, such as Don Ulloa in his voyages has described as 
 used by the native Indians of South America. Between this loom, 
 and that in which the corslet of Amasis was woven, mentioned by 
 Herodotus, and more particularly described by Pliny as a wonderful 
 specimen of manufacturing art, the distance is immense. 
 
 " It is not improbable that future researches directed to this object 
 may discover, in the ancient sepulchres and mummy pits, fragments 
 of cloth, now trodden under foot and unheeded by the traveller, 
 which would throw much light on the interesting subject of ancient 
 manufactures. 
 
 '' The q^lestion debated amongst the learned, of the nature of the 
 BYSsus of the ancients, I may in conclusion be permitted to observe, 
 appears to me to be finally settled by the present communication. 
 Herodotus states that the Egyptians wrapped their dead in cloth of 
 the bi/asiis. It has been shewn that without exception every specimen 
 of mummy cloth yet examined has proved to be linen. We owe, 
 therefore, the satisfactory establishment of the fact, that the bi/sstu 
 of the ancients was flax, to the microscope of Mr. Bauer." 
 
 LONDON: II. FISTIER, R. FISHER, & P. JACKSON, PRINTERS. 
 
 D. H. HiLL L!E??ARY 
 North Catoi:no St.:.-!,.-. Co:i?>g<9