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UNIVERSITY .OF PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 The Rise of the Great Manufacturers 
 in England, 1760-1790 
 
 BY 
 
 WITT BOWDEN 
 
 A THESIS 
 
 PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 
 
 IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOE 
 
 THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 H. RAT HAAS & CO. 
 
 Printers and Publishers 
 
 AUentown, Pa. 
 
 1919 
 
Copyright, 1919 
 
 BY 
 
 WITT BOWDEN 
 EXCHANGE 
 
 .<L^ 
 
 6*^ 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 This work was originally undertaken with the view of ascer- 
 taining the relation of public opinion in England in the latter 
 part of the eighteenth century to the invention and application 
 of mechanical methods of production. The investigation was 
 broadened into a study of the early effects of the new methods of 
 production on the reorganization of economic classes. The period 
 covered is one of undisturbed development preceding the wars of 
 the French Revolution. The field of labor as well as of capital 
 was included in the scope of the inquiry, but only the latter as- 
 pect of the subject has been incorporated in the present paper. 
 
 The sources upon which the student must depend for knowl- 
 edge of this subject are in many instances remote from the more 
 familiar archives of political and economic history. The account 
 of the General Chamber of Manufacturers of Great Britain, for 
 instance, has been derived in part from the Chamber's resolu- 
 tions and official notices published in the advertising columns of 
 the daily press. It will be observed that extensive use has been 
 made of the controversial literature of the period studied. In 
 the use of such works, questions of authorship, motive, and bias 
 in the statement of facts give rise to serious difficulties in the 
 exercise of critical judgment. But in view of the importance of 
 contemporaneous opinion in stimulating invention and economic 
 progress and in affording evidence of the emergence of new eco- 
 nomic groups, and in view of the conflicts of these groups with 
 other groups and with the government, the controversial litera- 
 ture of the time cannot be ignored. 
 
 The study has been undertaken and pursued during the pro- 
 found disturbance of war, and access to the sources in England 
 
 V 
 
VI PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 has not been possible. Publication of the results of a more com- 
 prehensive study must therefore be deferred till English ar- 
 chives as well as American sources have been utilized. For gen- 
 erous assistance in the preparation of the present paper, the 
 writer is indebted to various librarians and to members of the 
 history faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. He desires to 
 acknowledge in particular the guidance and inspiration of Pro- 
 fessors E. P. Cheyney and W. E. Lingelbach. 
 
 W. B. 
 University of Pennsylvania, 
 Philadelphia, Pa., 
 
 April, 1919. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 I. The Era of Invention 1 
 
 II. The Economic Basis of the New Industrial Group 26 
 
 III. The General Chamber of Manufacturers of Great Britain 49 
 
 Bibliography 82 
 
 VII 
 
THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 IN ENGLAND, 1760-1790 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 The Era op Invention 
 
 Previous to the rise of the great manufacturers incident to 
 the transition to mechanical production, the productive resources 
 of England were mainly in the hands of the landlords and mer- 
 chant princes. The basis of the former class was the control of 
 natural resources ; the basis of the latter was an elaborate and 
 monopolistic commercial system. The great manufacturers, who 
 rose rapidly to a sense of unity and a position of power during 
 the first half of the reign of George III, were possessed of neither 
 commercial monopoly nor a monopoly of natural resources. 
 Their origin was in the transition to mechanical production ; 
 their economic basis was in the superior productive and competi- 
 tive power of the new machines. 
 
 The rise of the new manufacturers was accompanied by an 
 extreme individualism as well as by great power. Their power 
 grew out of the use of machines, but their individualism was in- 
 dependent of the transition to mechanical methods. For that 
 transition was not an individualistic but a social creation, the 
 result of widely diffused interests and organized activities on the 
 part of the people of the time. The names most commonly asso- 
 ciated with the devising of new methods of production are Har- 
 greaves, Arkwright, Crompton, Cartwright and "Watt. But 
 while these men were working out the problems of their textile 
 and power inventions, literally thousands of other men were 
 
2 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 working with perhaps equal ardor to solve the same or similar 
 problems of mechanical improvement ; national and local socie- 
 ties were organized to stimulate and reward inventive activity; 
 and the government paid large sums in recognition of the work 
 of inventors and passed numerous laws for the protection of in- 
 ventions. The period of the textile inventions was a period char- 
 acterized by what may be termed a prevailing spirit of invention. 
 
 Interest in mechanical improvement found expression in 
 many ways. One of its manifestations was an increase in the 
 number of patents for inventions. The number of patents issued 
 during the fifteen years from 1760 to 1775 was approximately 
 the same as the number issued during the preceding sixty years. 
 The number issued during the quarter of a century from 1760 to 
 1785 equaled the number issued during the preceding century 
 and a half. ^ During no decade preceding 1 760, with the one ex- 
 ception of the years 1690-1699, did the number of patents rise to 
 100, and the number during that decade was only 102. In the 
 decade beginning in 1760, the number of patents granted was 
 205, and each succeeding decade was marked b.y a very rapid 
 increase. ^ 
 
 The mechanical interests of the time found expression not 
 
 ^ Compiled from Woodcroft, Titles of Patents of Invention, Vol. 1. 
 The exact figures follow : 
 
 Number of patents 1700-1760, 379; Number of patents 1617-1760, 743; 
 
 Number of patents 1760-1775, 370; Number of patents 1760-1785, 776. 
 
 ' Compiled from Woodcroft, Titles of Pateiits of Invention, Vol. I. 
 
 Following are the numbers of patents issued during the decades since the 
 
 Restoration : 
 
 1660-1669, 31; 1730-1739, 56; 
 
 1670-1679, 51; 1740-1749, 82; 
 
 1680-1689, 53; 1750-1759, 92; 
 
 1690-1699, 102; 1760-1769, 205; 
 
 1700-1709, 22; 1770-1779, 294; 
 
 1710-1719, 38; 1780-1789, 477. 
 
 1720-1729, 89; 
 Later decades also witnessed rapid increases in patent grants. 
 
THE ERA OF INVENTION 3 
 
 only in the increasing number of patents, but also in greater 
 variety in the nature of the inventions. According to Bennett 
 Woodcroft's classification of inventions for use in official publi- 
 cations, there were 396 kinds of inventions patented during the 
 years 1700 to 1785, and of these groups, 168 were added during 
 the years 1760 to 1785. ^ 
 
 The greater inventive activity of the late eighteenth century 
 is evident not only from a comparison of the number and the 
 variety of the patents, but also from a comparison of the nature 
 of the inventions represented by the patent grants. The early 
 patents were in many cases issued not for definite, tangible in- 
 ventions, but for ideas and suggestions, and for vague, undefined 
 devices and processes in some instances not far removed from 
 the occult arts of the middle ages. * During the period of in- 
 creased inventive activity, as well as before, patents were issued 
 for worthless inventions. But the more definite, workable nature 
 of the patents issued during the later period, in comparison with 
 the tendency toward vagueness, extravagance and speculation in 
 the earlier patents, afl'ords a sharp contrast. This contrast is to 
 be explained in part by the general increase in mechanical and 
 scientific knowledge ; and in part by the more rigorous enforce- 
 ment of the rules for submission of definite specifications, draw- 
 ings and models in order to secure patents. ^ 
 
 The increase in the number and the variety of patents issued 
 and the more explicit nature of the inventions indicate clearly 
 a rapid growth of interest in mechanical improvement. So ap- 
 
 ' Compiled from Woodcroft, Subject-matter Index of Patents of In- 
 vention, Vol. 1. 
 
 * For a few instances of such patents, see Woodcroft, Titles of Patents 
 of Invention, Vol. 1, p. 2, patent granted to Ramsey and Wildgosse; p. 28, 
 to Worcester; p. 44, to Becher; p. 51, to Ayscoghe; p. 52, to Smartfoot; 
 p. 54, to Porter and White; p. 57, to Williams and Marwood; p. 63, to 
 Winball; p. 69, to Aldersey; p. 92, to Payne. 
 
 ' Concerning patent law and practice, see below, pp. 8, 9. 
 
4 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 parent to the people of the time was this tendency that it called 
 forth in 1776 a book of verse entitled The Patent. " The follow- 
 ing passage is a facetious but none the less significant expression 
 of the inventive spirit evidenced by the patent records : 
 
 "Hail to the patent ! which enables man 
 To vend a folio or a warming pan. 
 This makes the windlass work with double force, 
 And smoke-jacks whirl more rapid in their course ; 
 Confers a sanction on the doctor's pill 
 Oft known to cure, but oft'ner known to kill. 
 What man would scruple to resign his breath 
 Provided he could die a patent death ! 
 
 The time may come when nothing will succeed 
 But what a previous patent hath decreed; 
 And we must open, on some future day, 
 The door of nature with a patent key. ' ' 
 
 The increased number, variety, and definiteness of patents 
 are by no means the only ways in which the prevailing spirit of 
 invention found expression. The securing of a patent was an ex- 
 pensive proceeding, and was merely the initial step in the pro- 
 tection of the rights of the inventor. Because of this fact, and 
 of the further fact that other methods of rewarding inventors 
 were devised, there was an immense inventive activity unre- 
 corded in the patent office. One of the chief purposes of the 
 Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Com 
 merce, as well as of various local societies, was to promote me- 
 chanical improvement by offering premiums as a substitute for 
 patent rights. Extensive inventive activity by men either care- 
 less of their rights under the patent laws, or unable to assert their 
 claims, will become apparent in the discussion of the work of 
 
 •Eeviewed in the London Magasine, 1776, p. 383. 
 
THE ERA OP INVENTION 5 
 
 these societies. It will suffice at this point to state by way of il- 
 lustration that Hargreaves did not patent his spinning jenny 
 till several years after its invention; that Crompton's "mule" 
 was never patented; and that before the time of Hargreaves' 
 jenny, premiums were paid for four different machines, none of 
 which were patented, for spinning more than one thread at a 
 time. 
 
 The question of the best method of rewarding inventors, as 
 well as other aspects of popular interest in mechanical progress, 
 found frequent expression in the various types of current litera- 
 ture. A survey of accounts of this kind reveals innumerable de- 
 vices, many of them unpatented, and some of them highly suc- 
 cessful. These accounts are significant because they show not 
 only an extensive inventive activity but also a widespread public 
 interest in the subject. The briefest analysis or enumeration of 
 popular contemporaneous records having to do with inventions 
 would carry the discussion afield. It is necessary, therefore, to 
 mention only a few characteristic instances. The Annual Regis- 
 ter had a department regularly devoted to "Useful Projects." 
 In 1764 a new periodical, The Wonderful Magazine, devoted to 
 the recording of "things out of the common road," was adver- 
 tised. ^ The Museum Rusticum et Commerciale, begun in 1764, 
 unofficially patronized by the Society for the Encouragement of 
 Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and devoted to the recording 
 of new and valuable discoveries, was of such interest, according 
 to the editors, tliat "there was scarcely a newspaper or magazine 
 in the kingdom" that had not reprinted portions of its contents. * 
 A book entitled JVk' Patent has already been mentioned. Among 
 the numerous references to inventions and inventors in the liter- 
 ary journals of the time, there is one of special significance be- 
 cause of the light it throws on the mechanical interests of the 
 
 'In Hoi/d's Evening Post and British Chronicle, Vol. 15, p. 320. 
 'Vol. 1, Preface; Vol. 2, Advertisement. 
 
6 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 people about Manchester before the introduction of cotton fac 
 tories. This account is a sketch of the life of Adam Walker, a 
 self-taught mechanic of the north of England, who about the 
 middle of the century introduced practical education at Manches- 
 ter, in keeping with the needs of "a town of trade;" gave lec- 
 tures on mechanics in Manchester and neighboring towns, — lec- 
 tures so popular that in many of the smaller towns buildings 
 large enough to accommodate his audiences could not be secured ; 
 and himself invented about a score of devices, most of which 
 were never patented. ^ Classical allusions, of great interest to the 
 cultivated classes of the time, were in many instances reinter- 
 preted in the light of mechanical interests. One writer even as- 
 serted that many pagan gods were ' ' mortals who had signalized 
 themselves by their beneficial inventions," and had been re- 
 warded with deification. ^° 
 
 Interest in the question of rewarding inventors was per- 
 haps the most important aspect of the contemporaneous discus- 
 sions, because of the reaction in stimulating further inventive ac- 
 tivity. As early as 1774 a booklet appeared which vigorously 
 defended the legal rights of inventors on the basis of their pub- 
 lic value. This work opposed the idea of the superiority of the 
 "polite arts," and asserted that these are of much less value 
 than "new inventions and discoveries in the arts and sciences." 
 Popular support of this view is evidenced by the following lines 
 by an anonymous rimester: 
 
 " 'T is great, 't is wonderful, sublime, 
 No doubt, to build the lofty rime ! 
 But, deaf to what the poet sings. 
 Though charm his muse the ear of kings, 
 The patriot sees more wit and good in 
 The invention of a marrow pudding." 
 
 'European Magazine, Vol. 21, pp. 411-413. 
 
 "Edward Goodwin of Sheffield, in Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 56, 
 Pt. 1, pp. 25, 26 (1786). 
 
THE ERA OF INVENTION 7 
 
 It was urged in particular, by Kenrick and others, that in recog- 
 nition of inventive ability a more liberal patent law should be 
 enacted. ^^ 
 
 Of the various general discussions of the proper method of 
 rewarding inventors, the most important was that of Sir John 
 Sinclair, President of the Board of Agriculture. In 1795 he 
 definitely formulated a plan which had been developing for more 
 than a decade as a result of his extensive interests, foreign 
 travel, and correspondence. This plan was a remarkably liberal 
 and comprehensive system for combining the adequate reward- 
 ing of inventors with objects even more important. He proposed 
 "a general agreement among the powers of Europe and the 
 United States of America, for the purpose of rewarding those 
 who make any useful discovery," and for taking means "to have 
 the same rapidly extended and brought to its ultimate state of 
 perfection." Each country was to set aside an adequate sum 
 for the rewarding of "any new invention," which was thence- 
 forth to become generally available. The plan was to be carried 
 out by a system of boards and secretaries cooperating in the 
 various countries, — a definite international organization with 
 comprehensive aims and powers. So optimistic was he concern- 
 ing his plan that he believed that such a system of international 
 cooperation for the promotion of common, peaceful interests 
 would tend to do away with warfare, and would promote the 
 development of a new and wholesome system of international re- 
 lations. His attempt to carry out such a far-sighted and ideal 
 policy — and serious attempts were made — were ineffective be- 
 cause of the wars and jealousies of the time. But his recognition 
 of the importance of inventions and their far-reaching possibili- 
 
 " W. Kenrick, An Address to the Artists and Manufacturers of Great 
 Britain, pp. 16, 32, and passim. 
 
8 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 ties is nevertheless significant evidence of interest in mechanical 
 progress. ^^ 
 
 Proposals for changes in the methods of rewarding inventors 
 were justified bj' the fact that in practice much injustice and in- 
 equality prevailed. To be sure, the accounts of persecuted and 
 ill-treated inventors have been exaggerated, as in the case of 
 Hargreaves. " But inventors, as well as persons of other pur- 
 suits, unless possessed of wealth or position, not only had pre- 
 carious legal rights (as witness the laws against debtors) but 
 found extreme difficulty in maintaining such rights as thej^ 
 possessed. 
 
 The prevailing view of the time ' conceded the desirability 
 of making special provision for the rewarding of the inventor in 
 ways other than by merely allowing him to profit b}' the appli- 
 cation of his invention to its intended purpose. Sir John Sin- 
 clair held, as has been noted, a distinctly socialized conception 
 of inventions. And the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 
 Manufactures and Commerce viewed inventions as the legitimate 
 property of the public. But even in these instances it was agreed 
 that special recognition of inventors in some form was desirable. 
 
 There were three principal methods of rewarding inventors : 
 (1) patents; (2) special privileges or compensations granted by 
 the government; and (3) private aid, usually in the form of pre- 
 miums and medals granted by societies. 
 
 The law of patents then in force was the famous Statute of 
 Monopolies, 21 James I, c. 3, sees. 5 and 6. This law, which in 
 
 "European Magazine, Vol. 28, pp. 76-78; Sinclair, Essays on Miscel- 
 laneous Subjects, pp. 381-385, 391 (London, 1802). The extensive nature 
 of Sinclair's connections is shown by his Correspondence (London, 1831), 
 particularly Vol. 2, devoted mainly to America and the Continent. See also, 
 for further discussions of methods of rewarding inventors, James Peacock, 
 Proposals for a Magnificent and Interesting Establishment, pp. 11, 12; »nd 
 New and Old Principles of Trade Compared, p. 82. 
 
 "See accounts in Baines, History of the Cotton Manufacture, pp. 161 
 163, 189, and Abram, History of Blackburn, p. 209. 
 
THE ERA OF INVENTION 9 
 
 general condemned monopolies, made an exception in the case of 
 inventions. Patents for inventions might be issued for a period 
 of fourteen years. The principles of the law have remained sub- 
 stantially unchanged. Parliament indeed enacted no important 
 change even in the procedure for granting patents before the 
 year 1835. But the increase of governmental offices and the elab- 
 oration of procedure, combined with the more exacting require- 
 ments of the courts concerning specifications, ^* caused legal 
 rights to have precarious value except in the cases of the more 
 important inventions in the hands of the relatively well-to-do. 
 Estimates of the cost of securing a patent range, so far as ob- 
 served, from £80 to £143. The difficulties and annoyances in- 
 volved in the proceedings are suggested by the fact that in a 
 specimen bill forty-four separate items are listed. The main- 
 taining of patent rights was further complicated by the neces- 
 sity of securing separate and distinct patents for Ireland and 
 Scotland. ^^ 
 
 It is to be observed that the state of the patent law and prac- 
 tice is not of itself indicative of increased inventive activity ; but 
 the difftculty of asserting patent rights gives added significance 
 to the increase in the number of patents beginning about 1760. 
 
 There was an implicit recognition of this difficulty, as well 
 as an increasing interest in greater rewards for inventors, mani- 
 fest in the more frequent resort to special governmental grants 
 
 " The vagueness of Arkwright 's specifications led to the annulling of 
 his patent. This case, as well as others indicating a more rigorous ap- 
 plication of the law, is discussed in Davies, Collection of the Most Import- 
 ant Cases Respecting Patents of Invention. 
 
 ^''Statutes of the Realm, Vol. 4, Pt. II, p. 1213 (21 James I, c. 3, 
 sees. 5, 6) ; Robert Frost, Treatise on the Law and Practice Relating to 
 Letters Patent for Inventions, Vol. 1, pp. 1-4; H. F. Moulton, The Present 
 Laic and Practice Relating to Letters Patent for Inventions, p. 2; William 
 Hands, The Law and Practice of Patents for Inventions, pp. 12-15; W. Ken- 
 rick, An Address to the Artists and Manufacturers of Great Britain, pp. 40^ 
 41, and passim. 
 
10 THE RISE OP THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 of money or privileges. Previous to the year 1760, such special 
 grants, though not unknown, were extremely rare. One of the 
 few instances was a reward of £14,000 voted to Sir Thomas 
 Lombe in 1731, not however, for a new invention, but for ma- 
 chines introduced from Italy for the manufacturing of silk. 
 Lombe 's petition was for an extension of his patent. This 
 aroused extensive opposition, and the matter was compromised 
 by the payment of the above sum in recognition of his great 
 services in securing for England models of the machines which 
 had been the basis of Italy's superiority in the manufacture of 
 silk. " 
 
 In contrast with the paucity of special rewards for new 
 inventions before 1760, the period immediately following abounds 
 with such rewards. George III on several occasions showed per- 
 sonal interest in new inventions and in providing rewards there- 
 for. But the main recourse of inventors seeking public patron- 
 age was the House of Commons. The funds and privileges 
 granted, however, were not entirely in the nature of rewards. 
 Many of the grants were specifically for the purpose of making 
 experiments and tests. 
 
 One of the most noteworthy cases of special governmental 
 aid was the exceptional grant of £20,000 to John Harrison for his 
 device for determining longtitude at sea. This ease is significant 
 for a number of reasons. It is not only an example of special 
 grants as a method of rewarding inventors but is also an illus- 
 tration of the desire on the part of the government to foster in- 
 ventive activity ; for the reward was offered before the invention 
 was made, and was paid by installments as the device was de- 
 veloped and perfected. Moreover, the government conducted ex- 
 tensive experiments and tests to aid the inventor and to verify 
 his claims. It is one of many instances of inventions resulting 
 
 " Commons Journals, Vol. 21, pp. 782, 795, 798, 840, 842, 855. 
 
THE ERA OP INVENTION 11 
 
 from conscious, persistent, cooperative effort. As early as 1713 a 
 law was passed offering a reward of from £10,000 to £20,000 for 
 a practical method of determining longitude at sea. In 1753 
 the reward was still unassigned, and another act was passed "to 
 render more effectual" the law of 1713. During the years 1761 
 to 1780, the problem led to the enactment of no less than nine 
 laws, as well as to the making of a great variety of experiments 
 and the expenditure of large sums of money. John Harrison, 
 who, like most of the other great inventors of the time, was of 
 humble parentage and meager, self-acquired, education, spent 
 long years in his attempt to solve the problem defined by parlia- 
 ment. His efforts culminated in 1772 in the perfecting of a de- 
 vice which met the requirements of the most rigorous tests. As 
 a result, an act was passed in 1773 appropriating £8750, the sum 
 of £11,250 having been paid to him in the course of his experi- 
 ments. " 
 
 In addition to the granting of general patent rights and of 
 special rewards and aids, the interest of the government in me- 
 chanical improvement was evidenced by the passing of various 
 laws for the protection of machines and the maintenance of 
 British monopoly in their use. ^® 
 
 Neither the granting of general patent rights nor of special 
 aids was regarded as an ade(|uate method of rewarding inventors 
 
 " 12 Anne, St. 2, c. 15 ; 14 George II, e. 39 ; 26 George II, c. 25 ; 
 2 George III, c. 18; 3 George III, e. 14; 5 George III, cc. 11, 20; 10 George 
 III, c. 34; 13 George III, c. 77, sec. 29; 14 George III, c. 66; 17 George 
 III, c. 48; 20 George III, c. 61. Accounts are given in the European Mag- 
 azine, Vol. 16, pp. 235, 236; in the Annual Begister, 1765, 2d part, pp. 113- 
 133, and 1777, 2d part, pp. 24-26; and in the Dictionary of National Biog- 
 raphy, Vol. 25, pp. 35, 36. For other instances of parliamentary grants and 
 royal favor, see Commons Journals, Vol. 32, p. 240; Vol. 33, pp. 534, 600, 
 609, 664, 745; Vol. 34, pp. 382, 740, 746-748, 756; Vol. 35, pp. 142, 207, 
 343; Vol. 36, pp. 30-33, 238; Vol. 37, pp. 367, 368, 392, 393, 422; Vol. 40, 
 pp. 613, 1024; Vol. 47, pp. 416, 478, 546, 762; Universal Magazine, Vol. 49, 
 pp. 52, 107; European Magazine, Vol. 11, p, 211; and Gentleman's Maga- 
 zine, Vol. 56, Part I, p. 26. 
 
 " Concerning these laws, see below, p. 44, fl'. 
 
12 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 and stimulating improvement. Some of the defects of the pat- 
 ent system have already been mentioned. The method of reward- 
 ing inventors by special grants was criticized on various grounds. 
 It is obvious that rewards of this nature were unequally dis- 
 tributed, and were apt to be the result not of merit but of influ- 
 ence. An inventor without merit might secure recognition 
 through political agencies, and a man deserving recognition but 
 lacking connection with parliamentary and ministerial forces 
 was likely to be neglected. Minor improvements and devices or 
 processes of dubious merit were at times the subjects of pro 
 longed discussion, while many of the most important inventions 
 were entirely unnoticed. ^* 
 
 While criticisms of special grants to inventors were well 
 founded, it is nevertheless true that such grants afford import- 
 ant evidence of public interest in mechanical progress and of a 
 desire to make inventions common property. As for the other 
 governmental method of rewarding inventors, namely, the grant- 
 ing of patents, the vast increase in the number and kinds of 
 patents is proof, as has already been set forth, of widespread in- 
 ventive activity. A study of a third form of reward, the grant- 
 ing of premiums and medals by societies, affords evidence alike 
 of extensive inventive activity by individuals and of organized 
 interest on the part of the public. Rewards by societies and 
 patronage by the government are alike significant as indicating 
 the part played in the mechanical transition by organized social 
 forces as contrasted with the spontaneous, uncorrected activities 
 of individual inventors. 
 
 The principal societj' interested in the granting of premiums 
 for inventions was the Society Instituted at London for the En- 
 
 " For criticisms of special grants as a method of rewarding inventors, 
 see Parliamentary History, Vol. 38, pp. 311, 467-472, 538; Parliamentary 
 Begister, Vol. 4, pp. 358-370, 378-382, 392, 396; W. Kenrick, An Address 
 to the Artists and Manufacturers of Great Britain; and Geiitleman's Maga- 
 zine, Vol. 56, Pt. I, p. 26. 
 
THE ERA OF INVENTION 13 
 
 couragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, founded in 
 1754, and commonly known as the Society of Arts. Its pur- 
 poses and activities were so characteristic of the spirit of me- 
 chanical and material progress pervading the period of its early 
 history as to justify a somewhat detailed account. 
 
 The early history of the Society of Arts unquestionably 
 coincided with a period of great inventive activity. The period 
 is to be compared, in this respect, not with the following but 
 with the preceding period. In contrast with earlier times, the 
 profusion of mechanical interests and activities w^as remarkable. 
 By a w^riter of the time, the change was not considered as merely 
 coinciding with the origin of the Society of Arts, but was attri- 
 buted largely to the founding of that society, which he charac- 
 terized as "one of the most remarkable epochs in the history of 
 the arts."^° This is of course an exaggeration of the society's 
 influence. But the work of the society, even when subjected to 
 a more critical view, merits a more prominent place in the his- 
 tory of the time thaii has commonly been given it. 
 
 Its organization was not without precedent. The Dublin 
 Society, organized as early as 1731, was characterized by Lord 
 Sheffield as "the first institution of its kind in Europe." It 
 was a semi-official body, serving as a sort of "board of trade, 
 manufactures and useful arts," particularly agriculture. It was 
 at first supported by private subscriptions, but soon secured 
 parliamentary aid. the usual subsidy granted each session being 
 £10,000. Its relation, however, to invention was slight ; only in 
 its general purpose of encouraging the useful arts did it serve 
 as a precedent for the English society. -^ 
 
 The London society was organized in 1754 by William Ship- 
 ley. Shipley, realizing the need of patronage for the success 
 
 ^Encyclopedia Britannica, 3d Ed., Vol. 17, pp. 586, 587. 
 " Sheffield, Observations on the Manufactures, Trade, and Present 
 State of Ireland, pp. 204, 260; Young, Tour in Ireland, Vol. 2, pp. 131-133. 
 
14 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 of such a project at that time, "found means to engage a few 
 persons of rank and fortune to meet at Peele's Coffee House in 
 Fleet Street, and to adopt a plan for promoting arts and com- 
 merce." Prominent among these original members were Lord 
 Folkstone, Lord Romney, and Dr. Stephen Hales. ^^ 
 
 The plan of the society was comprehensive. The officers 
 consisted of a president, twelve vice-presidents, a secretary, an 
 assistant secretary, a registrar, and a collector of the subscrip- 
 tion money. There were six committees, each concerned with a 
 special field, and each, with one exception (the committee on ac- 
 counts), meeting weekly. Four general meetings of the society 
 were held each year. Candidates for membership might be 
 nominated on recommendation of three members, and election 
 to membership required a two-thirds vote of the members voting. 
 Perpetual membership required a fee of twenty guineas; and 
 subscribing membership, not less than two guineas. In 1783 
 there were 481 contributing members, and the number rapidly 
 increased thereafter. Many of the prominent men of England 
 were members. The names of inventors and manufacturers occur 
 side by side with the names of lords, gentry and high officials. 
 Arkwright. Matthew Boulton, and Josiah Wedgwood, as also 
 "Wedgwood's sons, were members, and Cartwright was at one 
 time a candidate for the position of secretary of the society. ^^ 
 
 The nature of the society's activities is indicated by its com- 
 mittee organization and by the premiums and medals offered. 
 
 "Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manu- 
 factures and Commerce, Vol. 1, Introduction; Vol. 3, pp. 124-128; Vol. 4, 
 Preface, pp. xvii, xviii (Shipley's portrait forms the frontispiece to Vol. 4) ; 
 Vol. 55, Preface; Dossie, Memoirs of AgricuHure and other Oeconomical 
 Arts, Vol. 1, p. 28; Encyclopedia Britannica, 3d Ed., Vol. 17, p. 587; Wood, 
 History of the Boyal Society of Arts, p. 1, ff. 
 
 " Transactions, Vol. 1, pp. 276-281, and lists of members in the various 
 volumes; Anderson, Historical and Chronological Deductions of the Origins 
 
 of Commerce, Vol. 2, p. 407 (Ed. 1764); [Strickland], Memoir of 
 
 Edmund Cartwright, p. 162. 
 
THE ERA OF INVENTION 15 
 
 Its five committees (excluding the committee on accounts) were 
 concerned with (1) correspondence and agriculture; (2) colo- 
 nies, trade, and manufactures; (3) mechanics; (4) polite arts; 
 and (5) chemistry. But mechanical interests were by no means 
 confined to the committee on mechanics. The terms applied to 
 the committees were arbitrary. Agricultural implements were 
 under the jurisdiction of the committee on agriculture ; and the 
 other committees similarly promoted inventions in their respect- 
 ive fields. Its interests even in connection with "polite arts" 
 were in reality quite largely practical. The term included de- 
 signing and other branches which the society recognized as of 
 great importance to English manufacturers, branches in which 
 there was special need of improvement due to the superiority of 
 the French. The society was interested in improvements of 
 various kinds ; but its most noteworthy work was the promoting 
 and rewarding of inventive activity. The principal method used 
 was the bestowing of medals and premiums. "There should be 
 a bank of generosity to which such [inventive] genius may with- 
 out difficulty apply, and from which, with certainty, it may ex- 
 pect the reward of merit as well as a mark of honor." This was 
 the society's ideal, which, it was claimed, has "undeniably proved 
 the surest means of employing and applying such genius to na- 
 tional benefit. "==* 
 
 The wide variety of the society's interests in stimulating 
 and rewarding inventive activity is evidenced by the following 
 list, far from complete, of devices or processes for which pre- 
 miums were offered and paid during its early years : ^^ Plows of 
 many types, thistle cutters, scythes, mechanical turnip slicers, 
 drills, threshers, horse-hoes, bee-hives, and a large number of 
 
 '* Trans(u:tions, Vol. 1, pp. 27, 28, 44-49, 280, 281; Dossie, Memoirs, 
 Vol. 1, pp. 32-308. 
 
 "Compiled from Tra-nsactions, Vol. 1, pp. 3-62; and W. Bailey, Ad- 
 vancement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. 
 
16 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 improved processes and products connected with agriculture; 
 crucibles, retorts, and numerous devices and processes in chem- 
 istry; combing and carding machines, reels, winding and doub- 
 ling machines, spinning wheels and spinning machines, looms and 
 stocking frames, and many improved fabrics, processes and de- 
 signs in the manufacture of cloth; a method of measuring dis- 
 tances ; carriages and minor improvements connected with them ; 
 handmills, windmills, sawmills, tidemills ; hydraulic engines ; 
 diving bells; methods of floating stranded vessels; compasses, 
 valves, gun harpoons, ventilators, umbrellas, locks, augurs, jacks, 
 cranes, pulleys, hinges, guages, timepieces; a universal standard 
 of weights and measures. The proportion of premiums awarded 
 to premiums offered was small. In 1784, a typical instance, 
 premiums were offered for 167 items. The number of awards 
 the following year was only twenty-two. The society's purpose 
 was attained if its suggestions of needed improvements were 
 acted upon, even if the resulting invention never came into its 
 possession. During the years 1754 to 1782, its awards totaled 
 the sum of £28,212, 11 s. 4 d. A large proportion of the awards 
 were honorary, and in some cases pecuniary rewards were re- 
 turned by inventors. The public-spirited nature of the society's 
 work is indicated by the fact that it rewarded inventors who 
 were unable to secure patents, and those, also, who were willing 
 to contribute their inventions to the public. Rewards were never 
 granted for patented inventions ; and all machines and models 
 for which premiums or medals were awarded, as well as others 
 donated to the society, were not to be patented, and were kept 
 on public exhibition. ^^ 
 
 Indeed, the ultimate purpose of the society was not merely 
 to promote "inventions, discoveres and improvements," but also 
 "the laying open any such to the public." The repository of 
 
 '^Transactions, Vol. 1, pp. 62, 269, 270; Vol. 2, pp. 271-346; Vol. 4, 
 pp. 231-239; Vol. 20, Preface, pp. iv-vi. 
 
THE ERA OF INVENTION 17 
 
 the society was open to the public, according to announcement 
 in 1783, every day except Sunday and Wednesday. It was 
 stated that since material progress depends ' ' on the improvement 
 of mechanical engines," "the society have from their institu- 
 tion invariably endeavored, by every means in their power, to 
 bring forward to public use and notice all such machines as have 
 a tendency to promote that end." The models and machines in 
 their repositories have been ' ' open to the free and uninterrupted 
 examination of all persons," and from these exhibits "it is well 
 known great advantages have arisen, as well to the ingenious 
 workmen as to the learned and scientific observers." ^^ 
 
 Evidence of contemporaneous recognition of the importance 
 of the Society of Arts is abundant. In 1765 the city of Liverpool 
 gave the societj^ £100, and in the same year, London contributed 
 £500 to its treasury. The popularity of the Transactions was so 
 great that a third edition of the first volume, for 1783, was 
 printed in 1786. Later volumes also w^ere soon reissued. Com- 
 mendations of the societj^'s work by writers of the time are ex- 
 tremely numerous and in tone superlative, as when Arthur 
 Young expressed the view that for every guinea spent by "this 
 most laudable society," the country had been benefited a thou."- 
 and pounds. The officers of the society w-ere themselves not un- 
 W'illing to solicit support on the basis of the praise generously 
 bestowed upon the society, and on the ground of the public bene- 
 fits accruing from its work. Samuel More, the secretary, wrote 
 that no nation had ever received "more real advantage from any 
 public body whatever than has been derived to this country from 
 the rewards bestowed by this society. ' ' ^* 
 
 Closely connected in origin and purpose w4th the national 
 society were various local organizations. The compiler of the 
 
 " Transactions, Vol. 1, p. 65, Vol. 13, Preface, p. xv. 
 ^^ Annual Segister, 1765, pp. Ill (Chron.), 136 (Chron.) ; Annals of 
 Agriculture, Vol. 1, p. 64; Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 59, Pt. 1, p. 478. 
 
18 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 Transactions claimed in 1783 that "a great and general effect" 
 of the society's work had been not only to produce mechanical 
 improvements "every year increasing," but "to excite and dif- 
 fuse a spirit of improvement." Another writer stated that 
 "among its benefits is the establishment of other similar bodies." 
 Robert Dossie, writing fourteen years after the founding of the 
 society, stated that its aim, ' ' to cherish invention and propagate 
 intelligence of this sort," was being emulated not only by many 
 individuals but also by "several country societies." ^^ 
 
 Even the Royal Academy of Arts, founded in 1768, was dis- 
 tinctly influenced by the Society of Arts. To the influence of the 
 two organizations has been attributed the success of Englishmen 
 in overcoming their deficiency of taste and skill in drawings, 
 designs, and patterns for their rapidly developing textile fab- 
 rics and other industries in which they were previously sur- 
 passed by the French. It is in this light that Wendeborn, a crit- 
 ical German observer, discusses the Academy. The honor of hav- 
 ing called the Academy into being was claimed distinctly by the 
 Society of Arts. "" 
 
 The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, like the 
 Royal Academy of Arts, had aims less practical and concrete 
 than those of the London society. But it is worthy of mention 
 for two reasons. Its organization was influenced by the success 
 of the Society of Arts ; and its interests included the application 
 of science to the promotion of mechanical improvement, particu- 
 larlj" in the manufacturing enterprises about Manchester. Under 
 its auspices there was organized in 1783 a "mechanic school," 
 under the name of the Manchester College of Arts and Sciences. 
 
 "Transactions, Vol. 1, pp. 40, 41; Encyclopedia Britannica, 3d ed., 
 Vol. 17, p. 586; Dossie, Memoirs, Vol. 1, Preface, p. x. 
 
 *• Wendeborn, View of England towards the Close of the Eighteenth 
 Century, Vol. 1, p. 230, Vol. 2, pp. 194, 197; Transactions, Vol. 1, pp. 46-49. 
 Wendeborn notes also the organization in 1773 at Liverpool of a Society 
 for the Encouragement of Designing, Drawing, and Painting. 
 
THE ERA OF INVENTION 19 
 
 The founders of the school hoped to make it "a kind of oracle, 
 which those might consult who were engaged in mechanical im- 
 provements, and who might here, at once, gain that information 
 which it might cost them months and years to obtain by their 
 own unassisted efforts." The influence of the London society 
 appeared in a plan for a repository for the exhibition of ma- 
 chines and models of all sorts, particularly in textile manufac- 
 turing. But the plan, though credited by the founders to the 
 London society, was even more ambitious and far-reaching. In 
 the first place, there was to be not merely an exhibit of machines 
 and models, but accompanjdng instruction in mechanical prin- 
 ciples. In the second place, instead of having an exhibit in one 
 place only, it was proposed that such a "mechanic school," with 
 an exhibit and instructors, should be established "in every large 
 to^\Ti, and particularly in the center of every important manu- 
 facture." This plan was proposed in 1782. As a result, the Col- 
 lege of Arts and Sciences was founded the next year. The of- 
 ficers of the Literary and Philosophical Society were governors 
 of the College. The plan of 1782 was altered, and certain fea- 
 tures of a less practical or technical nature were adopted, but im- 
 portant elements of the original proposals were included, the 
 principal aim being the investigation of physical and chemical 
 sciences and their application to improvements in arts and manu- 
 factures. " 
 
 A society similar to that at Manchester, namely, the Liter- 
 ary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle, was founded near 
 the end of the century, and was devoted largely to "the scientific 
 stud}' and utilization of the two great natural products of this 
 part of the country, coal and lead," to "the introduction of me- 
 
 " Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, Vol. 
 1, pp. X, 80-89, Vol. 2, pp. 16-29, 42-46; and a circular of the "College of 
 Arts and Sciences instituted at Manchester, June 6, 1783," dated July 9, 
 1783. 
 
20 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 chanical and other improvements," and to "the establishment ol 
 
 such other manufactures as are peculiarly adapted to this 
 
 neighborhood." '* 
 
 The various local societies devoted specifically to the en- 
 couragement of agriculture, manufactures and useful arts afford 
 further evidence of the spirit of material progress powerfully 
 stimulated by the national society. One of the earliest of these 
 societies was observed by Arthur Young in Lancashire during 
 his northern tour. It met regularly at Manchester, and like the 
 London society, offered premiums of various kinds. To its influ- 
 ence. Young attributed much of the progressive spirit there pre- 
 vailing. ^' 
 
 The year 1777 witnessed the origin of the "Society Insti- 
 tuted at Bath for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Man- 
 ufactures and Commerce," almost identical in name, it will be 
 observed, with the London society. It was organized for the 
 counties of Somerset, Wilts, Gloucester and Dorset and the city 
 of Bristol. It offered premiums, largely for experimental im- 
 provements in agriculture and the invention of implements: and 
 it engaged in various activities of such importance as to lead at 
 length to the publication of a series of Letters and Papers, some- 
 what similar to the Transactions of the society at London. ^* 
 
 The activities of a similar society at Odiham in Hampshire 
 included experimental farming as well as the awarding of pre- 
 miums, and the society's interests included manufacturing as 
 
 "Plan of the Literary and Fhilosophical Society of Newcastle, pp. 5-7. 
 
 "Young, Six Months' Tour through the North of England, Vol. 3, 
 p. 194, ff ; To the President of the Agriculture Society at Manches- 
 ter. An address by Thomas B. Bayley, 1776. 
 
 ** Although the London Society did not begin the publication of its 
 Transactions until 1783, it had previously issued various premium books and 
 other publications, and had secured wide publicity by means of the press 
 and special series under its patronage. Concerning the society at Bath, 
 see Pules and Orders of the Society Instituted at Bath, etc. ; Letters and 
 Papers, Vol. 1; and the Annual Eegister, 1789, p. 72 (2d part). 
 
THE ERA OP INVENTION 21 
 
 well as agriculture. An interesting phase of its work was the 
 buying of improved seeds and implements, and their resale, to 
 non-members as well as members, at net cost, ' ' in order to make 
 the use of them more common." ^^ 
 
 Various similar societies are mentioned more or less prom- 
 inently in the press of the time, as the Lewes, Leicester, Durham, 
 Kent, South Devon, East Riding of York, and Melford societies. 
 A writer in 1781 observed the prevalence of such organizations, 
 supported, he stated, like the London society, "with such liber- 
 ality " as to promise far-reaching results. ^* 
 
 In view of the importance of the transition to mechanical 
 production in the textile industries in relation to the rise of the 
 new type of manufacturers, the connection of the Society of Arts 
 with the invention of the textile machines forms a pertinent in- 
 quiry. " 
 
 Hargreaves' spinning jenny is thought to have been invent- 
 ed in 1764, but was not patented till 1770. Arkwright's device 
 was patented in 1769. The Society of Arts early offered prem- 
 iums for improvements in the spinning wheel, but in 1760 they 
 "carried their speculation further," wrote Robert Dossie in 
 1768. "They offered a premium for the best invention of a ma- 
 chine that would spin six threads of flax, cotton, wool, or silk, 
 and require only one person to work and attend it. ' ' The prem- 
 iums offered in that year were £40 for the best machine, and £20 
 for the next best. In 1761 the premiums were raised to £50 and 
 £25 ; and in 1763, to £100 and £50. That the idea was familiar 
 to members of the societj' before the invention of the spinning 
 jenny and the water frame is shown by contemporaneous state- 
 
 """Annols of Agriculture, Vol. 2, pp. 425, 426; Vol. 3, pp. 231-239, 304, 
 ff, 481-490; Vol. 4, pp. 195-197, 321, 322; Vol. 5, pp. 286, 287. 
 
 ^Annual Eegister, 1781, p. 104 (2d part). 
 
 " Such an inquiry is particularly desirable because of the fact that 
 even careful students of these inventions have often ignored the work of the 
 society, and have in some cases been misinformed concerning it. 
 
22 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 ments of Robert Dossie, who discussed the views of some of the 
 members concerning the spinning machine patented by Lewis 
 Paul in 1738. These members, according to Dossie, feared that 
 mechanical resources had been exhausted in the expensive at- 
 tempt to bring this machine to perfection. And yet, because of 
 the pressing need of a better method of spinning, the society, at 
 three different times, and with increasing rewards, published its 
 proposals calling the attention of inventors throughout the coun- 
 try to the nature and urgency of the problem. ^* 
 
 Nor were the society's efforts without results. On March 
 25, 1761, before a joint meeting of the committees on manufac- 
 tures and mechanics, John Webb operated a device for spinning 
 two threads and reeling at the same time. The committee 
 awarded him the sum of £20. On the same day, Thomas Perren 
 received a reward for a wheel with which, as with Webb's de- 
 vice, one person could spin two threads at one time. The com- 
 mittee reported that "it had been used with success." In April 
 of 1762, Thomas Perren received another premium for a wheel 
 for spinning coarse linen. This kind of spinning had required 
 two persons, "one to draw out the flax or hemp, and the other 
 to turn the twisting wheel." Perren 's wheel not only required 
 only one operator but twisted the thread much more accurately. 
 In 1763 George Buckley presented an invention which in ac- 
 cordance with the societj-'s proposal, spun six threads at a time 
 and was operated by a single person. The committee found the 
 
 "Dossie, Memoirs, Vol. 1, pp. 96-98; Transactions, Vol. 1, p. 33. See 
 also Mantoux, La Bevolution Industrielle, pp. 207, 208. Mantoux's thor- 
 ough and comprehensive work is here in error. He states that the society 
 had in view ' ' not the construction of a spinning machine — the idea did not 
 enter the minds of its members — but only an improvement of the wheel. ' ' 
 Obviously the exact offer of prizes by the society escaped his notice. 
 Baines in his History of the Cotton Manufacture also fails to note the vital 
 distinction between a machine and a mere improvement in the wheel made 
 by the society in its proposals (p. 154). Even Wood's excellent History of 
 the Royal Society of Arts (pp. '257, 258) is here in error. 
 
THE ERA OF INVENTION 23 
 
 machine imperfect, but possessed of merit, and it was adjudged 
 capable of improvement. To encourage the inventor in perfect- 
 ing it, the committee awarded him twenty-five guineas. On 
 April 11, 1764, William Harrison secured an award of £50 for a 
 device which, though enabling the operator to spin only two 
 threads at a time, was regarded as having great merit, both by 
 the society and by the press. The Annual Register referred to it 
 as "a masterly improvement" which, if generally introduced, 
 would greatly benefit the nation and ' ' soon increase, by one-third 
 perhaps, the number of our most useful hands. ' ' For minor im- 
 provements in the ordinary wheel various premiums were 
 awarded. ^^ 
 
 The attempt of the Society of Arts to solve the problem of 
 mechanical spinning was but one of many measures it undertook 
 to improve textile manufacturing. The catalog of machines and 
 models on exhibit in 1783, and published in the first volume of 
 the Transactions, includes a variety of inventions. In addition 
 to several other improvements in spinning, there are listed an 
 invention for combing, three machines for winding and doubling, 
 three machines for winding silk, four looms, including two 
 stocking frames, and certain other devices. The inventors of the 
 improved stocking frames, in 1765 and 1766, each received £100; 
 and the invention of 1766 was regarded as of such importance 
 that "a considerable body" of manufacturers rewarded the in- 
 ventor by a subscription. *° 
 
 It is to be observed from the preceding statements that the 
 society attempted, with some measure of success, to solve the 
 problem of mechanical spinning before the time of Hargreaves. 
 In 1783, two years before Cartwright's first power-loom patent. 
 
 ^^ W. Bailey, Advancement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, pp. 
 195-202; Annual Eegister, 1764, pp. 66, 67 (Chron.) ; Museum Rusticum 
 et Commerciale, Vol. 4, pp. 72, 73. 
 
 ** Transactions, Vol. 1, pp. 314-316; Dossie, Memoirs, pp. 136, 137. 
 
24 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 the society offered premiums for the solution of the problem of 
 mechanical weaving. Its offer was continued during the two suc- 
 ceeding years. Even before this proposal was made, the society's 
 earlier premiums, according to its own claims, had produced 
 "very extraordinary improvements in the loom," the improve- 
 ments in the stocking frame probably being referred to. *^ 
 
 The influence of the society in bringing about the transition 
 to mechanical production in the textile industries cannot be es- 
 timated with accuracy. The editor of the Transactions (1783) 
 believed, though he did not positively assert, that ' ' the great im- 
 provements in spinning, which have taken place within twenty 
 years in these kingdoms, particularly in the cotton works in Lan- 
 cashire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, etc., are to be assigned to 
 the premiums offered and paid by this society. ' ' " Such a view 
 is of course unverifiable. Indeed, the evidence justifies the con- 
 clusion that the work of the society, though important, was but 
 one of a number of manifestations of a verj- general interest in 
 the improvement of the instruments of production. 
 
 The facts of the case abundantly warrant the statement that 
 the people of the time were extensiveh' interested in mechanical 
 improvement. Men were stirred hy a keen sense of change and 
 readjustment reaching to the material foundations of society. 
 The general aim, which constituted the first phase of the pre- 
 vailing spirit of invention, was to bring about a more effective 
 utilization of the material environment. To that end, as the 
 second phase, men devised new instruments and processes. The 
 final phase was the application of these inventions to productive 
 enterprises. 
 
 The mechanical revolution was not the work of a few indi- 
 viduals frequently opposed and unrewarded ; it was rather the 
 creation of social forces finding expression, to be sure, in the 
 
 '^Transactions, Vol. 1, pp. 32, 217, 218; Vol. 2, p. 338; Vol. 3, p. 292. 
 *» Transactions, Vol. 1, pp. 32, 33. 
 
THE ERA OF INVENTION 25 
 
 work of individuals, but even more significantly in governmental 
 patronage and in organized, cooperative activities. The men who 
 grasped the new machines and by means of them attained wealth 
 and power in a newly forming industrial society — the great man- 
 ufacturers — were utilizing instruments which were in their ori- 
 gin distinctly social. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 The Economic Basis of the New Industrial Group 
 
 The preceding discussion has viewed the great inventions as 
 the natural outcome of a remarkable and widespread outburst of 
 inventive interest and activity. The great manufacturers in a 
 few cases contributed personally to the stock of new inventions, 
 but in most instances they merely utilized the devices of other 
 men — of men w^ho labored not so much because of hope of reward 
 from the manufacturers for the use of their devices as because of 
 the inspiration of the prevailing spirit of invention. 
 
 These new machines constituted the instruments of the 
 power of the new industrial class. The industrial value inherent 
 in the new machines was of course the result of their productive 
 and competitive power. This is an obvious fact — so obvious, in- 
 deed, that its importance has perhaps not been duly recognized. 
 To the people of the time, the fact was far from obvious or com- 
 monplace, nor was its importance without recognition. 
 
 By putting oneself in the place of a contemporary observer, 
 and by remembering, too, that the eighteenth century mind was 
 markedly rational and restrained, we may the more readily per 
 ceive the significance of the superlatives applied to the new in- 
 ventions. They are described as "great and extraordinary;" 
 "most wonderful;" "astonishing;" "amazing;" "almost mirac- 
 ulous;" "unparalleled in the annals of the world." Their ef- 
 fect is beyond description, but is likened to a sudden explosion. 
 Thej' have reached an "incredible" perfection, with productive 
 value "beyond the powers of calculation." They give a facility 
 to labor "scareelv conceivable." Thev have laid "the founda- 
 
THE ECONOMIC BASIS 27 
 
 tions of a very extended commerce, ' ' and their effect on industry 
 has been progress "rapid beyond example." The transforma- 
 tion is described by various writers as a "revolution." They 
 have enabled the cotton industry to make "a gigantic stride," 
 to attain an "enormous height," and to achieve a "progressive 
 and astonishing increase." As a result of "ingenious machin- 
 ery," the cotton industrj^ "has burst forth as it were, on the 
 country in a moment, giving a spring at the same time to the 
 industry of the people, unexampled in the annals of the world." 
 The inventions have caused Manchester goods "to spread in ten 
 thousand forms and colors, not only in these kingdoms, but over 
 all Europe; and even into distant continents." They are ex- 
 pected to produce "great changes in the appearance of 
 
 the civilized world," and the magnitude of their benefits "can 
 scarcely be estimated." The "discoveries and improvements" 
 of the early years of George Ill's reign "diffuse a glory over 
 this country unattainable by conquest or dominion," and prom- 
 ise to "stamp a lustre" on his Majesty's reign "to the latest 
 generations. ' ' *' 
 
 Such are some of the terms of unmeasured praise recurring 
 in the writings of the time in recognition of the productive value 
 of the new machines. Most writers contented themselves with 
 
 *^ Annals of Agriculture, Vol. 9, pp. 286, 502, Vol. 10, pp. 253, 281, 579, 
 Vol. 12, pp. 513, 514; European Magazine, Vol. 11, pp. 364, 367, Vol. 20, 
 p. 216; Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 57, Pt. 1, p. 465; Transactions (of the 
 Society of Arts), Vol. 1, pp. 34, 35; Encyclopedia Britannica, 3d ed.. Vol. 
 5, pp. 488, 489, Vol. 10, Art. Manchester ; Chambers' Encyclopedia, Dedi- 
 cation, Vol. 1, pp. i, ii (1786) ; Life of Bobert Owen, Vol. 1, p. 52; J. Aikin, 
 Description of the Country from thirty to forty miles round Manchester, 
 pp. 172, 174; T., Letters on the Utility and Policy of Employing Machines 
 to Shorten Labor, pp. 4, 9; Netv and Old Principles of Trade Compared, 
 pp. 32, 33; T. Gisborne, An Enquiry into the Duties of Men, p. 551; [Og- 
 
 den], A Description of Manchester by a Native of the Town, p. 90; 
 
 An Important Crisis in the Calico and Muslin Manufactory, p. 1 (quoted 
 by Mantoux, La Revolution Industrielle, p. 248) ; Anderson, Historical and 
 Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce, ed. 1789, Vol. 4, pp. 
 705, 706. 
 
28 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 indefinite exclamations concerning the nature of the transforma- 
 tion, but some attempted definite statements or estimates. 
 Crompton's machine often carried 150 spindles and drew weft 
 "to an exact fineness up to 150 hanks in the pound." A tourist 
 in the north of England wrote of the "incredible circumstance" 
 of one pound of cotton having been spun by machinery into 356 
 hanks, each hank containing 840 yards, a total length of 169.9 
 miles. He adds that to enumerate the various kinds of cotton 
 goods then made "would be to count the sands of the sea." An- 
 other writer marvels at the fact that "with one great water 
 wheel, above 4000 threads of cotton yarn are spun at once, of 
 which the finest muslins are manufactured." A manufacturer 
 estimated in 1791 that by means of machines, "ability to spin 
 was increased an hundred fold ' ' in twenty years. ** 
 
 The exact extent of the increase of productive power cannot 
 be ascertained. The increase was by no means uniform, nor was 
 it limited to a given period or to a given process or branch of 
 manufacture. A modern estimate for the spinning of cotton 
 yarn of forty hanks to the pound is to the effect that in 1812 
 labor was fourteen times more productive than in 1779 (a vast 
 increase of productive power already' having taken place), nine 
 times more productive than in 1784, and four times more pro- 
 ductive than in 1799. "^ 
 
 From the point of view of accuracy, the value of such esti- 
 mates, either contemporaneous or recent, is extremely question- 
 able. Indeed, to the writers of the time, the extent of increased 
 productive power appeared to be measureable not so much by the 
 perfection of mechanism and the resulting enlargement of out- 
 
 ** Aikin, Description of the Country Bound Manchester, pp. 172, 
 
 174; European Magazine, Vol. 20, p. 216; Anderson, Historical and Chro- 
 nological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce, ed. 1789, Vol. 4, pp. 705, 
 706; H. Wansey, Wool Encouraged without Exportation, p. 67. 
 
 « T. Ellison, The Cotton Trade of Great Britain, p. 55, 
 
THE ECONOMIC BASIS 29 
 
 put. as hy the rapid growth of those industries in which the 
 labor-saving devices were being used. 
 
 It was estimated that the income from cotton manufactur- 
 ing, including wages, increased from £200,000 in 1768 to 
 £7,000,000 in 1788. The gross value of cotton goods, as late as 
 1781, was £2.000,000, while in 1787 it had increased to 
 £7,500,000. In the processes of manufacture, the value of the 
 cotton was increased lOOO^'f to 5000^c. In 1769, not more than 
 50,000 wheels were employed in spinning cotton ; twenty years 
 later, the number of spindles was nearly 2,000,000. The cotton 
 spinning machinery in operation in 1789 could spin an amount 
 equal to the output of one million hands with the spinning wheel. 
 An estimate of the number actually employed in the factories for 
 spinning cotton in 1788 was 110.000, almost half of the number 
 being children. On this basis, the productive power of labor in 
 spinning was increased by means of the improved machinery 
 more than ninefold. The figures are probably exaggerated; but 
 since the tendency to exaggerate applied to both sets of figures, 
 the proportion would remain about the same. In the view of one 
 writer, "the progressive and astonishing increase of this manu- 
 facture will be best explained" by the recent four-fold increase 
 of cotton imports, which in 1787 amounted to 22,000,000 
 pounds. *^ 
 
 •* Aikin, Description of the Countr^t Bound Manchester, p. 178, 
 
 ff. (including extensive quotations from An Important Crisis in the Calico 
 and Muslin Manufactory in Great Britain Explained) ; Annals of Agricul- 
 ture, Vol. 12, pp. .513-.520; Encyclopedia Briiannica, 3(i ed.. Vol. 5, Art. 
 Cotton (written about 1790 — see Bibliography). The figures given in An 
 Important Crisis were used not only by Aikin but also to some extent by 
 the other writers here cited. See critical note concerning this work in S. J. 
 Chapman's article on Cotton Manufacture in the 11th edition of the Ency- 
 clopedia Britannica, Vol. 7, p. 28-5. It is not maintained that the figures 
 cited above are accurate, nor did the writers themselves pretend an exact- 
 ness of information. But there is significance in the fact that important 
 writers of the time gave credence to the estimates in an attempt to state 
 more definitely the extent of the remarkable growth of industry due to the 
 new methods. 
 
30 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 The rapid growth of industry in the new manufacturing 
 centers was accompanied by a general economic expansion. 
 Further evidences of the remarkable productive power and value 
 of the new machines were observed by the people of the time in 
 the rapid increase of wealth and growth of population resulting 
 from their use, together with the shifting of wealth and popula- 
 tion to the north of England. 
 
 The effect of the inventions on Manchester and the surround- 
 ing region was a subject of frequent comment and marvel. An 
 indication of the change is to be found in the contrast between 
 the accounts in the second and third editions of the Encyclopedia 
 Britannica. The article on Lancashire in the second edition, 
 published as late as 1780, mentioned in detail the streams of the 
 shire, stating that the region was thoroughly watered, but other- 
 wise the only significance assigned to the streams was to the ef 
 feet that one of them "is noted for producing the fattest eels in 
 England." The article on Manchester makes no mention of in- 
 ventions, and merely" states that the town is prosperous and has 
 "several curious manufactures known at London by the name 
 of Manchester goods." In the article on Lancashire in the third 
 edition, there is a vivid picture of the industrial processes going 
 on along the rivers and canals of the region. The article on 
 Manchester *' describes the rapid growth of the city in wealth, 
 industry and population. It is estimated that the city trebled 
 its population in fifty years, the immediately preceding years in 
 particular having witnessed the building of innumerable houses 
 and a rapid congestion of population, which is estimated at 
 68,580. The city was remodeled, and the new streets were "spa- 
 cious and airy ; ' ' 2,000 street lamps were installed and nearly 
 two hundred watchmen were employed by the city. It is esti- 
 mated that 20.000 of its population were employed in the fac- 
 
 " From internal evidence it is ascertained that this article was written 
 in 1792. See Bibliography. 
 
THE ECONOMIC BASIS 31 
 
 tories connected with the cotton industry. The remarkable pro- 
 gress of the city is specifically credited to "the happy concur- 
 rence of ingenuity and industry" and "the astonishing improve- 
 ments daily making in its numerous manufactures." 
 
 The rate of increase of population is not definitelj' ascer- 
 tainable. That it was extremely rapid is evidenced by the fol- 
 lowing vital statistics*" comparing the years 1765-1767 with the 
 years 1783-1785 : 
 
 Average annual number of christenings, 1765-67 900 
 
 Average annual number of christenings, 1783-85 1838 
 
 Average annual number of marriages, 1765-67 367 
 
 Average annual number of marriages, 1783-85 807 
 
 Average annual number of burials, 1765-67 811 
 
 Average annual number of burials, 1783-85 1468 
 
 A tourist in 1791 ventured to estimate the population of 
 Manchester as having doubled in thirty years, but even this in- 
 crease had fallen far short of the increase of wealth — the city 
 has been "enriched by the cotton manufactory beyond the pow- 
 ers of calculation." To another observer, the "prodigious num- 
 bers of people" employed there is "almost incredible."*^ The 
 growth of the place is further evidenced by data in contempor- 
 aneous city directories. During the transition, several direc- 
 tories were published, including the years 1773, 1781, 1788, and 
 1794. The number of names of "principal inhabitants" (such 
 alone were included) in 1773 was 1530; in 1781, 1920; in 1788, 
 2580; and in 1794, 5444. Probable variations in the proportion 
 of "principal inhabitants" to the total population lessen the 
 value of the figures. Perhaps more significant is the increase in 
 the number of thoroughfares listed. The number of thorough- 
 
 " Tn Manchester Memoirs, Vol. 3, pp. 163-167 (compiled by Thomas 
 Henry, F. R. S.). 
 
 *^ European Magazine, Vol. 20, p. 216; G. A. Walpole, New British 
 Traveller, p. 470. 
 
32 THE RISE OP THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 fares included in the directory of 1773 was 167 ; 1781, 197 ; 1788. 
 260; and 1794, about 600. The number given for 1794 followed 
 an extensive remodeling of the city, and the statement is made 
 that 61 of the streets had been "laid out but not built upon." 
 Before the remodeling of the cit}-, the tendency seems to have 
 been to concentrate the new population on the existing thorough- 
 fares ; afterwards, a tendency toward dispersion naturally ex- 
 isted, ^o 
 
 The growth of the city was not entirely the result of the 
 new inventions; but their preponderant influence was recog- 
 nized throughout the country, and particularly at Manchester. 
 The general view was expressed by one of Manchester's leading 
 citizens, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Barnes, when he spoke of Man- 
 chester as a town "the opulence, and even the very existence of 
 which, depends on manufactures, and these again upon arts, ma- 
 chinery, and invention." Again, we read that if it were not 
 
 for ' ' the engines for carding and spinning cotton wool the 
 
 trade of this countr\' [the region of Manchester] could never 
 be carried on to any great extent." Another writer even more 
 explicitly' asserted the relation between invention and industrial 
 growth. The success of the attempts "to substitute mechanical 
 for human power," by making production cheaper, more expe- 
 ditious and more perfect, "has expanded the villages of Lan- 
 cashire into towns next to the metropolis." ^^ 
 
 The effect of mechanical power at Manchester was remark- 
 able; so also was its influence at Birmingham and in the regions' 
 
 "" Compiled from Directories as quoted and described in John Har- 
 land 's Collectanea Belating to Manchester and Its Neighborhood, pp. 119- 
 154 (Vol. 68 of Chetham Society Publications). 
 
 "Manchester Memoirs, Vol. 1, p. 89; Anmial Register, 1779, pp. 228, 
 229 (Chron.) ; Annals of Agriculture, Vol. 9, pp. 534, 535. See also the 
 emphatic protest of the Lancashire justices in 1779 against the riots of that 
 year, on the ground of Lancashire's dependence on the new machines: An- 
 nual Register, 1779, p. 233 (Chron.) ; Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 49, p. 609. 
 
THE ECONOMIC BASIS 33 
 
 surrounding these cities, in Staffordshire, and at Liverpool, the 
 commercial metropolis of the regions undergoing industrial 
 transformation. But the iron and pottery industries experienced 
 a much slower progress ; and moreover, the progress in these in- 
 dustries depended on local resources even more than on mechan- 
 ical improvement. The cotto7i industry was virtually destitute 
 of local natural resources, and was unsupported by the power 
 and prestige of men of the class of Matthew Boulton the iron 
 master ; and the revolution in this industry was in a unique sense 
 a creation of machines. In the regions around Manchester the 
 change was almost as marked as at the metropolis. Manchester 
 is described as the "center" of the new system, the whole of 
 which had developed with a "rapid and prodigious increase 
 
 unparalleled in the annals of trading nations." Various 
 
 other towns are described as "sub-centers, or satellites around 
 Manchester;" and "the whole intervening country takes its 
 character from its relation to them." Again, the neighboring 
 sub-centers are described as "appendages" or "branches." 
 "Manchester is the stock of that vast tree which has lately 
 grown with such wonderful rapidity, and spread its branchCvS 
 through so large an extent of countr}", — the cotton manufac- 
 ture. ' ' The extent of the spread of power spinning impressed a 
 tourist in 1791 as being so vast that it could be but temporary, 
 ' ' for there is scarcely a stream that will turn a wheel through the 
 north of England that has not a cotton mill upon it." ^^ 
 
 The increase of population in the north of England was not 
 confined to the new manufacturing centers, but wherever ob- 
 served, it was attributed by many writers to the influence of the 
 industries in these centers. The increase in the agricultural re- 
 gions and in the port towns was a subject of frequent comment. 
 
 " Aikin, Description of the Country Bound Manchester, pp. 3, 
 
 4, 176 (see also a review of Aikin 's work in the Analytical Eeview of No- 
 vember, 1795) ; European Magazine, Vol. 20, p. 140. 
 
34 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 The country parishes around Manchester and Birmingham sent 
 streams of population to these towns, and yet the country re- 
 gions themselves increased in numbers of people. This was due, 
 it was held, to increased demand for farm products by the peo- 
 ple of the new manufacturing centers, just as migration from 
 England to the colonies creates a demand for English goods in 
 the colonies, and by adding to opportunities for emploj^ment 
 leads to an increase of population at home. The manufacturing 
 industries not only created an increased demand for farm pro- 
 ducts, but also fostered various subsidiary industries. Thus the 
 growth of population, wealth, and land values in the regions 
 around Manchester and Birmingham, as well as in these cities, is 
 accounted for by the productive power of the new methods of 
 manufacturing. ^^ 
 
 The industrial expansion in the north of England was a 
 national as well as a local asset. The ability of the country to 
 meet the financial demands of war and extravagant administra- 
 tion was attributed by some writers to the increase of wealth due 
 to invention. "The genius of Watt, Wedgwood, and Ark- 
 wright has counteracted the expense and folly of the American, 
 war." The vast increase in wealth and revenues was primarily 
 attributed by William Pitt in 1792 to the same cause. ^* 
 
 The remarkable development of the north was vividly de- 
 scribed by Arthur Young, who wrote in 1792 that "all the ac- 
 
 "Kev. John Hewlett, An Examination of Dr. Price's Essay on the 
 Population of England and Wales, pp. 6, 15, 16, 22, 132, 151, 153; Hewlett, 
 in Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 52, p. 475; J. Wilson, A Letter, Commer- 
 cial and Political, Addressed to the Bt. EonoraMe William Pitt, pp. 6, 7, 
 24 (on authorship, see Bibliography) ; Aikin, Description of the Country 
 
 Hound Manchester, pp. 5, 6, 176; Annuls of Agriculture, Vol. 7, 
 
 pp. 463, 464, Vol. 16, p. 552, Vol. 19, p. 254; Eadcliffe, Origin of the New 
 System of Manufacture Commonly Catted "Power Loom Weaving," pp. 59, 
 60, 65, 66. 
 
 "Wilson, Letter, Commercial and Political, pp. 6, 7; Increase of Man- 
 ufactures, Commerce and Finance, p. 99; Parliamentary History, Vol. 29, 
 p. 833, 
 
THE ECONOMIC BASIS 35 
 
 tivity and industry of this kingdom is fast concentrating" there, 
 and the whole kingdom is seeking "as immediate a connection 
 with coals and manufactures, by means of inland navigation, as 
 possible. ' ' " 
 
 This expansion of northern industries by virtue of mechan- 
 ical power was not without cost to less progressive industries. 
 Indeed, one of the chief manifestations of the productive power 
 of the new machines was the outrivaling of old, established, dis- 
 tinctly national industries by the cottons, exotic, laboring 
 against monopoly, tradition, and various legal disadvantages. 
 and supported merely by superiority of method. 
 
 Comments concerning the encroachment of cotton fabrics 
 upon wool, linen and silk are very general. We are told that at 
 Wigan, "the cotton manufactory, as in all other places [about 
 Manchester], intrudes upon the old staple of the place." The 
 wool manufacture at Kidderminster is described in 1773 as "in 
 a very flourishing state;" but in 1780 the same writer finds a 
 condition of decay and poverty. The war is given as one cause 
 of decline, but the rivalry of cotton is emphasized. "Cotton 
 stuffs are now (1780) universally preferred to worsted stuffs, 
 and to mixtures of worsted and silk. ' ' ^^ 
 
 The encroachment of "Manchester goods" upon the so- 
 called "staple" was indeed "universal," that is, national rather 
 than merely local, and was so serious as to arouse grave fears 
 in the minds of public men as well as of woollen manufacturers. 
 Dean Tucker complained of "the prodigious disuse of coarse 
 woollen goods throughout every part of the kingdom," owing to 
 the fact that silks, cottons and linens, "combined in a thousand 
 forms, and diversified by names without number, are now almost 
 
 " In Annals of Agrwulture, Vol. 16, p. 552. 
 
 •' Aikin, Description of the Country Bound Manchester, pp. 294, 
 
 406, 438; T. Xash, Collections for the History of Worcestershire (quoted Jn 
 Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 52, pp. 485-487); European Magazine, Vol. 
 20, p. 140. 
 
36 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURER?^ 
 
 the universal wear." Another writer (Ruggles) complained in 
 1790 that "every woman in the kingdom is clothed in these 
 [cotton] fabrics; most of our household furniture [fur- 
 nishings] is made of them." He, as well as other writers, urged 
 that the use of cottons should be discouraged officially ; and he 
 referred approvingly to the action of a local society in opposing 
 the popular consumption of cotton goods. A dealer in woollens 
 expressed the fear that woollen manufacturers and their families 
 would be driven "in quest of bread to Manchester," the iron 
 manufacturing centers also being mentioned in the same connec- 
 tion as outrivaling other industries. Lord Sheffield accounted 
 for the decline of the West of England woollen manufactures in 
 two ways: because of "the use of Manchester goods in many 
 articles wherein superfine woollens were formerly used;" and 
 because of migrations from the West of England to the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire. ^^ 
 
 The latter part of Lord Sheffield's explanation of the decline 
 of the West of England woollen industry — the migrations to the 
 West Riding of Yorkshire — is suggestive of another important 
 manifestation of the productive value of machines, namely, the 
 superiority of the more progressive woollen manufacturers over 
 those who failed to adopt the machines. For in the West of Eng- 
 land, the woollen manufacturers were slow in making the transi- 
 
 " Josiah Tucker, Beflections on the Present Low Prices of Coarse Wools, 
 pp. 8, 9 (for an extract from his proposed method of enforcing the use of 
 woollens by a system of virtual serfdom or peonage, see Bischoflf, Compre- 
 hensive History of the Woollen and Worsted Manufactures, Vol. 1, pp. 225- 
 228) ; T. Ruggles, The History of the Poor, Vol. 1, pp. 99, 19.5; A Woollen 
 Draper's Letter on the French Treaty, pp. 27, 28; John Lord Sheffield, Ob- 
 servation's on the Manufa<'tures, Trade and Present State of Ireland, p. 190. 
 See also The Contrast; or, A Comparison between Our Woollen, Linen, Cot- 
 ton and Silk Manufactures, pp. 14, 48, 49; Historical and Political Bemarls 
 upon the Tariff of the Commercial Treaty [with France], pp. 166-168; Gen- 
 
 tleman's Magazine, Vol. 52, p. 137; Radcliffe, Origin of Pou-er-Loom 
 
 Weaving, p. 61; W. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Com- 
 merce in Modern Times, Pt. 2, pp. 625, 654, 655. 
 
THE ECONOMIC BASIS 37 
 
 tion, while in the West Riding of Yorkshire the transition fol- 
 lowed quickly upon the revolution in cotton manufacturing. A 
 woollen manufacturer, arguing in 1791 for the introduction of 
 machines into the western counties, wrote that the manufactur- 
 ers of Yorkshire, ' ' by dint of such machines and engines, not only 
 use all their wool, but send down into the west country and buy 
 it up out of the very mouths of the wool dealers and clothiers, 
 and thereby take our trade with it." ^^ 
 
 The effects of the new devices on the growth and shifting of 
 wealth, population, and domestic competitive power constitute 
 an impressive demonstration of the economic basis of the new 
 manufacturers in the productive value of mechanical methods. 
 Not less important is the increase of competitive power in over- 
 seas markets, resulting from the use of the new machines. This 
 was indeed to the people of the time the chief justification for 
 their introduction, the chief argument in extenuation of admit- 
 ted evils of temporarj^ unemployment and maladjustment. 
 
 In the decades immediately preceding the transition, the 
 question of the effects of labor-saving machines was discussed 
 theoretically by various writers, and the consideration most fre- 
 quently urged in favor of machines was their value in enabling 
 England to compete with other countries. As the transition 
 progressed, and practical opposition to labor-saving machines de- 
 veloped, the same argument became the chief defense of the 
 champions of the new order. 
 
 In the early, theoretical aspects of the controversy, it was 
 
 " H. Wansey, Wool Encouraged without Exportation, p. 69. To the 
 same effect as the statements by Wansey and Sheffield are various others. 
 See for instances the statement by another woollen manufacturer, John 
 Anstie, Observatiomi on the Importance and Necessity of Introducing Im- 
 proved Machinery into the Woollen Manufactory, pp. 10-14; and by Sir 
 Joseph Banks, P. R. S., in the preface to a pamphlet, Observations on a 
 Bill Eclating to Wool, etc., p. v. See also Annals vf Agriculture, Vol. 9, 
 pp. 503, 504; Annual Register, 1780, p. 197 (Chron.), 1781, p. 196 (Chron.). 
 
38 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 held that command of trade depends on the relative cheapness of 
 the commodities offered for sale. England, by reducing the price 
 of its commodities, by means of labor-saving inventions, is not 
 taking work away from its own laborers ; it is by that means re- 
 taining markets which would otherwise be lost to more progres- 
 sive nations, or to nations where labor and other costs of produc- 
 tion are cheaper. It thus prevents the loss of markets and in 
 consequence the loss of employment by workmen. Indeed, it may 
 by this means not only retain existing trade but gain new 
 markets; and while this may "starve the rival workmen," is this 
 not to be preferred to allowing other nations to starve our own 
 workmen ? But labor-saving inventions are to be desired not 
 only because of their value in enabling the inventive nation to 
 supply the existing demand in the world's markets but also be- 
 cause by cheapening commodities they increase the demand and 
 lead to enlarged consumption and interchange. No sale can be 
 so sure as that ' ' founded upon cheapness of price, ' ' which guar- 
 antees ' ' a sure and quick vent ' ' for commodities. Labor-saving 
 machines, in brief, are ' ' of prodigious use in rendering commod- 
 ities cheap, and maintaining great numbers of people. ' ' '® 
 
 This theoretical justification of labor-saving machines is in 
 accord with the views of later writers. The argument recurs in 
 a multitude of forms. And to the theoretical argument was 
 added the appeal to experience. 
 
 By way of contrast, it is interesting to observe the attitude 
 toward French manufacturers before and after the transition. 
 There is an account written in 1763 of a newly established cam- 
 
 " Sir James Steuart, An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Econ- 
 omy, Vol. 1, pp. 121-123; Laivs and Policy of England Relating to Trade, 
 p. 42 (quoted in Political Essays concerning the Present State of the British 
 Empire, p. 213); W. Harte, Essays on Husbandry, p. 38; Political Essays 
 concerning the Present State of the British Empire, pp. 168, 169, 209-219. 
 The last-named work summarizes the controversy and cites various other 
 authors. 
 
THE ECONOMIC BASIS 39 
 
 brie industry in Sussex. It is stated that "the workmen that are 
 now employed there are chiefly French;" but the hope is ex- 
 pressed that by the apprenticing of English children, "the se- 
 crets and mysteries" of French artisans may soon become known 
 to Englishmen. "^ Two decades later, the superiority of English 
 manufacturers, due to the use of machines, was so obvious as to 
 lead them to support the treaty with France for opening up tlie 
 French market. 
 
 An important export to France, as well as to other coun- 
 tries, consisted of fustians, the extent and importance of the fus- 
 tian trade depending distinctly upon the new methods of manu- 
 facturing. A statement of the value of the fustian trade in 1785 
 was to the effect that ' ' it brings home to us an annual return of 
 above a million sterling from foreign nations;" and the trade 
 was said to be more valuable than ' * an inexhaustible gold mine. ' ' 
 In 1787 a member of the House of Commons told that body that 
 he had seen Manchester goods worn in Normandy within a few 
 miles of the chief rival French establishment ; and these goods 
 had forced their way into the French market in spite of govern- 
 mental aid given to the French, the costs of freight, and risks 
 of smuggling. Lord Sheffield stated that "Manchester goods are 
 carried from England into France, and there sold as French 
 manufactures." Arthur Young commented on the "almost 
 miraculous" state of the cotton industry, and the ability of Eng- 
 lish manufacturers to import much of their raw cotton from 
 France, pay a French duty of a penny a pound, work it up " un- 
 der the double freights, insurance, and charges — land the fabric, 
 under 12i/^ duty, and undersell those of France from 12 to 20 
 per cent and in some articles, much more." ^^ 
 
 '" Miiseinn Eusticum et Commerciale, Vol. 1, pp. 174-177. 
 
 " J. Wright, An Address to Parliament on the Late Tax Laid on 
 
 Fustian and other Cotton Goods, p. 7; Parliamentary History, Vol. 26, 
 p. 484; Sheffield, Observations on the Commerce of the American States, 
 p. 28; Annals of Agriculture, Vol. 8, p. 482, Vol. 10, pp. 253, 254. 
 
40 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 Young, in explaining this condition, assigned to the new ma 
 chines the chief, though not the only influence, for the French, 
 he said, were beginning to copy English machines. He attributed 
 the power of English cotton manufacturers to "vast capitals," 
 and ' ' such a mass of attendant skill, invention, nerve, and vigor, 
 that no competition can stand before them." It is stated un- 
 equivocally by another writer that the superiority of English 
 manufacturers of ironware, silk, and hosiery, and chief of all of 
 cotton goods, is one of "the amazing and happy effects of me- 
 chanical combinations. " It is impossible, asserts a keen German 
 observer of foreign as well as of English conditions, for the Eng- 
 lish to sell their goods cheaper than foreigners "otherwise than 
 by the use of machines. ' ' Again we read that the effect of the 
 use of the inventions, particularly in Lancashire, has been to 
 enable Englishmen to produce their commodities "cheaper, more 
 expeditiously, and more perfectly," and "to bring the various 
 articles to market in tliat state of perfection which now so emi- 
 nently distinguishes the fabrics of England from those of any 
 other country. ' ' ®^ 
 
 It is seen that theoretical writers anticipated the competi- 
 tive value of machines ; that the use of machines was accom- 
 panied b}^ an "almost miraculous" power of English manufac- 
 turers ; and that the superior competitive power of the English 
 was commonly viewed as one of "the amazing and happy effects 
 of mechanical combinations. ' ' To this view bore witness not only 
 the various general writers cited above but statesmen and public 
 officials as well and the manufacturers themselves. William Pitt. 
 
 " T., Letters on the Utility and Policy of Employing Machines to Short- 
 en Labor, pp. 4, 5, 6, 9, 10; Wendeborn, A View of England toivard the 
 Close of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. 1, pp. 235, 236 ; Eev. A. C. Schom- 
 berg, in Annals of Agriculture, Vol. 9, pp. 534, 535. See also Kenriek, An 
 Address to the Artists and Manufacturers of Great Britain, p. 18; Histor- 
 ical and Political Remarks upon the Tariff of the Commercial Treaty, p. 81; 
 [William Eden], A Short Vindication of tlic French Treaty, p. 26. 
 
THE ECONOMIC BASIS 41 
 
 in his great speech of February 12, 1787, in support of the treaty 
 of commerce with France, made the mechanical superiority of 
 English manufacturers the principal basis of the liberalism of 
 the treaty. Josiah Wedgwood, testifying before a committee of 
 the House of Lords in behalf of the manufacturers generally, 
 stated that "there are articles of the utmost consequence to the 
 manufactures of this kingdom, as they enable us to baffle all com 
 
 petition with foreign markets These are the machines, 
 
 presses, dies and tools, in which the manufacturers of Great 
 Britain excel all the world. ' ' ^^ 
 
 The recognition by Englishmen of the competitive value of 
 their inventions was closely connected with the interest mani- 
 fested by foreigners and particularly the attempts by foreigners 
 to apply them to their own industries. The Manchester manu- 
 facturers had become so powerful, we are told by a member of 
 the House of Commons in 1785, as to be "the pride of this coun- 
 try and the envy of foreign nations ;" and again we read that the 
 English cotton industry "has excited the admiration and 
 jealousy of all Europe. ' ' '* 
 
 But the attitude of foreigners was by no means confined to 
 admiration, envy, or jealousy. Thej- attempted in various ways 
 
 " For characteristic views of public officials and manufacturers, see 
 Parliamentary History, Vol. 25, p. 842, Vol. 26, pp. 384, 385, 395, 544; 
 Parliamentary Register, Vol. 10, p. 214; Commons Journals, Vol. 37, pp. 
 882, 926; Beport of the Lords of the Committee of Council (on Irish Reso- 
 lutions, 1785), p. 56; Minutes of the Evidence talcen before a Committee 
 of the Rouse of Commons (on Irish Resolutions, 1785), p. 34; Minutes of 
 the Evidence taken before a Committee of the House of Lords (on Irish 
 Resolutions, 1785), p. 148 (Wedgwood's statement quoted above); Gentle- 
 man's Magazine, Vol. 49, p. 609; Amiual Begister, 1779, p. 233 (Chron.) ; 
 Sheffield, Observations on the Commerce of the American States, p. 28; Let- 
 ter from a Manchester Manufacturer to the Eight Honorable Charles James 
 
 Fox, pp. 14, 15; Anstie, Observations on Introducing Improved 
 
 Machinery into the Woollen Manufactory, p. 15 and passim; Wansey, Wool 
 Encouraged without Exportation, pp. 49, 67-70. 
 
 ** Parliamentary History, Vol. 25, p. 489; British Merchant for 1787. 
 p. 27 (by a writer hostile to the political views of the manufacturers). 
 
42 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 to secure a knowledge of English devices and to make use of 
 them in their own industries. They induced English working- 
 men and even master manufacturers and capitalists to go abroad 
 They offered rewards to English inventors and artisans to induce 
 them to settle abroad. They sent agents to England with letters 
 of introduction by which they might secure access to English 
 factories for the purpose of securing drawings and first-hand 
 knowledge. They appropriated public funds for the encourage- 
 ment of factories of the English type. They employed drafts- 
 men to copy drawings and specifications from the British patent 
 records. They sent representatives to investigate English ma- 
 chinery and methods. They offered to purchase English goods 
 on condition that samples of the implements with which the 
 goods were made were sent with the goods. They attempted to 
 stimulate interest in mechanical improvement by public exhibits 
 of models of English machines. The principal countries involved 
 were France, Austria and the Empire, Prussia, Holland, Swit- 
 zerland, and the United States. But to Englishmen the chief or 
 at least the most successful of sinners against the attempted 
 monopoly of their inventions was France. That the French early 
 succeeded, by the aid of Englishmen, in securing and operating 
 the new cotton machinery is attested by many witnesses. Arthur 
 Young, for instance, in his Travels, speaks of Rouen as "the 
 Manchester of France;" and factories there as elsewhere were 
 established and conducted, he informs us, by Englishmen. "' 
 
 " Concerning foreign interest in English inventions, see Commons 
 Journals, Vol. 47, pp. 559, 560; Parliamentary History, Vol. 26, pp. 544, 
 552; Parliamentary Register, Vol. 10, p. 214; Minutes of the Evidence 
 Tali-en before a Committee of the House of Lords (on Irish Resolutions, 
 1785), pp. 148, 149, 249, 250; Wendeborn, Vieiv of England, \o\. 1, pp. 233, 
 234; Meteyard, Life of Josiah Wedgwood, Vol. 2, pp. 551, 552; Wheeler, 
 Manchester: Its Political, Social and Commercial History, Ancient and 
 Modern, p. 171; Life of Eobert Owen, Vol. 1, p. 31; Historical and Polit- 
 ical Remarks upon the Tariff of the Comrnercial Treaty, p. 89, n. ; The Brit- 
 ish Merchant for 1787, p. 18 and passim; A Complete Investigation of Mr. 
 
THE ECONOMIC BASIS 43 
 
 The experience of Englishmen with the competitive value 
 of their inventions, combined with the various attempts of for- 
 eigners to obtain and apply them in their own industries, led to 
 the adoption of a policy of monopoly, ^^ In the absence of in- 
 ternational patent laws, Englishmen naturally sought to pre- 
 serve for their own use the advantages of their inventions by a 
 purely national protective system ; and other nations, not bound 
 by an international system to respect the patent rights of Eng- 
 lishmen, naturally made it difficult for Englishmen to pursue 
 their national policy with respect to patents effectively. Indeed, 
 many held it to be impossible, and such a view was made the 
 basis of opposition to more liberal trade regulations such as were 
 embodied in the Irish Resolutions and the treaty of commerce 
 with France, for it was held that since the competitive advantage 
 due to superior machinery would be temporary, due to access of 
 foreigners to English methods, it was necessary to continue the 
 old protective system in commerce. ^'' 
 
 Views concerning the difficulty of preventing foreigners 
 
 Eden's Treaty, p. 80 and passim; French, Life and Times of Samuel 
 Crompton, pp. 191, 192; Sheffield, Observations on the Manufactures, Trade, 
 and Present State of Ireland, pp. 200, 201; Journal and Correspondence of 
 William, Lord Auckland, Vol. 1, p. 516; Young, Travels iii France, 2d ed., 
 pp. 523-530, 553, 554 (including quotations from French writers and man 
 ufacturers) ; F. Dumas, Etude sur le traite de commerce de 1786 entre la 
 France et I'Angleterre, pp. 70, 152-157; G. S. White, Memoir of Samuel 
 Slater, pp. 36, 37, 71, 283-298. 
 
 "" It has been asserted that ' * the policy of endeavoring to retain the ad- 
 vantages of machinery for England alone was mooted, but never very ser- 
 iously pursued, and it was definitely abandoned in 1825. ' ' (Cunningham, 
 Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times, Pt. 2, p. 609), 
 The evidence supports the view that such a policy was not merely mooted 
 but seriously and comprehensively followed. 
 
 "British Merchant for 1787, pp. 18, 57-63; View of the Treaty of Com- 
 merce with France, pp. 8, 30-33; Parliamentary History, Vol. 26, pp. 493, 
 552, 576; Minutes of the Evidence taken before a Committee of the House 
 of Lords (on Irish Resolutions, 1785), pp. 253-255; Report of the Lords of 
 the Committee of Council (on Irish Resolutions, 1785), pp. 70, 82, 
 
44 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 from utilizing English inventions were, however, exaggerated in 
 order to make the political arguments against commercial liber 
 alism appear stronger. In any case the difficulty did not deter 
 those interested from attempting to retain exclusive use of the 
 machines, and this attempt assumed a number of forms. Legal 
 protection was not the sole reliance. Writers and inventors 
 were careful not to describe the machines in detail for fear of 
 furnishing information to rivals. Workingmen were urged, on 
 grounds of patriotism and self-interest, as well as because of the 
 legal penalties, to refrain from taking abroad their skill and me- 
 chanical knowledge. Manufacturers closed their mills against 
 visitors, the outer doors being kept locked to prevent the entrance 
 of spies and foreign agents. The government was urged to pro- 
 vide proper rewards for inventors in order to induce them to re- 
 frain from going to other states with their inventions. The ques- 
 tion aroused very general and persistent interest, and held a 
 place of prominence in the controversies that raged around such 
 policies as the Irish Resolutions and the treaty of commerce with 
 France. ^^ 
 
 The main support of those who sought to reserve to Eng- 
 lishmen the use of the new machines was a comprehensive system 
 of laws to prevent the inventions or a knowledge of them from 
 reaching foreigners. 
 
 Laws of this type were not unknown before the great transi- 
 tion to mechanical power, but the earlier statutes involved ma- 
 chines which were distinct forerunners of the later epoch-mak- 
 
 " [Ogden], Description of Manchester, p. 93; Baines, History of the 
 Cotton Manufacture, p. 190; Kenrick, An Address to the Artists and Manu- 
 facturers of Great Britain, pp. 47, 48 ; T., Letters on the Utility and Policy 
 of Employing Machines to Shorten Labor, p. 7 and passim; Life of Bobert 
 Owen, Vol. 1, p. 31; Julia WedgT^'ood, The Personal Life of Josiah Wedg 
 wood, pp. 228, 229; Meteyard, Life of Josiah Wedgwood, Vol. 2, pp. 551, 
 552; Wheeler, Manchester, p. 171; Parliamentary History, Vol. 25, p. 941; 
 Vol. 26, pp. 390-392 ; Commons Journals, Vol. 47, pp. 499, 1088. 
 
THE ECONOMIC BASIS 45 
 
 ing textile inventions, namely, the stocking frame and the mech- 
 anisms used in the mannfacture of silk. The law to prohibit the 
 export of the stocking frame (7 and 8 William III, c. 20, sees. 6 
 and 4 in Statutes of the Realm, sees. 8 and 9 in Pickering's 
 Statutes at Large) was based on the fact that by means of this 
 invention "great quantities are wrought off in a little time," 
 and the purpose of the law, as of later similar statutes, was to 
 retain for Englishmen the exclusive benefits of the invention. 
 Silk manufacturing as well as the hosiery industry had been car- 
 ried on for a considerable period antedating the factory system 
 by machinery of an extensive and elaborate type. This machin- 
 ery was of Italian rather than English invention, and yet at 
 length in 1750 it also became the sub.iect of protective legislation 
 (23 George II, c.l3). 
 
 This law, as well as a law of 1719 (5 George I, c. 27), sought 
 by another means to safeguard mechanical skill — namely, by for- 
 bidding skilled workmen to leave the country and by imposing 
 penalties upon any who induced or aided them to emigrate. 
 There is no evidence that the main intent of the law of 1719 at 
 the time of its passage was to protect English machines from for- 
 eigners, but it later acquired considerable importance in this con- 
 nection. 
 
 The law of 1750 applied not only to the silk industry but for- 
 bade the export of tools and utensils and the emigration of work- 
 men employed in the manufacture of woollens as well as of silks. 
 
 This law was but one of many forms of protection enjoyed 
 by the woollen manufacturers. They had long had a monopoly 
 of raw materials and of the home market, and their natural and 
 legal advantages rather than their mechanical superiority, 
 formed the chief source of their economic strength. When the 
 newer industries, particularly cotton manufacturing, developed, 
 their condition was the reverse of that of the woollen industry. 
 Having neither natural nor legal advantages, the strength of the 
 
46 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 cotton manufacturers depended primarily upon superiority of 
 methods. Soon after the invention of improved spinning ma- 
 chines, the question of protecting them from foreigners by legis- 
 lation similar to the laws protecting the hosiery, silk, and woollen 
 manufacturers was raised in parliament, and the result was the 
 law of 1774 (14 George III, c. 71), forbidding the export of tooh 
 or utensils used in manufacturing cotton or cotton and linen 
 mixed. This law was used as a weapon against the rebellious 
 American colonies, although the next year, 1775, witnessed a 
 slight relaxation of the laws against the export of machines to 
 the North American colonies (15 George II, c. 5). 
 
 The laws outlined above forbade the export of machines, but 
 this was inadequate, because the machines might be reproduced 
 abroad by means of models, sketches, or specifications. In 1781 
 this defect in previous laws was remedied by a new law (21 
 George III, c. 37) forbidding the export not only of the ma- 
 chines themselves but of models or plans or similar information 
 concerning machines used in the manufacture of the principal 
 textiles. 
 
 By 1782, another branch of textile manufacturing, in addi- 
 tion to spinning and weaving, had developed mechanical meth- 
 ods vastly superior to earlier processes. This was the printing of 
 cloth, particularly of cottons and linens, by means of cylinders 
 in place of blocks. In consequence, a law (22 George III, c. 60; 
 was enacted to prohibit the export of machines used in printing, 
 and also to forbid the emigration of artisans. 
 
 Legal protection was thus afforded textile manufacturers 
 against the use of their machines by foreigners, but in the mean- 
 time there had also been developed in the metal industries a 
 large number of devices and processes second only in importance 
 to those in the textile industries. The manufacturers insisted, 
 
THE ECONOMIC BASIS 47 
 
 particularly in connection with the Irish Resolutions of 1785, *^ 
 that the laws be made to include the improvements in these in- 
 dustries. In 1785 a law (25 George III, c. 67) was enacted to 
 prevent the export of machines and of models or plans of ma- 
 chines used in the iron and steel industry, and also to prohibit 
 the emigration of artisans. In the year following, a law (26 
 George III, c. 89) supplanted the act of 1785 by a detailed list 
 of tools and utensils. This law was temporary, but was renewed 
 from time to time till 1795, when it was made permanent (35 
 George III, c. 38). 
 
 In 1825 a parliamentary committee favored the repeal of 
 these laws, partly because of laissez-faire views, and partly on 
 the ground that the existing state of the laws was so chaotic as to 
 render enforcement difficult. In some instances licenses were 
 granted for the export of machines legally prohibited, but ac- 
 cording to a committee reporting in 1841, in the processes con- 
 nected with spinning and weaving the policy of monopoly was 
 maintained, licenses for the export of spinning and weaving ma- 
 chines never having been granted. Means were frequently found 
 to evade the laws, but their enactment and the persistent adher- 
 ence to the policy of monopoly afford significant evidence of pub- 
 lic recognition of the productive and competitive power of the 
 great inventions. ^" 
 
 This new power was thus recognized, guarded, and fostercl 
 in various ways by the people of the time. The fact that the 
 transition Avas so rapid, and the fact that it was so largely con- 
 
 '^ Briiish Merchant for 1787, pp. .57-63; Minutes of the Evidence taken 
 before a Committee of the House of Lords (on Irish Resolutions, 1785), 
 pp. 148, 248-258. 
 
 " Eeport from the Select Committee on the Laws Relating to the Ex- 
 port of Tools and Machinery, 1825, pp. 2-9, 47-51 ; First Eeport and Second 
 Eeport from the Select Committee appointed to Inquire into the Operation 
 of the Existing Laws Affecting the Exportation of Machinery, 1841, partic- 
 ularly Second Eeport, p. iv. 
 
48 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 fined to Britain, gave to the British industries affected an in- 
 calculable advantage. In a word, the singular productive and 
 competitive power of the machine afforded an unparalleled 
 economic basis for the rapid development of manufacturing en- 
 terprises, and out of these there arose a new industrial group — 
 the great manufacturers. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 The General Chamber of Manufacturers of Great Britain 
 
 It has now been seen that the inventions were in the first 
 place essentially the result of a prevailing spirit of mechanical 
 progress, consciously recognized and fostered by writers, by the 
 government, and by the concerted efforts of various non-profit- 
 making organizations. It has been shown, further, that the pro- 
 ductive and competitive value of the new devices was widely 
 recognized in the writings of the time, in the ready acceptance of 
 machine-made commodities by consumers, and in attempts on the 
 part of the government as well as of manufacturers to maintain 
 for Britain a monopoly of their use. 
 
 The extensive manifestations of public spirit attending the 
 transition favored a public-spirited control and utilization of the 
 inventions. But other influences tended in the opposite direc- 
 tion — that is, in the direction of an organization of the new sys- 
 tem of manufacturing on the basis of private initiative and pri- 
 vate profit-making unrestrained by public control and conscious 
 efforts to make the inventions minister to public welfare. Among 
 these latter forces may be mentioned the prevailing dissatisfac- 
 tion with the old system of public control of industry; the acute- 
 ness of party conflicts, which focused attention on political is- 
 sues and maneuvers ; the discrediting of the government during 
 the crucial period of industrial transition by the failure of 
 George III and his ministers in foreign and colonial policy and 
 domestic reform ; and the acceptance by Pitt and his followers of 
 laissez-faire doctrines. During the earlier stages of the organiza- 
 tion of mechanical production, the forces of individualism and 
 
50 THE RISE OP THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 private gain therefore prevailed with slight restraint. The lat- 
 ent disadvantages of such an organization to the laborers and the 
 public developed somewhat later under the influence of the pol 
 icy of reaction and repression connected with the French wars 
 into a system of industrial control essentially anti-social. But 
 the disadvantages were at first not fully apparent, and the or- 
 ganization of the system assumed a form that was largely spon- 
 taneous, undirected, and unrestrained, and in consequence the 
 benefits derived therefrom by the workers and the larger public 
 were secondary and merely incidental to the benefits secured by 
 the manufacturers who fashioned the system. 
 
 The individual meir.bers of the new group have in most 
 instances remained obscure. Josiah Wedgwood of the Stafford- 
 shire p tterics, and Matthew Boulton, the Birmingham ironmas- 
 ter, are probably the best known members of the group. Sir 
 Richard Arkwright, whose name is most commonly associated 
 with the origin of the factory system, had little to do with the 
 organized activities of the group. By virtue of his control of 
 patents, a fight was waged against him, which tended to unify 
 the group but to isolate from it the man who, more -perhaps than 
 any other, was its creator. Even Arkwright 's career is little 
 known and has been the subject of numerous controversies 
 rather than of well-informed discussion. Jedediah Strutt, the 
 Derbyshire hosiery manufacturer and partner of Arkwright, is 
 more frequently mentioned because of his inventions and his as- 
 sociation with Arkwright than because of his Vv^ork as a manu- 
 facturer. Robert Owen, whose career as a manufacturer began 
 at Manchester, has left a remarkable and enduring record of his 
 life in his autobiography, but his fame is based mainly upon ac- 
 tivities and vieAvs beyond the scope of the present study. Thomas 
 Walker, a prominent cotton manufacturer and exporter at Man- 
 chester, who represented Manchester in seeking the repeal of the 
 cotton tax in 1785, and who was otherwise active in the new 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 51 
 
 group, is better known because of his political activities as a local 
 Whig leader than because of his career as a manufacturer. Rob- 
 ert Peel, pioneer cotton printer of Lancashire, was also an in- 
 ventor, and he has been rescued from obscurity mainly by means 
 of the fame of his son, the first Sir Robert Peel, and of his grand- 
 son, the prime minister. The first baronet of the name had at- 
 tained such eminence because of his father 's wealth and his own 
 manufacturing enterprises as to become in 1790 a member of 
 parliament and a "very respectable gentleman," and he, there- 
 fore, because of his own career as well as that of his more illus- 
 trious son, was able to emerge from the obscurity of the work- 
 shop. 
 
 As for the manufacturers generally, they belonged to hum-^ 
 ble families, and most of them probably sought wealth without 
 thought of fame ; and their relations to the beginnings and organ- 
 ization of a group that was ultimately to control the country were 
 for the most part dictated by the prospect of immediate eco 
 nomic advantage. If there were those who coveted a lasting rep- 
 utation by means of industrial pursuits, they were forestalled in 
 most cases by lack of ' ' respectability ' ' if not by lack of dis- 1 
 tinctive achievement. 
 
 That the members of the new group, particularly in the tex- 
 tile industries, were recruited from diverse and relatively humble 
 classes is commonly recognized. " But notwithstanding their 
 
 "See Mantoux, La Revolution Industrielle, pp. 379, ff. ; Hammond, The 
 Town Laborer, pp. 7-11. For contemporaneous comments, see Annual Beg- 
 ister, 1792, Pt. 2, p. 37 (Chron.) ; Life of Eohert Otven, Vol. 1, pp. 22, 37, 
 and passim; Minutes of the Evidence taken before a Committee of the 
 House of Commons (on Irish Resolutions 1785), pp. 25, 30; Minutes of the 
 Evidence taken before a Committee of the House of Lords (on Irish Reso- 
 lutions, 1785), pp. 227, 239; J. Wright, An Address to Parliament 
 
 on the late tax laid on Fustian and other Cotton Goods, p. 27; John Holt, 
 Survey of Lancashire, 1794 (quoted by Hasbach, English Agricultural La- 
 borer, p. 105) ; Gisborne, An Enquiry into the Duties of Men, p. 571. Com- 
 ment on the humble origins and narrow outlook of the early manufacturers 
 
52 THE RISE OP THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 varied and discrete origins, the new manufacturers earlj 
 showed a marked tendency to become differentiated into a dis- 
 tinct class. 
 
 An evidence of this tendency is to be found in the spirit of 
 antagonism between the landed classes and new manufacturers. 
 This was perhaps due in part to the disruption of the old estab- 
 lished stratification of agricultural classes. The yeomanry tend- 
 ed to become absorbed in the new industrial classes; a few of the 
 yeomen became capitalistic manufacturers, but most of them, in 
 the region of Lancashire, probably became factory workers. The 
 new industries also interfered seriously with the preeminence of 
 the aristocracy. There is complaint of the "inundation of new 
 men," who "expel the ancient families, destroy the venerable 
 mansions of antiquity, and place in their stead what seemeth 
 good in their own eyes of glaring brick or ponderous stone;" and 
 the country is urged "to preserve the memory of those persons 
 and those houses whose light is in its wane." The same tendency 
 is observed by another writer, who, instead of lamenting, re- 
 joices in the rewards of industry in the form of elegant houses 
 supplanting the old mansions in the region of Manchester and 
 Preston. In reference to the latter town he says that "from the 
 number of genteel families with which this town formerly 
 abounded, it got the epithet proud. Trade and manufactures 
 have made a revolution in this matter," however, and "instead 
 of cards, therefore, for killing time, cards are used by which 
 thousands may live." ''' 
 
 is interestingly ilhistraterl by the cases of two of the greatest and wealthiest 
 of the cotton manufacturers who, in 1785, while expressing their intention 
 to remove their enterprises to Ireland, stated before parliament that they 
 had never visited that country. 
 
 " Aikin, Description of the Country Round Manchester, pp. 23, 
 
 44, 192, 205, 206, 283, ff . ; Holt, Survey of Lancashire, 1794 (quoted in 
 Hasbaeh, English AgricuJtvral Laborer, p. 105) ; The Topographer, Vol. 1, 
 (for 1789), Preface, pp. iii, iv (London, 1789); European Magazine, Vol. 
 20, pp. 216, 217. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 53 
 
 The spirit of disdain assumed by the landed class toward 
 the manufacturers is illustrated by the experience of Cart- 
 wright, whose social status was compromised by his ventures in 
 manufacturing:; by the faint praise accorded Arkwright upon 
 his death, who was criticised for his frugality and crudeness, and 
 described as a useful though not a great character; and by the 
 custom in Lancashire of denying to manufacturers the privi- 
 lege of becoming magistrates. A moralist of the time observed 
 this tendency, and he condemned "the aristocratic prejudices 
 and the envious contempt of neighboring peers and country gen- 
 tlemen who disgrace themselves by looking down 
 
 on the man raised by merit and industry from obscurity to 
 eminence." ^^ 
 
 At Manchester this attitude was early apparent, and group 
 antagonism was reciprocal. Evidence to this effect is found, for 
 instance, in the writings of a Manchester clergyman, Rev. 
 Thomas Bancroft, giving expression to the hostility between the 
 manufacturers and the aristocracy, and to the growing class con- 
 sciousness of the former, and foretelling the destined preemi- 
 nence of the industrial group of the north of England. Ban- 
 croft, as early as 1777, in poems in the form of letters addressed 
 to a friend at Cambridge, described the manufacturing activities 
 at Manchester ("Mancunium"), and continued: 
 
 "This is fustian, rank fustian, I hear you exclaim; 
 But be gentle, my friend, ere you damn it to fame." 
 And concerning Manchester's busy industrial leaders, whom the 
 aristocracy looked upon as "servants around," he wrote: 
 
 " [Strickland], Memoir of Edmund Cartwright, pp. 84, 85; An 
 
 nual Eegister, 1792, Pt. 2, p. 37 (Chron.); Hansard's Parliamentary De- 
 lates, Vol. 26, p. 100; Gisborne, An Enquiry into the Duties of Men, p. 571. 
 For a similar discussion, based on the view that ' ' in the school of Mr. 
 Burke, trade and manufactures sound meanly, ' ' see J. Wilson, A Letter, 
 Commercial and Political, pp. 32, 33. 
 
54 THE RISE OP THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 "Such are England's true patriots, her prop and her pride; 
 They draw wealth from each state while its wants are sup- 
 ply'd; 
 " To mankind all at large they are factors and friends, 
 And their praise with their wares reach the world's farth- 
 est ends. 
 
 Is it then, ye vain lordlings ! ye treat us with scorn, 
 
 Because titles and birth your own fortunes adorn? 
 
 What worth to j'ourselves from high birth can accrue ? 
 
 Are your ancestors ' glories entailed upon you ? 
 
 And is your lazy pomp of much use to a nation ? 
 
 Are not parks and wide lawns a refined devastation ? 
 
 But peace — 't is presumption, — too much would demean 
 
 'em 
 To hold converse with upstarts, a viilgus profanem. 
 Their blood in pure currents thro' ages conveyed 
 It were impious to taint with the contact of trade. ' ' 
 
 In a succeeding letter he describes the early vicissitudes and 
 later triumphs of Industry in Venice and Holland, and in pro- 
 phetic strain foresees the shifting of power in England to the 
 industrialized north of England : 
 
 "At length (thanks to heav n) she is freed from her thrall, 
 
 And her weeds has thrown off to reign empress o 'er all. 
 
 Yet her mansions in chief she has fixed on our shore, 
 
 Where freedom and justice maintain her in power. 
 
 See around — but around it were needless to roam ; 
 
 For the climax reversed, we may look nearer home. 
 
 For thy glory, Mancunium, these tributes are paid. ' ' ^* 
 The new manufacturers, it is evident, became serious rivals 
 
 "Quoted in John Harland, Collectanea Eelating to Manchester and Its 
 Neighiorhood, Vol 2, in Chetham Society Publications, Vol. 72, pp. 216-218. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 55 
 
 in the north of the aristocracy, and began early to assume a 
 position as a distinct and important group, so that it was no 
 longer possible for "the indolent and ignorant Great" to class 
 them with the laborer and "confound them indiscriminately 
 with the refuse of mankind. ' ' '^^ 
 
 Many of the manufacturers had indeed emerged from what 
 the "Great" were often disposed to look upon as "the refuse 
 of mankind." But their rise involved a strengthening of the 
 barriers already existing between employers and employees in 
 manufacturing enterprises ; and the enlargement of these barriers 
 is another manifestation of the early differentiation of the new 
 manufacturers from other groups. The idyllic pictures of the 
 domestic system of manufacturing painted by the opponents of 
 the factory system must unfortunately be largely discounted; 
 and in lace manufacturing, in hosiery making, in mining, and 
 perhaps most notoriously of all, in agriculture, conditions were 
 not markedly better than in the factories. Indeed, a study of 
 the sources of factory labor in the late eighteenth century indi- 
 cates that the condition of the working classes during the period 
 of the present investigation was improved, or in any case was 
 prevented from becoming worse, by means of the opportunities 
 afforded by the factories. ^^ But aside from the question of wel- 
 fare, the factory laborers in any case began to assume the traits 
 of a definite, distinct group ; and the emergence of this new type, 
 the industrial proletariat, during the late eighteenth century, 
 sharpened the contrast between employer and employee, and 
 further differentiated the new manufacturers from other groups. 
 
 The clear distinction between manufacturer and laborer 
 
 " W. Kenriek, An Address to the Artists and Manufacturers of Great 
 Britain, p. 20 (applied by the author in a slightly different but similar 
 sense). 
 
 " Such a study has been made by the writer, but the results of the study 
 cannot conveniently be incorporated in the present paper. 
 
56 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 was indeed largely the result of the transition to mechanical 
 methods; but the differences between manufacturer and mer- 
 chant had long been marked, and particularly so in the case of 
 merchants in foreign commerce. The mercantile class, indeed, 
 stood next in status and influence to the landed aristocracy, and 
 both looked with condescension upon the petty manufacturers of 
 the older type. The differentiation continued to a large extent 
 during the early stages of the rise of capitalistic manufacturing, 
 and was noted by Robert Owen, who contrasted the early cotton 
 manufacturers about Manchester with "the foreign merchants, 
 or rather the merchants in the foreign trade." A similar dis- 
 tinction was made by Robert Peel in 1785. The differentiation 
 was not a result of the transition ; it tended to survive from an 
 earlier period. But it did not survive intact ; and herein is the 
 significance of the relations between merchants and manufactur- 
 ers as an indication of the rise of a new capitalistic group of 
 manufacturers. The older manufacturers, of a petty type, found 
 it impossible to act as their own selling agents in the larger 
 markets. But this was not the case with the new manufacturers, 
 whose enterprises became highly capitalized and extensive in 
 scope. They began in consequence to supplant the merchants 
 and to assume on their own account the functions formerly 
 monopolized by the trading class. This tendency seems to have 
 been accelerated by the disasters to commercial houses resulting 
 from the American Revolution and the extensive European eco- 
 nomic coalition against England during the war. Goods were 
 being shipped at the risk of the merchants, who suffered severely ; 
 while the capital invested in manufacturng remained intact. 
 "Our manufacturers," we are told by a writer in 1793, "with 
 their skill and their capital unimpaired, began early to explore 
 new markets and to improve those already known ; and from this 
 date [the American Revolution] commenced that rapid increase 
 of export to the Continent of Europe Since the last peace 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 57 
 
 [1783] our manufacturers have almost universally acted 
 
 as merchants, and shipped their goods on their own account." ^^ 
 
 The fact that the new manufacturers were able, financially 
 and from the point of view of business organization, to become 
 their own factors in foreign trade indicates, furthermore, their 
 differentiation from the older type of petty manufacturers. The 
 contrast between the two groups was emphasized by the contro 
 versy in 1789 over the Piece Goods Bill, involving a duty on the 
 sale by auction of certain types of goods, — a controversy des- 
 scribed by speakers in parliament as a "competition between the 
 small and the great manufacturers. ' ' A similar regrouping and 
 conflict among woollen manufacturers was evidenced by the pe- 
 tition of West Riding of Yorkshire clothiers in 1794 against the 
 tendency toward capitalistic organization in the region of the 
 modernized woollen industry. The petitioners complained that 
 the manufacture of cloth "with a very trifling capital, aided by 
 the unremitting labour of themselves, their wives and children, 
 united under one roof," — a system which "has so happily long 
 prevailed in Yorkshire, is now in danger of being broken in upon 
 and destroyed," by a new system, "supported by great cap- 
 itals, ' ' and carried on in ' ' large factories. ' ' " 
 
 An exact comparison of the capital invested under the new 
 organization of industry with the capital previously invested is 
 impossible. Ideas of what constituted capital were not clearly 
 defined. But by a study of the impressions made upon the people 
 of the time, and by casual statements of individual incomes, it is 
 evident that by 1790 there was an unprecedented development 
 of capitalistic production. Robert Owen wrote of "the new 
 
 "Li/e of Hohert Owen, Vol. 1, p. 37; Minutes of the Evidence taken 
 before a Committee of the House of Commons (on Irish Resolutions, 1785), 
 pp. 20, 21; J. Wilson, A Letter, Commercial and Political, pp. 21-23; Aikin, 
 Description of the Country Hound Manchester, pp. 182, 184. 
 
 ''" Parliament ur II Eegister, Vol. 26, pp. 444-447 (1st pt.) ; Commons 
 Journals, Vol. 44, pp. 544, 545, Vol. 49, pp. 276, 277. 
 
58 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 great cotton lords," and incidentally of one man in particular, 
 who, about 1790, "made seventeen thousand pounds of profit in 
 each of two successive years, ' ' and ' ' had made great advances to 
 become a first-rate and leading 'cotton lord.' " Various cotton 
 manufacturers testified in 1785 that they paid from £20,000 to 
 £26,000 a year in excise taxes alone. It was stated at Arkwright 's 
 death in 1792 that his son and daughter each received £200,000, 
 and that his cotton factories were "worth as much more." The 
 increase of wealth among the woollen manufacturers in the more 
 progressive centers was also very marked. An estimate was 
 made in 1791 that manufacturers then living, who had begun 
 business with very small capitals, were then worth £500,000, and 
 in one or two cases, not specified, worth even more. Such sums, 
 in contrast with the petty capitals ordinarily invested in manu- 
 facturing, and in view of the relatively large purchasing value 
 of money, are of no mean significance. The capital invested in 
 manufacturing enterprises about Birmingham and in Stafford- 
 shire by such men as Boulton and Wedgwood was also very ex- 
 tensive. But the value of the metal industries, and even of the 
 potteries, was perhaps more largely a gift of nature than a crea- 
 tion of the new methods. ''* 
 
 The wealth of the new manufacturers, their power at home 
 and in foreign commerce, and their claims to public recognition, 
 were matters of frequent comment. Arthur Young, who seems 
 never to have lost an opportunity to contrast the skill, enter- 
 prise, and scorn of legal support on the part of the new manu- 
 facturers with the conservative, petty, and monopolizing spirit 
 
 ''^Life of Robert Owen, Vol. 1, pp. 31, 40; C. S. Parker, Sir Robert 
 Peel, Vol. 1, p. 4; Minutes of the Evidence taken before a Committee of 
 the House of Commons (on Irish Eesolutions, 1785), pp. 8, 18, 30; Parlia- 
 mentary History, Vol. 25, pp. 838, 852; Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 55^ 
 Pt. 1, p. 449; Annual Register, 1792, Pt. 2, p. 37 (Chron.) ; Annals of Ag- 
 riculture, Vol. 17, p. 114; Tlwughts on the Causes of the Present Failures, 
 pp. 5, 7, 13, 14. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 59 
 
 of the older types, attributed the superiority of the former in 
 part to machines and in part to larger capital. Go to France, he 
 exclaims, with characteristic exuberance, and look for such a man 
 as Arkwright, and you will look in vain. "Can one man, with 6 
 or £8,000 capital, bear the rivalry of another, with £100,000?' ' «° 
 
 It was inevitable that the newly risen "lords" of industry 
 should demand political recognition. In the debates of the time 
 on the corn laws, the navigation system, taxation, and commer- 
 cial laws and treaties in general, their economic status and their 
 interests were reiterated in various forms. In connection with 
 the debates on the treaty of commerce with France (1787), it 
 was asserted by a member of parliament that the manufacturers 
 were mentioned by every speaker. The statement was almost 
 literally true. A member of the House of Lords asserted that, 
 weighed in the balance with men of such ingenuity and enter- 
 prise as certain of the new manufacturers, "ministers and anti- 
 ministers would together kick the beam."®^ 
 
 In view of their status and the recognition of their import- 
 ance, and in the light of the current agitation for the reform of 
 parliament, it is naturally to be supposed that the new manu- 
 facturers would have sought to bring about a change in the 
 electoral and representative sj'stem such as would have given 
 them a proportionate voting power in the House of Commons. 
 The press and political leaders in favor of a reform of parlia- 
 ment were not slow to seize upon the growth of the new indus- 
 trial class as an argument for reform. It was indignantly as- 
 serted that "the monied interest is not represented at all." The 
 
 ** In Annals of Agriculture, "Vol. 7, pp. 272, 273. See also, Josiah 
 Tucker, Four Tracts on Political and Commercial Subjects, pp. 34, 35; 
 Commons Journals, Vol. 36, pp. 15, 239, 953, 954; Thoughts on the Causes 
 of the Present Failures, p. 13 ; Increase of Manufactures, Commerce and 
 Finance, pp. 40-47, 59, ff. 
 
 *^ Parliamentary History, Vol. 26, p. 494; Parliamentary Register, Vol 
 18, p. 34 (2d part). 
 
60 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 greatest manufacturer or merchant "has not the privilege of a 
 beggar in a Cornish borough. Accordingly, the great manufac 
 turing towns of Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, &c., have 
 no representation in parliament." Similar contrasts were re- 
 peatedly made by Wilkes, Fox, and various others, *^ 
 
 And yet it is a singular fact that the manufacturers them- 
 selves were indifferent in respect to reform. During the period 
 of most vigorous and most general agitation, when petitions in 
 large numbers from nearly every part of the country assailed 
 the House of Commons, the new industrial centers were not 
 enough interested to send petitions. *^ The absence of such peti- 
 tions, in spite of the many appeals to these regions to support 
 reform, afforded the opponents of reform an opportunity which 
 they cleverly utilized. A speaker in 1783 (Mr. Powys), in op- 
 posing Pitt's motion for a reform bill, minimized the importance 
 of various petitions. "Manchester and Birmingham, however, 
 he was determined to hear, and to pay particular attention to. 
 They were great trading towns, and their petitions ought not to 
 
 be slightly passed over, in the usual manner He must 
 
 have the whole of what they contained explicitly and distinctly 
 made known to the House, and for that purpose desired the 
 clerk to read them. The clerk turned over and over again; but 
 no such petitions being found, he told Mr. Powys that neither 
 Manchester, Birmingham, nor Sheffield were in the list. Not m 
 the list! said Mr. Powys — good God, what a misfortune!" Lord 
 North also called attention to the lack of petitions from these re- 
 
 '^ Political Begister, Vol. 2, pp. 224, 225; Parliamentary Register, Vol 
 3, p. 439; Parliamentary History, Vol. 18, p. 1292, Vol. 23, p. 863, Vol. 24, 
 p. 999, Vol. 30, p. 789. 
 
 "Commons Journals, Vol. 39, January to May, 1783; Vol. 40, Febru- 
 ary to April, 1785. During the revival of reform agitation in connection 
 with the French Revolution, these regions continued indifferent to the move- 
 ment. A petition from Sheflfield in 1793 {Parliamentary History, Vol. 30, 
 p. 776) is an exception, but the tone of the petition indicates that its basis 
 was not economic but political— an outgrowth of revolutionary sympathies. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 61 
 
 prions, and twittod thf proponents of reform for having taken 
 p:reat pains to secure petitions with the result that they were 
 ahle only to say: "What horrid sound of silence doth assail mine 
 ear?"" 
 
 There is further and more positive evidence of the indiffer- 
 ence of the new manufacturers to parliamentary reform. Even 
 Fox. who at the time was representing himself as a champion 
 of the manufacturers, and who would eagerly have availed him- 
 self of any evidence of their interest in reform, explained their 
 indifference on the ground that they were "threatened with 
 ruin" by the cotton tax of 1784 and bv the Irish Resolutions of 
 1785, and were "on the eve of emigration" to Ireland and else- 
 where, and for that reason considered it "no time to set 
 
 about making improvements in the constitution." That the at- 
 tempts of politicians to gain the support of the manufacturers in 
 political issues was opposed by leading manufacturers is indi- 
 cated by their own statements. ^^ 
 
 Furthermore, there is evidence that the industrial classes 
 at Manchester and Birmingham experienced a species of pride in 
 their aloofness from politics, other than the promotion of eco- 
 nomic policies directly involving their own interests. This aloof- 
 ness existed in local as well as national politics. These cities noi 
 only had no representation in the House of Commons, but lacked 
 as well the chartered privileges prized by many of the older 
 cities. They were governed by an old and simple organization, 
 in which the traditional restrictions of charters and gilds played 
 no part. Manchester was ruled, indeed, bj' the steward of the 
 Lord of the Manor. The manufacturers prided themselves on 
 desiring to wear no "party-colored robes." and it was frequently 
 
 '* Parliawrvarn Bistnry, Vol. 23, p. 837; Vol. 25, pp. 458, 459. See alao 
 Ibid., Vol. 23, pp. 850, 851; Vol. 24, p. 988; Vol. 25, pp. 463, 466. 467. 
 
 ^ PnrUamentarii ULstor)/, Vol. 25, pp. 466, 467; The Journal and Cor- 
 respondence of William, Lord Auckland, Vol. 1, pp. 92^ 93. 
 
62 THE RISE OP THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 held that the lack of representation and the absence of chartered 
 and gild regulations were among the chief advantages of these 
 towns. For "thereby the attention of the industrious manufac- 
 turer can seldom be called off, by the interference of party in- 
 terest; and that grand principle which should ever animate a 
 flourishing commercial establishment universally pervades the 
 great body of the inhabitants, that of the uninterrupted appli- 
 cation of each individual who composes it to his own peculiar 
 concerns." ^* 
 
 It is apparent that the manufacturers of the new type were 
 little interested in parliamentary representation, or even in local 
 politics. For the most part they desired to be let alone and al- 
 lowed "uninterrupted application" of their energies to their 
 "own peculiar concerns." 
 
 But when their "own peculiar concerns," that is, their eco- 
 nomic interests, were directly involved in affairs of politics, they 
 were not slow to manifest an interest in political life. And it was 
 this connection between their economic interests and politics 
 that counteracted the individualistic tendency of the manufac- 
 turers and furnished the incentive for comprehensive group or- 
 ganization. But before the influence of politics upon the general 
 organization of the manufacturers is discussed, mention should 
 be made of earlier manifestations of the tendency toward organ- 
 ization. 
 
 A general organization was not without basis in preexisting 
 local groups of manufacturers and merchants. Woollen manu- 
 facturers of York, Lancaster and Chester were organized with a 
 semi-official status in 1777, and later the woollen manufacturers 
 
 "^ [Ogden], A Description of Manchester, pp. 93, 94; A Companion to 
 the Leasoives, etc., pp. 1.5, 16; John Campbell, Political Survey of Britain, 
 
 Vol. 1, p. 322; Aikin, Description of the Country Bound Manchester, 
 
 p. 191; Wright, An Address to Parliament, pp. 26^ 27; Hammond, 
 
 Town Laborer, p. 47. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 63 
 
 of other regions were allowed to organize in a similar manner. 
 Iron manufacturers of Salop, Worcester, Stafford and Warwick 
 organized and held quarterly meetings previous to the general 
 organization of the manufacturers in 1785. Organized bodies, 
 made up in some places of merchants and manufacturers, in 
 other instances of manufacturers only, existed in several of the 
 leading towns, including Manchester, Birmingham and Liver- 
 pool. " 
 
 There was thus a local basis for a general organization. Sug- 
 gestions, moreover, for a general organization had been made 
 before 1785, and independently of the political situation in that 
 year, out of which the actual organization emerged. 
 
 One of these suggestions was contained in a petition to the 
 House of Commons as early as 1779. The organization therein 
 proposed was for another purpose, however, and was to include 
 only the cotton and linen manufacturers. This petition set 
 forth the need for a reorgiinization of capital in manufacturing. 
 It asserted that "a manufactory for making and printing cot- 
 ton and linen cloths upon a more extensive plan than has hitherto 
 been practiced would be of great benefit to the kingdom;" that 
 for such a purpose, "a very large capital or joint stock" is neces- 
 sary: that "several persons are willing to subscribe considerable 
 sums of money for the purpose;" that the existing state of the 
 law would make the subscribers individually responsible, and 
 would impose many difficulties ; and that a bill is desired, pro- 
 
 " Commons Journals, Vol. 37, pp. 393, 773; Vol. 39, pp. 250, 455; 
 Vol. 40. pp. 78, 611, 647, 761, 867, 998, 1000, 1024; Parliamentary History, 
 Vol. 25, pp. 365, 840; Parliamentary Begister, Vol. 21, pp. 275, 276; Min- 
 utes of the Evidence taken before a Committee of the House of Commons 
 (on Irish Resolutions, 1785), pp. 47, 70; Annals of Agriculture, Vol. 10, 
 pp. 402-418; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, March 9, 1785; R. Brooke, 
 Liverpool as It Was during the last Quarter of the Eighteenth Century, 
 p. 232; J. A. Langford, A Century of Birmingham Life, Vol. 1, pp. 315, 
 316, 359. 
 
64 THE RISE OF THE GRK^T MANUFACTURERS 
 
 viding for a special organization "into a separate and distinct 
 body politic and corporate." with liberties and privileges sub- 
 ject to regulation by parliament. A bill to this effect was 
 ordered, but the project was apparently dropped, and the or- 
 ganization of the new industries assumed a form highly indi- 
 vidualistic instead of in accordance with the older type of quasi- 
 public chartered company, prevalent in commercial enterprises. 
 The idea was revived in 1788, although again without result, by 
 Manchester manufacturers, who proposed to obtain permission to 
 form a company modeled after the East India Company. ^* 
 
 Another suggestion for a national organization, broader in 
 scope than that outlined above, was made in 1783. At that time 
 it was proposed to form a "Chamber of Commerce," which was 
 to be auxiliary to the government, furnishing information and 
 advice in connection with commercial and industrial policies. It 
 was suggested, apparently, by knowledge of the chambers of 
 commerce on the Continent. ®^ 
 
 Neither of these ideas was carried out. The actual organ- 
 ization included manufacturers other than those in the cotton 
 and linen industries, as Avas proposed in 1779, but it included 
 manufacturers only, excluding merchants, whom the plan of 
 1783 would have recognized prominently. It was not concerned 
 primarily with the administration of business, as was the plan 
 of 1779, and its relation to the government was different from 
 the relations proposed in both of the earlier plans. 
 
 Organization was a natural accompaniment of the rise of 
 the new manufacturers to a position of wealth and recognized 
 importance in the economic life of the country. But the indi- 
 vidualistic tendencies and the diversity of interests among th'i 
 manufacturers raised up serious obstacles, and the stimulus nec- 
 
 *' Commons Journals, \o\. 37, pp. 108, 147; Wheeler, Manchester, p. 175. 
 ^'' Plan of the Chamber of Commerce, a work reviewed favorably in the 
 Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 53, Pt. 1, p. 331. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 65 
 
 essary for organized unity was political. The needed stimulus 
 was a common antagonism to the excise and Irish policies of the 
 government of William Pitt. 
 
 In 1774, Richard Arkwright & Company had succeeded in 
 securing the modification (14 George III, c. 72) of earlier re- 
 strictions on the manufacture, sale, and use of cottons, and the 
 industry developed with unparalleled rapidity. Among the 
 most urgent and most difficult of the problems confronting Pitt 
 when he became head of the government in 1783 was the reor- 
 ganization of finance. As a part of his fiscal policy he secured 
 the enactment in 1784 of a new cotton tax,- which considerably 
 increased the amount of the revenue and provided for methods 
 of collection extremely obnoxious to the manufacturers. This 
 law (24 George III, c. 40) met with a furious storm of hostility, 
 due less to the extent of the taxation than to "what is still 
 worse," the fact that their ''liberty and property" were "fet- 
 tered and embarrassed." They objected to excise laws in gen- 
 eral, but held that the cotton tax was the most harmful of ex- 
 cises because of "the amazing number of excise officers neces- 
 sary," whose influx tends fatally "to disturb the harmony and 
 arrangements of their manufactures, to deprive them of per- 
 sonal liberty, and the free exercise of their property. ' ' ^° 
 
 In view of the prevalence of high taxes and of excise meth- 
 ods not essentially different from those embodied in the cotton 
 tax, the extreme hostility that the cotton tax aroused is explic- 
 
 »« Commons Journals, Vol. 34, pp. 435, 436, 496, 497, 708, 709, 805, 
 Vol. 40, pp. 642, 760, 819 ; Minutes of the Evidence Taken before a Commit- 
 tee of the House of Commons (on Irish Resolutions, 1785), p. 66; Minutes 
 of the Evidence Taken before a Committee of the House of Lords (on Irish 
 Resolutions, 1785), p. 222; Parliamentary History, Vol. 25, pp. 362, 365, 
 366, 480; Parliameniary Register, Vol. 17, p. 425, ff.. Vol. 18, p. 91, flf.; 
 
 Wright, An Address to Parliament on the Late Tax, etc., pp. 37-55, 
 
 and passim; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, April 6, 15, 18, 1785; 
 Dowell, History of Taxation and Taxes in England, Vol. 4, pp. 343-346. 
 
66 THE RISE OP THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 able only on the grounds that it was in the first place, ill adapted 
 to the new and complex system of mechanical and large-scale 
 production in the cotton industry; and in the second place, out 
 of harmony with the rising tide of individualism and laissez- 
 faire, which was rapidly overwhelming the old system of govern- 
 mental relations to industry. 
 
 Organized opposition to the excise first assumed the form of 
 a committee of four manufacturers, including Thomas Walker, a 
 local "Whig leader, delegated by Manchester manufacturers to 
 represent them at London in an effort to secure the repeal of the 
 law. In January. 1785. Walker and one of his associates were 
 brought before the Committee on Trade and Foreign Plantations 
 and questioned concerning Irish relations, in an effort to secure 
 from them, without their knowledge of the object of the ques- 
 tioning, statements which would commit them to the policy later 
 presented to the public in the form of the Irish Resolutions. The 
 statements made by the manufacturers on this occasion, which 
 they understood was concerned with the cotton tax, were used by 
 the government in an attempt to discredit the manufacturers by 
 securing evidence of inconsistency and self-seeking, as well as 
 to cause them to commit themselves unknowingly to the princi- 
 ples of the government's Irish policy. Walker and his associate 
 were later repeatedly confronted with quotations from their 
 statements, and cross-examined, and treated in a manner which 
 was characterized by a member of parliament as "most scanda- 
 lous."" 
 
 By such methods the government defeated its own ends with 
 
 "^ Beport of the Lords of the Committee of Council (on Irish Resolu- 
 tions, 1785), pp. 53-61; Minutes of the Evidence taken before a Committee 
 of the House of Comm/)ns (on Irish Resolutions, 1785), pp. 6, 47-90; Min- 
 utes of the Evidence tal-en before a Committee of the House of Lords (on 
 Irish R-esolutions, 1785), pp. 185-190; Parliamentary History, Vol. 25, p. 
 
 837; Aikin, Description of the Country Eound Manchester, pp. 263, 
 
 264. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 67 
 
 respect to the Irish Resolutions as well as the cotton tax. Man- 
 chester manufacturers were needlessly embittered, and were 
 forced to associate the government's fiscal policy at home with 
 its commercial policy toward Ireland ; and they were provided 
 with a raison d'etre for their skillful utilization of the influence 
 of the whole body of manufacturers against both policies. Hence- 
 forth the two policies were inextricably joined, and the whole 
 force of industrial influence was directed against both. 
 
 The Irish question, ever a thorn in the side, was rendered 
 acutely piercing in the ease of Pitt's government, 1783-1785, by 
 pressure of disturbed conditions inherited from the preceding 
 ministry. Pitt, recognizing Ireland's newly acquired legislative 
 independence, was at once confronted with the problem of eco- 
 nomic reorganization. His policy, formulated in the so-called 
 Irish Resolutions or Propositions, came from the Irish parlia- 
 ment for consideration in the English House of Commons in 
 February, 1785. 
 
 According to Pitt's own interpretation, his policy embraced 
 two ''capital points," namely, the admission of Ireland to par- 
 ticipation in England's colonial and foreign trade (with certain 
 restrictions), and the mutual reduction of tariffs on manufac- 
 tured goods to the rate in that kingdom where existing duties 
 were the lower. Various important exceptions however, were 
 made in favor of the landed class, merchant^ and older types 
 of manufacturers, while no attempt apparently was made to con 
 ciliate the newer manufacturers. For instance, the Irish had 
 equal access to the raw materials and the implements and ma- 
 chines used in the cotton manufacture, whereas English wool of 
 all descriptions, fuller's earth and other materials, and the tools 
 and utensils used in the manufacture of wool were denied export 
 to Ireland. The chief advantage to be gained by Ireland was 
 by a provision that importations from foreign states were to be 
 "regulated from time to time in each kingdom on such terms 
 
68 THE RISE OF THE GREIAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 as may afford an effectual preference to the importation of simi- 
 lar articles the growth, product or manufacture of the other." 
 This provision, though stated in general terms, was primarily- 
 intended to secure the importation of Irish linens into England 
 to the exclusion of foreign linens ; and the English cotton, iron, 
 and pottery manufacturers resisted this extremely illiberal pol- 
 ic.v of exclusion on the ground that it hindered reciprocal com- 
 mercial relations with those countries which were seeking a linen 
 market in England. ^^ 
 
 The Irish Resolutions, like the cotton tax, encountered the 
 fierce hostility of the newer manufacturers. The exclusion of 
 foreign linens to the prejudice of reciprocal commerce was but 
 one of many reasons for opposition as set forth by the manu- 
 facturers. Pitt himself, in his private letter of January 6, 1785, 
 to the Duke of Rutland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, ®' quite 
 frankly admitted the probability of the shifting to Ireland of 
 certain English industries in consequence of the Resolutions. 
 Many of the manufacturers shared Pitt's view — an attitude ill- 
 
 " The text of the Resolutions as they passed the Irish parliament anJ 
 as outlined above may be found in Parliamentary History, Vol. 25, pp. 312- 
 314. For text of the revised Resolutions, as amended in the English House 
 of Commons, see Ibid., pp. 934-942. The Resolutions were explained and in- 
 terpreted in Beport of the Commissioners of Excise to the House of 
 
 Commons, in Report of the Commissioners for His Majesty 's Cus- 
 toms, both published in 1785, and in Correspondence between the Right 
 Honble. William Pitt and Charles, Dulce of Rutland, Lord Lieutenant of 
 Ireland, 1181-1787, particularly in Pitt's letter of January 6, 1785, pp. 55- 
 75. See also J. H. Rose, William Pitt and National Revival, c. 11, and 
 J. G. S. MacNeill, Constitutional and Parliamentary History of Ireland till 
 the Union, c. 17. Concerning the attitude of the manufacturers toward the 
 exclusion of foreign linens, see Minutes of the Evidence Taken before a 
 Committee of the House of Commons (on Irish Resolutions, 1785), pp. 181- 
 183 ; Minutes of the Evidence Taken before a Committee of the House of 
 Lords (on Irish Resolutions, 1785), pp. 150-152, 176, 177; Lords Journals, 
 Vol. 37, pp. 312, 323, 324; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, March 23, 
 1785. 
 
 •* Cited in the preceding footnote. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 69 
 
 adapted to reconciling them to the government's policy. Such a 
 view of the eflfect of the Resolutions was promoted by the fact 
 that "so long as water power was the chief agent employed in 
 manufacturing [and it was of course the chief agent in 1785], 
 Ireland offered, in some directions, great attractions to cap- 
 ital."^* These attractions, combined with alleged discrimina- 
 tions in policy in favor of certain manufacturers in Ireland, were 
 set forth at length by the manufacturers as the basis of opposi- 
 tion to the Resolutions. "' 
 
 The most important of the various arguments urged against 
 the Irish Resolutions by the manufacturers was the contrast in 
 the tax policies of the two kingdoms. Pitt himself admitted the 
 force of the argument, first in private, and at length in consent- 
 ing to the modification of the cotton tax. ^® 
 
 The vital connection between the Irish Resolutions and the 
 question of taxation, particularly the excise laws, was set forth 
 in resolutions of Manchester manufacturers, April 11, 1785. 
 These resolutions provided for the appointment of delegates to 
 go to Ireland to negotiate for the transfer of the cotton indus- 
 try to that country. The manufacturers desired "to justify 
 their conduct to their countrymen, for adopting a measure so re- 
 pugnant to their feeling, and so ruinous to the nation, as trans- 
 planting the cotton manufacture." In order to do this, they set 
 forth the evils of the excise laws, and contrasted "these de- 
 
 •* Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern 
 Times, Pt, 2, p. 846, n. 
 
 •* These arguments are to be found in the petitions of the manufac- 
 turers in the Journals of the two houses; in the pamphlet literature of the 
 time ; and particularly in Report of the Lords of the Committee of Coun- 
 cil Eclating to Trade and Foreign Plantations, Minutes of the Evi- 
 dence Taken before a Committee of the House of Commons, and Minutes 
 of the Evidence Taken before a Committee of the House of Lords (on Irish 
 Resolutions, 1785). 
 
 •* Correspondence between Pitt and Butland, pp. 62-64; 
 
 Parliamentary History, Vol. 25, pp. 323, 324, 338. 
 
70 THE RISE OP THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 structive and obnoxious systems" with the "unbounded pro- 
 fusion" of advantages offered by the gcvernments of both king- 
 doms to manufacturers in Ireland. Various manufacturers re- 
 ceived attractive offers from Ireland, and many of them testi- 
 fied before parliament that if the Irish Eesolutions were adopted, 
 they intended to transfer their enterprises to Ireland. ^^ 
 
 In the case of the cotton manufacturers, these threats were 
 used in part as weapons against the cotton tax. ''The Manches- 
 ter people," wrote the Marquis of Lansdowne, "have contrived 
 artfully enough to confound the taxes lately imposed on manu- 
 factures with the Irish propositions. ' ' It has already been seen, 
 however, that the connection was virtually forced upon them 
 in the first place b}' the government. ^^ The connection between 
 the two policies having been made, it was cleverly seized upon 
 by the cotton manufacturers and made the means of uniting the 
 manufacturers in general against the tax on cottons as well as 
 against the proposed Irish settlement. Out of this situation, 
 which gave to the manufacturers a feeling of common interest, 
 arose the General Chamber of Manufacturers of Great Britain. 
 
 This organization was not limited to the new capitalistic 
 manufacturers, but the initiative and the moving force were 
 with them. The new capitalistic industries consisted in the main 
 of three groups: Wedgwood's Staffordshire potteries; the iron 
 foundries and plants about Birmingham ; and the manufacturing 
 
 ^''Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, February 26, April 15^ 18, 1785; 
 Minutes of the Evidence Taken before a Committee of the House of Com- 
 mons (on Irish Eesolutions, 1785), pp. 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 29, 32, 49-51, 
 59, 60, 66, 67, 76; Minutes of the Evidence TaTcen before a Committee of 
 the House of Lords (on Irish Eesolutions, 1785), pp. 6, 10, 57, 172-174; 
 
 Wright, An Address to Parliament, p. 60; Gentleman's Magazine. 
 
 Vol. 55, Pt. 1, pp. 234, 449. 
 
 °* See above, pp. 66, 67; Rutland MSS. (Historical MSS. Commission), 
 Vol. 3, pp. 201, 202 ; Minutes of the Evidence Taken before a Committes 
 of the House of Commons (on Irish Eesolutions, 1785), p. 89; Gazetteer 
 and New Daily Advertiser, April 18, May 2, 1785. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OP MANUFACTURERS 71 
 
 and printing of cotton centering at Manchester. Each of these 
 groups participated spontaneously and in a measure independ- 
 ently in the movement for a general organization. 
 
 The part played by Josiah Wedgwood seems to have been 
 the result of his hostility to the Irish Resolutions. On February 
 21, 1785, he wrote to Matthew Boulton, saying that he intended 
 to recommend the organization of "a Committee of Delegates 
 from all the manufacturing places of England and Scotland to 
 meet and sit in London all the time the Irish commercial affairs 
 are pending," and he was not without hope that such a body 
 would be useful "upon others as well as the present occasion." 
 He had his designer, John Flaxman, make drawings "for the 
 manufacturers' arms," and enlisted the interest of Lord Shef- 
 field, who was a bitter opponent of the Irish Resolutions. ®® 
 
 The share of Birmingham in the movement for organiza- 
 tion is less clear. The manufacturers there were organized, how- 
 ever, and their local organization sent circular letters to the var- 
 ious manufacturing towns of the region, suggesting cooperation 
 to oppose the government's excise policy. ^°° 
 
 But the chief influence in the movement was exerted by 
 the cotton manufacturers. This was recognized later by the 
 Birmingham Chamber, which called upon Birmingham to emu- 
 late Manchester in its liberal support of the General Chamber. 
 The cotton manufacturers had been active at London for some 
 time in seeking the repeal of the cotton tax. Thomas Walker 
 and three other Manchester manufacturers had been delegated by 
 Manchester to work for its repeal. When the Irish Resolutions 
 came up for discussion, and opposition developed, the Manches- 
 ter manufacturers saw their opportunity and cleverly seized it. 
 On March 3, 1785, a general meeting of fustian manufacturers 
 was held at Manchester to consider the two questions — the tax 
 
 »*Meteyard, Life of Josiah Wedgwood, Vol. 2, pp. 485, 495, 496, 539. 
 ^'^Parliamentary History, Vol. 25, pp. 365, 366. 
 
72 THE RISE OP THE GREAT MANUFACTURER* 
 
 and the Irish Propositions. At this meeting they resolved to 
 "correspond with every manufacturing body in the kingdom," 
 in order to secure cooperation against what they designated the 
 fatal combination of oppressive taxes at home and commercial 
 favoritism to the Irish. It was further resolved that the action 
 taken at the meeting should be published in the papers through- 
 out the manufacturing region. "^ 
 
 Results were soon manifest. On March 12, it was reported 
 that "manufacturers are assembling" at London from various 
 parts of the kingdom. A meeting had already been held in Lon- 
 don, at the London Tavern, on March 7 ; and the cotton manu- 
 facturers, having the advantage of a committee of delegates al 
 ready in touch with the situation, secured action at this meet- 
 ing which at the outset connected the Irish policy with the ques- 
 tion of excise, and committed the manufacturers to a joint con- 
 sideration of the two questions. Another meeting was called, 
 which "all manufacturers" were requested to attend, but spe- 
 cial invitation was accorded the representatives of the leading 
 industrial centers. ^°^ 
 
 During the succeeding week, a committee was appointed, 
 with Wedgwood as chairman. Associated with Wedgwood were 
 John Silvester and Richard Walker, both of Manchester, and 
 Robert Peel, the great Lancashire cotton printer. On March 12 
 this committee met and issued a call for another general meet- 
 ing for March 14. At the meeting convened on the 14th, there 
 was organized a definite body to be called the Chamber of Man- 
 ufacturers of Great Britain, and to consist of "each member 
 
 '"Langford, A Century of Birmingham Life, Vol. 1, pp. 328, 329, 
 
 Aikin, Description of the Country Eound Manchester, pp. 263, 264; 
 
 Minutes of the Evidence taken before a Committee of the House of Com- 
 mons (on Irish Resolutions, 1785), p. 47; Minutes of the Evidence taken 
 before a Committee of the House of Lords (on Irish Eesolutiona, 1785). 
 p. 186; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, March 9, 1785. 
 
 "' Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, March 9, 12, 1785. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OP MANUFACTURERS 73 
 
 of a commercial committee, being a manufacturer." It was re- 
 solved unanimously that the society ' ' do not cease with the pres- 
 ent business," and to that end a permanent secretary, Henry 
 Smeathman, was appointed, and steps were taken to perfect the 
 organization. ^°^ 
 
 At the various meetings of the Chamber, the chairmanship 
 was held by different men. At a meeting of March 10, previous 
 to the formal organization, the presiding officer was Sir Herbert 
 Mackworth, a manufacturer who, as a member of parliament and 
 a man of social standing, lent "respectability" to the organiza- 
 tion, an attribute deemed essential to the Chamber's influence. 
 The chairman of the meeting of March 14 was Wedgwood, who, 
 though not a member of the aristocracy, was nevertheless in- 
 vested with a respectability denied to the more "vulgar" and 
 less artistic textile manufacturers. The meetings of March 16 
 and 17 were presided over by Richard Walker of Manchester. 
 On March 22, the chairman was Matthew Boulton of Birming- 
 ham. It is important to note that at this meeting, even more 
 than at earlier meetings, the prominence of the cotton men was 
 manifest. Mr. Silvester of Manchester, as head of the committee 
 on organization,' reported for the committee a plan of organi- 
 zation which was adopted. He stated that the committee had 
 "received many letters from various parts of the kingdom, ap- 
 
 "^ British Merchant for 1787, p. 10; Gazetteer and New Daily Adver 
 tiser, March 9, 14, 15, 16, 1785. See also Meteyard, Life of Josiah Wedg- 
 wood, Vol. 2, pp. 540, 541, where it is intimated that the organization was 
 begun and directed almost exclusively by Wedgwood. It is stated that Nich- 
 olson, an employee of Wedgwood, was secretary, and that Chisholm, Wedg- 
 wood's private secretary, formulated the regulations governing the Cham- 
 ber. It is evident that Meteyard has grossly overemphasized Wedgwood's 
 part. Nicholson was temporary secretary during an early meeting, and on & 
 later occasion acted for the secretary (see Gazetteer and New Daily Ad- 
 vertiser, February 19, 21, 1787), but the first permanent secretary was 
 Henry Smeathman ; and the permanent organization was effected, as will 
 be seen below, by a committee presided over by a Manchester manufacturer. 
 
74 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 proving highly of the institution of a Chamber of Manufactur- 
 ers of Great Britain. ' ' The committee recommended, he further 
 reported, that the Chamber promote, by means of circular letters 
 and in other ways, the organization of local bodies of manufac- 
 turers, whose common interests should find expression in the cen 
 tral body. To distinguish the local chambers from the national 
 organization, it was recommended that the word "general" be 
 prefixed to th^e title of the Chamber. The committee's recom- 
 mendations were unanimously adopted. It was decided, also, 
 that the body should be a permanent organization. 
 
 At later meetings, the committee presented further details 
 of organization, which the Chamber adopted. The body was to 
 consist of manufacturers only, and the membership fee was 
 fixed at one guinea per year. It was to have a permanent sec- 
 retary, and standing committees, and upon these the burden of 
 work was to fall. Permanent quarters were arranged for at 38 
 Fenchureh Street. It was declared repeatedly to be strictly non- 
 partisan, and its object was set forth as the promotion of manu- 
 facturing, which was "independent of party." The member* 
 were national representatives of local manufacturing industries, 
 "delegated by their several communities for the purpose of 
 watching over their interests." The manufacturers, by means 
 of the Chamber, were to form "one great chain," pledged to the 
 strengthening of each link. Again, the object was set forth as 
 that of ' ' watching over their interests at large as one aggregate ; 
 and of furnishing government, if required, such impartial and 
 true information as they need from time to time, for the protec- 
 tion of the commerce and manufactures of the empire at large." 
 But while the purposes were thus set forth as being comprehen- 
 sive and permanent, the initial unifying force was hostility to 
 specific governmental policies. ^°* 
 
 ^''* Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, March 23, April 6, May 2, " 
 1785; British MercTiant for 1787, pp. 10, 11; Meteyard, Life of Josiah 
 Wedgwood, Vol. 2, pp. 540, 541. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 75 
 
 As a result of the organized activities of the manufacturers 
 in opposition to the Irish Resolutions and the cotton tax, a flood 
 of more than sixty petitions deluged the House of Commons — 
 petitions usually representing large groups of manufacturers, 
 very similar in content, and commonly denouncing the English 
 system of taxation as well as the proposed readjustment of Irish 
 relations. The government first yielded on the excise issue. On 
 May 10, a bill was passed repealing the more obnoxious features 
 of the law of 1784. The cotton manufacturers continued, nev- 
 ertheless, in opposition, in company with the other members of 
 the General Chamber, and Pitt again yielded by introducing the 
 Resolutions in a new form, including many modifications de- 
 manded by the manufacturers. Immediately thereafter the Gen- 
 eral Chamber held a general meeting and resolved to notify its 
 constituents and ask them to petition for further delay. Then 
 followed a second deluge of petitions, conforming closely to the 
 recommendations of the General Chamber. Although Pitt sh 
 cured the adoption of the revised Resolutions, the revision itself 
 was a virtual defeat at home and the cause of the not unexpected 
 rejection of the entire plan in Ireland. Thus ended in defeat, 
 at the hands of the General Chamber of Manufacturers, a policy 
 which had engaged the utmost power of the minister, and which 
 had been regarded by him as vital to himself and to the 
 empire. ^°' 
 
 A significant result of the struggle over the excise and the 
 Irish Resolutions was the focusing of attention on the problem 
 of liberalizing commercial policy. So far as Anglo-Irish rela- 
 tions alone were concerned, the Irish Resolutions themselves 
 tended to break down the barriers of the old system, but the 
 policy, as was previouslj' stated, was not without serious limita 
 
 ""' Commons Journals, Vol. 40, pp. 576-1088 (texts of the petitions re- 
 ferred to above) ; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, March 9, 23, April 
 6, 15, 18, May 14, 1785; Parliamentary History, Vol. 25, p. 362. 
 
76 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUPACTUREhS 
 
 tions of a monopolistic nature. The newer manufacturers con- 
 demned in particular the preferential clause excluding foreign 
 linens as out of keeping with desired reciprocity. This attitude 
 of the manufacturers, while occasioning hostility between them 
 and the government so far as the Irish Resolutions were con- 
 cerned, was in reality in accord with Pitt's own growing convic- 
 tion of the need for relaxing restrictions in foreign commerce. 
 In consequence, the conflict, bitter as it was, pointed the way to 
 a reconciliation between the government and the new group, rap- 
 idly rising to industrial preeminence. 
 
 An occasion for reconciliation w^as furnished by the revision 
 of commercial relations with France. The treaty of commerce, 
 signed on September 26, 1786, marked a notable advance in the 
 direction of commercial liberalism. It provided for reciprocal 
 liberty of residence, travel, the purchase and use of consumption 
 goods, and the practice of religious faiths, within the European 
 dominions of the two countries, "freely and securely, without 
 license or passport, general or special, by land or by sea." The 
 principal commercial advantages gained by France were in re- 
 spect to wines and other commodities wherein she excelled by 
 virtue of superior soil, climate and natural resources. The Eng- 
 lish, on the other hand, benefitted chiefly by means of reductions 
 in tariffs on articles in which England excelled not because of 
 natural advantages but because of superior skill and enterprise, 
 particularly cottons, irons, and pottery. "" 
 
 The relations of the manufacturers to the treaty with France 
 as well as to the Irish and excise policies were directed by the 
 General Chamber of Manufacturers. Pitt publicly sought to be- 
 little the Chamber, but its power aroused in reality his fear and 
 
 "° The texts of the treaty and the supplementary convention are in 
 Parliamentary History, Vol. 26, pp. 233-255, 268-272, and in Commons 
 Journals, Vol. 42, pp. 266-272, 289, 290. The treaty is also printed as an 
 appendix to the first volume of the Journal and Correspondence of William, 
 Lord Auckland. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 77 
 
 hostility- rather than his contempt. In connection with the for- 
 mulation of the treaty, he directed Eden, the negotiator, to listen 
 to the members of the Chamber individually, and to conciliate 
 them, but to give the Chamber collectively as little "employ- 
 ment or encouragement as possible." The members of the 
 Chamber, however, preferred to deal with the treaty as a group. 
 Numerous committee meetings were held, the Lords of Trade 
 were interviewed, answers to various questions were secured from 
 Mr. Eden, who negotiated the treaty, and extensive correspond- 
 ence and interviews were conducted with manufacturers in var- 
 ious parts of the country. The letters received were in general 
 favorable to the treaty, though there is evidence that special 
 weight was given to the sentiments of the cotton, iron and pottery 
 manufacurers, who were pnthusiastic in support of the treaty, 
 and who had been from the first the chief factors in the Cham- 
 ber. On the basis of its investigations, the committee in charge 
 of the Chamber's relations to the treaty met on December 9, 
 1786, at the Chamber's house on Fenchurch Street and adopted 
 resolutions favoring the treaty. It was resolved that ' ' from the 
 best information the committee can collect from the Chambers of 
 Commerce and Manufactures" in various parts of the coun- 
 try, and from other sources, the treaty, based upon "liberal and 
 equitable principles, promises to be advantageous to their manu- 
 facturing and commercial interests by opening a new source of 
 fair trade to both nations." and by "securing a continuance of 
 peace and good offices between two great and neighboring na- 
 tions, so advantageously situated for availing themselves of the 
 blessings of peace and an extended commerce." ^°^ 
 
 "''Parliamentary History, Vol. 26, pp. 378-382; Parliamentary Begis- 
 ter, Vol. 21, pp. 162-164; Journal and Correspondence of William, Lord 
 Auckland, Vol. 1, p. 91; Langforr], A Century of Birmingham Life, Vol. 1, 
 pp. 327, 329; Gazetteer and Neir Daily Advertiser, December 12, 14, 1786, 
 January 12, February 7, 12, 13, 17, 19, 21, 1787. 
 
78 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 Although the committee claimed that its action was based 
 upon the carefully ascertained views of the constituents of the 
 General Chamber, the resolutions of December 9, when pub- 
 lished, gave rise to a controversy which divided the organiza- 
 tion into hostile factions. Josiah Wedgwood and the Manches- 
 ter and Birmingham manufacturers had been responsible for the 
 organization and early activities of the Chamber, and they con- 
 tinued to direct its policies. It was claimed by the opponents of 
 the treaty that the resolutions of December 9 were not repre- 
 sentative of the sentiments of the manufacturers generally, and 
 the resolutions were ascribed to the fact that "the Manchester, 
 Birmingham and Staffordshire manufacturers have, of course, 
 great sway in that body." Other manufacturers, it was de- 
 clared, opposed the treaty, and had trusted the General Chamber 
 to represent their viev/s. But since those favoring the treaty con- 
 trolled the Chamber, the opposing manufacturers, having been 
 misrepresented till the treaty had been signed, "do not know 
 where to communicate their thoughts, or how to collect the gen- 
 eral sense and convey it with force to the minister." "* 
 
 But they resolved not to .yield without a struggle. In order 
 to give effect to their views in the approaching vote on the treaty 
 in parliament, they decided to contest the control of the General 
 Chamber by the cotton, iron and pottery men. On February 6 a 
 general meeting of the Chamber was held, and a debate of several 
 hours took place on the propriety of the resolutions of December 
 9 favoring the treaty. A new committee was appointed to secure 
 further information concerning various aspects of the question. 
 On Februarj' 10 another general meeting was held. At this meet- 
 ing the group favoring the treaty was severely criticized, hostile 
 resolutions were adopted, and the House of Commons was peti- 
 tioned to delay action in order to allow further consideration. 
 
 '" Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, January 12, 1787. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 79 
 
 The controversy continued for some time, and although those 
 favoring the treaty later at one time regained control, the di- 
 vision in the Chamber served the purpose of the ministers in dis- 
 crediting the organization ; and those who supported the treaty, 
 gaining their ends in the adoption of the treaty, were less eager, 
 apparently, to press the fight in the Chamber than were those 
 who opposed the treaty. ^°^ 
 
 In relation to the question of commercial liberalism, the im- 
 portance of the division in the General Chamber of Manufac- 
 turers over the treaty with Prance consists in the light it throws 
 on the alinement of the manufacturers. The older groups of man- 
 ufacturers were wedded to monopoly. The cotton, iron, and pot- 
 tery manufacturers, who were profiting little by monopoly, and 
 indeed were held in leash by trade restrictions, favored the break- 
 down of the monopolistic barriers in order that they might the 
 more readily extend their enterprises into new fields. 
 
 In view of the undoubted importance of the General Cham- 
 ber of Manufacturers, there is a remarkable lack of contempor- 
 aneous comment. And yet the unmerited obscurity of the or- 
 ganization is not inexplicable. The common attitude of conde- 
 scension toward manufacturers by literary and political writers 
 in part explains it, but the chief reason, no doubt, is to be found 
 in the methods used by the Chamber. During the progress of 
 the Irish Resolutions and of the bill to repeal the cotton tax 
 through the House of Commons, the Chamber was so desirous 
 of keeping itself behind the scenes that it refused even to petition 
 the House. And yet the initial motive for its organization, it 
 will be recalled, was to influence the government in the consider- 
 ation of these measures; and it did exert a determining in- 
 fluence. Its method was indirect, through local bodies, 
 
 "* Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, February 7, 12, 17, 19, 21, 
 March 19, April 6, 1787; Journal and Correspondence of William, Lord 
 Auckland, "Vol. 1, p. 429; Julia "Wedgwood, The Personal Life of Josiah 
 Wedgwood, p. 224; British Merchant for 1787, pp. 9-12. 
 
80 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 and by means of correspondence and consultations. When 
 the Chamber divided in its attitude toward the treaty with 
 France, factionalism led to the publication in the press of ac- 
 counts of its debates ; and one reason assigned by the Birming- 
 ham Commercial Committee for opposing the faction hostile to 
 the treaty was the belief that ' ' the publication of the debates in 
 the General Chamber of Manufacturers was exceedingly im- 
 politic.""*' 
 
 But while contemporary writers for the most part made no 
 comment, exceptions may be noted. Arthur Young, as might be 
 expected in view of the wide range of his observations and his 
 agrarian s^inpathies and prejudices, wrote at some length con- 
 cerning the Chamber, and looked with suspicion on the concerted 
 action of the industrial group, fearing that the Chamber might 
 be made a menace to ''the landed interest." The Marquis of 
 Lansdowne said in the House of Lords that he had no doubt that 
 "the Chamber of Manufacturers of Great Britain was very re 
 spectable, " and he hoped "they would keep themselves to their 
 simple object, and not harbor the idea of setting themselves up 
 as a body to overawe parliament, or to interfere with the polit- 
 ical measures of the country. ' ' ^^^ 
 
 The fear expressed by Young, Lansdowne and others that 
 the Chamber would lend itself to partisan and class politics 
 proved indeed to be not without foundation. But in maintaining 
 the permanent status and influence of the Chamber, the members 
 encountered a more serious difficulty. This was the diversity of 
 interests represented, and particularly the great and growing 
 divergence between the new capitalistic manufacturers, who 
 were tending toward laissez-faire and commercial liberalism, and 
 
 "' Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, April 6, 1787. 
 
 "^ Thoughts on the Establishment of a Chamber of Manufacturers, in 
 Annals of Agriculture, Vol. 3, pp. 452-455 (sec also pp. 260, 388) ; Parlia- 
 mentary History, Vol. 25, p. 858. 
 
THE GENERAL CHAMBER OF MANUFACTURERS 81 
 
 the older type of manufacturers, who continued to rely upon 
 primitive methods and state support and protection. It was thivS 
 divergence which was chiefly responsible, as already stated, for 
 the division in the Chamber in 1787 in connection with the treaty 
 of commerce with France. 
 
 This vital defect in the plan of organziation of the Chamber 
 serves better than anything else to point out the significance of 
 the organization as an indication of the emergence of the great 
 manufacturers, distinct from the older and more conservative 
 types. And in spite of its defects and its obscurity, the General 
 Chamber of Manufacturers was unquestionably a body of import- 
 ance. In addition to its significance as an indication of the grow- 
 ing strength and community of interest of the new industrial 
 capitalism, it promoted the local organization of manufacturers 
 and traders along substantially present-day lines ; and it may be 
 regarded as a fore-runner, in effect if not in form, of modern as- 
 sociations of manufacturers for maintaining lobbies, committees, 
 and attorneys to promote their interests particularly as affected 
 by politics. In its intolerance of governmental restrictions and in 
 its desire to extend commercial relations into new fields by 
 breaking down the barriers of the old protective system, it was a 
 herald of nineteenth-century liberalism. Its own immediate po- 
 litical influence was a manifestation of the forces which, though 
 checked by wartime reaction, culminated in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury in the indirect domination of the state by the industrial 
 oligarchy. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 The editions given below are the editionf! cited in the text. 
 
 I. NON-CONTEMPORANEOUS ACCOUNTS AND BIBLI- 
 OGRAPHIES. 
 
 Abram, W. A., History of Blackburn, Town and Parish. Black- 
 burn, 1877. 
 Baines, Edward, Jr., History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great 
 Britain. London. [1835]. 
 
 A comprehensive popular account of the rise of the cotton in- 
 dustry. 
 
 Baines, Edward, and Whatton, W. R., History of the County Pal- 
 atine and Duchy of Lancaster. 4 vols. London, 1836. 
 The biographical portions by Whatton. 
 Baines, Thomas, and Fairbairn, William, Lancashire and Che- 
 shire, Past and Present. 2 vols. London, n. d. 
 
 The part dealing with manufactures, commerce, and engineer- 
 ing by Fairbairn. 
 
 Bischoff, J., A Comprehensive History of the Woollen and Worst- 
 ed Manufactures. 2 vols. London, 1842. 
 
 An uncritical collection of sources connected by the author's 
 comments. 
 
 Brooke, R., Liverpool as It Was During the Last Quarter of the 
 
 Eighteenth Century. Liverpool. 1853. 
 Browning, 0., The Treaty of Commerce between England and 
 France in 1786. In Transactions of the Royal Historical So- 
 ciety, 1885, N. S., Vol. 2, pp. 349-364. 
 Chapman, S. J., The Lancashire Cotton Industry. A Study in 
 Economic Development. Manchester, 1904. 
 
 A careful study dealing with labor as well as with capital in 
 the cotton industry, and containing a valuable selected and crit- 
 ical bibliography. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 83 
 
 Cunningham, W., Growth of English Industry and Commerce in 
 
 Modern Times. Pt. 2. Cambridge, 1912. 
 
 A standard work, with valuable bibliographies. 
 Davies, J., A Collection of the Most Important Cases Respecting 
 
 Patents of Invention. London, 1816. 
 Dircks, H., The Life, Times, and Scientific Labors of the Second 
 
 Marquis of Worcester. London, 1865. 
 
 An annotated reprint of Worcester's Century of Inventions 
 is added, as well as other documents, and bibliographies of early 
 works on mechanical subjects. The work is an interesting but 
 perhaps exaggerated commentary on the crude and meager me- 
 chanical knowledge of Worcester 's time. 
 
 Dowell, S., A History of Taxation and Taxes in England. 1 vols. 
 
 Vol. 4, Taxes on Articles of Consumption. London, 1884. 
 Dumas, F., Etude sur le traite de commerce de 1786 entre la 
 
 France et VAngleterre. Toulouse, 1904. 
 Ellison, T., The Cotton Trade of Great Britain. London, 1886. 
 
 Uncritical. 
 French, G. J., Life and Times of Samuel Crompton. 2d ed. 
 
 Manchester, 1860. 
 Guest, R., Compendious History of the Cotton Manufacture. 
 
 Manchester, 1823. 
 
 The author attempts to disprove Arkwright's claim to the in- 
 vention of cotton machinery, and attributes both the spinning 
 jenny and roller spinning to Thomas Highs. A much-quoted and 
 highly controversial work. Contains interesting documents and 
 plates. 
 
 Hammond, J. L. and Barbara, The Town Laborer, 1760-1832. 
 
 London, 1917. 
 
 An enlightened and attractive study. A bibliography in 
 eluded. 
 Hands, W., The Law and Practice of Patents for Invention. 
 
 London, 1808. 
 Helm, E., Chapters in the History of the Manchester Chamber of 
 
 Commerce. London. [1902]. 
 Humphreys, A. L., A Handbook to County Bibliography, being 
 
84 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 a Bibliography of Bihliographies Relating to the Counties 
 and Towns of Great Britain and Ireland. London, 1917. 
 McCulloch, J. R., The Literature of Political Economy. London, 
 1845. 
 
 A "classified catalogue, with historical, critical, and 
 
 biographical notes. ' ' Unless the author 's well-known preconcep- 
 tions in favor of Ricardian economics are kept in mind, the 
 criticisms are misleading, but the work contains valuable infor- 
 mation. 
 
 MacNeill, J. G. S., The Constitutional and Parliamentary His- 
 tory of Ireland till the Union. New York, 1918. 
 
 Used in connection with the Irish Resolutions of 1785. Mainly 
 political, and based principally on non-contemporaneous accounts. 
 
 Mantoux, Paul, La Bevolution Industrielle an XVIII ^ siecle: 
 
 Essai sur les commencements de la grande industrie moderne 
 
 en Angleterre. Paris, 1905. 
 
 A comprehensive and valuable study, with extensive bibliog- 
 raphy, in part critical. 
 
 Meteyard, E., Life of Josiah Wedgwood. 2 vols. London, 1865, 
 
 1866. 
 
 Lacking in critical apparatus and at times in critical insight, 
 but useful particularly because of quotations from manuscripts. 
 
 Moulton, H. F., The Present Law and Practice Relating to Let- 
 ters Patent for Inventions. London, 1913. 
 
 Owen, Robert, The Life of Robert Owen Written by Himself. 
 London, 1857. 
 
 Parker, C. S., Sir Robert Peel, from His Private Papers. 3 vols. 
 London, 1891, 1899. 
 
 Virtually a collection of sources. The first few pages of 
 Vol. 1 deal with the prime minister 's father and grandfather, 
 both manufacturers. 
 
 Radcliffe, William, Origin of the New System of Manufacture 
 
 Commonly Called ^'Power-Loom Weaving." Stockport, 
 
 1828. 
 
 Contains reminiscences of the author's experiences during the 
 period of transition to power spinning in the cotton industry. 
 
 Rose, J. H., William Pitt and National Revival. London, 1911. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 35 
 
 Rose, J. H., The Franco-British Commercial Treaty. In English 
 Historical Review, 1908, Vol. 23, pp. 709-724. 
 
 [Strickland, Mary Cartwright], A Memoir of the Life, Writings, 
 and Mechanical Inventions of Edmund Cartwright. Lon- 
 don, 1843. 
 
 [Troughton, T.], The History of Liverpool. Liverpool, 1810. 
 
 Wedgwood, Julia, The Personal Life of Josiah Wedgwood. Lon- 
 don, 1915. 
 
 Wheeler, J,, Manchester : Its Political, Social, and Commercial 
 History, Ancient and Modern. 1836. 
 Of slight value. 
 
 White, G. S., Memoirs of Samuel Slater. 2d ed., Phila., 1836. 
 
 Wood, H. T., A History of the Royal Society of Arts. London, 
 1913. 
 
 II. CONTEMPORANEOUS SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 
 1. Official Publications. 
 
 Minutes of the Evidence taken before a Committee of the House 
 of Commons (on Irish Resolutions). 1785. 
 
 Minutes of the Evidence taken before a Committee of the House 
 of Lords (on Irish Resolutions). 1785. 
 
 The Report of the Comynissioners for His Majesty's Cus- 
 toms (on Irish Resolutions). 1785. 
 
 Report of the Commissioners of Excise to the Committee of the 
 Honorable the House of Commons (on Irish Resolutions). 
 1785. 
 
 Report of the Lords of the Committee of Council Relating 
 
 to Trade and Foreign Plantations upon the two Questions 
 Referred to them by His Majesty's Order in Council of the 
 14th of January last. 1785. (On Irish Resolutions). 
 
 Report from the Select Committee on the Laws Relating to the 
 Export of Tools and Machinery. 1825. 
 
86 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 This report, and the two immediately following, while not con- 
 temporaneous with the period under investigation, are used to 
 show a continuation of the policy of monopolizing inventions be- 
 yond the period in question. 
 
 First Report from the Select Committee Appointed to Inquire 
 into the Operation of the Existing Laws Affecting the Ex- 
 portation of Machinery. 1841. 
 
 Second Report from the Select Committee Appointed to Inquire 
 into the Operation of the Existing Laws Affecting the Ex- 
 portation of Machinery. 1841. 
 
 Journals of the House of Commons. 
 
 Journals of the House of Lords. 
 
 Statutes at Large. 
 
 Calendar of Home Office Papers of the Reign of George III 
 (1760-1775). 4 vols. 
 
 Manuscripts of the Duke of Rutland (Historical MSS. Commis- 
 sion). 3 vols. 1894. 
 
 Suiject-matter Index of Patents of Invention from March 2, 
 1617, to October 1, 1852. Compiled by Bennett Woodcroft, 
 of the Patent Office. 2 vols. London, 1857. 
 
 Used chiefly as an index to Woodcroft 's Titles of Patents of 
 Invention. 
 
 Titles of Patents of Invention from March 2, 1617 to October 1, 
 1852. Compiled by Bennett Woodcroft. 2 vols. London, 
 1854. 
 
 Titles only are given, but the reproduction is exact, and the 
 information is usually complete enough to be definitely de- 
 scriptive. 
 
 2. Publications of Societies and Miscellaneous Collections 
 
 OP Sources. 
 
 Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of 
 
 Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Published annually. 
 Publication was not begun till 1783, but the early volumes 
 contain extensive information concerning the earlier activities 
 of the Society, compiled from the Society's records. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 8? 
 
 The Advancement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; or, 
 Descriptions of the Useful Machines and Models Contained 
 in the Repository of the Society for the Encouragement of 
 Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Compiled by W. Bail- 
 ey. London, 1772. 
 
 One Hundred and Six Copper Plates of Mechanical Machines and 
 Implements of Husbandry Approved and Adopted by the 
 Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and 
 Commerce. Compiled by A. M. Bailey. London, 1782. 
 
 Muse^im Eusticum et Commerciale: or, Select Papers on Agri- 
 culture, Commerce, Arts, and Manufactures. 6 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1764-1766. 
 
 Under the patronage of members of the Society of Arta. 
 
 Memoirs of Agriculture and other Economical Arts. Compiled 
 by Robert Dossie, with the support of the Society of Arts. 
 2 vols. London, 1768. 
 
 Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. 
 London, 1785, etc. 
 
 College of Arts and Sciences Instituted at Manchester, June 6, 
 1783. (A circular dated July 9, 1783). 
 
 Letters and Papers of the Society at Bath for the Encourage- 
 ment of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. 
 Bath, 1783, etc. 
 
 Rules and Orders of the Society Instituted at Bath, etc. Bath, 
 1783. 
 
 Plan of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon 
 Tyne. 1793. 
 
 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. The 
 Royal Society adhered in the main to its traditional interest 
 in abstract philosophy and pure science. A notable excep- 
 tion was the publication of Dr. Thomas Percival's Observa- 
 tions on the State of Population in Manchester and Other 
 Adjacent Places, in Vol. 64 (1774), pp. 54-66, Vol. 65 
 (1775), pp. 322-335, and Vol. 66 (1776), pp. 160-167. 
 
88 THE RISE OP THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 Collectanea Relating to Manchester and Its Neighborhood. Ed- 
 ited by John Harland. 2 vols. Vols. 68 (1866) and 72 
 (1867) in Remains, Historical and Literary, Connected with 
 the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester, published 
 by the Chetham Society. 
 Cobbett's Parliamentary History. Vols. 15-30, London, 1813- 
 
 1817. 
 The Parliamentary Register. Volumes 1-30, 1775-1791. 
 
 An unofficial but contemporaneous publication of parliamen- 
 tary debates. Not as authentic as Cobbett 's Parliamentary His- 
 tory, but containing some matters of value not found in the lat- 
 ter work. 
 
 The Journal and Correspondence of William, Lord Auckland. 
 Edited by George Hogge. 4 vols. London, 1861. 
 
 Vol. 1 contains important papers as well as correspondence re- 
 lating to the treaty with France, 1786. 
 
 Correspondence between the Right Honble. William Pitt and 
 Charles Duke of Rutland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 1781-1787. Introductory note by John Duke of Rutland. 
 Edinburgh and London, 1890. 
 
 Valuable especially in connection with the Irish Resolutions. 
 Langford, J. A., A Century of Birmingham Life. 2 vols. Bir- 
 mingham, 1868. 
 
 This work consists almost wholly of extracts from local con- 
 temporaneous literature. Indifferently organized. 
 
 3. Periodicals. 
 Annals of Agriculture. London, 1784, etc. 
 
 Edited by Arthur Young, who was also the principal con- 
 tributor. 
 
 Annual Register. London, 1758, etc. 
 
 European Magazine and London Review. London, 1782, etc. 
 
 The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser. London. 
 
 Chiefly useful for the official announcements, resolutions, etc., 
 of the General Chamber of Manufacturers and other commercial 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 89 
 
 and industrial bodies. Its news items and comments are also 
 valuable if proper account is taken of their political bias. 
 
 Gentleman's Magazine. London. 
 
 New Annual Register. London, 1780, etc. 
 
 Of slight value; political and literary almost exclusively. 
 
 4. Works op Reperence, History, Travel, and Description. 
 
 Aikin, J., A Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty 
 
 Miles Bound Manchester. London, 1795. 
 
 Compiled and edited by a physician and writer of note. Pub- 
 lished in 1795, but described by the publishers as a " laborious 
 undertaking," requiring long labor. Radford's Directory of 
 Manchester, published in 1788, omitted a description of manu- 
 factures on the ground that this would have ' ' anticipated in some 
 degree another work [which has] long been preparing for the 
 public eye, viz., A Description of Manchester and the country 
 twenty miles round, ' ' — an obvious reference to Aikin 'a work. 
 (John Harland, Collectanea Belating to Manchester, p. 138). A 
 work of great value. 
 
 Anderson, A., An Historical and Chronological Deduction of the 
 Origin of Commerce. 4 vols., revised ed., London, 1787, 
 1789. 
 Baldwin, T., Airopaidia. Chester, 1786. 
 
 Described by the author as "an introduction to aerial navi- 
 gation. ' ' 
 
 Companion to the Leasowes, Hagley, and Enville, to 
 
 Which Is Prefixed the Present State of Birmingham. Lon- 
 don, 1789. 
 
 Encyclopedia Britannica. 1st, 2d, and 3d eds. 
 
 The third edition was published later than the period covered 
 by this study. Internal evidence shows, however, that the articles 
 used in the present study were written not later than 1792. 
 In the article on Manchester, reference is made to * ' the mar- 
 riages in Manchester and Salford from January 1791 to Januar}- 
 1792." Hence the article was not written earlier than 1792. 
 In the same article is a further statement to the effect that a 
 certain work "will be published in the early spring of 1793." 
 This article was therefore compiled in 1792. The article on cot- 
 ton states that the quantity of raw cotton consumed six years 
 
90 THE RISE OP THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 earlier was 11,000,000 pounds. Approximately 11,000,000 pounds 
 were consumed, according to a table given in the same article, 
 both in 1782 and in 1784. The date of compilation of this 
 article was therefore either 1788 or 1790. 
 
 Harte, W., Essays on Husbandry. 2d ed., London, 1770. 
 [Ogden, JamesJ, A Description of Manchester. By a Native of 
 the Town. Manchester, 1783. (Reprinted under the title, 
 Manchester a Hundred Years Ago, edited by W. E. A. Axon. 
 Manchester, 1887. The edition used is the reprint). 
 Peacock, J., Proposals for a Magnificent and Interesting Estab- 
 lishment. London, 1790. 
 
 Affords singular evidence of the industrial and mechanical 
 interests of the time. 
 
 Ruggles, T., The History of the Poor; their Rights, Duties, and 
 
 the Laws Respecting Them. 2 vols. London, 1793, 1794. 
 
 A work which had appeared serially in Young's Annala of Ag- 
 riculture. Written from the not too enlightened point of view 
 of a country gentleman, but apparently an attempt to give an 
 unbiased account. 
 
 Stone, T., An Essay on Agriculture. Lynn, 1785. 
 
 Opposed to labor-saving machines. 
 Walpole, G. A., New British Traveller. London, 1784. 
 Wendeborn, F. A., A View of England towards the Close of the 
 Eighteenth Century. 2 vols. London, 1791. 
 
 Translated by the author from the original German edition. 
 The author states in his preface that "he wrote merely for the 
 instruction of his own countrymen," that is, Germans; that "it 
 was much read on the continent and has been translated into 
 other languages." He states further that he came to England 
 at the age of twenty-five and ministered twenty-two years to a 
 German congregation in London. Critical of English life. 
 
 Young, A., A Six Months' Tour Through the North of England. 
 4 vols., 2d ed., London, 1771. 
 
 [Young, A.], A Six Weeks' Tour Through the Southern Counties 
 of England and Wales. Dublin, 1768. 
 
 Young, A., Tour in Ireland. Edited by A. W. Hutton, with bib- 
 liography of Young's works. 2 vols. London, 1892. 
 
 Young, A., TraA)els during the Years 1787, 1788 and 1789 Vn- 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 91 
 
 dertaken more Particularly with a View of Ascertaining the 
 Cultivation, Wealth, Resources, and National Prosperity of 
 the Kingdom of France. 2d ed., London, 1794. 
 
 Useful particularly in connection with the commercial treaty 
 with France, and with French interests in English inventions. 
 
 5. Books and Pamphlets of a Controversial and Critical 
 
 Nature. 
 
 Anstie, J., Observations on the Importance and Necessity of In- 
 troducing Improved Machinery into the Woollen Manufac- 
 tory, [especially] of the Counties of Wilts, Glouces- 
 ter and Somerset. London, 1803. 
 
 By a woollen manufacturer. Written later than the period 
 studied, but affording all the more valid evidence of the lateness 
 and the sectional nature of the transition to improved methods 
 in the woollen industry. 
 
 An Answer to the Complete Investigation of Mr. Eden's Treaty. 
 London, 1787. 
 
 Favorable to the treaty. 
 
 Bentham, Jeremy, Defense of Usury, to Which Is Added a 
 
 Letter to Adam Smith, Esq., L. L. D., on the Discourage- 
 ment of Inventive Industry. Philadelphia, 1796. 
 
 Written in 1787. A vindication of "inventive industry." 
 
 The British Merchant for 1787. Addressed to the Chamber of 
 
 Manufacturers. London, 1787. 
 
 Hostile to the treaty with France, and to the General Chamber 
 of Manufacturers because of its support of the treaty. 
 
 Chalmers, George, An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of 
 Great Britain during the Present and Four Preceding 
 Reigns. London. 
 
 This work went through a number of editions, the editions 
 used being those of 1786 and 1794. The author states (ed. 
 
 1794, p. ii) that "the former editions were translated 
 
 into the languages of the Continent. ' ' Controversial, but based 
 on an extensive study of facts. 
 
92 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 A Complete Investigation of Mr. Eden's Treaty. London, 1787. 
 
 Opposed to the treaty. 
 The Contrast; or, a Comparison between our Woollen, Linen, 
 
 Cotton and Silk Manufactures. London, 1782. 
 Eden, W., Four Letters to the Earl of Carlisle The Third 
 
 Edition, to Which Is Added a Fifth Letter on Population. 
 
 London, 1780. 
 [Eden, W.], A Short Vindication of the French Treaty from the 
 
 Charges Brought against It in a late Pamphlet, Entitled, A 
 
 View of the Treaty of Commerce with France. London, 1787. 
 
 Of special interest because written by the negotiator of the 
 treaty. 
 
 Gisborne, T., An Enquiry into the Duties of Men in the Higher 
 and Middle Classes of Society in Great Britain. Ch. 13, On 
 the Duties of Persons engaged in Trade and Business. Lon- 
 don, 1794. 
 
 A popular work on morals, taking into account changing in- 
 dustrial conditions. 
 
 Historical and Political Remarks upon the Tariff of the Commer- 
 cial Treaty. London, 1787. 
 
 An anonymous but careful analysis of the treaty, with ex- 
 tensive notes on preceding treaties and on industrial conditions. 
 
 Howlett, J., An Examination of Dr. Price's Essay on the Popula- 
 tion of England and Wales. Maidstone. [1781 ( ?) ]. 
 
 Howlett, in opposition to Dr. Price, was one of the principal 
 champions of the view that population was increasing, particu- 
 larly in the industrial regions. A valuable work. The author 
 also contributed useful articles to the Annals of Agriculture 
 and the Gentleman's Magazine. 
 
 The Increase of Manufactures, Commerce and Finance. London, 
 
 1785. 
 Kenriek, "W., An Address to the Artists and Manufacturers of 
 
 Great Britain Respecting an Application to Parliament for 
 
 the farther Encouragement of New Discoveries and Inven 
 
 tions in the Useful Arts. London, 1774. 
 Valuable. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 93 
 
 A Letter from a Manchester Manufacturer to the Right Honor- 
 able Charles James Fox on his Political Opposition to the 
 Commercial Treaty with France. Manchester, 1787. 
 
 Bitterly critical of Fox, and typical of the attitude of Man- 
 chester in support of the treaty. 
 
 The Necessity and Policy of the Commercial Treaty with France 
 
 Considered. London, 1787. 
 
 New and Old Principles of Trade Compared; or, a Treatise on 
 
 the Principles of Commerce between Nations. London, 
 
 1788. 
 
 A clear statement of the contrast between ' ' monopoly ' ' and 
 "free trade," in favor of the latter. 
 
 Observations on a Bill Relating to Wool. Preface by Sir Joseph 
 
 Banks. Preface dated London, 1787. 
 
 Political Essays concerning the Present State of the British Em 
 
 pire. London, 1772. 
 
 A large number of citations and quotations of value. A use- 
 ful work. The term "political" is very broadly interpreted. 
 
 Price, R., An Essay on the Population of England from the Rev- 
 olution to the Present Time. London, 1780. 
 
 This work, which contended that population was declining, 
 gave rise to a notable controversy extending to the first census. 
 Howlett's Examination of Dr. Price's Essay was perhaps the 
 most effective presentation of the opposing view. 
 
 Sheffeld, John Lord, Observations on the Commerce of the 
 American States. 6th ed., London, 1784. 
 
 Lord Sheffield's writings often assumed an expository and de- 
 scriptive appearance, but were in most cases controversial. 
 
 Sheffield, John Lord, Observations on the Corn Bill now Depend- 
 ing in Parliament. 2d ed., London, 1791. 
 
 Sheffield, John Lord, Observations on the Manufactures, Trade 
 and Present State of Ireland. London, 1785. 
 Hostile to the Irish Resolutions. 
 
 Smith, Adam, Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth 
 
 of Nations. 
 
 In order to discover the author's reactions to the industrial 
 changes of the time, the various editions of the work, up to the 
 
94 THE RISE OF THE GREAT MANUFACTURERS 
 
 8th edition, 1796, were consulted. For the same purpose, his 
 other writings were examined. 
 
 Steuart, Sir James, An Inquiry into the Principles of Political 
 
 Economy. 2 vols. London, 1767. 
 T., Letters on the Utility and Policy of Employing Machines to 
 
 Shorten Labor. London, 1780. 
 
 Addressed to a cotton manufacturer, and "occasioned," the 
 author states in his sub-title, "by the late disturbances in Lan- 
 cashire. ' ' 
 
 Thoughts on the Causes of the Present Failures. 3d ed., London, 
 1793. 
 
 Tucker, Josiah, Four Tracts on Political and Commercial Sub- 
 jects. 3d ed., Gloucester, 1776, 
 
 Tucker, Josiah, Reflections on the Present Low Price of Coarse 
 Wools. London, 1782. 
 
 A View of the Treaty of Commerce with France. London, 1787. 
 
 Considered by Eden of such importance as to call forth his 
 Short Vindication of the French Treaty. 
 
 Wales, W., An Inquiry into the Present State of Population in 
 England and Wales. London, 1781. 
 
 Wansey, H., Wool Encouraged without Exportation; or Practi- 
 cal Observations on Wool and the Woollen Manufacture. 
 London, 1791. 
 
 The author was a manufacturer of wool in the West of Eng- 
 land (pp. 67, 68). A useful pamphlet. 
 
 Wilson, Jasper, A Letter, Commercial and Political, Addressed 
 
 to the Rt. Honorable Williayn Pitt. 2d ed., London, 1793. 
 
 This work was attributed by George Chalmers to James Cur- 
 rie, M. D., F. E. S. (An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of 
 Great Britain, ed. 1794, Dedication, p. i), and was considered of 
 such importance by Chalmers as to elicit an extended Dedication 
 of the revised edition of his work to Dr. Currie, in which he took 
 issue with Currie on various subjects. 
 
 A Woollen Draper's Letter on the French Treaty. London, 1786. 
 Opposed to the treaty. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 95 
 
 Wright, J., An Address to Parliament on the Late Tax 
 
 Laid on Fustian and other Cotton Goods. Warrington, 1785. 
 An important contribution to the excise controversy. The sub- 
 title bases the Address on the wisdom and policy of leaving "ev- 
 ery species of manufacture and commerce free from every re- 
 straint or tax whatever. ' ' Written by an army surgeon and 
 honorary physician to the Manchester Infirmary, dismissed from 
 the staff of the Infirmary in 1782 because of a controversy with 
 the hospital management. 
 
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