The early English cotton industry

I

At the present time the British cotton industry, which is almost entirely localised in Lancashire and in the adjoining parts of Cheshire and Yorkshire, is the largest of the world’s textile industries.[24] The year 1770, immediately after Arkwright obtained his first patent, marks a well-defined division in its history. From this date expansion became conspicuous and the industry became definitely organised on the lines of the factory system. Previously expansion had been comparatively slow, and the domestic system of organisation had prevailed. The expansion of the cotton industry, therefore, is an outstanding example of the transition which is now known as the Industrial Revolution—a movement which, it is not too much to say, found its centre within the area in which the cotton industry is now concentrated, and from thence has spread to all the economically advanced countries of the world. In the following pages we shall be mainly concerned with the earlier period and with some aspects of the transition, and it is hoped that some light will be thrown upon the question as to what the transition involved, particularly as regards the organisation of the cotton industry, and the economic relationships of the classes engaged therein.

At what date cotton was first used in the manufacture of cloth in England is somewhat obscure. When Baines wrote his History of the Cotton Manufacture he had found only two references to the import of cotton-wool from the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth centuries,[25] and it has generally been assumed that, during this period, it was imported only in small quantities, and used for minor purposes, such as candle-wicks. It has recently been shown, however, that, throughout the intervening centuries, cotton was a common article of import, figuring in the customs at many English ports,[26] and while as yet there is little evidence as to its uses, the knowledge of its regular import suggests that it may have been put to more important uses than that just mentioned.

Cotton cloth, or cloth partly made of cotton, had been imported long before the sixteenth century, and, in the early years of that century, there is ample evidence of its import, as well as an increasing amount of evidence of the import of the raw material.[27] About the same time the word “cottons” as the name of a cloth manufactured in Lancashire becomes conspicuous. In 1514, in a statute regulating the manufacture of cloth, cottons are mentioned, but are excluded from its provisions, as they are from the provisions of a similar statute twenty years later.[28] Also Hakluyt records the fact that, between the years 1511 and 1534, cottons were included among the cloth exports of the country,[29] and about the year 1538 we get Leland’s reference: “Bolton upon Moore Market stondith most by cottons and cowrse yarne. Divers villages in the Mores about Bolton do make cottons.”[30]

Until the middle of the century it appears that the manufacture of cottons was unregulated, but in 1551 a comprehensive statute was passed relating to the manufacture of cloth throughout the country, and “all and everie cottonnes called Manchester Lancashire and Cheshire Cottonnes” and “all cloths called Manchester Rugges otherwise named Friezes” were included within its scope.[31] By the regulations of this statute, the lengths, breadths and weights of these cloths were fixed, and also the amount of stretching to which they could be subjected. After this time the regulations were continued and modified in numerous statutes enacted during the remainder of the sixteenth century and in the early seventeenth century.

The next important statute affecting the Lancashire cloth industry, however, was the Weavers’ Act of 1555.[32] The main purpose of this Act was to prevent the increase of clothiers outside corporate towns, and, to secure this end, country clothiers were forbidden to have more than one loom each in their possession, while country weavers were limited to two looms, and also to two apprentices. Every weaver had to serve a seven years’ apprenticeship, and no person not already engaged in weaving or in causing to be woven any kind of broad white woollen cloth was allowed to begin, except in towns or in places where such cloth had been commonly made for the last ten years.

When the Act was passed, York, Cumberland, Northumberland and Westmorland were exempted from its provisions, but Lancashire was included. At this time the county was still largely a country district with a cloth industry that had not yet become famous, though there is much evidence that it was expanding. Consequently, had the Act remained unmodified, the development of the county and the expansion of its industry might have been seriously checked. Two years after its enactment, however, several additional counties were exempted from its provisions, except as regards apprenticeship, and Lancashire and Cheshire were included among them.[33]

From the beginning, considerable difficulty was experienced in regulating the manufacture of cloth in Lancashire. In the 1551 Act, the breadth allowed for Manchester cottons and friezes was narrower than for ordinary cloths, and when the Weavers’ Act was modified a provision was introduced which allowed them to be made in half-pieces. By 1566 more serious difficulties had been revealed. In an Act passed in that year,[34] it was stated that clothiers “inordinately seeking their own singular gains” were accustomed to carry away divers cottons, friezes, and rugs, and sell them before the Aulnager had fixed the Queen’s seal on them, and in some instances they had even counterfeited the seal. To meet these difficulties it was enacted that deputy Aulnagers should be appointed, to be situated at Manchester, Rochdale, Bolton, Blackburn and Bury. In view of the fact that, about this time, in addition to these places, the cloths were mentioned in connection with Salford, Leigh and Radcliffe,[35] it is probable that their manufacture was so extensive that, even if the clothiers had been more willing to conform to the regulations, the task of the Aulnager was too large to be efficiently performed.

But there were other difficulties. The clothiers protested that it was impossible for them to conform to the lengths, breadths, and weights laid down in the statutes without the undoing of great numbers of poor people commonly engaged in making the cloths, and further alterations had to be made. The alterations were mainly in the direction of allowing the cloths to be made considerably lighter, but ten years later a writer condemned all kinds of northern cloths for false dyeing, for shortness of weight and for stretching.[36]

By the last years of the sixteenth century the problem of regulation was still unsolved, and apparently it was decided that even more vigorous measures should be adopted. In 1597 an Act[37] was passed “against the deceitful stretching and tentering of Northern cloth,” and, in the preamble, it was stated that notwithstanding the many good and wholesome laws enacted hitherto, the cloths had grown worse and worse, were more stretched and strained, and were made lighter than ever before. The remedy adopted was to prohibit all tenters or engines for stretching cloth in the northern counties, and the Justices of Peace had to appoint overseers to enforce the regulations as to length and weight. In the year following the enactment of this statute a report was sent to the Council,[38] in which it was stated that, although sundry letters had been written to the Justices of Peace in Lancashire and Yorkshire, pointing out their duty in enforcing the statute, the regulations which it contained had not been observed. Consequently a recommendation was made that two honest men be appointed to inspect the making of kersies, northern dozens and cottons, with power to enforce the regulations. In the last year of Elizabeth’s reign it was found necessary to pass another similar statute with application to the whole country.[39]

The mere record of the futile attempts to enforce these statutes is sufficient proof that they were inappropriate to the situation. During the sixteenth century considerable changes were taking place in the English cloth industry. It was the period when the “New Drapery” was being introduced and attempts were being made to regulate it on the lines of the “Old Drapery.” The regulations never corresponded with the facts of the case and their effective enforcement was impossible.[40] It was not only the length, breadth, and weight of the cloths that caused difficulty. What were regarded as inferior materials were being introduced into them, something which the statute of 1551 attempted to cope with. This was not a new grievance at that time, but in the sixteenth century it may have had a new significance. In 1606 an attempt was made to distinguish between cloths made of perfect wool and those into which Flocks, Thrums, and Lambs’ Wool entered, by insisting that the latter should have a black yarn on the one edge and only a selvedge on the other. Afterwards, no person had to put any Hair, Flocks, Thrums, or any yarn made of Lambs’ Wool or other deceivable thing or things, in or upon any Woollen Cloth, Half-Cloth, Frieze, Dozen, Bays, Penistone, Cotton, Taunton Cloth, Bridgewater, Dunster Cotton, or any other cloth, upon pain of forfeiting such cloth.[41]

At this point this reference is important for our purpose in the evidence it offers that, at this time, cottons were regarded as a species of woollen cloth. All the references in the sixteenth century have the same implication,[42] and even as late as 1700, when all duties, subsidies, etc., imposed by previous Acts were swept away, cottons were still enumerated among “manufactures of wool.”[43] Moreover, the processes mentioned in connection with the making of cottons were those applicable to woollen goods. It appears, therefore, that cottons were not cotton fabrics in the modern sense. The cottons of the sixteenth century were an important manufacture not peculiar to Lancashire alone: they were made in other manufacturing districts. In an account of woollen goods exported between Michaelmas 1594 and Michaelmas 1595 the following figures were given:—baize, 10,976 pieces; cottons, 168,065 pieces; woollen stockings, 34,085 pairs; sayes, 4256 pieces; English Norwich, 339[44]; and, about the same time, Manchester cottons were enumerated among the principal exports of the country.[45]

But, while it can be definitely stated that cottons were regarded as woollen goods in the sixteenth century, it is hard to resist a suspicion that the vegetable fibre, cotton, may have been used in the manufacture of Lancashire cloths. The fact that they were regarded as woollens is not, of itself, conclusive, as, at that time, cotton was usually called cotton-wool.[46] Further, there is the circumstance of their comparatively light weight, and also the difficulty of their makers complying with the regulations laid down for them. Possibly these facts may be explained by the use of the materials mentioned in the statutes, and certainly similar difficulties appear to have been experienced over a wide range of fabrics. On the whole, the commonly accepted view, that Manchester cottons and other goods usually mentioned along with them were really woollen goods, appears to have justification, although, perhaps, it should not be stated without a caution.

II

Until recently there was no authentic evidence before 1641 that anything which might be called a cotton manufacture had become established in Lancashire. In that year, in the oft-quoted passage of Lewis Roberts, it was stated that “the towne of Manchester in Lancashire must be also herein remembered, and worthily for their incouragement commended, who buy yarne of the Irish in great quantity, and weaving it returne the same againe in Linen into Ireland to sell; neither doth the industry rest here, for they buy cotton woole in London that comes first from Cyprus and Smyrna, and at home worke the same, and perfit it into Fustians, Vermilions, Dymities, and other such stuffes; and then returne it to London, where the same is vented and sold, and not seldome sent into forrain parts, who have means at far easier termes, to provide themselves of the said first materials.” The same writer also informs us that “the Levant or Turkey Company ... brings ... great quantity of cotton and of cotton yarne ... into England.”[47]

We are now indebted to an American investigator[48] for the discovery of an earlier piece of evidence, in the form of a petition “as well of divers merchants and citizens of London that use buying and selling of fustians made in England as of makers of the same fustians” which is so important and not yet so well known that the relevant passages must be quoted: “About 20 years past divers people in this kingdom, but chiefly in the county of Lancaster, have found out the trade of making of the fustians, made of a kind of bombast or down, being a fruit of the earth growing upon little shrubs or bushes, brought into this kingdom by the Turkey Merchants, from Smyrna, Cyprus, Acra, and Sydon, but commonly called cotton-wool; and also of linen-yarn most part brought out of Scotland, and other some made in England, and no part of the same fustians of any wool at all, for which said bombast and yarn imported, his Majesty hath a great yearly sum of money for the custom and subsidy thereof. There is at least 40 thousand pieces of fustian of this kind yearly made in England, the subsidy to his Majesty of the materials for making of every piece coming to between 8d. and 10d. the piece; and thousands of poor people set on working of these fustians. The right honourable Duke of Lennox in 11 of Jacobus, 1613, procured a patent from his Majesty of alnager of new draperies for 60 years, upon pretence that wool was converted into other sorts of commodities to the loss of customs and subsidies for wool transported beyond seas; and therein is inserted into his patent, searching and sealing, and subsidy for 80 several stuffs; and amongst the rest these fustians or other stuffs of this kind of cotton-wool and subsidy and a fee for the same, and forfeiture of 20s. for putting any to sale unsealed, the moiety of the same forfeiture to the said duke, and power thereby given to the duke or to his deputies, to enter any man’s house, to search for any such stuffs and seize them till the forfeiture be paid; and if any resist such search to forfeit 10l. and power thereby given to the lord treasurer or chancellor of the Exchequer, to make new ordinances or grant commissions for the aid of the duke and his officers in execution of their office.”

The probable date of this petition is 1621, and its importance in relation to the beginning of the English cotton industry is evident. Although the “thousands” mentioned as employed in the making of fustians at the time is a stereotyped number in petitions, and may perhaps be somewhat discounted, the facts that a cotton manufacture had become established in England and that it had attained a considerable magnitude are placed beyond doubt.[49]

A little more light appears to be thrown upon the petition in a pamphlet which was published in 1613, the year in which the patent of the Duke of Lennox was extended[50] to include “80 several stuffs; and amongst the rest these fustians or other stuffs of this kind of cotton wool.” The pamphlet was written by John May, a “deputie alneger” who at the time was out of office, under the title, A Declaration of the Estate of Clothing now used within this Realme of England. With an Apologie for the Alneger showing the necessarie use of his Office, and was dedicated in obsequious terms “to the Duke of Lenox ... Alneger generall for the Realme of England and the Dominion of Wales.” The writer was concerned with the deceits that had crept into the clothing trade generally, owing to lack of supervision, but he was particularly anxious about the “many sorts of cloth or stuffs lately invented which have got new godfathers to name them in fantasticall fashion that they which weare them, know not how to name them, which are generally called newe draperie.”[51]

It is not without significance that in no part of his pamphlet does he give any inkling that he knew that any of the new goods were other than woollen goods, rather he implies the contrary.

Seeing that the Duke of Lennox secured the extension of his patent in the year this pamphlet was published, and that the writer was, at least potentially, an interested party, the connection between the two seems fairly clear. Moreover, his apparent lack of knowledge that some of the new cloths were not made of wool may help to explain the complaint in the petition, that fustians had been brought under regulation as though they were woollen fabrics.[52] At any rate, the pamphleteer specifically mentions fustians, among the new drapery, as requiring the attention of the Aulnager: “There is also a late commodite in greate use of making within the Kingdom which setteth many people on worke, called Fustians, which for want of government are so decayed by falsehood, keeping neither order in goodnesse nor assize, insomuch that the makers thereof, in this short time of use are wearie of their trades, and it is thought will returne again to the place whence it came, who doe still observe their sorts and goodnesse, in such true manner as by their seales they are sould, keeping up the credit of that which they make: what a shame is this to our nation, to be so void of reason and government, that a good trade should bee suppressed for want of good order amongst themselves, and have so good a president from others.”[53]

Whether or not the writer of the pamphlet knew of what materials fustians were made, in this passage he supplies further evidence that in 1613 their manufacture in this country was regarded as recent, and he also indicates that the manufacture had been introduced from some other country. According to Dr. Cunningham, the beginning of the new drapery “can be traced to the immigration of 406 persons who were driven out of Flanders in 1561 ... where the cotton manufacture had been a flourishing industry,”[54] and the immigration continued later in the century.[55] Dr. Cunningham surmised,[56] as did Baines when he wrote his book in 1835,[57] that the cotton manufacture was introduced into England by the immigrants, and that it commenced, therefore, in the second half of the sixteenth century. It would appear that their views have justification. Beginning at that time, a sufficient period would have elapsed by 1620 to allow the manufacture to grow to the stage indicated in the petition. Whether, in view of the considerations already adduced, cotton had been used in the manufacture of cloth before the immigrations must be left a doubtful question.

After the reference of Lewis Roberts in 1641 to the manufacture of fustians in Lancashire, there is no lack of evidence to the same effect. The first piece of evidence which may be noticed is of particular importance, in that it gives another indication of the extent of the industry, and suggests a fact which may have had a bearing upon its growth in this country.

At the beginning of 1654 trade in Lancashire, in common with the rest of the country, was in a state of depression owing to the restrictions on foreign intercourse consequent upon the Dutch War.[58] During the early months of the year petitions were presented to the Council by “traders for cotton wool, and fustians, and poor weavers in Lancashire on behalf of themselves and several thousands” to allow the import of cotton-wool “to prevent the ruin of the great manufacture of fustians and the makers and weavers.”[59]

In April, the following reasons were presented to the Council on behalf of the poor of Lancashire for liberty to bring in cotton-wool from France, Holland, etc. “The dearth of wool is worse to them than that of bread 3 years since, and now there are not 5 bags of wool in all the merchants’ hands in Lancashire for 20,000 poor in Lancashire who are employed in the manufacture of fustians. Mr. Seed and Mr. Winstanley, who reported 150 or 200 sacks of prize-wool, that they might gain time to sell their own wool, now confess that it proved 20 or 30 bags and the sale was prohibited. Unless cotton-wool be brought much lower, the manufacture will revert to Hamburg, whence our cheaper making gained it, for they can buy wool at 6d. or 7d., and we have to pay 18d. or 20d. Whilst we can have no supply but from the Straits, and that through the Turkey merchants, we cannot be supplied at such rates as will preserve our manufacture from ruin, as we cannot raise the price of our fustians on account of the lower price at Hamburg viz. 16s. a piece which we cannot afford under 20s., though they used to be 12s. or 13s. We beg therefore a dispensation as regards wool from the Act which enriches strangers and destroys the people of this nation. Such laws were better buried in oblivion than to bury alive the poor.”[60]

From these petitions it is evident that in 1654 there was a definitely established industry in Lancashire dependent for its prosperity upon regular supplies of cotton-wool. But, also, when what is known of the position in Germany in the first part of the seventeenth century is taken into account, the petition just quoted may have a further significance.

Whatever may have been the case in England prior to the sixteenth century regarding the use of cotton in the manufacture of cloth, at that time it had been so used in Germany for more than two centuries. In the fourteenth century a cloth called “barchent,” which like the English fustian consisted of a linen warp and cotton weft, was woven, and at that time found a widespread market. The early seats of the industry were Ulm and Augsburg, where the famous Fugger family rose to fame on the basis of barchent-weaving. Later the industry spread to other parts of Germany, to Alsace and to the towns along the northern trade-route. Before the end of the sixteenth century Nürnberg, Hof, Zwickau, Leipzig and Chemnitz were all engaged in cotton spinning and weaving, with the result that, at that time, Germany was far ahead of all other European countries in cotton manufacture. Before the end of the first quarter of the seventeenth century the country began to suffer one of the greatest devastations known to history through the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War, and its cotton manufacture almost disappeared.[61]

In addition, therefore, to the immigration of Flemings and to the destruction of industry in their country, it seems reasonable, particularly in view of the statement in the above petition that the manufacture in which cotton-wool was used had been gained from Hamburg, to look to the decay of the German industry as part of the explanation of the rise into prominence of the English fustian manufacture in the first half of the seventeenth century.

When Fuller came to write of Lancashire in 1662 it was the fustian manufacture that especially attracted his attention. After referring to the various kinds of foreign fustians (including Augsburg fustians) which had long been imported into the country, he states that “These retain their old names to this day, though these several sorts are made in this county, whose Inhabitants buying the cotton-wool or yarne, coming from beyond the sea, make it here into fustians, to the good employment of the Poor and great improvement of the Rich therein, serving many people for their outsides, and their betters for the Lineings of their garments. Bolton is the staple-place for this commodity, being brought thither from all parts of the county. As for Manchester, the Cottons thereof carry away the credit in our nation, and so they did an hundred and fifty years agoe. For when learned Leland on the cost of King Henry the Eighth, with his Guide, travailed Lancashire he called Manchester the fairest and quickest Town in this county and sure I am, it hath lost neither spruceness nor spirits since that time.” He also mentions other products for which Manchester was noted to which reference will be made later.[62]

One point that should be noticed is that Fuller refers to Bolton as the centre of the fustian manufacture, while he mentions cottons, as a distinct fabric, especially in connection with Manchester. Though the manufacture of cotton had certainly made progress by this time, there is no substantial reason for thinking that the cottons referred to by him were different from the cottons of the sixteenth century. The fact is that the development of the cotton manufacture is definitely associated with the manufacture of fustians. In the middle of the eighteenth century, although other fabrics were then produced which had a stronger claim to be called cotton fabrics than had fustians, the words cotton manufacture still meant pre-eminently the manufacture of fustians.[63]

Further, the association of fustians in the seventeenth century with Bolton rather than with Manchester was probably justified. As we shall see, in its early stages the fustian manufacture was mainly, if not altogether, carried on in the outside districts. So far as Manchester was concerned, the manufacture of fustians appears, at first, to have been added to another branch of manufacture at a later date than when Fuller wrote. Before dealing with other branches of manufacture, however, it will be advisable to continue the history of the fustian manufacture into the thirties of the eighteenth century, which years mark an important stage in its development.

III

At the close of the seventeenth century, the annual import of cotton-wool amounted to nearly 2,000,000 lbs., and was still brought mainly from the Levant and the islands of the Mediterranean, though in the previous century some was imported from Africa.[64] In the seventeenth century, excellent witness is borne to the importance it had attained, by those interested in floating companies for colonisation putting forward prospects of its growth as an inducement to subscribers to their schemes.[65] Before the end of the century, cotton from the British plantations had assumed a prominent place, and from this time the European West Indian colonies, with South America, became the most important sources of supply until the end of the eighteenth century, when they in turn were displaced by the United States. Also, during these two centuries, cotton-yarn and fine cotton fabrics were imported by the East India Company from the ancient home of the cotton industry in the East.[66]

Apparently it was this import of fine cotton fabrics which in 1691 attracted the attention of John Barkstead, merchant, of London, and threatened to bring the developing cotton industry into the hands of a patentee. Mr. Barkstead was evidently an enterprising individual who was interested not only in the cotton industry, but also in the silk industry, and in copper mining.

We get the first glimpse of him in October, 1690, when he presented a petition, in which he pointed out that the workmanship of the fine thrown silk imported amounted to one quarter of its value, the benefits of which would be enjoyed by the poor if it were performed at home. As he had found out an engine which would achieve the desired end, he requested the grant of a patent for fourteen years to enable him to introduce it. In the same month a warrant for the patent was issued, but there is no clear indication that the claim stated in the petition materialised.[67] In May, 1692, however, in a warrant issued to prepare a Bill for incorporating a company for winding silk, he appeared as the first governor[68]; and in July of the preceding year as an assistant in a company which had as its object the purchase of lands where copper was expected to be found.[69]

It was in this month that he presented a petition, in which he claimed that, by his industry and at great expense, he had “procured cotton wool from the West Indies, to be spun so extraordinarily fine, as to be fit to make such cloths commonly called callicoes ... as well as in the East Indies,” and prayed for a patent for his invention.[70] A few days later a warrant was issued to prepare a Bill to grant this prayer.[71] Whether in the meantime his idea had developed, or he had evolved a new one, it is difficult to say, but in the following month his name as petitioner again appeared, this time in connection with an invention for “making calicoes, muslins, and other fine cloths of that sort (out of the cotton wool of the growth and produce of the Plantations in the West Indies) to as great perfection as those which are brought over and imported hither from Calicut and other places in the East Indies.”[72] Again a warrant was issued to prepare a Bill for the grant of a patent which he evidently secured.[73]

The next step was the customary one of applying for a charter of incorporation in order to exploit the invention. Consequently two months later (October, 1691) we find Mr. Barkstead and five other London merchants, including one of the assistants in the silk-winding company, pointing out that the “said Barkstead has found out an invention for making calicoes and muslins, etc., out of Cotton wool for which he has a patent for 14 years, but that the undertaking requiring at least £100,000 stock to carry on and manage the said invention, the petitioners humbly pray to be incorporated with the Earl of Nottingham as their first governor.” The petition was referred to the Attorney or Solicitor-General, but fortunately the scheme does not appear to have come to anything.[74]

As a matter of fact, although this incident is interesting, like the majority of schemes of a similar character relating to other industries, it cannot be regarded as of any importance in the development of the cotton industry in this country. The idea of supplanting the fine cotton fabrics of the East by home productions was, no doubt, an attractive one—doubly so because in 1691 the existing East India Company was being vigorously opposed by a rival syndicate. In the same month as the above charter was applied for, a petition was presented to the House of Commons, in the name of the London merchants, attacking the existing company, and less than five months later an address was presented to the King praying that he would dissolve it and incorporate a new one.[75] It may well have been that Mr. Barkstead’s scheme was a part of, or at any rate a symptom of, the opposition then prevailing, and had very little substantial foundation. His application for a patent stands altogether on a different footing from those of the next century, when the machinery to which they referred did actually attain the end which he claimed to have in view. In the seventeenth century this was impossible: at that time, it is questionable whether any fabrics consisting entirely of cotton were produced in the country at all. In any case it is certain that the chief products of the English cotton manufacture were the hybrid fustians consisting of a linen warp and cotton weft.

After the collapse of Mr. Barkstead’s scheme the English cotton industry does not appear to have had much attraction for men with grandiose aims, until the South Sea period arrived, when two companies were proposed, each with a capital of £2,000,000, one “for making calico in Great Britain and encouraging the growth of cotton in the plantations,” and the other “for the cotton manufacture in Lancashire,” while there was also “A proposal by several ladies and others to make, print and paint and stain callicoes in England and also fine linen as fine as any Holland to be made of British flax.” Subscribers to the latter scheme had to be women dressed in calico.[76] How this scheme fits into its historical environment will at once become apparent.

Before the end of the seventeenth century the import of fabrics from the East had created considerable agitation among those engaged in the silk and woollen trades, and demands were made for legislative interference. In 1700 an Act was passed,[77] by which the import of printed or dyed calicoes was prohibited, and their sale or use either for apparel or furniture made subject to a penalty. The prohibition was speedily followed by an import of plain calicoes which were printed or dyed in this country, and as early as 1703, petitions for further restrictions were again being presented to Parliament.[78] For some years little notice was taken of them, but from 1719 the petitions became a flood,[79] with the result that, in 1721, another Act[80] was passed which prohibited the use or wear of printed or dyed calicoes, whether the printing or dyeing had been performed in England or elsewhere.

It has been stated that one of the reasons for the failure of the Act of 1700 was that “Lancashire men set to work to produce cloth of linen warp and cotton weft which was sent to London to be printed and dyed in imitation of the prohibited Oriental fabrics.”[81] It appears, however, that there is little or no justification for this view. At a time when petitions to Parliament were regarded almost as a positive obligation on the part of anyone who had a real or imaginary grievance, it is exceedingly improbable, had such been the case, that the Lancashire men would have failed to make their voices heard. Apparently, not a single petition was presented from the county in opposition to the proposed legislation by those engaged in making cloth of the character mentioned, while there was at least one in favour of it.[82] Moreover, it is significant that no mention of such a cloth is to be found in the petitions praying for restriction. The opposition to the Bill came mainly from the towns of Scotland engaged in the linen industry, where it was feared that linens would be included, and this opposition was successful, as British linens were specifically excluded from the Act.[83]

Singularly enough, the opposition on behalf of a cotton manufacture came, not from Lancashire, but from Dorset in the following petition, which is of sufficient interest in the early history of the English cotton industry to be quoted in full:

A “Petition of the Mayor, Aldermen, Bailiffs, Capital Burgesses and principal inhabitants of the Borough of Weymouth and Melcomb Regis in the County of Dorset, together with the Merchants, Masters of Ships, Master workmen, Weavers and Spinners of Cotton Wool imported from the British Plantations and manufactured in the town aforesaid, in behalf of themselves and many hundred of poor Cotton spinners in that neighbourhood was presented to the House and read, setting forth, that for many years past a manufacture had been carried on in the said town for making Cotton Wool imported from the British Plantations into cloth of divers kinds, more particularly into such fabrics as imitate calicoes; which having, of late years, been printed and dyed, have afforded the manufacturers opportunity to support the Poor in that town and neighbourhood thereof. That the petitioners are apprehensive that the manufacture of cotton cloth in that town may, under the name of calicoes, be interdicted the weaving, by which means many hundred families of poor cotton spinners will be reduced to want, and the Manufacture of that town entirely lost: and praying that the Cotton cloth manufactured in that town, both checqued, printed, and dyed, may be permitted to be worn in the same manner and liable to the same duties as the Manufacture of British and Irish Linens are permitted.”[84]

The apprehension of the petitioners was justified, as a motion to refer their petition to the Committee of the whole House, then concerned with the Bill for more stringent restrictions on the use and wear of printed or dyed calicoes, was passed in the negative by 190 votes to 68.[85] In the Act of 1721 the prohibition included any printed stuff made of cotton or mixed therewith, but from its scope muslins, neckcloths, and fustians were excluded.[86]

The above petition is distinctly interesting, not only as evidence that cotton was manufactured in Dorset, but also in that there is no suggestion that the cloths were not composed solely of cotton, and this at a time when it is improbable that such cloths were manufactured to any extent in Lancashire.

The fustian manufacture had been in existence in the country for more than a century, and, by 1720, must have been of considerable importance, but apparently a stage had not been reached when printed fustians were seriously competitive with other kinds of printed cloth.

The prohibition of the use of printed calicoes had its effect, however, in stimulating the printing of other fabrics,[87] and after the passing of the Act of 1721 it is clear that printed fustians began to occupy a prominent place in the cloth trade of the country, which again called forth opposition from those engaged in the woollen trades which came to a head in 1735.

This time the opposition, which centred in Norwich, took the form of instituting prosecutions under the 1721 Act, of inserting notices in newspapers and distributing them, informing the public that the wearing or using of printed fustians was illegal. As printed fustians had been excluded from the scope of the Act, there was no illegality, but the opposition was sufficient to call forth a petition from the fustian manufacturers in Manchester and other parts of Lancashire, and in the counties of Cheshire and Derbyshire, appealing for the Act to be explained so that the question would be placed beyond doubt.[88] In the evidence on the petition[89] a strong case was presented on behalf of merchants engaged in foreign trade—particularly in the import of cotton—and of fustian manufacturers, it being stated that several thousand persons from five to seventy years of age were employed in the manufacture. One witness asserted that he and his brother employed upwards of 600 looms in the weaving of fustians, and as one weaver required four spinners to supply him with yarn, he computed that upwards of 3000 persons were dependent upon them for employment—a striking case of large-scale production, in the sense of numbers employed, nearly forty years before the appearance of the factory in the cotton industry.

In little over a month after the petition was presented the “Manchester Act”[90] was passed, which explained the 1721 Act, so as definitely to exclude from its scope printed goods made of linen yarn and cotton-wool, manufactured in Great Britain. It will be noticed that even this Act did not remove the prohibition on the use of printed goods made entirely of cotton. The justification given in the Act for allowing the use of printed goods, when made of linen-yarn and cotton-wool, was that they were “a branch of the ancient fustian manufacture of this kingdom.” So far as petitions were concerned, the only opposition to the “Manchester Act” came from the Company of Weavers in London, on the ground that fustians could only with great difficulty be distinguished from Indian calicoes, and that the use of the latter would be made easy; and from the Gentlemen, Landowners, Occupiers of Land, Wool-staplers, Wool-combers, and Weavers of the City of Peterborough, who desired the Bill which preceded the Act to be explained for the general good of the wool and silk manufactures.[91] On the other hand, the traders of Wakefield supported the Bill with the argument that a restriction on the import of cotton-wool, which the prohibition of printed fustians would involve, would prejudice their export of woollens, and the woollen manufacturers of Burnley adopted a similar attitude; also, the Bill was whole-heartedly supported by the merchants engaged in foreign trade at Glasgow, Whitehaven and Lancaster.[92]

From the thirties of the eighteenth century until the coming of the great inventions the cotton industry made slow but steady progress. The import of cotton-wool which in 1730 amounted to 1,545,472 lbs. reached 3,870,392 lbs. in 1764, but it was not until the eighties that a startling increase was seen; the average import in the last two years of that decade amounted to 32,000,000 lbs.[93] At that time the organisation of the industry, the methods of manufacture, and the character of its products, were undergoing the changes which mark the early stages of the industry in its present form.

IV

In considering the development which took place from the middle of the seventeenth century to the last quarter of the eighteenth as regards other textile commodities produced in the Manchester district, a useful starting-point is given by a writer about 1650, who described the trade of the town as “not inferior to that of many cities in the kingdom, chiefly consisting in woollen frizes, fustians, sack-cloths, mingled stuffs, caps, inkles, tapes, points, etc., whereby not only the better sort of men are employed, but also the very children by their own labour can maintain themselves.”[94]