The early English cotton industry

by George W. Daniels

ADDITIONAL NOTES

[Page 10], note 1.—In connection with the petition quoted by Mr. Price the question arises as to how nearly it fixes the exact date of the beginning of the fustian manufacture in England. The most definite statement on the question the petition contains is the “20 years past” since the trade was “found out” which, as Mr. Price mentions, would fix the date about the opening year of the seventeenth century. Moreover, this date seems to be a reliable one, owing to the fact that the petitioners mention a patent granted in 1594 for sealing “all sorts of new draperies” in which they imply that fustians made partly of cotton were not included. According to their statement it would appear that such fustians were not brought within the scope of a patent until 1613.

From the following quotation, however, it appears that fustians were included in a patent granted in 1594: “Patent to the Alnagers for sealing cloth from Midsummer 1594, to search and seal and exact duties on all the new draperies as French serges, worsteds, fustians, blankets, etc., made in England chiefly by strangers, which have hitherto been exported free, no officers being appointed to search them, and to seal such as are good and merchantable ware, and cut the ends of those that are not; also settling the subsidies to be paid thereon, which are granted to the patentees on payment of £66, 13s. 4d., yearly giving them the right of search, also a writ of assistance therein” (S.P.D. Eliz., vol. ccxlix. 20). Assuming that the fustians here mentioned were similar to those referred to in the petition, it would appear that goods made partly of cotton were manufactured in England in 1594, and that they had gained sufficient prominence to be brought under supervision.

Support for this view may be found in some observations made in 1606, upon an Act for the alnage of narrow draperies (S.P.D. Add., vol. xxxviii. 104). These observations are interesting not only as regards fustians but also in the indication given of the application of the old type of regulations to new kinds of goods. In justification of the Act the following among other reasons were set forth: That it was based on the statutes for woollen manufactures, the reasons moving it and the offences committed being of the same nature. Also upon necessity because since the trades of making stuffs began, vices had crept in which were causing the trades to decay. Also upon the interest of the Crown and upon the right of His Majesty to take fees, “for as he is by statutes interested in the alnage and subsidy of woollen goods—there being at the time of making the same statutes no other stuffs made in England—he should take like alnage and subsidy of things made within this realm as his predecessors.” That the increased price per piece would not be more than 3d. at the most; and that fustian weavers for themselves had been petitioners to Her late Majesty for reformation of abuses committed amongst them.

The reference to the fustian-weavers certainly suggests that fustians would be included among the stuffs other than woollens, and if so there can be little doubt that they were of the same character as those to which the petition quoted by Mr. Price refers. Moreover, if the fustian-weavers had reached a stage in the reign of Elizabeth—even in the last year of her reign—when they could petition for reformation of abuses, it is not unreasonable to suppose that a fustian-manufacture would have commenced in 1594, and that the fabrics produced were included in the patent granted to the Alnagers in that year.

Even this does not fix the date when the manufacture began, but earlier dependable evidence is difficult to find. Before the end of the sixteenth century two statutes had been passed relating to fustians, but in the first, which appeared in 1495-1496 (11 Hen. VII., e. 27), it was definitely stated that they were imported, although they were sheared in this country. The statute also makes clear that the fustians were at least composed partly of cotton. The second appeared in 1597-1598 (39 Eliz., c. 11) and was a continuance of the first. In this statute no mention was made of the fustians being imported, nor was it stated that they were manufactured in this country, but the weaving of fustians was said to have “lately grown to more use than ever it was before time.” This statement, and the fact that it was thought advisable to re-enact the statute, may reasonably be taken to support the view that, in the nineties of the sixteenth century, a manufacture of fustians had commenced in England.

One other fact worth notice is that when a fustian manufacture had certainly become established in the Manchester district much of the linen-yarn used was imported from Ireland. This trade, however, was carried on as early as 1543 (ante, p. 30), and a conjecture is raised as to whether fustians may not have been made in the Manchester district at that time, but under another name. In the Victoria County History of Lancashire, ii., p. 296, it is stated that “the manufacture of ‘fustians’ a mixture of wool and linen, and subsequently styled ‘cottons’” was in existence in the neighbourhood of Manchester at the close of the fifteenth century. The identification of fustians with cottons at this early date is tempting, and would explain much, but it does not seem to be warranted by available evidence. As far as such evidence goes, it appears that the beginning of the fustian-manufacture has to be sought in the industrial changes of the second half of the sixteenth century, and that, in England, fustians made partly of cotton were a species of the “new drapery.”

[Page 10], note 2.—A patent was granted in connection with new draperies in 1594 and was transferred to the Duke of Lennox after the accession of James I. (Price, ibid.).

[Page 93], continuation of note.—23 Geo. III., c. 21, gave bounties on the export of British printed cottons ranging from 1/2d. to 1-1/2d. per yard and allowed drawback of the excise duty.

[Page 99], continuation of note.—Defoe (Tour through Great Britain (1769 edition), iii., pp. 73-74, 104) has references to silk mills at Derby, Stockport and Sheffield.

[Page 142], note 3.—It is not likely that the table (ante, p. 69) includes all in the country districts who called themselves fustian manufacturers. In the Directory those given in the table were described as having a warehouse in Manchester.

[Page 161], continuation of note.—It is stated that in 1842 Crompton’s children received £200 from the Royal Bounty Fund in consideration of their father’s invention (Bolton: Its Trade and Commerce (1919), p. 80).