PREFACE.
The following pages represent an attempt to compile, primarily for the benefit of members of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, descriptions of cotton, woollen, and other fabrics, their weaves and finishes, etc., together with other information concerning terms currently used in the piece goods trade which are likely to be met with in invoices, applications, or contracts.
This manual does not embrace all textiles known to the trade, but it does cover all those enumerated in the "Revised Import Tariff for the Trade of China," as well as many others. As far as possible the commonly accepted trade name has been used. It should, however, be borne in mind that many fabrics are known in the trade by a variety of names, so that one branch of the trade may not recognise a name applied to the same fabric by another branch.
The descriptions have been built up from information obtained first hand from practical weavers, manufacturers, wholesale and retail merchants, buyers, etc., as well as from personal visits to mills in the Manchester and Huddersfield districts, and from standard works on weaving. To Mr. G. W. Shaw, of Botham Hall, Huddersfield, I am indebted for introductions to the principal manufacturers in that district, enabling me to go through such mills as those of Mr. A. Whitwam and Messrs. Godfrey Sykes, where every phase of manufacture from raw material to finished goods was shown and explained with characteristic Yorkshire thoroughness. I am indebted for either information or actual samples, or both, to:—
Mr. A. F. H. Baldwin, American Commercial Attaché, London.
John Bright & Bros., Limited, Rochdale.
Mr. A. J. Brook, Huddersfield.