Although every branch of the cotton manufacture was affected in greater or lesser degree by Crompton’s invention, it was to the finer branches that it was supremely important. The previous inventions had made possible the manufacture of cotton calicoes, and had improved the manufacture of other goods, but they were not adequate to produce the quality of material required for the finest fabrics. For these, consumers in this country were still dependent upon the long-established cotton industry in the East. Five years before the date of Arkwright’s first patent Joseph Shaw, of Bolton, had attempted to make British muslins at a place called Anderton, near Chorley, but with little success, owing to the lack of suitable yarn.[403] It was this deficiency which Crompton’s machine supplied.

In the evidence given in 1812 before the Committee on Crompton’s petition it was claimed that the manufacture of the fine fabrics, the cambrics, and the muslins, which then existed was to be attributed almost entirely to the fine yarns produced by the mule.[404] Thus in the invention of the mule may be found one of the chief causes of the transference of the seat of an industry to the Western from the Eastern world, where it had been situated from time immemorial.[405] Even as the Committee was sitting, the cotton manufacturers of the United Kingdom were turning their eyes towards the East, not as a market from which cotton fabrics were imported, but as an extensive market for goods that they produced.[406] A century later, of their immense exports nearly one half was disposed of in that part of the world.[407]

Regarding this development of the manufacture of fine cotton goods in this country, a witness has left us such a succinct account that it cannot be omitted: “About 1790, the muslin trade received a stimulus at Stockport, from the efforts of the late Samuel Oldknow, whose spirit of enterprise extended to this branch of our manufacture. He took new ground by copying some of the fabrics imported from India, which at that time supplied this kingdom with all the finer fabrics, and which the mule-spun yarn alone could imitate. He was very successful in carrying on the ingenious processes which he had devised; but the French Revolution creating a panic and general stagnation for a time, he abandoned this branch of the trade, and betook himself to his large water-mill at Mellor, which was built in the year 1790. On his retiring from the manufacturing of fine muslin, Messrs. Horrocks, who had just established themselves at Preston as mule-spinners, took up what he had laid down. They became extensive manufacturers of cloth similar to that made by Oldknow, and supplied the same market, London. This gave a new stimulus in that district, and immediately upon the subsiding of the panic caused by the French Revolution, a market sprang up on the Continent for yarns of all kinds, but principally for muslin yarns, up to the highest numbers that could be pronounced.... The Scotch in Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, being long in the habit of weaving fine cambric from flax yarn, and silk friezes, had also turned their hands to the manufacture of fine cotton fabrics principally from the fine yarns produced by Hargreaves’ and other subsequent machines. The Lancashire manufacturers followed them in the thicker and firmer fabrics, and about 1805 or 1806 the Nottingham lace trade sprang up. Mr. Heathcote (formerly a whitesmith) invented a machine by which he could make lace similar to that of Brussels and Buckingham, which was worked by hand; and he principally if not wholly, at first, used fine flax yarns. Twofold fine cotton twisted together was found to answer very well as a substitute; and as it required the finest yarns, a great impulse was given towards perfecting the production of fine cotton yarn. It bore a high price, as the lace manufacturer had only to compete with hand-spun thread, and hand-made lace.”[408]

In this account Mr. Kennedy implies the existence of markets for fine yarns in Lancashire, at Nottingham, Glasgow, and on the Continent. To these must be added the market at Belfast, where, in 1800, in the town and within a circuit of ten miles 37,000 people were said to be employed in the cotton manufacture.[409] Glasgow was the most important market that the firm of M‘Connel & Kennedy supplied with fine yarns during Mr. Kennedy’s connection with it, which terminated in 1826, but from 1795 until that date merchants and manufacturers in Belfast and neighbourhood were among its most important customers.[410]

From what has been said it will be apparent, so far as the development of the cotton industry is concerned, that the period from the introduction of the jenny and Arkwright’s machinery to the first years of the nineteenth century may be divided into two parts, with a date about 1790 marking the division. During the first part the problem of providing adequate supplies of yarn for all kinds of cotton cloth was definitely solved, and a new cotton manufacture and a new system of organisation were born. In the second part that which had been achieved during the preceding twenty years was developed and consolidated, and the cotton industry, in its spinning branch, assumed its modern form. The average import of cotton from 1776 to 1780 amounted to 6-3/4 million pounds; from 1786 to 1790 the amount reached 25-1/2 million pounds; from 1796 to 1800 it increased to 37-1/2 million pounds; and during the next five years to nearly 58-1/2 million pounds; afterwards it increased very little until the conclusion of the war.[411] During the last decades of the eighteenth century cotton, particularly of the finer kinds, had assumed a new importance, and as a direct consequence of the developments in England, the problem of its adequate supply was already being solved by our kinsmen across the Atlantic.[412] In 1790 the United States had only just commenced to send small quantities of cotton into Great Britain; fifteen years later the import was no less than 32-1/2 million pounds.[413]

III

To a brief consideration of certain other important changes that took place during the period, a classic passage written by William Radcliffe forms a useful introduction: “From the year 1770 to 1788 a complete change had gradually been effected in the spinning of yarns. That of wool had disappeared altogether, and that of linen was also nearly gone; cotton, cotton, cotton was become the almost universal material for employment. The hand wheels, with the exception of one establishment, were all thrown into lumber-rooms, the yarn was all spun on common jennies, the carding for all numbers up to 40 hanks in the pound was done on carding-engines; but the finer numbers of 60 to 80 were still carded by hand, it being a general opinion at that time that machine-carding would never answer for fine numbers. In weaving no great alteration had taken place during these eighteen years save the introduction of the fly-shuttle, a change in the woollen looms to fustians and calico, and the linen nearly gone, except the few fine fabrics in which there was a mixture of cotton. To the best of my recollection there was no increase of looms during this period—but rather a decrease.... But the mule-twist now coming into vogue, for the warp, as well as weft, added to the water-twist and common jenny yarns, with an increasing demand for every fabric the loom could produce, put all hands in request of every age and description. The fabrics made from wool or linen vanished, while the old loom-shops being insufficient, every lumber room, even old barns, cart-houses, and outbuildings of any description were repaired, windows broke through old blank walls and all fitted up for loom-shops. This source of making room being at length exhausted, new weavers’ cottages with loom-shops rose up in every direction; all immediately filled, and when in full work the weekly circulation of money, as the price of labour only, rose to five times the amount ever before experienced in this subdivision, every family bringing home weekly 40, 60, 80, 100, or even 120 shillings per week!!!”[414]

In this passage the transition from the use of the hand-wheel in spinning, and the manufacture of woollen, linen, and mixed goods, to the use of the inventions, and the manufacture of all kinds of cotton goods is vividly described. There is abundant evidence, in addition to that given by Radcliffe, of the prosperity of the weavers as a consequence of the changes,[415] but this is a matter which must be considered along with another, especially as much turns upon them in estimating the social consequences of the transition.

Reference has already been made to the view that in the Lancashire textile industry, prior to this transition, the operations were performed by more or less independent producers and some evidence was presented to the contrary. But in addition to this view there is another—indeed, between the two there is a close connection—that these producers were at least part-time agriculturalists engaged in cultivating small farms.[416] Mainly this view has been based upon another passage by Radcliffe, and it has also been influenced, no doubt, by Defoe’s picturesque account of a number of small clothiers in Yorkshire.[417]

Just as there is nothing in the petitions presented to Parliament from Lancashire in the eighteenth century to support the independent-producer view, but much that suggests the contrary, so as regards the small-farmer view: it is difficult to imagine independent producers and small farmers striving to form themselves into trade unions. At the same time Radcliffe’s statement cannot be dismissed as baseless. It is rather a question as to how far his description of the township of Mellor is to be regarded as of general application, and as to how much should be deduced from it regarding the extent to which industrial and agricultural occupations were associated. Evidence to show that such association did exist may be found in the fairly frequent advertisements in The Manchester Mercury of small farms, with loom-houses, suitable for weavers. Aikin, whose book was published in 1795, refers to the size of farms in the parish of Middleton as “from twenty to thirty acres, which are occupied mostly by weavers, who alternately engage themselves in the pursuits of husbandry and the more lucrative one of the shuttle,” and again, in the neighbouring parish of Rochdale, “The farms, being generally occupied by manufacturers, are small, seldom exceeding 70l. per annum.”[418] In Lancashire, he states, “the more general size of farms is from 50 down to 20 acres, or even as much only as will keep a horse or a cow,” and further, “The yeomanry, formerly numerous and respectable, have generally diminished of late, many of them having entered into trade: but in their stead, a number of small proprietors have been introduced, whose chief subsistence depends upon manufactures, but who have purchased land round their houses, which they cultivate by way of convenience and variety.”[419]