But the following statistics of the consumption of raw and thrown silk from 1765 to 1844 indicate how slight and irregular was the expansion of the trade in England during the era of the great inventions and the application of the steam-motor, and how disastrously the duties upon raw and thrown silks weighed upon this branch of manufacture.
Average Importation.[77]
| lbs. | lbs. | ||||
| 1823 | 2,468,121 | |||
| 715,000 | 1824 | 4,011,048[78] | |||
| 1825 | 3,604,058 | ||||
| 1826 | 2,253,513 | |||
| 881,000 | 1827 | 4,213,153 | |||
| 1828 | 4,547,812 | ||||
| 1829 | 2,892,201 | |||
| 1,110,000 | 1830 | 4,693,517 | |||
| 1831 | 4,312,330 | ||||
| 1814 | 2,119,974 | 1832 | 4,373,247 | ||
| 1815 | 1,475,389 | 1833 | 4,761,543 | ||
| 1816 | 1,088,334 | 1834 | 4,522,451 | ||
| 1817 | 1,686,659 | 1835 | 5,788,458 | ||
| 1818 | 1,922,987 | 1836 | 6,058,423 | ||
| 1819 | 1,848,553 | 1837 | 4,598,859 | ||
| 1820 | 2,027,635 | 1838 | 4,790,256 | ||
| 1821 | 2,329,808 | 1839 | 4,665,944 | ||
| 1822 | 2,441,563 | 1840 | 4,819,262 |
In the linen industry the artificial encouragement given to the Irish trade, which, bounty-fed and endowed with a monopoly of the British markets, was naturally slow to adopt new methods of production, and the uncertain condition of the English trade, owing to the strong rivalry of cotton, prevented the early adoption of the new machine methods. Although Adam Smith regarded linen as a promising industry, it was still in a primitive condition. Not until the very end of the eighteenth century were flax spinning mills established in England and Scotland, and not until after 1830 was power-loom weaving introduced, while the introduction of spinning machinery into Ireland upon a scale adequate to supply the looms of that country took place a good deal later.
We see that the early experimental period in the cotton industry produced no very palpable effect upon the volume of the trade. Between 1700 and 1750 the manufacture was stagnant.[79] The woollen manufacture, owing largely to the stimulus of the fly-shuttle, showed considerable expansion. The great increase of cotton production in 1770-90 measures the force of the mechanical inventions without the aid of the new motor. The full effects of the introduction of steam power were retarded by the strain of the French war. Though 1800 marks the beginning of a large continuous expansion in both cotton and woollen manufactures, it was not until about 1817, when the new motor had established itself generally in the large centres of industry and the energy of the nation was called back to the arts of peace, that the new forces began to fully manifest their power. The period 1840 onwards marks the effect of the revolution in commerce due to the application of the new motor to transport purposes, the consequent cheapening of raw material, especially of cotton, the opening up of new markets for the purchase of raw material and for the sale of manufactured goods. The effect of this diminished cost of production and increased demand for manufactured goods upon the textile trades is measured by the rapid pace of the expansion which followed the opening of the early English railways and the first establishment of steam-ship traffic.
§ 8. The development of the textile trades, and that of cotton in particular, arose from the invention of new machinery. This machinery was quickened and rendered effective by the new motor. The iron trade in its development presents the reverse order. The discovery of a new motor was the force which first gave it importance. The mechanical inventions applied to producing iron were stimulated by the requirements of the new motor.
In 1740 the difficulty of obtaining adequate supplies of timber, and the failure of attempts to utilise pit-coal, had brought the iron trade to a very low condition. According to Scrivener, at this time "the iron trade seemed dwindling into insignificance and contempt."[80]
The earlier steps in its rise from this degradation are measured by the increased application of pit-coal and the diminished use of charcoal.
The progress may be marked as follows:—
(1) The application of Watt's earlier improvements upon Newcomen's engines, patented 1769, was followed by a rise in the average output for furnaces worked with charcoal. The average output of 294 tons in 1750 was increased to 545 tons in 1788.