Then, as every clothier must necessarily keep one horse, at least, to fetch home his wool and his provisions from the market, to carry his yarn to the spinners, his manufacture to the fulling-mill, and when finished, to the market to be sold, and the like; so every one generally keeps a cow or two for his family. By this means, the small pieces of inclosed land about each house are occupied; and, by being thus fed, are still farther improved from the dung of the cattle. As for corn, they scarce sow enough to feed their poultry.
Such, it seems, has been the bounty of nature to this county, that two things essential to life, and more particularly to the business followed here, are found in it, and in such a situation as is not to be met with in any part of England, if in the world beside; I mean coals, and running water on the tops of the highest hills. I doubt not but there are both springs and coals lower in these hills; but were they to fetch them thence, it is probable the pits would be too full of water: it is easy, however, to fetch them from the upper parts, the horses going light up, and coming down loaden. This place, then, seems to have been designed by providence for the very purposes to which it is now allotted, for carrying on a manufacture, which can nowhere be so easily supplied with the conveniences necessary for it. Nor is the industry of the people wanting to second these advantages. Though we met few people without doors, yet within we saw the houses full of lusty fellows, some at the dye-vat, some at the loom, others dressing the cloths; the women and children carding, or spinning; all employed from the youngest to the oldest; scarce any thing above four years old, but its hands were sufficient for its own support. Nor a beggar to be seen, nor an idle person, except here and there in an alms-house, built for those that are ancient, and past working. The people in general live long; they enjoy a good air; and under such circumstances hard labour is naturally attended with the blessing of health, if not riches.
From this account, you will easily imagine, that some of these remote parts of the North are the most populous places of Great Britain, London and its neighbourhood excepted.
2. Defoe's Account of the Wool Trade and Woollen Industries [D. Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman, Ed. 1841, Vol. II, pp. 188-93], temp. George II.
First, the wool itself, being taken from the sheep's back, either by the shearer, the farmer, or by the fellmonger from the skin, becomes a subject of trade; and is either sold to the stapler, or wool merchant, and by him to the manufacturer, or is carried by the farmer and fellmonger, as is sometimes the case, to the particular counties where it is consumed.
These staplers and wool dealers are scattered all over the kingdom, and are a very important and considerable sort of tradesmen, being the first tradesmen into whose hands the said wool comes for sale: the principal towns in England where they are found to be in any numbers together, are in London, or Southwark rather, being principally in Barnaby Street, and the town of Blandford in Dorsetshire; there are also some in Norwich and in Lincolnshire, and in Leicestershire a great many.
Stourbridge fair is famous for the great quantity of wool sold there, and which goes beyond any other fairs or markets in all the north or east parts of England.
But wherever the wool is carried, and by whomsoever it is sold, this of course brings it to the first part of its manufacturing; and this consists of two operations:
1. Combing. 2. Carding.
The combers are a particular set of people, and the combing a trade by itself; the carding, on the other hand, is chiefly done by workmen hired by the clothiers themselves; the combers buy the wool in the fleece or in the pack, and when it is combed, put it on to the next operation on their own account. The carding is generally done by hired servants, as above; these operations hand on the wool to the next, which is common to both, viz., the spinning.