746 



ENGLAND. 



MMlft 



Cloth ex. 



ported. 



1551. 



Cheshire, are mentioned in an act of Edward VI. as fa- 

 mous for their cotton goods, winch wore, at that time, 

 a species of woollen cloths. \S'e have only a tradition- 

 ary account of the place from which the woollen ma- 

 nufacture was introduced into that part of Yorkshire 

 where it now flourishes ; and this tradition reports, that 

 it was brought thither out of Devonshire, wliciv it had 

 been settled by some workmen from Flanders. Rippon 

 seems to have been one of the towns in Yorkshire, into 

 which it was first introduced ; but, according to Wright, 

 in Ins History of Halifax, it was removed to the latter 

 place for the sake of the advantage of the coals and 

 water. During the infancy of this manufacture, the 

 legislature interfered in it, not only by prohibiting the 

 exportation of the raw material, but also by limiting 

 and expressly naming the particular towns, both in the 

 north anil west of England, in which it was to be car- 

 ried on. In 15S4, the woollen manufacture in VYor- 

 CMterehire was conferred to five towns. In. 1 551 , if we 

 may credit the accounts, the Hanse merchants exported 

 from this country 44,000 pieces of cloth, and the Eng- 

 li-'i manufacturers 1400 pieces; and a very few years 

 afterwards, above 200,000 pieces were sent to the 

 Netherlands. In 1614, a great improvement took place 

 in the woollen manufacture of the west of England, by 

 the invention of what is called medley or mixed cloth, 

 for which Gloucestershire is still famous. At the end 

 of this century, the total annual manufacture of wool- 

 lens was estimated at L.8,000,000. In 1739, the au- 

 thor of Considerations on the running of wool, gives an 

 estimate of the number of people employed in the 

 woollen manufacture, rating them as high as 1,500,000, 



and, " if these earn, (he adds,) one with another per Statuti. 

 day. fi>r I'.l.'i working days in the year, their wages will '*~~Y~~' 

 amount to L.I 1 ,7Sf,500." This author, however, must 

 have greatly overrated the number of people employed, 

 since the wages of labour in this manufacture, at pre- 

 sent, when the price of labour is at least four times as 

 high as he takes it at, will not reach that sum. In the 

 year 1770, it was proved, by documents laid before In 

 Parliament, that the official value of the woollen goods 

 exported, amounted to more than L 4,000,000. From 

 1772 to 17~6, the exportation seems not to have in- 

 creai-ed, as it appears from an account of the value, as 

 rated in the inspectors books, of all the woollen goods 

 of all sorts, viz. bays, cloths, cottons (coating), flannels, 

 serges, says, stuffs, stuffs mixed, carpets, and worsted 

 stockings, that the amount of the whole of these articles 

 exported from England, in 17 7 2, was L.4,4'i6,783; 

 in the year 1773, L. 3,875,929; in the year 1774, 

 L.4,333,583; in the year I77o, L 4,220, 1 73; and in 

 the year 1776, L.S.8f>8,05 5. At this time, as is the 

 case at present, a much greater value of woollen manu- 

 factures was shipped from London than from all the 

 outports of England. In the year 1775, when the ex- 

 cess of London was much less than in some other 

 years, the value of woollens shipped from London was 

 L.'2,247,570 ; and from the outports, only L.I, 972,602. 

 As far as we are able to judge of the increase in our 

 woollen manufactures from the quantity exported, it 

 does not appear to have been considerable from the 

 end of the 17th century till the year 1777, as will ap- 

 pear from the following statement of the value of the 

 exports of it, at the former period. 



In 1698, from London, L.2,102,634; and from the outports, L.1,017,981 ; total, L. 3, 120,6 15. 



In 1700, 2,021,145; 968,018; 2,989,10:?. 



In 1701, 2,045,951; 1,082,414; . , 



3,128,365. 



In 1783, n pamphlet was published, containing an 

 estimate of the annual produce and condition of the 

 principal manufactures of this country, in which the 

 woollen manufacture was rated at L. 1 6,800,000 ; but 

 the data on which the author builds this calculation are 

 not given About this period, the demand for fine cloths 

 seems to have been increasing, for in an account of the 

 quantity of the principal articles imported and used in 

 the manufactures of Great Britain, on an annual medium 

 of five years, commencing 5th January, 1 772, laid be- 

 fore Parliament, it appears, that from the year 1772 to 

 the year 1776, the annual medium quantity of Spanish 

 wool imported was 1, 578,605 Ibs. ; and in the period of 

 five years, ending 1787, the annual medium quantity 

 was 1.975,327 Ibs. The account was continued down 

 to 1799, and it proved a greater rate of increase in the 

 quantity of Spanish wool imported, during the two 

 next series of five years: there being, on an annual 

 medium from 1787 to 1792, 3, 1 74,429lbs. ; and on an 

 annual medium from 1792 to 1799, 3,800,583 Ibs. 

 in 1799. In the year 1799, an account of the total value of the 

 woollen manufactures exported, agreeable to the esti- 

 mates of the inspector-general's -books, (and conse- 

 quently at least 50 per cent, below the real value,) du- 

 ring the ten years preceding, was laid before Parlia- 

 ment ; from this account, it appears, that the official va- 

 lue of these manufactures, during 1 790, was L.5, 190,637; 

 during 1791, L.5,505.034; in 1792, L.5, r > 1 0,6iiS ; in 

 1793, L.3,806,5:s6 ; in 179*. L.4,390,92'); in 17''">, 

 L.5,172,884; in 1796.L 6,011, 133;inl797,L.4,936,.S5.'i; 

 in 179S, L.6,499,339 ; and in 1799, L.6,860,939. The 

 effect of the first year of the war is very visible in the 



diminution of the value of the exports for 1793. As 

 this account gives the value of woollen manufactures 

 exported to each different country, it affords a further 

 insight into the state of the export woollen trade du- 

 ring this period. By far the greatest quantity every 

 year appears to have been exported to the United States; 

 in 1790, the value of the exports thither was L. 1,481,378, 

 and in the year 1799, L.2,833,490. Before the com- 

 mencement of the war, Spain and Portugal seem each 

 to have taken, to the amount of between L 300,000 and 

 L.400,000, and Holland nearly an equal quantity. 

 Ireland, in 1790, took to the value of L.394,790, which 

 increased till the year 1793, when the value was only 

 L 178,071. In the year 1794, the value again rose 

 nearly to what it was in 179'; and continued to in- 

 crease to the end of the period, it being in 1799 as 

 high as L.916,190. The value of the woollen goods 

 exported to India, (probably nearly all the manufac- 

 ture of the west of England), varied, during this period, 

 between L.362,509 and L.668,1 61. France, before the 

 war, does not appear to have taken, on an average, 

 woollen goods to the amount of L. 100,000 official 

 value. 



In the month of April 1800, the principal manufac- 5 

 turers of woollen goods in Yorkshire, and in the West j" 

 of England, were examined before a committee of the 

 House of Commons relative to the state of that manu- 

 facture : We shall, in the first place, give the remits of 

 their evidence on this occasion, and afterwards offer 

 some remarks upon it; premising, that where no preju- 

 dices or interests intervene, to conceal, exaggerate, or 

 distort facts, more information is to be got, on .the ma- 



