756 



ENGLAND. 



Statistics, twist cotton yarn for warps, both in England and Scot- 

 '*" "Y""' land. We shall lay before our readers his estimate tor 

 both countries, in order that they may l>e enabled to 

 take a comparative view ot'the state of the cotton trade- 

 in them Ixith. 



In Lancashire 



41 Lanarkshire 4 



Derbyshire '-.'-' Renfrewshire 4 



Nottinghamshire ... 17 Perthshire . . 3 



Yorkshire 11 Edinborgfaahire 



Cheshire 8 The rest of Scotland 



Suffbrdihire 

 Wectmordand 



Pembrokeshire . . . 

 Berkshire ...... 



The rest of England 



In all England . . . 

 In Wales . 



In all Scotland . . 

 In the Isle of M;:n 



19 

 1 



! 



20 



In England and Wales 123 



The whole number being 1 43, the cost of which was 

 estimated at L. 715)000. There were at the same time 

 550 mule jennies, or machines of 90 spindles each; and 

 20,700 hand jennies of 80 spindles each, for spinning 

 varn for the shute or weft, the cost of which, and of 

 the auxiliary machinery, together with that of the build- 

 ings, is stateil to have been at least L. "85,000, making 

 the total expenditure on the machinery and buildings 

 L. 1,000,000. It was, moreover, calculated, that these 

 establishments, when in full employment, produced as 

 much cotton wool, as could be spun by a million of 

 persons, upon single wheels. At this period, it was 

 calculated also, that there were employed 26,000 men, 

 31,000 women, 53,000 children, in all 110,000 in the 

 operations of spinning ; and 133,000 men, 59,000 wo- 

 men, and 4-8,000 children, in all 240,000 in the subse- 

 quent stages of the manufacture ; there being, in all, 

 159,000 men, 90,000 women, and 101,000 children, 

 and a total of 350,000 persons employed in this manu- 

 facture; nearly one-third of them in the calico and mus- 

 lin branches. In these most important branches, at this 

 time, the raw material was advanced in value from ten 

 to fifty fold. 



From the data which these statements afford, we 

 may be able to ascertain several particulars respect- 

 ing the state of the cotton manufacture in England at 

 this time, separately from the state of it in the king- 

 dom at large ; taking it for granted that the capital and 

 number of people employed in England, bear the same 

 proportion to the total capital, and number of people 

 employed in the whole kingdom, that the number of 

 water mills in the former did to the number in the lat- 

 ter. Now, as the number of water mills in Great Bri- 

 tain, was 143, and in England 123, we may consider 

 the proportion in the latter as six-severths of the whole, 

 which will give us, as the cost of the water mills in Eng- 

 land, about the sum of L. 6'00,000, and as the cost of 

 the machines for spinning weft, and the necessary build- 

 ings, the further sum of at least L. 240,000, making the 

 total expenditure in England to be about L. 840,000, 

 the number of people employed in spinning the cotton 

 wool about 94,000, and die number of people engaged 

 in the subsequent stages of the manufacture to be about 

 205,000, in all about 300,000 people employed in the 

 cotton manufacture in England. About this period, 

 several very large cotton-works were established in 

 different parts of England. The most extensive and 



considerable of which were those of Sir Robert Peel, at Stadti. 

 Bury, in Lancashire. By the report ot'the committee of v ~" "V" ' 

 the Mouse of Commons, in ITS."', on the subject ot'the 

 commercial intercourse with Ireland, it appears, that 

 tliis gentleman, at this period, employed O'SOO people, 

 and that several thousands were employed by Mr Smith, 

 and numbers, proportionally great, b\ otber manufac- 

 turers of cotton. From the time ot'the invention of 

 the mule, till the breaking out of the first French revo- i, n j >n)Te . 

 lutionary war, the cotton trade of England flourished im-nu in 

 in a most astoni liing manner ; fortunes were made, "" its 

 especially in Lancashire, where it was carried on to the branched 

 greatest extent, and with the greatest spirit and enter- 

 prise, with almost unparalleled rapidity. The improve- 

 ments in the steam engine seconded the improvements 

 in the machinery for spinning cotton, while improve- 

 ments equally great and important were made in the 

 mode of bleaching and dyeing the goods. Indeed, it 

 may well be doubted, whether it could have been p" 

 sible to have bleached, by the old process, all the cotton 

 goods which were now made ; so that the discovery 

 which chemistry made in this art, came very opportune- 

 ly to the assistance of the cotton manufacturers. 



The breaking out of the war in 1793, gave a great Kffectsi/t 

 shock to this trade ; at first it was very severely felt ; war. 

 but afterwards several of the most intelligent and well 

 informed of those who were engaged in it, having more 

 leisure, by the decreased demand for their goods, than 

 they formerly had, applied themselves to the farther 

 improvement of the machinery used in the spinning of 

 cotton. Attempts were also made to work a number of 

 looms together by machinery ; and a factory was ac- 

 tually erected near Manchester to weave piece goods in 

 this manner ; but it was burnt down before any judg- 

 ment could be formed how it could have succeeded. 

 We shall afterwards sec that the cotton manufacturers at- 

 tained their object in a considerable degree, by the con- 

 struction of what are called power looms. 



In the year 1795, Dr Aikin published his IIiflc.n/ o/Stntc in 

 Manchester, from which we have gathered the follow- l<!>5, in 

 ing miscellaneous information, respecting the state of I- 8 * 1 "**!" 1 *- 

 the cotton district of England, at that period. Accord, 

 ing to him, the increase of value acquired by the raw 

 material, in the labour expended upon it, in manufac- 

 turing, was generally from 1000 to 5000 per cent. At 

 Ashton-under-Lyne, a considerable quantity of twist 

 and warps was made, for the heavy goods that were 

 manufactured in Manchester. At Middleton, the cot- 

 ton trade was carried on in all its different processes ; 

 a large twist manufactory had been established, and 

 very considerable printing and bleaching works : in 

 this place, as well as in many other parts of Lancashire, 

 the cotton manufacture had supplanted the long : 

 Wished manufactures, the weaving of muslin and nan- 

 keen having taken place of the weaving of silk. Even 

 at Rochdale, which we have already noticed as distin- 

 guished at present for its manufacture of flannels, and 

 other woollen goods, the cotton manufacture seems to 

 have gained a footing when Dr Aikin wrote; but though 

 it has spread beyond this place into Yorkshire, it does 

 not seem to have flourished much or extensively IKTC. 

 In 1 796, the muslin trade was in a flourishing condition 

 at Bolton ; but, in consequence of the want of sufficient- 

 ly powerful streams, there were but few spinning facto- 

 .1 this town, or its neighbourhood: there were, 

 however, many crofts for bleaching, We have air 

 noticed that Bolton was the original seat of the cotton 

 manui'acture; fustians having been made there about 

 the middle of the 1 ~th century ; from Boltou the cot- 



