760 



ENGLAND. 



thi> country.) though these looms as yet are but par- 

 tially applied to weaving, the pro|xirtion ol' women em- 

 plnx'ed in this branch of the cotton trade may be e-ti- 

 I to U' greater than the men : the number of chil- 

 dren is nearly equal to Iwith men and women. The 

 proportions employed in the preparation of the cotton 

 and in spinning, are nearly foar-fifthi women to one- 

 fifth mrn : in this branch, also, the number of children 

 is equal to both. The qnantity of cotton manufactured 

 in the cotton district, i- estimated at about 81,000,000 



RK 



Fn the examination of witnesses before the House of 

 Commons, in the year 181'-'. respecting rewarding Mr 

 Crompton, who invented the mule, it was given in evi- 

 dence, that the rate of increase of the cotton trade 

 in Lancashire and the adjoining districts, within 30 

 years from that time, was as twenty to one ; that four 

 millions of spindles were employed according to Mr 

 Crompton's invention ; that two-thirds of the steam en- 

 gines for spinning cott<w turned mules; and that the va- 

 lue of the machinery, buildings, &c. on Mr Crompton's 

 principle, was between L ..1,000,000 and L4,000,000 ; 

 consequently the value of all the machinery of every 

 kind employed in the cotton trade, must have been at 

 least L.7,000,000. 



As the official value of the cotton goods exported 

 from Great Britain in 1809 and 1810 was upwards of 

 L.I 9,000,000 each year, we cannot estimate the total 

 value of the goods made in the cotton district in Eng- 

 land, both for home consumption and exportation, at 

 less than L.2}),000,000; allowing the difference between 

 the official and the real value, (which, however, cannot 

 be great,) and the value of the goods retained 1'or home 

 consumption throughout the kingdom, to be equivalent 

 to the value of the goods made in Scotland. But as it 

 may be said, that the quantity exported during these 

 two years was much greater than the average export, 

 and that the export of cotton manufactured goods in 

 1811 was only L. 1 1,715,53.'), and of cotton yarn 

 L. 545,237, making a total of L. 12,26'0,770 ; and of 

 1812, of the Conner L. 1 5,972,826, and of the latter 

 L.966,007, making a total of L. 1(>,9':8.833 ; we shall 

 suppose the steady average exportation to be only 

 L. 1 5,000,000, and allowing, as before, the difference be- 

 tween the official and the real value, and the value of 

 what is retained for home consumption, to be equal to 

 the ralue of what is made in Scotland, we shall take 

 L.I 5,000,000 as the real value of the goods made in the 

 cotton districts of England. As it is probable that 

 80,000,000 pounds of cotton wool is too high an esti- 

 mate for the consumption of this district, we shall take 

 nf . it at 70,000,000, averaging the price at iis. per pound; 



this will give L.7,0!)0,000 for the total cost of it ; lea- 

 \ ing 8,000,000 for interest of capital, profit to the ma- 

 nufacturer, and wages of labour. Asa very large pro- 

 portion of women and children are employed in this 

 trade, the average wages cannot be rated higher than 

 L.I 5 per annum. The rate of profit to the manufactu- 

 rer, including interest of capital, must be rated at 

 Interest atd L.20 per cent, since the expence and wear of machinery 

 profit. a re very great. Now L.20 per cent, on L.8,000,000, is 



I,. 1 ,()()(").( Hi!), leaving L.6,400,000 for wages Tin's at 

 L.15 per annum for each person employed, will give 

 UiOV 'number of people employed. And that 



this must be pretty nearly the number, will appear from 

 the following < :)*;. The number of people in 



Liverpool, and in other parts of Lancashire where the 

 cotton trade is not chtabli>hed, is probably con>iderably 

 greater than the population of those places out of Lan- 



Value of 

 the manu- 

 factured 

 goods. 



material. 



ca>hire, in which the tr.ide is established ; we may 

 therefore take (i(H).O(Hl, which is about 'JOO.OOO les* t! ail 

 the population of I .anca!i:iv, MS the ]M>pul.itioii of the 

 cotton district of England ; and supposing, as l>efore 

 stated, that live-seventh* ol' this population is employed 

 in tin 1 trade, the whole number will be t 8..~>70, which 

 comes very near the number to which we brought it by 

 the other mode of computation. The statement, then, 

 with regard to the cotton manufacture of England, will 

 stand as follows : 



Total value of the manufactured article, L.I 5,000,000 Retults 



Value of the raw material, T.ooO.OOO 



Interest on capital, and manufacturers profit 1, 600,000 



Manufacturing wages 6,400,000 



Number of people employed, about 427,000 



In many respects, there is a striking and considerable Woollen 

 contrast between the woollen and cotton manufactures, and cotton 

 which, in every point of view, may be regarded as the manufac- 

 most important m;>nul'actures of this country. In the turcs con- 

 first, the woollen manufacture in general, at least in the tr 

 West Hiding of Yorkshire, is carried on by men of coni- 

 parativoly small capital; whereas most of those engaged 

 in the cotton manufacture are men of rather large capital. 

 There can be no doubt that this point of contrast will 

 soon vanish, both from the natural course of trade, and 

 from the superior advantages which the factory system 

 (so far as regards the grand object, the making of mo- 

 ney) possesses over the domestic system. Factories are 

 much more common now than they were formerly in 

 the West Hiding, and their number is increasing. In 

 the second place, the cotton manufacture, as has just 

 been incidentally observed, is distinguished from the 

 woollen manufacture, by the mode of carrying it on: tin- 

 most important branch of it, the spinning, is entirely 

 done in factories ; and by the late invention of power 

 looms for weaving, it is highly probable that, in the 

 course of a few years, the next important branch, that 

 of weaving, will also be carried on in Victories. In the 

 third place, it may be remarked, that in the cotton ma- 

 nufacture, the proportion of women and children, and 

 more especially of the latter, to men, is much greater 

 than in the woollen manufacture. In the fourth place, 

 the cotton manufacture is not nearly so regular and 

 steady a trade as the woollen manufacture. This seems 

 to arise principally from two causes. In the woollen 

 manufacture, the foreign demand and exportation is not 

 more than equal to the home consumption ; and the 

 goods manufactured, being less articles of luxury, taste, 

 and fancy, meet with a more regular and constant de- 

 mand : neither the interruption of foreign trade, nor 

 the vicissitudes of foreign fashion, therefore, can influ- 

 ence the demand so much ."s is the case frequently with 

 the cotton manufacture. Moreover, in the case of the 

 woollen manufacture, by far the greatest proportion of 

 the raw material employed in it is of domestic growth; 

 whereas ill the case of tiic latter manufacture, the whole 

 of the raw material comes from abroad ; consequently 

 the supply and price of it must vary very often, and very 

 much. As, therefore, we depend on foreign countries 

 for the ra-.v material of our cotton manufacture, and on 

 them also for taking off a much larger proportion of it 

 than of our woollen goods, the trade in the latter must 

 be more regular and steady than in the cotton trade. 



But the most material and important contra>-t be- Different 

 two 11 the two species of manufactures, consists i,, the ^" ^""^' 

 different condition of the people employed in them. 

 Whoever has been in the woollen and cotton districts 

 of England, must have been immediately struck with 



