38 Guide to Belfast. 



TRADES AND INDUSTRIES OF THE CITY. 



IN the limited space at our disposal, it is obviously impos- 

 sible to go fully into the details of every industry carried 

 on in the North of Ireland, and it has been thought 

 better to select a few representative firms, and describe 

 them somewhat better than would otherwise have been 

 possible. Ab una disce omnes. There are many firms whose 

 factories and workshops are fully equal to those described 

 here, but which have had to be omitted, either on the score 

 of space or to avoid reduplication, and to prevent this 

 account from becoming a mere list of names : it is therefore 

 necessary to apologize to very many firms of the first repute, 

 whose names have been left out as the result of adopting 

 this method of illustrating our commerce. And here the 

 compiler must offer his best thanks to the various firms who 

 most kindly supplied the information upon which this article 

 is based; also to the principal of the Technical Institute 

 (Mr. F. C. Forth), to the Belfast Harbour Commissioners, 

 and to the proprietors of the Belfast Directory for their 

 kind permission to use their valuable statistics and informa- 

 tion. We may now proceed to a brief account of the Linen 

 TRADE, the greatest of Ulster industries. 



Linen and other textiles have for centuries formed a 

 mainstay of Ulster; for so early as a.d. 1216 we find it 

 stated by Macpherson that the linen manufacture was then 

 in a flourishing condition, and in 1245 De Burgo, Earl of 

 Ulster, had large parcels of linen woven for him at Bally- 

 lisnevan, now called Newtownards. Woollens, again, in the 

 reign of Charles I. were exported to the value of ;^i 10,000 

 annually. Protection laws in England ruined this latter 

 trade, but linen-weaving was revived on a large scale by the 

 Huguenots after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 

 The real founder of the present great industry was one 

 Crommelin, who settled at Lisburn in 16 19, together with a 

 few other men, who were induced to do so largely by the 

 advantages offered by William III. 



In 17 1 1 a Board of Trustees was appointed to supervise 

 and encourage Irish flax and hempen manufactures, who 

 exercised a large influence on the trade for more than a 



