Trade and Couivierce. 39 



century ; among their duties were the examining and stamp- 

 ing of every piece of linen offered for sale, and also the 

 granting of bounties and prevention of fraud. They kept a 

 detailed record of the exports of linen and linen yarn. The 

 following is taken partly from their tables : 



YEAK. 

 1690 

 1720 

 1750 



About the year 1828 mechanical methods began to be 

 adopted, and the whole system was thereby remodelled, as 

 will be evident from the fact that one girl can now attend to 

 about 160 spindles, each producing daily twice the amount 

 formerly spun by hand on a wheel. Next to the invention of 

 machinery, the linen trade received its greatest impetus from 

 the American Civil War, which destroyed the manufacture 

 of cotton in the States, resulting in a boom in linen, which 

 laid the foundation of several great fortunes; but the reaction 

 was severe, affecting the linen merchants of Ulster for many 

 years. During the last ten years there has been but little 

 expansion, and, no doubt, the competition of cheap foreign 

 goods has made itself felt. A curious feature of the linen 

 trade is that so few of the firms engaged in it carry on more 

 than one or two of the operations necessary for the pro- 

 duction of the finished web. The most important of these 

 processes are as follows : scutching, spinning, weaving, 

 beetling, and bleaching Several of the larger establish- 

 ment.s, however, have every part of the manufacture of 

 their linen under their own control. The following figures 

 illustrate the more recent history of our staple industry : 



