I 9° [ 



MANUFACTURES. 



THE principal manufactures in this district are those of wool- 

 len cloth, and knit worsted stockings, which in the town of 

 Froome, as well as Shepton Mallett, are considerable ; and from 

 the number of hands therein employed, must have some effect on 

 the agriculture of the neighbourhood. 



The town and parish of Froome are found to contain nearly 

 1700 families, or about 10,000 people; more than one third of 

 which are actually, and immediately supported by the manufac- 

 tures spoken of; besides a vast number of the lower order of peo« 

 pie in the adjacent villages. In this town the annual quantity of 

 cloth manufactured, has lately been found to be more than 1 50,000 

 yards. In Shepton the inhabitants may be reckoned 6000, and the 

 cloth manufactured 1 20,000 yards. 



Whether the introduction of machinery for the expediting card- 

 ing, spinning, &c. will enable the manufacturers to make more 

 doth, or whether a number of the poor must be driven to seek sub- 

 sistence by other labor, may perhaps, be best ascertained by experi- 

 ment. If the revival of the export of kerseymeres and fine cloth 

 should take place, and sufficient stock of wool can be obtained, the 

 decision will be in favour of the former part of the question, and 

 all will be well ; but should the present check on the export long 

 continue, or should it be found that by the hands now in employ, 

 .and the machinery already in use, the whole stock of wool (which 

 is most certainly a limited article) shall be wrought into cloth in 

 nine or ten months of the year, the full grown and aged labourers 

 in this manufacture will be seriously distressed. Landed property 

 in the neighbourhood will be heavily burthened ; and the children 

 must migrate and seek subsistence by other employ where it can be 



found. 



