INDUSTRIES 





improvements in water transport seem to have 

 been made primarily for the benefit of the 

 agriculturist. Corn, malt, butter and cheese, 

 and other agricultural produce were the princi- 

 pal commodities carried outwards, and coal was 

 the leading import. 1 



Although Suffolk has remained and is likely 

 to remain, under whatever change of tenure or 

 of cultivation, predominantly an agricultural 

 county, a distinctly new period of its industrial 

 history may be said to have opened with the 

 nineteenth century, the essential feature of which 

 is that Suffolk has built up half a dozen- indus- 

 tries which have secured and retained for at least 

 a quarter of a century a place in the world's 

 market. The history of these modern industries, 

 as well as that of the older textile manufactures, 

 and the episode of the Lowestoft china works, 

 which serves chronologically as a picturesque 

 link between the first period and the third, will 

 be followed in some detail, and all that need be 

 attempted here is a brief summary of the general 

 causes underlying the later development. Of 

 these causes the most vital is undoubtedly to be 

 found in the personality of the captains of in- 

 dustry. What distinguishes modern industry 

 from that of earlier times is a greater degree 

 of vigour and initiative shown by the ' entre- 

 preneur ' in adapting the resources which 

 he inherits from the past to the constantly 

 changing needs of the present and in going out 

 some way to meet the demands of the future. In 

 the case of the Suffolk industries these qualities 

 have been exhibited in a marked degree, not 

 only by the founders of great manufacturing 

 concerns, but in many instances by several 

 generations of their descendants. The other 

 cause whose operation distinguishes the new 

 industry from the old is freedon of trade. It is 

 not merely that the agricultural machinery, the 

 fertilizers, the umbrella silks, the corsets, and 

 the ready-made clothing of Suffolk are sent to 

 every quarter of the globe. The materials of 

 these and of other industries are drawn from the 

 same wide field. The barley grown on the 

 banks of the Danube, the phosphates found on 

 the shores of the Caribbean Sea, the horse-hair 

 of Siberia, the cocoanut fibre of the East Indies, 

 the steel of the United States, and the textile 

 fabrics of France, have all been requisitioned in 

 recent years by the manufacturers of Suffolk. 

 The business capacity which has been the prime 

 cause of success has in fact been mainly exercised 

 in making a prompt use of world-wide oppor- 

 tunities to build up industries for which no basis 

 was to be found in a narrower area of supply. 



But this achievement was obviously impossible 

 unless Suffolk could be brought into touch with 

 the larger currents of the world's commerce. 

 The establishment of direct communications 



1 Young, A Gen. Pieti; 227, and A. G. H. Hol- 

 lingsworth, Hut. tf Stowmarket, 218. 



with the world at large bears the same relation 

 to the industrial development of this period as 

 the improvement of the roads and rivers and the 

 maintenance of the coasting trade with London, 

 Newcastle and Holland bore to the agricultural 

 prosperity of the eighteenth century. Before 

 1805 the larger ocean-going vessels could not 

 ascend the Orwell as far as Ipswich, but had to 

 discharge their cargoes by means of lighters at 

 Downham Reach, 3 miles below the town. In 

 that year an Act was passed for improving the 

 port, so that vessels of 200 tons and drawing 

 12 feet of water might come up to the quays. 

 This modest ideal was realized by the River 

 Commissioners, but much more was soon felt to 

 be needed. Larger schemes for the development 

 were formed, but thirty more years elapsed before 

 public opinion was strong enough to carry them 

 into effect. The first Ipswich Dock Act was 

 obtained in 1837, the foundation stone of the , 

 lock was laid on 6 June, 1839, and the work 

 was completed in January 1842. The quay 

 enclosed has a length of 2,780 feet and a breadth 

 of 30 feet, the surface of the dock being 32 acres 

 and its depth 17 feet. At the time of its con- 

 struction it was claimed as the largest wet-dock 

 in the kingdom. 3 Further powers were con- 

 ferred on the Dock Commissioners by an Act of 

 1852 and many improvements have since been 

 made in the navigation of the Orwell. 



During the same period equally extensive im- 

 provements were being carried out at Lowestoft, 

 although here it was the economic interests of 

 Norfolk rather than of Suffolk that were the 

 primary cause of expansion. In 1827 an Act 

 was obtained by a company consisting chiefly of 

 Norwich merchants and manufacturers authoriz- 

 ing the construction of a waterway for sea-borne 

 vessels between that city and Lowestoft. This 

 canal, which was completed in 1833, connects 

 the Yare with the Waveney, joins the two 

 portions of Lake Lothing, and opens the eastern 

 part of the lake to the sea by a large lock, thus 

 turning it into a spacious inner harbour some 

 2 miles in length for Lowestoft shipping. 3 In 

 1844 the Norwich and Lowestoft Navigation, 

 which connects Beccles as well as Norwich with 

 the sea, passed into the hands of Mr. Samuel 

 Morton Peto, the famous railway contractor, and 

 became absorbed in a larger scheme for the im- 

 provement of the port of Lowestoft. An outer 

 harbour was constructed, enclosed by two piers, 

 which not only furnished a basis for the rapid 

 expansion of the fishing industry, but gave 

 Lowestoft an increasing share in trade with the 

 Continent, especially in imported Danish cattle 

 and foodstufis. 4 



These improvements were, however, subsidiary 

 to the great development of railway communica- 



1 White, Direct. 64. 



* Suckling, Hilt, of Stiff, ii, 74-5. 



4 White, Direct. 553. 



251 



