IMPROVEMENTS IN WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. 



5.5 



time more than 1,300,000 persons were employed oa 

 woollen articles, and were supposed to earn, one with 

 another, sixpence a-day for 313 working days, amount- 

 ing in all to £11,737,500 yearly. 



In 1742, the English poor suffered much from the 

 contempt with which home manufactures were regarded 

 by the nobility, in consequence of which the latter 

 were speedily the losers. The importation of woollen 

 broad-cloth, of the manufacture of France, into ports of 

 the Levant, on behalf of British subjects, being not only 

 prejudicial by discouraging the woollen manufactures 

 of Britain, but likewise a means of affording relief to an 

 enemy, and discoveries having been made of British 

 subjects fraudulently shipping from Leghorn quantities 

 of French woollen goods for Turkey, under the deno- 

 mination of British, to the great detriment of English 

 woollens ; an act was passed in the 23d year of King 

 George II. by which provision was made against these 

 and other fraudulent practices. 



(57-) Improvements in the manufacturing of Wool- 

 lens. — At the commencement of the reign of George 

 III. the woollen manufactures advanced with a rapi- 

 dity almost unparalleled in modern times as regards 

 other branches of trade. Till about the year 1770 most 

 of the processes were conducted by hand. The wool 

 was spun by various persons at scattered residences, 

 the manufacturers receiving the yarn periodically Irom 

 the numerous spinners. This arrangement caused much 

 loss of time, and gave rise to frequent squabbles between 

 the masters and their workmen. In fact, all the ope- 

 rations were tardy in the extreme. But at this period, 

 the spirit of public and private inquiry was happily 



