278 SMALL INDUSTRIES AND 



occupation in the villages of the counties of 

 Nottingham and Derby ; and several great 

 London firms send out cloth to be made into dress 

 in the villages of Sussex and Hampshire. Woollen 

 hosiery is at home in the villages of Leicester, 

 and especially in Scotland ; straw-plaiting and 

 hat-making in many parts of the country ; 

 while at Northampton, Leicester, Ipswich, and 

 Stafford shoemaking was, till quite lately, a 

 widely spread domestic occupation, or was car- 

 ried on in small workshops ; even at Norwich it 

 remains a petty trade to some extent, notwith- 

 standing the competition of the factories. It 

 must also be said that the recent appearance of 

 large boot and shoe factories has considerably 

 increased the number of girls and women who sew 

 the " uppers " and embroider the slippers, either 

 in then* own houses or in sweaters' workshops, 

 while new small factories have developed of late 

 for the making of heels, card-boxes, and so on. 

 The petty trades are thus an important factor 

 of industrial life even in Great Britain, although 

 many of them have gathered into the towns. 

 But if we find in this country so many fewer 

 rural industries than on the Continent, we must 

 not imagine that their disappearance is due 

 only to a keener competition of the factories. 

 The chief cause was the compulsory exodus from 

 the villages. 



