MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 



a comparatively permanent arrangement to the mass, 

 and such as had never been obtained before. In- 

 creased utility combined with a beautiful effect would 

 be the outcome of this disposition of the materials, 

 and it could not fail to strike observers very forcibly. 

 Such would possibly, even probably, be the first woven 

 fabric, and its conspicuous advantages would speedily 

 secure extensive imitation and general adoption. This 

 conjecture, it may be observed, is based on a sub- 

 stratum of fact." 



In every country the amount of weaving must depend 

 of course upon the amount of spinning, or cotton and 

 wool products that are manufactured in, or imported 

 into, the country. For obviously the weaver cannot 

 work unless he has threads or yam to work with. 

 Until the beginning of the eighteenth century the 

 balance of production of spinning and weaving was 

 practically equal in England and Western Europe, 

 both spinners and weavers producing their products 

 by manual labor only. In the seventeenth century, 

 however, England began extensive trading with India, 

 and the English merchantmen returning from the 

 Orient began bringing into Great Britain quantities 

 of cotton cloth made by the Indians. This importation 

 soon threatened the English spinning and weaving 

 industries, and was restricted by legislation at the be- 

 ginning of the eighteenth century. But these laws had 

 only a restricting effect, without absolutely stopping the 

 traffic, and they fell very far short of solving the problem 

 of overproduction by the spinners. The weaver was un- 

 able to weave the yarn as fast as the spinner could make it. 



[41] 



