1880-1 '-*■ [Blodyct. 



At the first examination I had the opportunity to make of the textile 

 industries of Philadelphia, I was struclt by the evidence afforded that they 

 represented a migration and transfer which would soon attain uiucli greater 

 proportions, and which even then deserved public attention as an impor- 

 tant interest. I published a list of mills in 1857, and again in 1858, writ- 

 ing frequently in regard to it, and reprinting the Census of 1860, of which 

 I had tlie supervision so far as related to manufactures. In that year I had 

 the opportunity to show to Mr. W. S. Lindsay, member of Parliament from 

 a north of England district, the work of thousands, recently emigrated from 

 Nottingham, Leeds and other manufacturing districts, claiming that a trans- 

 fer of those industries was in progress which would have a great influence 

 on the future of the United States. Again in 1870 the evidences became 

 still more decisive and the ratr; of progress much more rapid, but it was 

 reserved to the period from 1876 to 1880 to complete what must be regarded 

 as the most striking and massive t)f the great historic movements which 

 have, since the 15tli century, carried from one nation to another the crown of 

 ascendancy in textile industries. I am well aware that it will not be 

 admitted in many quarters that this movement has gone so far as I claim. 

 This point is not material, however, if the facts of rapid progress in tliat 

 direction are conceded. No one can deny that the most important suc- 

 cesses have attended the effort to establish the textile industries here, and 

 that they represent an extent of employment of productive power in looms 

 and machinery exceeding the most prosperous days of Seville or of Man- 

 chester. 



The point of interest in the philosophic sense is this apparent relation of 

 national development to these greater industries. It is singular that they 

 liave migrated as national supremacy has changed its place, or more proba- 

 bly that an enforced migration has been the chief agency in building up 

 one country at tlie expense of another. Spanish prosperity may very nat- 

 urally have been supposed to be inseparable from the Spanish race during 

 the period in which Ferdinand and Isabella "published one hundred and 



inand and Isabella, and the Emperor Charles V, as follows: "The ancient his- 

 " torians, more Inclined to speak of battles, sieges, revolutions and other events 

 "that make a noise in the world, than to transmit the publick measures in fa- 

 " vor of commerce, take little notice of the provisions m.-vde for its eiicourage- 

 "inent by our great monarchs, who most distinguished themselves by their 

 " wisdom in the arts of peace and war. King Ferdinand, the Pious was of this 

 "class, and in his reign there is mention of one circumstance on this head, 

 " thiit after he had rescued the city of Seville from the yoke of the Mohamme- 

 "dans in 1248, he settled there many artificers who are the basis of a profilable 

 "commerce, which is alone attainable by good manufactories." Next, their 

 Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella, by statutes of 147S to 1494, made various reg- 

 ulations in favor of manufacturers of silks, brocades and cloths, and the said 

 Ferdinand and Queen Juana, his daughter, in 1.511, " published 119 laws respect- 

 " ing the fabrication, dying and sale of cloths and stuflfs, everyone of which 

 "tended to make improvements in these manufactures." Also, the Emperor 

 Charles V., by statutes of 1528, 1549, 1.552 and others, added a hundred further laws 

 regulating these industries, but during this century the imposition of heavy 

 inlernal taxes aided the transfer of many textile industries to Flanders, and in 

 part to France. — ISee Kippax's translation, 17.51. Vol.. I, p. 196, Ac. 



