A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



almost immediately after the war, a contemporary writer resident in the 

 town describes the trade there as inferior to few places in the kingdom. 

 It consisted he says, ' of woollen frizes, fustians, sackcloths, and mingled stuffs, 

 caps, inkles, tapes, points, &c.' In addition to these there were, says the 

 writer, ' all kinds of foreign merchandise, bought and returned by the mer- 

 chants of the town, amounting to the sum of many thousand pounds weekly." 

 More evidence of the manufacture of so-called ' cottons ' or ^'Justians,' for 

 which Manchester was now famous, is given by Fuller in 1662.'" In another 

 part of the same work he tells us that these ' fustians ' were manufactured from 

 ' Cotton wool or yarn coming from beyond the sea.' Bolton, he says, was 

 ' the staple place for this commodity, being brought hither from all parts of 

 the country.' ^- A more precise interpretation of the division of work among 

 the Lancashire towns is given by Dr. Aikin, who explains that fustians were 

 manufactured round Bolton, Leigh, and the adjacent places, bought ' in the 

 grey ' at Bolton market by the Manchester merchants, finished at Manchester 

 and despatched from there to other markets.'" Fuller tells us that haber- 

 dashery or small wares were also a marked feature of the Manchester trade."" 



In spite however of all this apparent prosperity, the close of the seven- 

 teenth and early part of the eighteenth century proved a particularly trying 

 time to English cloth and fustian manufacturers. They had now a great 

 and dangerous rival in the East India Company, who were doing an enormous 

 trade in the export of fine stuffs, particularly muslins and calicoes, from India 

 to the British market.'" This, combined with the French cloth trade, which 

 during the close of the seventeenth century had almost driven English cloth 

 out of the European market,'" caused a very serious trade depression in late 

 Stuart and early Georgian England."^ The importation of cotton wool, 

 which remained almost stationary during the first half of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, affords proof of the stagnant condition of the weaving trade. The 

 enterprise of Manchester may, however, have saved the situation in Lanca- 

 shire, for Dr. Stukely reported the trade there to be still 'incredibly large.''" 

 This may have been due to the support gained from the ' fustian ' trade, for 

 Defoe, touring about Britain in 1726-7, testifies to the increasing size of 

 Manchester at that time.'" Another writer, whose work was published in 

 1749, mentions Manchester as being noted for its 'cottons' or 'fustians,' 

 and for various other articles known as ' Manchester wares.' ''" 



Although the south Lancashire trade was largely in the mixed material 

 known as fustian, the evidence that the tendency during this period was 

 towards a species of hybrid cotton manufacture is too strong to be disregarded. 

 The Manchester weavers and merchants wished to produce a cotton cloth, 

 but they were hampered by the lack of the contributing materials. By the 

 middle of the seventeenth century they were evidently struggling bravely in 



'" IVorthles of England, notice of Humphrey Chetham, a celebrated Manchester cloth merchant who 

 flourished c. 1 63 5. Also quoted, Baines, Hist, of Cotton Manuf loi-z. 



'" IVorthies, i, 537 (ed. 181 1). "' Hist, of Manchester, 158. 



'" H^orthies, ibid. "' Ure, Cotton Manuf 99. 



»" Ibid. ; also Samuel Bros, Poland Woollen Manuf. 85. 



^*' Cf. Daniel Defoe's observations in the Weekly Review (Jan. and Feb. 1708), that Indian fabrics were 

 worn by everyone, even by the queen herself, and nothing remained for the English people but to ' see the 

 bread taken out of their mouths and the East India trade carry away whole employment of their people.' 



"' Itinerarium Curiosum 1724, quoted, Baines, Hist, of Lanes, i, 328. 



"' Tour through the whole Island of Britain (1727), iii, 219. "° Owen, Brit. Depicta (ed. 4), (1729), 24. 



300 



