SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



Meanwhile the construction and wider distribution of spinning machines 

 had greatly affected the woollen trade, so that the spinning of woollen yarn 

 went on with incredible swiftness, and the geographical vicinity of Colne, 

 Bury, and Rochdale to the West Riding of Yorkshire drew them into the 

 woollen manufacture which flourished there."' 



The almost magical increase in the speed of producing cotton yarn 

 caused a great drain upon the raw material, which, till the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, had been but sparingly imported from Smyrna and 

 the West Indies and forwarded to Lancashire from London."* Now and 

 henceforth the only thing that could keep the spinners going was a large, 

 continuous, and cheap import of cotton. The crying necessity for Manchester 

 and the industrial districts of Blackburnshire and Salfordshire was a seaport 

 where the cotton might be delivered directly from foreign parts on to Lanca- 

 shire soil. Among the remarkable coincidences which went so far to make 

 possible the profitable working and development of the cotton industry in 

 Lancashire was the fact that it fortunately possessed exactly such a seaport 

 as was needed, and that at the actual critical moment when it was needed it 

 became available. This was no other than the port of Liverpool. 



During mediaeval and Tudor times Liverpool was overshadowed by the 

 domination of Chester. It had, however, a growing importance as the port 

 of arrival and departure for Ireland, and early in the sixteenth century wool 

 was being imported from that country by way of Liverpool to be sold, spun, 

 and woven at Manchester.''^ But Liverpool also had its own market, and 

 'Irish silks' and other goods were being sold there in 1538."' Early in 

 Elizabeth's reign (1564), a merchant was imprisoned there for exporting or 

 otherwise dealing in ' Manchester ruggs ' and other goods ; ""^ and in the same 

 year a citizen and grocer of London was suing for the prices of certain 

 wares, spices, and ' calico cloth,' sold to a merchant at Liverpool."' Some 

 kind of foreign trade evidently came there, for in 1573 the queen was 

 suing the searcher of ports for the subsidies of tonnage and poundage on 

 wines, wools, leather, and other merchandise from foreign parts that came 

 either to Liverpool or to any other ports of Lancashire."" 



Leland mentions the trade of Irish merchants, and the imports of Irish 

 yarn which Manchester merchants bought at Liverpool ; '™ and Camden refers 

 to this port as affording ' the most convenient and most frequented passage to 

 Ireland.' Still, the traditional dominance of Chester repressed its strivings 

 after independence, and in Elizabeth's reign the burgesses styled the place ' her 

 majesty's poor decayed town of Liverpool.' "^ 



By the middle of the seventeenth century Liverpool had attained a 

 position of some distinction,"' for in the Lancashire petition of 1646 it is 



^ Samuel Bros, ffool and Woollen Manuf. At the same time it must be observed tliat the evidences of 

 the antiquity of the woollen industry in north-east and east Lancashire are quite as plentiful as they are for 

 the West Riding of Yorkshire. 



'" Ure, Cotton Manuf. i (ed. 1861), 186. 



'" Duchy of Lane. Plead, v, m. 2 (19 Hen. VIII), and ibid, viii, T. 2. 



'«« Ibid, xi, W. 9 (30 Hen. VIII). '" Ibid, lix, G. i. 



'"» Ibid, lix, M. 14. '«' Ibid, cv, H. 3. 



"" I tin. (Hearne, ed. 3), vii, fol. 56, p. 47. "' Quoted by Baines, Hist, of Lanes, (ed. Harland), ii, 300. 



'" A comparison between Chester and Liverpool in 1618, instituted by the Privy Council, showed that 

 Chester with its creeks had 15 vessels of 383 tons aggregate, manned by 63 men, while Liverpool had 24 of 

 462 tons, manned by j6 men, which sufficiently disposed of Chester's claim to precedence. 



