A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



benefit clubs and friendly societies. The evidence pointed to the fact that in 

 i8 16-17 whole families in Manchester were being supported out of the 

 rates, that the chief distress was caused by lack of work among the weavers, 

 and that more than half the applicants for relief were Irish, The witnesses 

 further affirmed that the methods of pauper relief were not appreciated 

 either as regards the offer of work in the workhouse factory or in street 

 scavenging. At least three refused for one that accepted it. 



At Bolton**" the witnesses declared the population in 181 1 to be 18,000 

 persons and the poor rate there had gone up to such an extent that in 18 17 

 it had increased to more than double that of the previous year. The in- 

 habitants were chiefly engaged in cotton weaving, wage averages being 4J-. td. 

 for weavers, 1 5J. for spinners, and for labourers 9J. a week. The workhouse 

 was full, the poor wishing to enter. Early marriages were frequent and 

 illegitimate children upon the increase. Though there were many friendly 

 societies there were no savings-banks there. 



To add to the miseries of the population a period of commercial dis- 

 tress and of extensive bankruptcy accompanied the wild speculation in the 

 cotton business. From the lucrative possibilities of the trade numbers of 

 small men had gone into the business, much capital was sunk in mill build- 

 ings and machinery, many mills were started without sufficient capital to 

 finish them or to stock them when finished, some were built on the fragile 

 credit of paper money. The panic of 1825 involved hundreds in ruin, and 

 the mills became the property of the contractors or of the mortgagees.*"* 



The spinning and weaving trade did not recover the effects of this disas- 

 trous crisis until the thirties, by which time new men, who had taken over 

 the abandoned mills at panic prices and who had set more cautiously to work, 

 were beginning to gain ground once more.*" Trade was improving, but 

 once more the speculative element regained its ascendancy, and in the 

 words of a manufacturer giving evidence before the commission, Lancashire 

 speculation promised ' to be as wild as ever.' **' The new features in the 

 trade were {a) the rise in the prices of the raw materials, which by the year 

 1833 had risen 15 to 20 per cent.*"' and {b) the rise of foreign competition. 



Nevertheless, in spite of these drawbacks, evidence was given on all 

 hands before the Parliamentary committees investigating the matter, that 

 the state of trade was excellent, and that there was a profit to be obtained 

 from the manufacture of cotton even at the increased price of raw material.*"' 

 The calico printing trade was admittedly prosperous and satisfactory,*"' and 

 between 18 14 and 1830 it was acknowledged that the yarn export trade had 

 never flagged.*^" 



The silk trade had been started in Manchester on the ruins of the hand- 

 loom cotton and fustian trade, and was not in the thirties fully, though partly, 

 absorbed by the power-loom. About 10,000 to 12,000 silk weavers, 



'" Pari. Rep. m Handhom Weaving, No. 1 79, pp. 1 96-7. Bolton. 



'" Fori Rep. on Handhom Weaving (1834-5), 167, par. 2349 et seq. A witness gave evidence that just 

 about the time of the panic there were 'either just built or in course of building or contracted for 100 mills 

 within thirty miles of Manchester.' Elsewhere a witness before the Select Committee on Manufactures &c. 

 (1833) observed that out of thirty-two cotton manufacturers he knew personally in the trade from 1812-26^ 

 twenty-eight had failed ; Rep. of Select Com. on Manuf. &c. 559, par. 9278. 



*" Cf. ibid. 558, par. 9253, 9254. «» Pari. Rep. on Handloom Weaving, 167. 



"^ Rep. of Select Com. on Manuf. &c. 96. "« Ibid. 91, 96. 



*" Ibid. 221, Clitheroe. "o Ibid. 251, par. 4127. 



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