A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



shuttle, but the winding and dressing of the yarn. How could he compete 

 against the power-loom weaver, who, though he only received a third the 

 price that the handloom weaver got, yet, by managing two or three looms 

 could turn out as many as five pieces to the handloom weaver's one ? Thus 

 the fine handloom weaver would charge -js. 6d. for his piece, and the power- 

 loom weaver would only get zs. bd. for his, but as he could produce five pieces 

 at this price his week's earnings were \zs. td. as against js. bd. of the hand- 

 loom weaver's."' 



The following table gives the earnings of five weavers, average workmen, 

 at Blackburn, and other places, for twenty successive weeks, reduced to an 

 average of one weaver per week in the years 183 1-4: 



♦17 



YlA« 



PU« 



Per Week : One Weaver 



183^ 

 183 + 



1831 



i8;2 

 1833 

 1834 



1831 

 1832 



18^,3 

 1834 



iS-,i 

 1832 



■833 

 1834 



1830 



1831 

 1832 

 183^ 

 1834 



Blackburn 

 »» 



Preston 



Bamber Bridge 



Chorlcy 



Wage I. d, 



7 7 



7 "i 

 6 5J 



oj 



4 

 o 



7 

 9 

 6 



7i 



2 



9i 



10 



2 

 o 



8 9J 



A Preston firm gave evidence that there were fifty-one handlooms in 

 Preston and the neighbourhood whose total weekly earnings were jTa 3 i 5^. 6d., 

 averaging qs. T^\d. per loom. These weavers, who were all most industrious 

 people, and weaving a finer quality of cloth than those of the Colne district, 

 could earn amongst them js. per loom, or a man and his wife working two 

 looms, 14J. between them. One couple, mentioned as aged thirty-four and 

 thirty-five years respectively, were earning 1 6s. i od. the pair ; and another 

 family of a father, mother, and a lad could earn i gj. 3*^. the family. But 

 all these weavers would be shortly out of employment, for the manufacturer 

 who gave the evidence admitted he was going to employ power. 



The evidence of the witnesses was most emphatically given to the effect 

 that almost every week the power-loom was making encroachments on the 

 handloom ; that all fustians were now made by power, as well as all printing 



'" Pari. Rep. on Handloom Weaving, 151. 



"' Copied from the Pari. Rep. on Handloom JVeaving, 130, par. 1751. 



312 



