INDUSTRIES 



It would be as well, perhaps, to supplement this 

 table at once with more recent figures, the reader 

 being reminded at the same time that the yarns 

 produced have been getting finer on an average. 

 In 1816-20 the annual amount of cotton re- 

 tained for home consumption had been about 130 

 million lb.; in the semi-decades 1831-5, 1851-5, 

 1876-80, and 1896-1900 it became respectively 

 290, 750, 1,275, and 1,575 million lb. The 

 total annual value of our exports of manufactures 

 for the same periods beginning with 1816-20 

 were 16, 19, 32, 68, and 67 in millions of 

 pounds. In interpreting these values the great 

 fall in general prices between 1876 and 1 8 80 and 

 1898 and 1900 must be borne in mind ; had 

 general prices been constant the value of the 

 export in 1 896-1 900 would have been about 

 j^90,ooo,ooo. 



The numbers of operatives employed and their 

 ages and sex are displayed in the following 

 tables. The first (taken from the census returns) 

 shows the male and female operatives engaged in 

 different processes in Lancashire side by side 



with those in other parts of the country. Some 

 confusion is caused by the census classification 

 having been altered twice in the period. Dealers 

 in cotton goods are not now separately specified. 

 The second and third tables give the numbers of 

 each sex engaged at different ages ; the former 

 table is compiled from the returns of the Factory 

 Inspectors (first appointed under the Factory Act 

 of 1833), and the latter, which is put forward to 

 supplement it, from the census returns. The 

 former table refers to the United Kingdom and 

 the latter to England and Wales, but the 

 percentages of each class ought to be typical 

 generally of Lancashire. The fourth table 

 shows distribution of operatives by sex and age 

 between the two chief branches of the industry. 

 This, too, covers the whole industry, and not 

 only the part contained in Lancashire, but it is 

 not quite exhaustive. Other tables relating 

 to the distribution of cotton operatives at 

 different times and between the various towns 

 of Lancashire will be found on pages 382 

 and 392. 



From the Census Returns 

 {^he figures in itafus relate to married and widowed women) 



In Thousands 



389 



