INDUSTRIES 



Operatives of Different Ages engaged 

 Industry in the United Kingdom. 



IN THE TWO Chief Branches of the Cotton 

 (From Returns of Factory Inspectors) 



The figures in this table are not quite complete, except for 1901 ; the relations between 

 the changes shown for each class should nevertheless be accurately represented. 



Machinery in the United Kingdom has been 

 returned oiBcially as follows : — 



After the absorption of the cotton industry by 

 the factory system, an interesting process of dif- 

 ferentiation took place. Weaving and spinning 

 had been more or less united in the industry in 

 its earliest form ; the inventions of machinery 

 brought about specialism and disunion, which, 

 indeed, was practically necessary when spinning 

 was done by power and weaving by hand. 

 Cartwright's invention caused the two processes 

 to be brought together again, each power-factory 

 tending to become a cotton industry in minia- 

 ture. Mr. W. R. Grey stated in 1833 to the 

 Committee of the House of Commons on Manu- 

 factures, Commerce, and Shipping, that he did 

 not know of any single person then building a 

 spinning mill who was not attaching to it a 

 power-loom factory. After some years, how- 

 ever, the split again reappeared. The cause was 

 partly the economies of industrial specialism, 

 ; partly improvements in marketing which ren- 

 dered dissociation less hazardous than it had 

 been, and partly the development of qualitatively 

 dissimilar markets (the cotton market, the yarn 

 market, and the market for fabrics) in varying 

 degrees, so that much manufacturing (as weaving 



is termed) became a business of a type different 

 from spinning. Further, the specialism of busi- 

 nesses has evolved also in each of these broadly 

 contrasted branches of the cotton industry, and 

 the specialized sections have tended to localize as 

 well as the two main groups. This specialized 

 localization is referred to as follows by the late 

 Elijah Helm (sometime secretary of the Man- 

 chester Chamber of Commerce), the extent of 

 whose local knowledge was such that his utter- 

 ances on this question are peculiarly authori- 

 tative : — 



Spinning is largely concentrated in South Lanca- 

 shire and in the adjoining borderland of North 

 Cheshire. But even vifithin this area there is further 

 allocation. The finer and the finest yarns are spun in 

 the neighbourhood of Bolton, and in or near Man- 

 chester, much of this being used for the manufacture 

 of sewing-thread ; whilst other descriptions employed 

 almost entirely for weaving, are produced in Oldham 

 and other towns. The weaving branches of the 

 industry are chiefly conducted in the northern half of 

 Lancashire — most of it in very large boroughs as 

 Blackburn, Burnley, and Preston. Here, again, there 

 is a differentiation. Preston and Chorley produce 

 the finer and lighter fabrics ; Blackburn, Darwen, and 

 Accrington, shirtings, dhooties, and other goods exten- 

 sively shipped to India ; whilst Nelson and Colne 

 make cloths woven from dyed yarn, and Bolton is 

 distinguished for fine quiltings and fancy cotton dress 

 goods. These demarcations are not absolutely ob- 

 served, but they are sufficiently clear to give to each 

 town in the area covered by the cotton industry a 

 distinctive place in its general organization.'" 



Manchester has become more and more the 

 commercial centre where the dealing in yarns 



Average for 1898 and 1899. 



"' Printed in British Industries (edited by W. J. 

 Ashley). 



391 



