A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



and fabrics takes place (on the Exchange) and 

 arrangements are made for export. In the 

 cotton trade there is almost complete separation 

 between the businesses of manufacturing and 

 distributing. The bulk of the export passes out 

 through Liverpool — London used to be the 

 leading port — and Liverpool is still the chief 

 English cotton market, though now from one- 

 sixth to one-eighth of our cotton supplies come 

 up the Manchester Ship Canal. In the first full 

 cotton crop year (i September to 31 August) of 

 the canal's working 66,000 bales of cotton 

 passed direct to Manchester. The amount 

 steadily rose, exceeded 500,000 in 1 8 99- 1900 

 and amounted in the succeeding years up to 

 1904-5 to 550, 546, 626, 519 and 737 in thou- 

 sands of bales. At the end of 1904 a cotton 

 association was formed in Manchester to 

 encourage inter alia shipments through the canal. 

 To-day the membership of this association repre- 

 sents 20,000,000 spindles. 



Having observed the main characteristics of 

 local specialism we may now notice the distribu- 

 tion of machinery and operatives among the 

 chief centres : the estimates as to machinery 

 upon which the table below is based are those given 

 byW'orrall, while the figures as to the operatives 

 are taken from the census returns of 1901. 



Distribution of Cotton Operatives in Lancashwe 



AND THE V^ICINITY ACCORDING TO THE CeNSUS 



Returns of 1901, together with the Number 

 OF Spindles and Looms according to Worrall. 



'" Manchester only. 



The number of operatives in places in Derbyshire 



is not separately specified 



'" Includes Foulridge with Colne. 



392 



Two other features of the recent economic 

 history of Lancashire are the formation of the 

 Fine Cotton Spinners and Doublers' Association 

 in 1898, which is practically co-extensive with 

 fine spinning and doubling, and the creation in 

 1902 of the British Cotton Growing Associa- 

 tion which has received a royal charter. The 

 latter association is not the first of its kind in 

 Lancashire : a Cotton Supply Association was 

 formed in 1857 with the same general object^, 

 but it long ago ceased to exist. '^^ 



Dealing and production lie in such close 

 organic relation with one another that an 

 account of the development of the one necessi- 

 tates a corresponding account of the develop- 

 ment of the other. The two chief markets of 

 Lancashire related to the cotton industry are, as 

 we have already observed, the cotton market at 

 Liverpool and the market for yarns and fabrics 

 at Manchester. The cotton market used first 

 to be in London and Manchester, and even when 

 Liverpool took the place of London, Manchester 

 continued to be the place where spinners 

 effected their purchases. It was the success 

 of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway which 

 transferred the buying of cotton by spinners to 

 Liverpool. In 1 8 15, according to Mr. Robert 

 Ellison, who has written a detailed history of 

 the cotton market, there were upwards of one 

 hundred cotton dealers in Manchester. The 

 first circular giving imports and sales of cotton 

 was that of Messrs. Ewart and Rutson, the issue 

 of which (weekly) began in 1805, but Hope's, 

 which appeared later, was the first trade circular 

 devoted exclusively to cotton. Soon after 

 numbers of such budgets of information were 

 being circulated : the first joint circular of any 

 importance appeared in 1832. The Cotton 

 Brokers' Association was founded in 1841, but 

 it was not until 1864 that it undertook the 'issue 

 of a circular and daily table of sales and imports : 

 in 1874 the more complete daily circular began 

 to appear. Since then have been added the 

 annual reports, issued in December, American 

 crop reports, and daily advices by cable, issued 

 each morning. A rival to the Cotton Brokers' 

 Association was set up by the cotton importers 



■"It published The Cotton Supply Reporter (weekly) 

 and issued numerous publications, of which some will 

 be found in the Manchester Public Library (many in 

 the volume marked 677, i, C. i i). 



