INDUSTRIES 



rarity, might earn is. a day, though oftener the 

 earnings did not go beyond 3^. or ^d. 



A tolerably definite idea of the number of 

 persons engaged in the straw-plaiting before the 

 extensive introduction of foreign plaits may be 

 obtained from Mr. Austin's analysis of the 

 population tables. In 1 84 1 , out of about 1 0,000 

 engaged in the straw-plait and bonnet industty, 

 in the United Kingdom, there were a little over 

 2,500 in Bedfordshire. In 1851 Bedfordshire 

 contained 10,054 out of a total of 27,462 females 

 in England and Wales engaged in the straw- 

 plait making : and 5,055 females out of a gross 

 total of 19,080 engaged in the straw hat 

 and bonnet trade. In 1 861, in England and 

 Wales, there was a total engaged in the plait 

 and hat and bonnet industries of 48,411, includ- 

 ing only 4,154 men. Of these there were in 

 Bedfordshire 1,214 males and 11,476 females en- 

 gaged in plait making ; and 883 males and 7,563 

 females engaged in the hat and bonnet industry ; 

 making a total of 2 1, 1 35 out of a total population 

 for the county of 140,479. In the same year 

 there were engaged in these occupations 11,222 

 in Hertfordshire, 3,487 in Buckinghamshire, 

 and 1 1 5 in Northamptonshire. The only other 

 English counties in which the corresponding 

 return runs into four figures are Essex 2,617, 

 Suffolk 2,014, and Middlesex (including London) 

 1,863. ^'^ th^ same year there were in Bedford- 

 shire 911 boys under fifteen engaged in plait 

 making, and 155 in the hat and bonnet trade ; 

 while there were 4,367 girls under fifteen plait- 

 making and 1,004 hat and bonnet making. In 

 the last census (1901) the returns are : — ^Straw- 

 plait manufacture, 454 males and 480 females ; 

 straw hat and bonnet manufecture, 2,893 males 

 and 7,730 females ; hat, bonnet, straw-plait, &c. 

 dealers, 1 84 males and 1 5 females. Of the plait 

 and hat and bonnet makers only 10 males and 

 34 females were under fourteen years of age. 



To return to the competition between the 

 English and the Italian plait manufacture. The 

 British industty was much improved by the use 

 of split straw and improvements in bleaching ; 

 but large quantities both of plait and of hats and 

 bonnets were still imported. The Society of 

 Arts made many attempts to stimulate the im- 

 provements of the British products. In 1805 

 Mr. Corston of London was awarded a gold me- 

 dal for his rye-straw imitation of Leghorn, which 

 was said to be so good that London tradesmen 

 could not distinguish it from the real Italian. 

 In 1 8 10 Mr. Corston reported that the countty 

 was reaping the benefit of his invention. But 

 in 1823 the Transactions of the Society of Arts 

 again contain complaints of the inferiority of 

 English plait when compared with Italian, due 

 to the fects that in what was called ' patent 

 Dunstable ' the inner surface of the split straw 

 was not always concealed, and that articles made 

 of split straw were inferior to those made of 



equally fine whole straw. Another difference 

 between the English hats and bonnets and the 

 Italian was that, in joining the rows of plait, in 

 the English the edges overlapped, while in the 

 Italian the edge of one row of plait was knitted 

 into the edge of the other. Several attempts 

 were made to introduce the use of grasses. 

 Italian straw was also imported, and the Society 

 of Arts awarded Mr. Parry their large silver 

 medal for Leghorn plait made in England from 

 Italian straw. Despite the difficulties indicated 

 above, however, the English plait and hat and 

 bonnet industry continued to flourish, especially 

 after the introduction of the railways, which 

 transferred the larger part of the trade from Dun- 

 stable to Luton. Originally, the Plait Markets 

 were held in the open streets, but at Luton the 

 erection of Plait Halls, to which straw for plait- 

 ing and plaits were brought for sale by dealers 

 and makers, took the trade out of the streets. 

 The almost universal use oi foreign plaits, im- 

 ported by the hat and bonnet manufacturers 

 themselves, has since rendered the Plait Hall 

 markets obsolete. 



The substitution of foreign plaits for English 

 during the last thirty or forty years has had the 

 effect, not so much of throwing the English 

 workers out of employ, as of changing the char- 

 acter of the work done by them. Several cir- 

 cumstances contributed to the substitution of 

 foreign plait besides the difference in price. 

 Among these circumstances must be reckoned 

 the failure, perhaps the inability, of the English 

 plaiters to meet the continual demand for novel- 

 ties in raw material. The first great influx of 

 foreign plait that had a marked influence upon 

 the production of English plait was from China. 

 Next, the Japanese, who sent commissioners 

 of inquity to Luton, became the leaders of the 

 foreign plait trade. At present, a great quantity 

 of plaits of very various kinds is derived from the 

 Continent. Many other materials besides straw 

 are used in the making of the fancy plaits im- 

 ported from the Continent. One material is 

 that of chemically digested wood fibre, spun into 

 a beautiful silk-like thread, and variously worked 

 up into more or less open plaits dyed in different 

 colours. Many hats and bonnets are now made 

 of black cotton bought in Manchester by Ger- 

 mans and made into plait in Germany and Aus- 

 tria, the plait being sent to Luton, where it is 

 made up into hats and bonnets. Among the 

 curious features of the industry is the use of a 

 Japanese plait into which the Italians run a green 

 straw, and then sell it to Luton manufacturers at 

 less than it would have cost the Italians to make 

 the plait. 



The present variety of plaits is enormous ; and 

 the designs in the make-up amount to thousands. 

 The general continuance of prosperity of the 

 Luton industry in spite of the fickleness of 

 fashion is probably due to the enormous variety 



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