WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. 



Brought forward - - 7430000 



Combing and fpinning 3680COO lbs. of wool 43 1 0000 



Winding, warping, and weaving - - 4770000 



Dyeing of yarn and pieces ... 190000 



Profit of the wool-dealers, manufafturers 1300000 



Total value of 1500CO pieces coming from! .Oqqqqqq 

 the manufafturer - ■ " J 



Value of dyeing-wares ... 500000 



To whicli carriage and profit of the mer-1 ,000000 

 chant and draper ■ " " J .^_^^__ 



Total value of worfted goods in Picardy 20500000 



One million and fifty thoufand pounds weight of wool 

 were alfo confumed in hofiery in the fame province, of 

 which the greatell part was native ; and the remainder about 

 two hundred and fifty thoufand pounds weight from Hol- 

 land. The number of working manufafturers in Picardy 

 is thus Hated : 



50000 men who gain 1^0 Wires per annum 7000000 



50000 women 70 - - 35COOOO 



150000 children 40 - - 6000000 



The greater part of the manufaifburers refided in the 

 country, and were employed part of the time in agriculture ; 

 this was alfo the cafe with the manufafturers in the towns, 

 fo that not more than eight months in the year were de- 

 voted to manufaftures. This change of employment, fo 

 conducive to the health and comfort of the labouring 

 claffes, may be regarded as prefenting the happieft form under 

 which manufactures can be carried on. This was alfo in a 

 confiderable degree the fituation of the woollen and worded 

 manufafturers in Yorkfliire, before the late introduftion of 

 machinery had driven the population into large faftories ; 

 a change which may be regarded as one of the greateft 

 evils that ever afBifted civilized fociety, tending direftly to 

 degrade and enfeeble the human race, and to render man a 

 wretched machine, a prifoner from the cradle to the work- 

 houfe or the grave, devoid of moral feeling and phyfical 

 energy. 



What was the extent of the worfted manufacture in the 

 other provinces of France where it was carried on, we have 

 no correft means of afcertaining. In the middle of the 

 laft. century, the export of cloths and worfted goods from 

 Languedoc alone amounted annually to about 60,000 

 pieces, fent to the Levant and to Barbary. At that time 

 alfo, Spain, and all the countries bordering the Mediterra- 

 nean, received worfted goods from France. In the variety 

 of worfted articles, in the ingenuity of the patterns, and the 

 fuperiority of the workmanftiip, as well as of the dyes, 

 France may be regarded as having furpaifed any other na- 

 tion in Europe, prior to the year 1780, or about the clofe 

 of the American revolution. Since that period, the manu- 

 faftures of England have aftoniftiingly increafed, and have 

 obtained a decided preference in foreign markets. 



The woollen manufactures of Saxony and Germany have 

 been long eftabliftied ; the fugitives from the edift of Nantz 

 contributed much to improve and extend them. During 

 the late war, all the manufaftures in Germany and every 

 part of the European continent fuffered greatly, but are at 

 prefent rapidly reviving, and will abridge the amount of our 

 exports in Europe. 



In Ruflia, Sweden, and Denmark, the woollen manufac- 

 ture, as a diftinift occupation, is comp:;ratively new ; yet 

 it has exifted long enough to produce great alteration 



in their flocks. And as this change was attempted in a 

 more enlightened period, and condufted by fcientific men, 

 the beft. means were adapted to promote the improvement, 

 and new breeds of ftieep have been introduced into both 

 countries. The fame remark applies to Saxony and other 

 circles of the German ftates, and even Hungarian flock$ 

 are not without evident mdication of a change for the 

 better. 



Of the worfted manufafture as diftinft from the wooUen, 

 we have little information refpefting its origin. It com- 

 prifes all thofe goods made of combed wool in dillinftion 

 from carded wool. We are unacquainted with the period 

 when the wool- comb was invented, or when worfted goods 

 were firit manufaftured. It is probable, that' worfted 

 goods were originally woven in the Eaft, and that the 

 knowledge of them was brought into Europe either by the 

 Armenian merchants, or tliofe who returned from the ex- 

 travagant expeditions which were undertaken for the reco- 

 very of the Holy Land from the dominion of the infidels. 

 The garments which are now worn by the Turks, fome of 

 which feem to have been produced by means of the comb, 

 the incidental mention of that inftrument in an account 

 which we have of Angora, and the demand for worfted 

 goods through the Levant, confirm the conjecture, and lead 

 us to fuppofe, that there exift very confiderable manufac- 

 tures of this kind in the Turkifh empire, although we know 

 little more of its domeftic and rural condition, than can be 

 obtained from the molt vague accounts and uncertain de- 

 ductions. After the art of fpinning worfted yarn was 

 known in the weft of Europe, the looms of the Nether- 

 lands became aftive in converting it into thofe peculiar kinds 

 of goods to which it was adapted, and it feems as though 

 the diftinftion between thefe and woollen articles was not 

 generally noticed until fome years afterwards. It might have 

 been expeftcd from the nature of the article, that the manu- 

 facture of worfted goods fliould in many fouthern countries 

 have preceded that of cloth. Long-ftapled wool fuited to 

 the comb feems more fpontaneoufly the produce of unculti- 

 vated fheep, than ftiort wool, which is to be manufactured 

 by carding, and its mode of manufacture more nearly re- 

 fembles that of flax ; hence it is not improbable, that worfted 

 goods were made in Egypt and the Eaft before the manu- 

 facture of woollen cloth. This is, however, uncertain. 



In the manufacture of long wool, the fibres are arranged 

 parallel to each other, like thofe of flax ; but before they 

 are fpun, they require to be laid even by fome kind of in- 

 ftrument, which {hall feparate the fibres, that they may draw 

 out eafily in fpinning. A comb of a very fimple conftruc- 

 tion, with a few wires for the teeth, was probably firft made 

 ufe of. It was afterwards found, that the application of 

 heat to the comb contributed more effectually to the regu- 

 lar arrangement of the fibres ; and thus the invention of the 

 common wool-comb arofe, but at what period is unknown. 

 Vulgar tradition afcribes the invention to biftiop Blaize, who 

 firft ufed it in Alderney ; but there does not appear any au- 

 thority in fupport of this opinion. The bilhop Lved in 

 Armenia, and was raifed to the epifcopal dignity about the 

 time of Dioclefian, and fuffered martyrdom under that 

 tyrant. Before he was beheaded, he was tortured with 

 iron combs, with which his flefti was torn ; and hence when 

 an inftrument of that kind was brought into common ufe, 

 the workmen chofe him for their patron faint. The tradi- 

 tions of the origin aiid progrefs of the worfted manufafture 

 are thus extremely imperfeft ; we ftiall have occafion to fpeak 

 of its introduftion and progrefs in this country in the fol- 

 lowing feftion. 



Rl/c 



