PH_Industry

Introduction

Industry

Agriculture

Population

Appendices

Recommended Reading

An industrial case study: cotton

Cotton was without a doubt the leading sector during the British industrial revolution. It expanded faster and changed more radically technologically than any other sector because the supply of raw cotton was elastic (that is, easily obtainable in increasing quantities, mainly from North America ), cotton fibres were strong and more easily adapted to mechanised handling than wool and, above all, the demand for light, bright, easily washable cotton goods was enormous and very responsive to the lower prices which came with more efficient mass production. (Figures of cotton prices and output are given in Appendix 3). The sector grew to dominate the ebb and flow of export movements in the early decades of the nineteenth century. When cotton exports faltered so did the economy as a whole. Some have argued that the cotton-based first phase of the industrial revolution (before the 1840s) rested too much on the

The Arkwright water frame, patented 1769 Source: Mary Evans Picture Library

shakey foundations of a single transforming sector. The broader based nature of the second phase of industrialisation which emerged with the fuller exploitation of railway and iron technologies after the 1840s put the economy on a more secure footing. Cotton was uniquely important and uniquely innovative for a time, but the profound changes of the period, even before the 1840s, affected many other industries: woollens and worsteds, silk, hosiery, iron, metal wares and pottery, whilst other sectors also changed irrevocably in less dramatic but nevertheless significant ways.

The widespread innovation of the flying shuttle in the mid eighteenth century speeded up the pace of hand weaving and placed great pressure on the spinning branch of the industry because it took six or seven hand spinners to keep a hand weaver supplied with yarn. Three different spinning machines, each one to be improved over the years, together revolutionised both the quality and the quantity of cotton yarn which could be produced. Hargreaves spinning jenny spread quickly in the 1780s, and had a major impact although the yarns produced were weak and suitable only for fustians (which mixed linen warps with cotton wefts). Arkwright's water frame and Crompton's mule followed. The quality and cheapness of yarns produced by these machines from the 1780s onwards meant that British fine calicos and muslins captured the domestic market at the expense of imports from India whilst cotton exports began to rise steeply. The hand powered spinning jenny with up to sixteen spindles fitted into homes and workshops but larger jennies, water frames and mules required large centralised premises and water

Richard Arkwright (1732-1792)
Illustration by Matthew Wright

or steam power. These machines could not have raised productivity or lowered prices so much in the industry had it not been for simultaneous improvements in the efficiency of water wheels, steam engines and transmission systems and in iron producing techniques, which made machinery more reliable and enabled the construction of strong fire-proof buildings which could house heavy machinery. Technological advance in one sector was often dependent upon complementary changes in another. Innovations in bleaching, dyeing and printing gave a further boost to the industry.

Once the production of cotton yarn had been revolutionised. More weaving capacity was required and various attempts were made to mechanise the weaving process. The innovation of powered weaving was however slow not because the technology was ineffective but because there were so many hand weavers available at low cost, their ranks swelled by migrants from Ireland and by women whose opportunities to work in hand spinning and in agriculture were declining. Hand weavers were generally desperate for work even though wages were being squeezed, and it remained profitable for cotton manufacturers to retain them. Hand weavers were also often very resistant to changing from hand weaving in the home to power weaving in a factory because it represented such a fundamental shift in the way of life of a group who had traditionally prided themselves on their relative independence from

employers. The transition to power weaving was thus a long drawn out process. Some steam powered weaving mills were established in the 1830s but hand weavers were still to be found in considerable numbers in various parts of Lancashire and elsewhere as late as the 1860s and 1870s. Although cotton led the way in progressive technology and the adoption of steam power, the industry could be found in many shapes and forms particularly before 1850. There were some giants but typical premises in the 1840s had less than 40 workers, employed a mix of hand and powered processes, were more likely to have water than steam power and often ran putting-out operations alongside centralised activities.

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Moses Griffith, The Crescent Cotton Mill c.1792. Source: Peter Lord, The Visual Culture of Wales: Industrial Society

By 1850 there were 331,000 factory workers in cotton spinning and weaving in 1,932 mills with a total horse power of 83,000. There was about another 150,000 cotton workers outside of factories and a further 31,000 dyers and calico printers. It was the largest single industry by a substantial margin. The mechanised cotton industry became heavily concentrated in Lancashire which had two thirds of cotton factories. Although about half the factory workforce were in mills which did both spinning and weaving, there was a regional specialisation of the two branches of the industry. Spinning factories were concentrated in south Lancashire, especially in Manchester, Oldham and Bolton, whilst weaving concerns dominated in the north of the country, particularly in Blackburn and Preston.