3 The Ulster Linen Triangle: An Industrial Cluster Emerging from a Proto-Industrial Region Marcel Boldorf Whether Northern Ireland can really be regarded as an example of a successful transition into the age of industrialization is the subject of some academic debate. Researchers who take the situation of the whole country into consideration, especially focusing on the Great Famine of the 1840s, tend to a hold onto a rather pessimist view. Particularly, when the Irish development is compared to British industrialization, the effects of de-industrialization and the peripheral state are highlighted (Ó’Gráda, 1988). A variation of this is to speak of ‘Ireland’s industrial decline in the nineteenth century, outside eastern Ulster’ (Clarkson, 1996, p.83). This view takes into account the rapid growth of the linen industry in a specific part of Ulster, the northernmost of Ireland’s ancient provinces. One cannot deny that the history of the Irish has been strongly linked to hunger and pauperism, primarily in sectors such as hand-spinning which, at a certain stage, lagged behind in productivity, thus suffering a slump in earnings (Ollerenshaw, 1985, pp.67–9). However, there might be some evidence for more optimism regarding the province of Ulster, especially when its economic performance is compared to other cases in continental Europe (Boldorf, 2003). A full comparison with other European regions is not the intention of this contribution. The optimistic perspective is assumed as a starting point, and the aim is to present a more complete view of Irish industrialization. The chapter’s methodological foundation is built upon the concepts of industrial districts and clusters. The latter defines regions as geographic agglomerations of companies, or here linen producers, which are linked by externalities and complementarities of various types (Porter and Ketels, 2009, p.173). Again, the two competing approaches cannot 25 26 Marcel Boldorf be discussed here in depth. Instead, the less contradictory and more general outlines of the two concepts will be at the basis of the argu- mentation: the concentration of industries within a region, forming a geographical agglomeration of industrial producers and suppliers. In order to explain the emergence of an industrial cluster, the following will present the various forms of regional trade activities and the organi- zation of production. It will be highlighted that industrial development depended on institutional factors which promoted internal develop- ment. The Northern Irish case is characterized by a major shift in textile production. From the last decades of the 18th century, a cotton machine- spinning cluster emerged which, from 1825 onwards, transformed into a linen cluster. The contribution is structured as follows: the first section describes the origins of the rural industries which were not only closely connected to the agrarian situation but also to political factors. Then, the analytical concept of regional industrialization will be applied to the particular example of Ulster, followed by explanations of the organization of inner-regional trade. Thirdly, the emergence of a cotton cluster within the region is analyzed, while lastly, the concluding section outlines its transformation into a linen cluster. Thus, the chapter provides an over- view of how 19th-century Northern Ireland became the world’s most important exporter of linen products. The foundation of the Irish linen industry Large parts of Ireland were not suitable for agriculture due to the land being infertile. However, sheep-farming was widespread and the produc- tion of woollens had a long tradition. In large parts of the country, the rural workforce was underemployed for several months of the year and a market-oriented production of frieze, a coarse woollen cloth which had been used for generations by Irish peasants for their own clothing, started in the second half of the 17th century. As export opportunities to England arose, auxiliary employment in the production of woollens increased. At the end of the century, around 30,000 Irish households were occupied in the rural woollen industry (Cullen, 1972, pp.23–4). At the same time, there was growth in the planting and production of flax, which was mostly spun into linen yarn and sold to Britain. The rural linen industries continued expanding in the 1680s. As part of the Plantation of Ulster, large tracts of land in the province were acquired by English or Scottish owners. As a result, the property rights of the local population were severely reduced: ‘One of the most important The Ulster Linen Triangle 27 and disastrous of the penal laws’ (Gill, 1964, p.24) of 1702 forbade the long-term leasing of land to the Irish Catholic population. Instead, the British government fostered long-term leasing to Protestant landowners in order – ostensibly at least – to give them the chance to improve the quality of the soil. But the new group of owners was more interested in speculation than in improving the agrarian situation. As a result, short- term leases to Catholic sub-contractors became a feature of Ulster. The impact of short-term leasing was permanent uncertainty among the leaseholders surrounding their income. Many of them decided to grow flax and earn their livelihood from spinning. Both activities could be easily financed up front – in contrast to sustainable farming. Very often, the profitable activity of linen weaving was added to the house- hold’s activities. This particular situation explains why the flood plains of the rivers Bann, Lagan and Foyle had considerable proto-industrial activity despite offering favorable conditions for agriculture. The assump- tion of the proto-industrialization theory that poor agrarian conditions explain the growth of rural industries holds true for only parts of Ulster (Kriedte, Medick and Schlumbohm, 1981, p.14). Stimuli from abroad promoted the further expansion of linen spinning and weaving. The first linen shipment to London was recorded in 1682 (Crawford, 1988, p.33). In 1696, the English government allowed the duty-free import of all sorts of coarse and white linens (Clarkson, 1989, p.261). In 1705, linen exports to the British overseas territories were permitted and Irish linen began to compete with products from central Europe in those markets. Another stimulus was the arrival of Quakers from northern England from 1650 onwards and, later, the immigra- tion of French Huguenots. Conrad Gill explains the location of linen weaving in northern Ireland primarily through their settlement (Gill, 1964, pp.20–2). William Crawford points out that linen weaving was practiced on 500 looms before the Huguenots’ arrival (Crawford, 1980). He wanted to put into perspective the role of potential entrepreneurs such as Louis Crommelin who in later parliamentary debates claimed to be the doyen of Irish linen manufacture. In any case, the density of Protestant settlement was highest in the counties of Antrim, Down, Armagh, Tyrone and Londonderry, which later formed the core of the proto-industrial linen region. Local centers were towns such as Lisburn or Lurgan, to the west of Belfast. The foreign settlers brought important skills with them into the country, documented in Crommelin’s book An Essay towards the Improving of the Hempen and Flaxen Manufactures in the Kingdom of Ireland , published in 1704. The immigrants were impor- tant in two respects for Irish linen manufacture (Clarkson, 1989, p.260). 28 Marcel Boldorf Firstly, they introduced into Ulster the production of fine linens, damask and diapers. These innovations were utilized by a number of Lurgan bleachers such as Thomas Turner, James Bradshaw, John Nicholson and John Christy in the first decades of the 18th century (Crawford, 1980, pp.114–15). Secondly, they used their contacts with the parliaments of Dublin and London to improve the situation of linen manufacturing. In 1711, the Irish Parliament introduced the Board of the Trustees of the Linen and Hempen Manufactures of Ireland, the Linen Board (Corry, 1784). The Board’s task was to promote the manufacture of linens across the whole of Ireland. Mapping the linen region Shaping the industrial region of Ulster is more complicated than in other European examples because in the 18th century data on means of production (weaving looms) or employment (number of persons occupied with spinning or weaving) were not recorded for small terri- torial units such as districts, counties or parishes. So far, we have seen that with respect to linen manufacture, Ulster was obviously the most important among the four Irish provinces. It consisted of nine counties: Donegal, Londonderry, Antrim, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Armagh, Down, Monaghan and Cavan. But many indicators suggest that the linen region consisted of only five of these counties. At the very end of the proto- industrial period, when data on employment is available, the census of 1841 revealed that industrial employment was by far higher in Antrim, Armagh, Down, Londonderry and Tyrone than in the other counties of Ireland (Clarkson, 1996, p.76). It can be assumed that the five counties were previously also the richest in terms of industrial activities. The clas- sification according to employment criteria is particularly unreliable in the Irish case because larger parts of the linen region offered favorable agrarian conditions. In Ulster, a type of weaver household was prevalent which included all stages of the production process under one roof: from flax growing and preparation to yarn spinning and hand-loom weaving. On the part of the cultivated land that was not needed for subsistence production, flax was grown. Spinning was a production stage that was always done by female household members, whereas the weaving looms were operated by men. It was the children’s and servant’s duty to do the preparatory and post-processing work around spinning and weaving. Circumstances changed when the shortage of land was intensified as a result of population growth. More and more families could not grow their own flax any longer and had to buy yarn on specialized markets.