3 The Triangle: An Industrial Cluster Emerging from a Proto-Industrial Region Marcel Boldorf

Whether Northern 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 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 . 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 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 production. From the last decades of the 18th century, a 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 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 , a coarse woollen cloth which had been used for generations by Irish peasants for their own clothing, started in the second half of the . 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 , which was mostly spun into linen and sold to Britain. The rural linen industries continued expanding in the 1680s. As part of the , 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 ’ (Gill, 1964, p.24) of 1702 forbade the long-term leasing of land to 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 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 (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 of Antrim, Down, , Tyrone and Londonderry, which later formed the core of the proto-industrial linen region. Local centers were towns such as or Lurgan, to the west of . 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 , 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, 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 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: , Londonderry, Antrim, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Armagh, Down, Monaghan and . 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 (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. The Ulster Linen Triangle 29

Thus, the importance of flax and yarn markets grew, and the primary and intermediate products were delivered to Ulster’s markets. Yarn jobbers came from counties outside Ulster such as , Mayo, Leitrim or Meath to sell linen yarn (Gill, 1964, pp.38–9). The spatial distribution of linen markets, too, can be used as an indicator to map the industrial region. The concentration of those markets in Ulster is documented in the two reports of the Linen Board’s secretary, James Corry, established for the years of 1816 and 1821 (Corry, 1822). At this time when rural industries were already widespread, his overview encompassed 70 flax and 50 yarn and linen markets. Flax markets were also located outside the five proto-industrial counties, especially in Donegal, whereas the linen and yarn markets were concentrated in Antrim (6), Armagh (4), Tyrone (8), Down (8) and Londonderry (2) as we can see in Table 3.1, extracted from Corry’s report. Table 3.1 shows the markets in order of turnover. The markets with high turnover lay in the counties of Antrim (£2773 on average) and Armagh (£2450), with average turnover in Tyrone (£1483) and Londonderry (£990), and low turnover in Down (£438). The best-selling markets were to be found in a line running south-west of Belfast to Armagh, among them Lisburn, Lurgan and Tandragee. Together with and , they were diversified markets where not only simple linen sorts were sold but also the more expensive fine cloths. Therefore, they had the highest prices per web (column 7). The types sold there were the so-called lawns (used for producing handkerchiefs and children’s clothing), diapers and damask-diapers. The area marked by the towns of Lisburn, and Armagh (the south of Antrim, the centre and west of Down, and the north of Armagh) is called the linen triangle (Crawford, 1988, pp.48–9). The three other sub-regions were (a) north-western Ulster (Co. Tyrone and Co. Londonderry) known for three-quarter wide linens (3/4) and 7/8 linens called Tyrones and Coleraines, (b) northern Antrim with the central markets of and producing ‘three-quarters’ as well and (c) the south of Armagh with the speciality of one-yard-wide Stout Armaghs, another type of coarse brown linen. Thus, in 1816, the linen region was segmented in the different zones, corresponding with specific frame- works of trade relations. Apparently, the eight markets of Co. Down did not play an important role any more. Corry’s report records a rather advanced stage of the proto-industrial development. The putting-out system had already emerged in eastern Co. Down, leading to the decline of local markets. In the next paragraph, the organization of trade will be explored in more detail. Table 3.1 Ulster linen markets, 1816

Market place and day Sellers Buyers Principals Comm Webs Turnover £ Price

Lisburn (Tue) Antrim 350 50 40 10 1,400 5,000 3.6 Belfast (Fri) Antrim 400 60 45 15 1,000 4,000 4.0 Tandragee (Wed) Armagh 300 40 12 28 550 4,000 7.3 Dungannon (Thu) Tyrone 1,200 110 40 70 1,800 4,000 2.2 Armagh (Tue) Armagh 300 200 100 100 2,800 3,800 1.4 Ballymena (Sat) Antrim 1,000 80 30 50 1,500 2,500 1.7 (Tue) Tyrone 660 55 27 28 720 2,360 3.3 Ballymoney (Thu) Antrim 800 72 32 40 1,300 2,200 1.7 Lurgan (Fri) Armagh 400 30 15 15 840 1,850 2.2 (Fri) Tyrone 450 50 15 35 600 1,600 2.7 (Fri) Antrim 350 25 9 16 440 1,500 3.8 (Sat) Tyrone 450 40 20 20 500 1,300 2.6 Portgleone (Tue) Antrim 600 35 20 15 600 1,200 2.0 (Wed) Londonderry 350 70 30 40 400 1,130 2.8 Banbridge (Mon) Down 250 60 30 30 580 1,038 1.6 Newry (Thu) Down 300 50 10 40 536 922 1.7 (Sat) Tyrone 500 60 20 40 500 920 1.8 (Sat) Londonderry 250 26 24 2 250 850 3.4 Downpatrick (Sat) Down 500 50 28 12 500 750 1.5 Ballygawley (Fri) Tyrone 200 20 10 10 260 650 2.6 Stewartstown (Wed) Tyrone 200 25 10 15 210 630 3.0 Newtownstewart (Mon) Tyrone 200 24 8 16 200 400 2.0 Kirkeel (Wed) Down 150 15 10 5 300 400 1.3 Kircubbin (Wed) Down 40 6 4 2 150 300 2.0 Portadown (Sat) Armagh 50 10 5 5 100 150 1.5 Rathfriland (Wed) Down 50 20 15 5 54 66 1.2 Ballinahinch (Thu) Down 16 5 4 1 20 17 0.9 Hillsborough (Wed) Down 4 4 4 0 5 8 1.6

Annotation: ‘Principals’ (column 3) are merchants attending the markets themselves, however sometimes they only send their commissioners (column 4). ‘Webs’ (column 5) indicates the number of webs sold on a usual market day, the turnover (column 6) gives the resulting sum in pounds (£). The price in £ (column 7) is a result of the ‘turnover’ per ‘web’. Source : Corry (1817). The Ulster Linen Triangle 31

The organization of trade

Before analyzing the structure of trade within Ireland, the ’s exports must be examined because they explain the dynamics of rural industrialization over time (Figure 3.1). In contrast to the increases and decreases due to wars and other trou- bles in continental Europe, Irish export statistics show steady progress (Horner, 1920, p.407). In the 1780s and early 1790s, the amount of linen exports doubled from 20 to 40 million yards. They stayed at that level for the two first decades of the 19th century, thus the crisis years of 1801, 1807 and 1812 can be neglected. In 1818, export exceeded 50 million yards for the first time, and underwent a further increase in the era of mechanization that followed. In 1771, half the Irish exports were shipped to England from the port of Dublin: 30 per cent from Belfast and 14 per cent from Newry (Stephenson, 1784, p.87). The rest was distributed via smaller ports such as Drogheda, Cork, Derry, and Coleraine. Belfast rapidly caught up as linen exports grew in the 1780s, and ultimately became the main ship- ping location. Most of the entrepreneurs involved were successful linen bleachers who possessed the capital to get involved in trade. With the support of the drapers, linen traders who had formerly sold their goods

80,000,000

70,000,000

60,000,000

50,000,000

40,000,000 In yards 30,000,000

20,000,000

10,000,000

0 1712 1722 1732 1742 1752 1762 1772 1782 1792 1802 1812 1822 1832 1842 1852

Export 10-years trend

Figure 3.1 Irish linen exports, 1712–1852 Source : Gill, 1964, pp.341–3; Solar, 1990, p.69. 32 Marcel Boldorf in Dublin, the Belfast Linen Hall was erected in 1785; this meant the end of the heyday of the drapers, which had lasted from 1740 to 1780. This group of merchants had believed that the system of public markets provided them with the most efficient method of purchasing the linens they required. They relied on the certainty that the quality of the cloth was uniform throughout each piece and that its minimum measure- ments were guaranteed (Crawford, 1988, p.42). In the 1780s, the previously dominant merchant type of drapers was divided into three types: The first type corresponded to the traditional form of draper who travelled from Ulster to Dublin and delivered linens to the old linen hall. The second type grew their trade to such an extent that it was impossible for them to attend the linen markets in person. They hired commissioners who visited the Ulster linen markets and bought up the cloth for their principals. They were often located in the newly opened Belfast Linen Hall but could also be found in other cities. As can be seen in Table 3.1, they were the most numerous of the diversified markets of the linen triangle. The third type were small linen traders who had close commercial ties to the weaver population and built up a putting-out trade. These draper-manufacturers procured yarn and often gave work to a whole manufacturing village. Sometimes, they combined their putting-out activity with the bleaching of the cloth. There is a debate in literature about the relevance of this third type: The use of the term ‘manufacturer’ in the sources seems to have influ- enced Gill’s view. Robert Stephenson used it as early as 1754 in his report to the Irish Parliament, and Gill refers to this, citing his definition of a manufacturer: ‘He who was possessed of a larger capital established a small factory, or purchased or prepared the yarn for the loom, and employed the cottager to weave it. They are now called the manufac- turers.’ (Stephenson, 1754; Gill, 1964, p.146) According to this descrip- tion, a larger proportion of formerly free weavers became journeymen or cottagers, whereas others were upgraded to capitalist businessmen. This divergent development, although frequently occurring, may not be representative of the whole proto-industrialized linen region; Gill esti- mates that in 1816 two thirds of the 70,000 Ulster linen weavers worked for wages. For him, the manufacturer became the model entrepreneur for the whole of Ulster (Gill, 1964, pp.144, 162, 279). This view is chal- lenged by Crawford, who emphasizes that Gill’s view holds true for only part of the linen region and that the linen markets maintained their importance in the first decades of the 19th century (Crawford, 1988, pp.33–7). Corry’s report (1817) gives an accurate picture of this. A closer look reveals that the putting-out system only emerged in some parts The Ulster Linen Triangle 33 of the linen region, where it did not necessarily harm the weekly linen markets. However, in other areas like in eastern Co. Down, the linen markets lost their importance, and intermediate traders such as jobbers sold the cloth on the larger central markets within the linen triangle. It should be noted that the putting-out system was dominant in the fine linen weaving sectors. One of the most famous damask manufac- turers in Ulster was William Coulson, a Scot, who settled in Lisburn and built a factory there in 1766. He soon developed a large business ‘the first really successful vertical combination in Ireland’ (Gill, 1964, p.155). Dubourdieu emphasizes in his ‘Survey of Antrim’ that Coulson employed ‘inside and outside the factory, about 250 looms, one with the other to two hands each, making the whole number about 500.’ (Dubourdieu, 1812, p.392) One of the particularities of the production of fine linens was that more than one person was engaged: ‘Some of the patterns are so extensive as to require from 4 to 16 persons to attend the loom.’ (Dubourdieu, 1812, p.391) A similar description is given by Coote in his ‘Survey of Armagh’ for the nearby town of Lurgan where various fine linen articles, principally , lawns, diapers and -, were produced. For instance, the yarn for fine diapers, which were used as table linens, remained in the possession of the manufacturer, ‘who gives it out to the weaver on task work; this man will earn nearly double the wages of any other kind of weaver’ (Coote, 1804, p.340). We see that the wage-dependent weavers earned better wages than their fellow weavers working on their own account, who produced coarse cloth of poorer quality, as the acquisition costs for the more sophisticated looms were too high for a simple weaver to afford them. Although processed by manufacturers, some of the fine linens were still sold at the town’s markets, as Corry’s 1816 report reveals. Table 3.1 shows that the highest average prices were paid in Lisburn’s and Lurgan’s weekly markets. In other written reports on the Ulster counties, there are some more hints on the putting-out system: In the Few Mountains in the south of Co. Armagh, small manufacturers had farms of only 10 to 20 acres, where they employed a handful of weavers (Coote, 1804, p.138). In Co. Antrim, diapers and damask-diapers were mostly woven by journeymen at home (Dubourdieu, 1812, p.391). It was said in Co. Down the manu- facturers ‘who keep a number of looms, and acquire a quantity of yarn beforehand, are often those who suffer greatly, as often as they gain, due to the fluctuation of the markets.’ (Dubourdieu, 1802, p.234) Here again we see that small manufacturers sold the cloth on nearby markets. However, in a comparable report for Co. Londonderry such indica- tions are missing (Sampson, 1802). In the large markets of Co. Tyrone 34 Marcel Boldorf and Co. Londonderry, such as Coleraine, Derry, Strabane, Cookstown, Omagh and others, the number of pieces of cloth sold almost equaled the number of sellers attending the weekly markets (Table 3.1, Columns 1 and 5); each weaver sold one piece of cloth which he had been able to fabricate within one week. Higher ratios of 1.5 to 2.3 can be noticed in the markets at the edges of the linen triangle such as Dungannon, Newry and Banbridge, or Ballymena and Ballymoney in northern Antrim. We can assume that self-employed and wage-dependent weavers coexisted in the hinterlands of these markets. To sum up, Crawford’s assessment is confirmed that the putting-out system was restricted to the linen triangle and its surroundings. This sub-region competed with the cotton industry which emerged in the second half of the 18th century.

Emergence of a cotton machine-spinning cluster

Compared to other European countries, cotton arrived late in Ireland. Around 1750 the main sites of cotton manufacture were outside Ulster, mostly in southern Ireland. Some large employers added the manu- facture of the imported raw material to their other commercial activi- ties (Gill, 1964, pp.87–90). New establishments in cotton manufacture were given generous grants by the Linen Board. In 1782, the Belfast citizen Robert Joy was among the first beneficiaries in the north; he had become acquainted with cotton machine spinning while travelling in . Together with his partners McCracken and McCabe he erected a spinning mill in Belfast (Dubourdieu, 1812, pp.400–3). The machinery was provided by Nicholas Grimshaw, an English printer, who had previously settled in Belfast. In 1784, he decided to engage in machine spinning as well, and founded, with the financial support of the Linen Board, the first northern Irish twist-mill, in Whitehouse between Belfast and . From this time on, almost all the grants went to Ulster. When the American War of Independence ended, cotton could be imported directly from overseas. Belfast’s significance for raw cotton imports increased steadily in contrast to the southern Irish ports of Dublin and Cork (Dickson, 1977, pp.105, 108). The cotton trade spread out across the linen triangle. Lisburn, the important centre of the linen trade, was soon awash with the new material. As the town was not suit- able for the use of water power, James Wallace, a bleacher from Lambeg, Co. Down, originally from Yorkshire, founded a steam-powered mill with the aid of two Glasgow engineers. The establishment was the first of its kind in Ulster. The production of machine-spun cotton yarn continued The Ulster Linen Triangle 35 to spread in Belfast and its surroundings. At the turn of the 19th century, cotton manufacture provided employment for 13,000 people within a radius of ten miles of Belfast, and indirectly to another 14,000 (Gill, 1964, p.233). The growth of cotton machine spinning continued until around 1812, when the Ulster industry reached a scale comparable to that of northern Switzerland (Crouzet, 1964). At the same time, weaving spread in coastal areas, notably in the south of Co. Antrim, the north and east of Co. Down and in parts of Co. Armagh (Boldorf, 2006, p.242). In the town of in the Belfast region, cotton weaving was the main activity. In nearby Carrickfergus, cotton weavers numbered 127 in 1812, and in the small port town of Bangor, east of Belfast, there were 283 and 77 linen weavers in 1821. Cotton took over the eastern parts of Co. Down as most of the weavers shifted to the new material, ‘though somewhat different in the execution, militated very little with his ancient habits’ (Dubourdieu, 1802, p.235). Linen remained dominant west of a dividing line through the middle of Co. Down; only in certain places, primarily towns, was linen replaced by cotton. The reason was that most of the manufacturers who put out the cotton yarn were town residents who had established direct trade relations with cotton yarn importers of the port towns or with the Ulster cotton spinners. In some places, the weavers went to the warehouses of large manufacturers in order to acquire yarn and sell the finished cloth. Thus, the model of small manufacturers travelling by land was less common in Ulster, except for the jobbers’ activities. Putting-out was linked to central spots in the coastal areas with good access to raw material imports and extended to places of manufacture with close ties to exporters of the woven cloth. When David Dickson writes that the Irish cotton industry was ‘by international standards fairly unimportant’ (Dickson, 1977, p.100), this might hold true in comparison to the British textile industry. But the backwardness was not at all obvious when continental regional exam- ples or peripheral British regions are taken as a reference point. The adoption of the recent English innovations in the late 1770s, spinning jennies and carding machines, occurred at a rather early stage. However, the most important effect of the emergence of the cotton clusters was the externalities of the newly introduced production methods, which significantly affected the traditional linen industries. The first effect was that cotton production and manufacture could serve as a technical model. Cotton spinning made use of machines driven by water power or later by steam engines. The new innovative entrepreneurs had contacts with the most advanced industrial districts 36 Marcel Boldorf in the . Key innovations such as the flying shuttle were intro- duced at a rather early stage, for instance by Joy, McCabe and McCracken in their spinning mill (Gill, 1964, p.234). When the steam spinning process for flax was discovered in the mid-1820s, the first movers came from the cotton sector. A second effect was that the newly introduced putting-out system could serve as a role model for the organization of trade. From the start, putting-out prevailed in the cotton industry. The weavers did not buy yarn themselves, but received it from a manufacturer who operated on a larger capital base. This guaranteed sales for the weavers and facilitated the application of new techniques and more sophisticated spinning looms, as a single self-employed craftsman could not have afforded to buy such a loom without financial aid. Thus, the manufacturer’s activity fostered the spread of innovations. The entrepreneurs of the linen sector had to react by improving their production methods and commercial activities. The third effect was related to wage differentials. In the 1770s the income of a linen weaver was around six shillings per week and remained so until 1811 even though the costs of living rose during that time. The earnings potential for cotton weavers was better. and weavers earned from 9 to 15 shillings a week, calico weavers from 12 to 15 shillings, and muslin weavers from 18 to 21 shillings (Gill, 1964, p.237). The demand for workforce in the cotton sector led to shortages on the sub-regional job market and fostered the switch from linen to cotton. The opportunities for lowering the cost of linen production were scarce, so the only way to increase productivity was to start the manufacturing of fine linens. Thus, the diffusion of cotton weaving promoted the spread of more sophisticated linen-production forms, at least in the linen triangle. Dubourdieu reports that for 1812, the Lisburn putting-out merchant William Coulson had to pay wages of 30 shillings per week to his weavers in order to prevent them from trying other weaving methods (Dubourdieu, 1812, p.394). In large parts of the linen triangle, fine linens held their ground against competition from cotton. The production of coarse linens, however, gradually disappeared in the area.

Transformation into a linen cluster

Due to competition from the ’s industrial boom in , the Irish cotton industry failed to grow after 1820 (Dickson, 1977, p.111). The change in relative cost advantages made profitable spinning The Ulster Linen Triangle 37 for the Irish mills increasingly difficult. Coal had to be imported, and the companies still depended on the purchase of machines from Manchester or Glasgow. Ulster failed to build up a machine industry of its own and the imported machines had to be kept running by Scottish or English engineers (Ollerenshaw, 1985, p.67). The spread of rural cottage weaving decreased as well. Thus, crucial linkages to other production sectors did not develop. This situation changed when the fundamental innovation of powered wet flax-spinning was introduced after James Kay’s invention of 1825. Previous attempts to launch machine spinning in the Ulster linen sector had not been successful, as the technology for dry spinning had not been sophisticated enough. By 1817, more than half of the 14 early flax-spinning mills had gone bankrupt (Gribbon, 1969, pp.91–5). But after Kay’s invention, a mature technology was available that enabled the linen yarn to be spun faster and cheaper than by hand. The news of the new method spread fast across Ireland, propagated by Peter Besnard, Inspector of the Linen Board for the three southern provinces. In 1826/27, the Linen Board received several requests for financial aid, for example from Joseph Nicolson, a large putting-out merchant, who already ran a mill and wanted to build new machines along Kay’s plans (Gill, 1964, p.317). The Board granted him half the £200 he had asked for. At that time, some smaller sums were granted to some other Ulster entrepreneurs. But in 1828, this practice stopped when the Linen Board was dissolved, as the new liberal policy deemed subsidies to be no longer appropriate. Although the policy of subventions was stopped, 45 machine flax- spinning mills were founded prior to 1840 in Northern Ireland (Boldorf, 2006, pp.304–7). Two types of foundation dominated: Firstly, some bleachers within the linen triangle but outside the Belfast area set up small mills. Most of these entrepreneurs had little capital, and introduced flax-spinning machines driven by water power, seldom with more than 1000 spindles. Secondly, and more importantly, the established mills in the Belfast cotton industry turned from cotton to linen. Although the assertion that the cotton mill’s profitability sank is questionable (Geary, 1988/89), the attractions of the linen sector seem to have decided the entrepreneurs to switch to it. A ground-breaking conversion was made by the Belfast cotton spinner John Mulholland; when his establishment in York Street burned down in 1828, he decided to start again, but in the linen trade, and erected a flax-spinning-mill on the same site. His mill was the first urban steam-driven wet flax spinning mill in Ireland. It developed into a company that employed 5000 workers by the end 38 Marcel Boldorf of the 19th century (Ollerenshaw, 1985, p.70). His example attracted substantial further investment in steam flax-spinning right across the linen triangle. Between 1827 and 1834, 16 large cotton spinners turned from cotton to linen, among them the most important Belfast cotton producers. Moreover, a numbers of manufacturers who were involved in the putting-out trade became founders of steam-driven flax-spinning mills. The abundant supply of machine-spun linen yarn had several effects in Ulster. In the southern and eastern parts, it led to further expansion of the putting-out system. The immediate slump in the earnings of hand spinners motivated them to switch to the weaving sector. The existing manufacturers, who sometimes employed 1000 weavers or more, bought the yarn of the newly erected Belfast mills. However, this process did not lead to a rise in wages, which remained on the same low level as in the decades before (Boldorf, 2006, pp.256–7). To achieve better earnings, parts of the rural population moved to Belfast. Some of the first hand- loom linen weaving factories emerged in the city. The entrepreneur Maclerath owned two factories: one establishment produced sack linen and sailcloth on 33 looms, and its qualified workers earned 14 shillings a week. In the second factory, damask was produced on 75 Jacquard looms, where the workers received only five to ten shillings per week. This example shows that the level of wages in the Belfast textile industry was no longer comparable to the beginning of the 19th century, when the best paid cottage workers could earn up to 21 shillings a week. R. M. Muggeridge, a member of the Irish Parliament, wrote in 1838 about the spatial distribution of linen weaving: ‘Throughout the counties of Down, Antrim, Derry and Armagh, many thousand weavers, formerly weaving for the market, are now in the regular employ of manufac- turers, and though they still retain their looms, have no property in the materials in them. Almost all of those who yet continue weaving on their own account, combine the character of small farmers, and retain the loom as an auxiliary to their agricultural operations.’ (Anon., 1840, p.711) In the linen district as the core of the linen region and in some adjacent areas, too, the manufacturers were the dominant figures in the rural industries. The putting-out system had turned out to be the most efficient way to deliver the output of the spinning mills to rural workers. The manufacturer combined the distribution of yarn with the collection of the woven cloth, thus acquiring in-depth knowledge of production as well as trade. Besides that, traditional production methods were main- tained in the region’s periphery, where independent weavers still relied on the combination of industrial and agrarian activities. On the whole, The Ulster Linen Triangle 39 the machine-spinning cluster emerged within the industrial region, but only partly transformed the organization of rural weaving.

Conclusions

An aspect which merits comparative study in greater depth is the absence of regulation on trade and production in Ireland, especially in comparison with continental European (Boldorf, 2003; 2009, pp.191–4). The prevailing freedom of trade allowed Ulster’s sub-regions to develop according to their comparative advantages, thus promoting a dynamic form of regional development. Competition within the region was crucial for the building and, after 1825, the rebuilding of Ulster’s indus- trial clusters. Moreover, the lack of restrictions in Ireland lowered the barriers for entry into machine-spinning for new entrepreneurs. When a potential spinning-mill founder wanted to follow successful pioneers in the field, his opportunities for doing so were rather favorable. In this way, the spread of knowledge was facilitated by attracting imitators who could rely on the generally low labor costs. However, it must be admitted that the knock-on effects remained limited because of the close ties with British industry. Mill founders often migrated from the United Kingdom, willing to make use of the advantage of cheap labor. For branches other than , the loca- tion factor was not always favorable for Northern Ireland. For example, Ulster heavily depended on the import of coal and, due to the relatively high costs for energy, had no advantage in that field (Ollerenshaw, 1985, p.67). As a consequence, the province failed to build up a competitive industry in the machinery sector. Although an industrial textile cluster emerged, Ireland’s industrialization was not fully successful, because some of the knock-on effects did not have an impact on the country as a whole.

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