The Lancashire Cotton Industry A Study in Economic Development SHERRATT I% HUGHES Publishers to the Victoria University of Manchester Manchester: 27 St. Ann Street London : 65 Long Acre SYDNEY J. CHAPMAN, M.A., Stanley Jevons Professor of Political Econonty, and Dean oJ the Faculty of Co~ltmercein the University of Manchester fif ANCHESTER AT THE UNIVERSITYPILESS 1904 PREFACE. T~II~essay is intended chiefly as a description and of the typical forms that have appeared from time to time in the production of commodities, the market- ing of commodities and the distribution of income, in the Lancashire Cotton industry. It is, therefore, far from being complete as a history or even as an account of the Cotton industry. As a rule I have omitted events which UNIVERSITYOF MANCHESTEILPUHLI(:ATIONS do not bear closely on the industry's internal development, however interesting they might be from the point of view No. IV of economic history broadly conceived. Questions con- nected with the magnitude of the industry and its successes in competing with rivals lay outside the scope of my enquiry though they border upon it. As to foreign trade I have been concerned only with the manner in which it is conducted and the links by which the demand for Lancashire goods abroad is connected with the mill and the factory. My work in short might be taken funda- mentally as some notes for an industrial morphology. On the whole I have taken for granted, neither describing nor analysing, the environment and the changes in environment of the Lancashire Cotton industry-for instance those determining its size-whereby some of the developments herein described have been conditioned. Had my study been made comparative it would have been improved, but its appearance would have been indefinitely delayed. PREFACE In certain chapters much is said of the opinions held organised industry. Its solution is complex, varied and by those who share in the earnings of the Cotton industry. progressive. General statements much the same in Such opinions, as to the natures and grounds of wages, character might be made as to the most suitable form of profits and control, have played some part in settling production. The right form is multiform. Private industrial forms, the actual sharing of wealth, and the management, joint-stock companies, large and small, quantity of wealth produced. They have varied with the labour co-partnership, cooperation, regulated monopolies, character of the industry and the general lines of social to mention only some general forms, have each their advance. It has been a striking feature in the history of respective spheres of operation in an industrial world which the Cotton industry that the classes of labour (employers ,as by no means simple in the days of our great-grand- and employed) which unite in producing have frequently parents, and which with the rapid progress of the acted under the influence of different guiding notions as nineteenth century has become much fnore complicated. to their relations to one another, and the grounds for There is another interesting case of dependence of one their several shares, and have been brought on several form upon another to which the reader's attention might be occasions to a deadlock in consequence. I have tried specially directed, namely, the mutual determination to indicate the general outlines of these guiding notions- exercised between the state of industrial organisation and the fundamental claims of labour and capital as we might the conditions of marketing. say-which are universally operative though seldom My obligations are numerous. Many workers in explicitly stated, and to explain their variations. A the Cotton industry-employers, operatives, officials of fundamental aim must be distinguished from the proximate trade unions and employers' associations, and others ends which are adopted in consequence of its existence. connected with the trades in cotton, yarn and cloth-have In the course of my investigations I have been kindly provided me with information, and I have been impressed with the close dependence of the forms of privileged to visit numerous mills and weaving-sheds. distribution on the forms of production. Industrial conflicts More than once Professor Marshal1 has aided me with have been caused by attempts to enforce old distributive counsel and criticism. Portions of the work have been arrangements after they have been rendered inappropriate read by Dr. Cannan, Mr. Elijah Helm and Mr. H. by changes in productive forms. The problem of Verney, and I have profited from their suggestions. distribution ought to be studied not only as a whole in Mr. W. G. S. Adams has been good enough to read for me general, but also in connection with typical industries in almost the whole of the proofs. Miss M. Vernon gave me particular, for the forms of production are not the same some help in preparing the manuscript for press, and my throughout the industrial world and they change at has worked with me in revising the manuscript, different times. The so-called 'labour problem' is complex, preParillg tables, correcting proofs, and in all that is like the conditions of industrial life which give rise to it, involved in bringing out a book. To all who have thus and its variations are at least as numerous as the types of assisted me I hereby offer my hearty thanks, and I have iv PREFACE also to express my acknowledgements to the Editors of the Econovzzc JournnZ and the Council of the Manchester ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. Statistical Society for permission to re-print papers which have appeared in that journal and in the transactions of that society. CHAPTER I . The researches of which this essay is the result were EARLYFORMS . PAGB begun six years ago when I was elected to the Jevons ~~t~blishnlentof the Cotton Industry in Lancashire and the early trades of 3lanchester .....................1 Research Studentship at the Owens College. and two years Earl fornl of the industry ..................... later my work in an unfinished form was awarded the ConJuct of foreign trade ................. ... 35 &Ianchester nlercllants and other dealers ...............6 Adam Smith Prize in the University of Cambridge. Various classes of weavers ...........................9 The process of nlanufacture .....................12 General lines of development .....................14 S. J . CHAPMAN. CHAPTER I1 . TIIE COMINGOF THB F,LCTORY SYSTEMIN Two factory syste~ns......... Developnlent of nlacliinery ...... Hand-loom sheds ......... Increase of small masters ...... Changes in the forill of the industry The coniincr of the power-loon1 ... ~uhsidiar~~inventions......... Recent inventions related to weaving CHAPTER 111. TIIE HAND-1~00~T5T~ii~~~~ . Lednditions in tl~eEighteenth Century ...............36 Earl decline in tl~eprices for coarse weaving ............ 39 condition of the distressed wearers ..................40 C>eneral decline in earnings .....................43 Town and colintry weavers .....................44 Causes of the distress of the hand-loon1 weavers ............45 Weavers on ' steam-looms ' .....................48 note on legislation affecting the British Cotton Industry ...... 49 CHAPTER IV. THE COMIXGOF THE FACTORYSYSTEII IN SPINSING. TWOindustrial revolutions in spinning ...............53 Development of machinery .....................53 Tile introdnction of tile water-frame and the water-franle nlills ... 55 Jennies and mules and tile factories in which they are used ...... 58 Internal arrangements of a11 early factory ...............61 I'aylllent for . turnillg ' and spinning on conmlission ......... 62 Exportation of arlls ........................65 Rf"le-spinniIlg {;fore the invention of the self-actor ~nule ...... 68 of the self-actor 111ule ..................69 Throstle- and ring.spinnin<c .....................70 Dereloplnerlt of IrlacllineryDfor processes preparatory to spinning ... 71 CONTENTS CONTENTS CHAPTER V CHAPTER IX. THE ATTITUDETOWARDS MACHINERY TRADE UNIONSAND EMPLOYEES'ASSOCIATIONS, EARLY DAYS PAGE AND THE TRANSITIONPERIOD Effect of the new n~acli~neryon the splnners 74 P IGE nitferent att~tudestowards nlach~nery 75 EarlJ con~b~nat~onsamong the weavers and them connect~onwit11 Mac111ne wrecl~lng 76 3cl~e~~iesfor fr~endly benefit 180 The ' Long wheel str~hes 7'3 111o~e1~1entfor steadylnfi prlces (appeals to the Government, the Reasons for the oppos~t~onto rnacllmery 81 qrreat str~keof 1'112, and the posltlon of the masters) 184 ApP~ntlc~s~llpreg~ilat~ons 190 CHAPTER V1 Tile first con~binat~onsamong the splnrlers and the x~olenceIn early dajs 193 FACTORYLEGISLATION ~~~ialgamatl~llsamong the splnners and general trades' urllons 201 'Ihe treatment of cl~lldreneniployed ~n the cotton industry 85 Masters Aszoclat~onsand the development of ' tact~cs' 206 Insan~tarycond~t~ons 89 The old and the new spmt (the att~tndeof trade unions to wollien Factory leg~slat~onrelating to tlie hours of work and the exclusion of worker5 and emigration) 212 young cl~~ldrer~ 90 New cor~ccptlonsof the relat~onof en~ployedto employers and the Att~tlideof the cotton operat~vesto Factory legslat~onand the condit~onsof the time (' hnmg' and 'truck') 216 ground5 for tlie~ratt~tude 97 The trade unlon n~ocer~~entheconies a ' labour' niol ement, a soc~al Effect of the Factory Acts on the cost of product~onand wages 105 niox elriellt, and a polltlc~~ln~ote~nent (011 en~sn~, Chart~sm, and Leg~slat~onto dirn~n~shthe dangers arlsxng from the use of n~ach~nery107 CO operat~on) 222 San~tat~onand cond~t~onsof health