129,828 spindles and 4,197 looms, and employed 6,793 operatives of
whom 5,416 were women. The quantity of cloth made was 849,300 yards a
week, or at the rate of 44 million yards a year; raw cotton consumed
38,000 bales, or 15 million pounds yearly.
In 1831, the American manufacture employed 62,157 operatives, of
whom 38,927 were women and 4,691 children. There were beside 4,760
hand-weavers, 40,709 persons employed in accessory labours, making the
whole number of persons engaged directly and indirectly 117,626. The
factories contained 1,246,503 spindles, and 33,506 looms, and produced
230,461,990 yards of stuffs, besides 1,200,000 pounds of yarn, which
were woven in families during the winter. The consumption of raw
cotton was 77 million pounds. The value of the products was 26 million
dollars, eleven millions of which were paid in wages. (_Pitkin's
Statistics_, 526.)
There were in England, in 1834, according to Baines, (_History of
Cotton Manufacture_,) 100,000 power-looms, and 250,000 hand-looms. The
difference between the number of the hand-looms in England and the
United States deserves to be noticed. The hand-weavers in Great Britain
form one of the most wretched classes of the population. The English
factories employed 729,000 persons, or with the dyers, bleachers,
measurers, folders, packers, &c., and all hands employed in building
and repairing the mills, 1,500,000, In 1833 the English factories
consumed 332 million pounds of cotton. The value of their annual
products is estimated at from 30 to 34 million pounds sterling; the
wages of the 724,000 operatives amount to 13 millions.
In 1834, the French manufacture employed 600,000 persons, and the
annual value of its products was about 110 million dollars; quantity of
cotton consumed 100 million pounds. If these statements are correct,
it follows, that our operatives produce less than the English or
Americans.
NOTE 15--page 186.
_Production and Consumption of Cotton._
In 1834, one of our most able manufacturers, M. Koekhlin, made the
following estimate of the production and consumption of cotton
throughout the world.
_Production._
In the United States 437,500,000 lbs.
In India 75,000,000
In Brasil 30,000,000
In Bourbon, Cayenne, &c. 7,500,000
In Egypt and the Levant 25,000,000
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Total, 575,000,000
_Consumption._
In England 375,000,000 lbs.
In France 100,000,000
In the United States 45,000,000
In China 37,500,000
In Switzerland, Belgium, &c. 42,500,000
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Total, 600,000,000
Several other countries not enumerated above yield cotton. China
produces some which she consumes, or exports under the form of
nankeens; Mexico produces nearly enough for her own consumption;
Mr Koekhlin has meant to speak only of what belongs to the general
commerce. He has somewhat overstated the consumption of England, and
underrates that of the United States.