=In England and Wales.=--_Hull_, the _Tyne Ports_ (Newcastle, Gateshead,
and Shields), and _Sunderland_, with London, form the great outlets of
the east of England. _Liverpool_ (with Birkenhead), ranking with London
in maritime importance, and _Bristol_, are the great outlets and seats
of commerce in the west of England, as _Southhampton_ and _Plymouth_ on
the Channel are in the south.
The most important of all the textile industries of England is that of
cotton, which has centered itself in _Manchester_ and in its satellite
cities on the coalfield of Lancashire and Cheshire (Preston, Blackburn,
Oldham, Wigan, Bury, Rochdale, Bolton, Stockport, Macclesfield), drawing
a dense population round these centers, with their thousands of
factories, fed with raw material from abroad, and relieved of their
manufactured products by Liverpool and the port of Manchester.
The woolen manufactories, next in importance, are on the opposite side
of the Pennine chain, in the great towns of _Leeds_ and _Bradford_, as
well as in Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield, and Dewsbury, clustering
round these. Linen manufactures center at _Barnsley_, farther south,
also on this Yorkshire coalfield. Three outlying woolen manufacturing
centers may be noted; these are _Leicester_, in a famous sheep-raising
district, and _Kidderminster_, noted for its carpets, _Stroud_,
_Bradford_, and other towns in the west of England, noted for the
quality of their cloth. Newtown, in Montgomeryshire, is the center of
the Welsh flannel trade.
Hardwares have two great points of production--the one round
_Sheffield_, on the Yorkshire coal and iron field, the other round
_Birmingham_ and the towns on the South Stafford coal and iron field
(Wolverhampton, Wednesbury, Bilston, Dudley, Walsall), called the “Black
Country” because large parts of it are so completely cut up with
collieries and ironworks that no cultivation exists.
In North Staffordshire, between the iron and the cotton manufacturing
regions, lies the “Potteries,” a district which by supplying coal is
able to maintain its staple industry. _Stoke-upon-Trent_ is the center
of the cluster of Pottery towns (Burslem, Longton, Hanley, Tunstall),
all connected by lines of busy hamlets. Worcester, on the Severn, is
also celebrated for its pottery.
English silk manufacturers give importance to three separate districts,
those round _Congleton_ and _Macclesfield_, in Cheshire; Derby; and
_Coventry_, in Warwickshire. _Nottingham_ town combines silk and cotton
manufactures in hosiery and lace work. _Stafford_ town supplies boots
and shoes to all the manufacturing towns which lie round it.
The coal trade of North England centers in the _Tyne Ports_ and
Sunderland, which are also famous for their iron, ships and engines, and
their chemical works. The South Wales iron and coal field has its heart
in _Merthyr Tydfil_, one of the largest towns of Wales; _Cardiff_, with
fine docks and iron shipbuilding yards, besides its large coal export
trade; _Swansea_ is the headquarters of copper and tin smelting, from
ores brought thither from the most distant parts of the world; _Milford
Haven_ aspires to becoming the rival of Liverpool in the trade with
America.
Among the few large towns besides London which lie outside the
manufacturing and mining region of England, may be noted _Norwich_, in
agricultural Norfolk, a seat of manufactures of the most various kind,
introduced by about four thousand Flemings who fled thither in Queen
Elizabeth’s reign.
=In Scotland.=--On the Scottish coal and iron field, _Glasgow_, favored
by its position on the estuary of the Clyde, has risen to be at once the
great commercial and manufacturing center of the country, carrying on a
large trade with all parts of the world, in manufacturing cottons and
machinery, and in building ships. A number of manufacturing towns
(Paisley, noted for its shawls; Greenock, for its sugar-refining;
Dumbarton, for its iron ships; Airdrie, in the midst of the collieries
and iron works) have risen round Glasgow over the Scottish coalfield.
_Leith_, the port of Edinburgh, is mainly engaged in the Baltic grain
trade; _Dundee_, on the estuary of the Tay, owes much of its prosperity
to its jute and hemp factories, and to its Greenland whaling and sealing
trade.
=In Ireland.=--Owing to its poverty in coal and iron, the manufactures
of Ireland have not attained an extent at all comparable with those of
Britain. Its only extensive manufacturing district is that which lies
round _Belfast_, in the northeast, where the flax, grown largely in the
north of the country, is made into linen. The linen district extends to
_Armagh_, on the west, and _Coleraine_, in the north.
_Dublin_, the capital, is noted for its poplins, stout, and whiskey; its
quays afford excellent accommodation for shipping, and it takes the lead
in the foreign trade of Ireland.
_Cork_, with its fine harbor the “Cove of Cork,” or Queenstown, in the
south; _Limerick_, on the Shannon; _Galway_, the port of the west;
_Londonderry_, in the north, are the other important centers of
population in Ireland.