THE ORGANISATION OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE
I
“One writeth that about Anno 1520 there were three famous clothiers
living in the North Countrey viz. Cuthbert of Kendal, Hodgkins of
Halifax, and Martin Brian, some say Byrom of Manchester. Every one of
these kept a greate number of servants at worke, Spinners, Carders,
Fullers, Dyers, Shearemen, &c., to the greate admiration of all that
came to beehould them.”[114] This reference, and another in a statute
of 1543, contain all the information we possess of the organisation of
the Lancashire cloth industry, either on its industrial or commercial
side, in the first half of the sixteenth century. From the reference in
the statute, it appears that Manchester, in the middle of the sixteenth
century, was not particularly noted for its wealth, though it was noted
for the “good order strayte and true dealing of the inhabitantes.”
Consequently “many strangers, as wel of Ireland as of other places
within this realme, haue resorted to the saide towne with lynnen yarne,
woolles, and other necessary wares for makinge of clothes, to be sold
there, and haue used to credit & truste the poor inhabitantes of the
same towne, which were not able and had not redy money to paye in
hande for the saide yarnes woolles and wares vnto such time the saide
credites with their industry labour and peynes myght make clothes of
the said wolles yarns and other necessary wares, and solde the same, to
contente and paye their creditours, wherein hath consisted much of the
common wealth of the saide towne, and many poore folkes had lyunge, and
children and seruants there vertuously brought up in honest and true
labour, out of all ydlenes.”[115]
[Footnote 114: Hollingworth, _Mancuniensis_, Willis’s Edition (1839),
p. 28. In the introduction to this edition the following facts are
given of the author:--Richard Hollingworth was a Fellow of Christ
College, Manchester, and died on 11th November 1656, in Manchester,
after being imprisoned and deprived of the income arising from his
fellowship in consequence of the breaking up of the collegiate body by
Colonel Thomas Birch of Birch Hall, near Manchester, acting under the
command of the Committee of Sequestration. In the Chetham Library there
are two manuscript copies, and in both the date is given as 1120, but
in one it is corrected “a mistake for 1520 about 12 H. 8,” a correction
which is obviously justified.]
[Footnote 115: 33 Henry VIII., c. xv., quoted by Baines, _ibid._, pp.
92-93.]
In 1577 some clothiers of Lancashire presented a petition praying
that a statute passed in the reign of Edward VI.,[116] which imposed
restrictions on middlemen buying and selling wool, should not be
enforced. Under the terms of the statute, wool-growers were only
allowed to sell their product either to a merchant of the staple or
to persons actually engaged in its manufacture. This arrangement was
unsuitable to the petitioners as they were “poore cotegers whose
habylitye wyll not stretche neyther to buye any substance of woolles to
mayntayne worke and labor, nor yet to fetche the same (the growyth of
wolles being foure or fyve score myles at the leaste distant)” and they
feared that if the statute were enforced “the trade will be driven into
a fewe riche men’s hands, so that the poore shall not be paid for their
worke, but as it pleaseth the riche.”[117]
[Footnote 116: 5 and 6 Edward VI., c. 7.]
[Footnote 117: _S.P.D. Eliz._, vol. cxvii. 38, quoted _Economic
Journal_, x., p. 23.]
Judging from this reference, it would appear that the conditions
described as existing in Manchester more than thirty years before were
still typical of Lancashire. Possibly this may have been the case in
some parts of the county, but it is clear that, in the last quarter
of the sixteenth century, and in the early years of the next century,
there were many men of means resident in the Manchester district
engaged in the cloth industry.
Especially prominent at this time were the Tippings, the Mosleys and
the Chethams, and there were also others.[118] These men were variously
described as clothiers, linen drapers, chapmen, silk weavers, mercers
and glovers.[119] In 1607 Anthony Mosley of Manchester, clothier,
third son of Edward Mosley, Gentleman, and younger son of Sir Nicholas
Mosley, Lord of the Manor of Manchester, left a considerable fortune,
and out of it bequeathed £500 for the building of an alms-house in
the town, and for the purchasing of lands to belong to it, for the
maintenance of the aged and the impotent, on condition that £1500 more
were raised within a year.[120] At least two of this man’s sons became
clothiers, one of them who died in 1628 leaving £5 to be distributed to
the poor of Manchester at his funeral.[121] The bequeathing of money
for charitable purposes was a frequent occurrence with the men engaged
in the cloth industry in Manchester at this time. In 1621 William
Mosier, chapman, left £10 to the churchwardens in trust for the use,
maintenance and relief of the aged and impotent poor in the town,[122]
and these benefactions reached their culmination in the monumental
bequest of Humphrey Chetham, founder of Chetham’s Hospital and Library.
[Footnote 118: In 1578 the will of James Rillston, of Manchester,
“cotton man,” was proved at Chester. Evidently he was in partnership
with his cousin, who resided in London, to whom he used to send “packs”
of cottons, worth £11, 11s. each. He owned “houses, shoppes, chambers,
and warehouses” in Deansgate. One of his sons became a citizen and
grocer of London, and married the eldest daughter of Richard Tipping,
Linen Draper of Manchester. In the will of Edward Hanson, mercer and
grocer of Manchester (1584), the statement appears that “Wm Napton,
Wm Woodcocke, and Thos Sawell citizens and grocers of London oweth me
for six packs of cottons at 10l. xvs. a pack the sum of 64l. 10s.” Mr.
Hanson was Boroughreeve of Manchester in 1569 (_Manchester Court Leet
Records_, vol. i., pp. 203-204, 245).]
[Footnote 119: _Lancashire and Cheshire Wills_, Chetham Society, New
Series, vol. iii.]
[Footnote 120: _Lancashire and Cheshire Wills_, _ibid._, N.S., vol.
xxviii., pp. 15 _et seq._ If the sum mentioned were not raised the
£500 had to be put out at eight per cent. interest for ten years, and
of the annual £40 thus raised, £5 had to be used for repairing the
Parish church of Manchester, £5 to be devoted to the support of poor
scholars of the free schools in Manchester, Middleton or Rochdale going
to either university, £10 to the maintenance of bridges and highways
in the Parish of Manchester, £10 to fuel and apparel for the poor of
Manchester and Salford, £5 to the poor of Rochdale, and £5 to poor
folks next of kin to the testator and to his wife. At the end of the
ten years the £500 had to go to his children.]
[Footnote 121: _Ibid._, p. 35.]
[Footnote 122: _Lancashire and Cheshire Wills_, _ibid._, p. 24.]
Some idea of the extent to which Anthony Mosley was engaged in the
cloth trade may be gathered from the facts that at home he had cloth to
the value of £247, and abroad (evidently in the hands of traders and
finishers) to the value of £224.[123] He had debts owing to him to the
extent of nearly £1300, of which sum £850 had been put into stock “with
Francis Locker by indentures.” To what extent the other portion was
owing for cloth is not clear, but the fact that a debt was owing by a
mercer suggests that some of it was.
[Footnote 123: _Ibid._, p. 15 _et seq._
CLOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD
£ _s._ _d._ £ _s._ _d._
70 pieces of broad At Robt. Bowker’s:
Whites ready dressed 46 broad Whites at
at 45s. a piece 157 10 0 46s. 8d. a piece 107 6 8
38 Graies at 30s. a 34 Graies at 30s. a
piece 57 0 0 piece. 51 0 0
13 Cottons at 32s. a At Roger Nayden’s
piece 20 16 0 Mylne:
1 Black Cotton 1 10 0 30 Graies at 30s. a
12 pieces Rett (?) piece. 45 0 0
canvas 10 10 0 At Wm. Wardleworth’s
Mylne:
6 Cottons and one
Graie. 10 10 0
At Jno. Heywood’s
Mylne:
7 Graies at 30s. a
piece. 10 10 0
------------ ------------
£247 6 0 £224 6 8
]
It is in connection with the Chethams, however, and particularly
with Humphrey Chetham, whose life covered the period from 1580 to
1653,[124] that we get the most valuable information concerning the
organisation of the cloth industry in the Manchester district in the
seventeenth century. Besides Humphrey, three of his brothers were
engaged in “Manchester trade.”[125] In 1597 he was apprenticed to
Mr. Samuel Tipping, a Manchester linendraper, to whom his eldest
brother, James, was also apprenticed, while another brother, George,
was apprenticed to Mr. George Tipping, the younger brother of Samuel,
who again was a “grosser and linen draper.”[126] About 1605 George
and Humphrey Chetham entered into a partnership which was renewed and
continued until the death of the former at the end of 1626, though
after 1619, rather than to extend their mercantile business, they
invested their capital in land.[127]
[Footnote 124: Raines and Sutton, _Life of Humphrey Chetham_, Chetham
Society, N.S., vol. xlix.]
[Footnote 125: _Ibid._, pp. 8-11.]
[Footnote 126: _Ibid._, p. 11.]
[Footnote 127: _Ibid._, pp. 12, 21-22.]
Their concern consisted of two branches, one in Manchester and the
other in London, where George was a citizen and a member of the
Merchant Taylors’ Company.[128] In 1619, when a new deed of partnership
was drawn up, Humphrey was described as a “chapman” and his brother as
a “grocer,” and their business was said to consist “in the trade of
buying and selling fustians and other wares and merchandises.” George
had to manage “the factory and business of the joint-trade in and about
the city of London,” and Humphrey had to do the same in and about
Manchester, and in any other parts of England. At this time they had a
joint stock of about £10,000.[129]
[Footnote 128: _Ibid._, p. 7. This system of having a branch in
Manchester and one in London was apparently customary at the time. It
seems to have obtained in the case of William Mosier, mentioned above.
_Cf. ante_, p. 32, note.]
[Footnote 129: _Ibid._, pp. 14-15.]
When Fuller wrote his account of Humphrey Chetham he stated that three
brothers of the family were engaged in the Manchester trade, and that
they dealt chiefly in fustians purchased in the Bolton market, which
they sent to London, and from this account it has been generally
deduced that they were simply dealers in fustians. With the publication
of an authentic life of Humphrey Chetham it has become apparent that
he was more than this. In the Manchester district he bought “friezes,
fustians, coattons, and haberdasherye,” which he not only sent in large
quantities to the London market, but sold them by retail in Manchester.
He was a general merchant who purchased a large variety of goods in all
parts of the Manchester district. In addition he was a “manufacturer”
employing people over an extensive area in spinning yarn, and in
weaving and finishing cloth, and other members of the family were
similarly engaged.[130]
[Footnote 130: Raines and Sutton, _Life of Humphrey Chetham_, pp. 8-15,
123-124. Chetham employed people in Manchester, Ashton, Hollinwood,
Eccles and other places.]
In 1626 his accounts reveal several significant facts[131]:
Money lent in various sums (the highest
being £200 and the lowest £1, 10s. £785 9 4
To Wool sold to a great many persons (the
regular price being £21 for 1 pack of
Cypress wool 12xx (score weight)) 124 18 8
For Irish yeorne (yarn) 89 13 4
For (dossen) dozen yeorne 1 14 6
Wooll sould by retale 18 8 0
Ditto 210 13 0
----------
In all £1230 16 10
[Footnote 131: _Ibid._, p. 30.]
From these accounts it is evident that Chetham dealt in cotton (Cypress
wool) and also in linen yarn (Irish yarn), the two principal materials
for the manufacture of fustians. The next fact has reference to the
economic relationships which existed between him and those who worked
the materials. A popular view is that in Lancashire up to the coming
of the factory, in the latter years of the eighteenth century, the
majority of the workpeople were more or less independent producers
who usually bought their materials, and after working them into cloth
sold it to traders such as Chetham. That this was not generally the
case in the first half of the eighteenth century is certain, and that
it obtained as a general rule in the previous century is seriously
open to question. As already mentioned, Chetham employed spinners and
weavers, and the above accounts suggest that when he sold cotton and
yarn, much of it was sold in small quantities, and also that it was
sold on credit. This means that Chetham, if he did not employ the
buyers in the ordinary sense, financed them to the extent of the cost
of their raw materials, and if so to this extent they were economically
dependent upon him, as they probably were for the disposal of the
product. The probability is that, in his day, Chetham’s position in
the economic organisation was little different, if any, from that of
the typical capitalist “clothier” of the domestic system who gave out
work to workpeople, and paid them for their labour when its product was
returned to him.[132]
[Footnote 132: _Cf._ Unwin, _Industrial Organisation in the XVIth and
XVIIth Centuries_, pp. 235-236, where a classification of clothiers is
given from a State document, 1615.]
This does not necessarily mean that, at this time, there were no small
semi-independent producers in the rising cotton industry. Probably
there were, and for a long time afterwards, but it is extremely
doubtful whether they should be regarded as the typical workpeople.
Rather, the evidence points to the contrary. In 1702 a petition was
presented from the West Country clothing district complaining of the
master weavers paying their workpeople in truck, instead of in money,
and the allegations of the petition were found to be true,[133] with
the result that a Bill was ordered to deal with the matter, which in
the same year became an Act.[134] In the Act provision was made to
restrain workpeople from embezzling materials delivered to them by
clothiers and others, and within the scope of the Act those engaged
in the cotton and fustian manufactures were included. At first the Act
was a temporary measure, and referred only to the woollen, fustian,
cotton, and iron manufactures of the kingdom. In 1710 it was made
perpetual,[135] and in 1740 the leather manufacture was included.[136]
In 1749 the scope of the Act was extended to the fur, hemp, flax,
mohair and silk manufactures, and a provision was inserted for
preventing unlawful combinations of all persons employed in all the
trades mentioned.[137] None of the petitions presented from Lancashire
in the first part of the eighteenth century gives the slightest reason
for thinking that the system of organisation implied in the provisions
of the 1702 Act did not generally obtain in the county during the first
half of the eighteenth century. In the check and smallware branches of
Manchester trade it certainly did, and it is extremely probable that
long before 1770 the same can be said of the fustian branch.
[Footnote 133: _J.H.C._, xiv., p. 67.]
[Footnote 134: 1 Anne, c. 18.]
[Footnote 135: 9 Anne, c. 32.]
[Footnote 136: 13 Geo. II., c. 8.]
[Footnote 137: 22 Geo. II., c. 27. Professor Ashley has drawn attention
to the significance of these Acts (_Economic Organisation of England_
(1914), p. 145). _Cf._ _J.H.C._, xvi., p. 311, 1709: “Petition of
divers principal traders and dealers in linen manufactures on behalf of
themselves and several thousand workmen employed by them in the said
trade in Manchester and adjacent parts.”]
In considering the position in this branch, it must be borne in mind
that, at first, it was probably not carried on in and immediately about
Manchester to the same extent as the other two. Taking Ogden as our
authority he speaks of Manchester chapmen going to Bolton and other
markets to buy fustian pieces from the weavers, “every weaver then
procuring yarn or cotton as they could” as the original system.[138]
When this original system was general he does not state, but the
general impression he gives is that it was not later than the early
years of the eighteenth century. In any case, the system was not
sufficient to meet the demands of the traders, and “To remedy this
inconvenience, some of them furnished warps and wool to the weavers
and employed persons to put warps out to weaving by commission; and
encouraged many weavers to fetch them from Manchester, endeavouring
to secure the honesty and care of their workmen, upon bringing in the
piece, by the force of good usage and prompt payment; but reserving to
themselves a power of abatement, for deficiency in the spinning and
workmanship.”[139]
[Footnote 138: Ogden, _ibid._, pp. 74-88.]
[Footnote 139: Ogden, _ibid._, p. 74. It will be noticed that the
statement regarding wool being given to the weavers means cotton-wool
ready spun--weft--as is made clear in the next quotation.]
The next quotation carries us to the sixties, when the jenny was
introduced for spinning. “From the time that the original system was
changed in the fustian branch, of buying pieces in the grey from the
weavers, by delivering them out work, the custom of giving them out
weft in the cops, which obtained for a while grew into disuse, as there
was no detecting the knavery of spinners till a piece came in woven; so
that the practice was changed, and wool given with warps, the weaver
answering for the spinning; and the weavers, in a scarcity of spinning,
have been paid less for the weft than they gave the spinner, but durst
not complain, much less abate the spinner lest their looms should
stand unemployed: but when jennies were introduced, and children could
work on them, the case was altered, and many who had been insolent
before, were glad to be employed in carding and slubbing for these
engines.”[140] It will be noticed that the change mentioned in this
quotation did not mean a reversion to the original system--the giving
out of work continued--but the weaver was made responsible for the
spinning as well as for the weaving. This change is easily understood
and may well have taken place owing to the friction that would arise
through abatements for bad work.
[Footnote 140: _Ibid._, p. 88.]
But during the period covered by the two quotations, another change
had taken place which is referred to by Guest. He informs us that it
was in 1740 that “the Manchester merchants began to give out warps and
raw cotton to the weavers, receiving them back in cloth and paying for
the carding, roving, spinning and weaving”[141] and that about 1750
there arose, chiefly in the country districts, a class of “second-rate
merchants called fustian-masters,” who “gave out a warp and raw cotton
to the weaver, paying the weaver for the weaving and spinning.”[142]
[Footnote 141: Guest, _Compendious History of the Cotton Manufacture_
(1823), p. 9.]
[Footnote 142: _Ibid._, p. 11.]
In view of the legislation just referred to, it is evident that the
first date mentioned by Guest cannot be taken as marking the beginning
of the system of giving out work in the fustian trade, and perhaps
the second date relating to the appearance of country fustian masters
should not be strictly regarded. With these reservations, however,
there is much evidence that Guest’s statements were based upon facts
which belong to the first part of the eighteenth century. The increased
prominence of printed fustians and the proceedings which led to the
Act of 1736 indicate that the fustian trade was expanding. About the
same time, changes were taking place in commercial organisation, and
it is exceedingly probable that the number of fustian manufacturers
was increasing with accompanying changes in industrial organisation.
In 1772, when we get definite evidence, it is certain that a large
number of fustian manufacturers existed in the country districts,
and altogether their number was far greater than either check or
smallware manufacturers.[143] The conclusion that may be drawn from
the statements of both Ogden and Guest, and from other evidence, is
that even if it be true that before the first part of the eighteenth
century the greater proportion of fustian weavers were semi-independent
producers, who themselves bought their raw materials, and sold their
product to traders, by the middle of the century they were certainly
the workpeople of capitalist employers, as probably many of them were
long before that time.
[Footnote 143: _Infra_, pp. 67-69.]
II
Fortunately, there is ample evidence of the organisation of the check
and smallware trades in the fifties of the eighteenth century, and this
evidence is important in that it shows clearly the relations which
existed between the employers and the workpeople engaged in these
trades at that time. In both trades the relations were exceedingly
strained, and in both the workpeople attempted, through combination,
to maintain and advance their economic position. As a matter of fact,
the worsted smallware weavers had had some form of combination for
some years. In 1756 their articles contained regulations concerning
their trade which dated back to 1747. The articles show that there
were two main classes engaged in the trade: first, the manufacturers,
who were the real employers; second, the undertakers, journeymen, and
apprentices. Their aim was to protect the interests of the latter
class, particularly of the undertakers. The difficulties they were
intended to meet are revealed in The _Worsted Smallware Weavers’
Apology_ issued in 1756,[144] and the _Apology_ also throws light on
the development of the trade during the preceding thirty years.
[Footnote 144: Manchester Reference Library, No. 28266.]
Before that time the work had been performed in a single loom, but,
about that time, this loom was displaced by a Dutch loom,[145] which,
instead of weaving one piece at a time wove twelve or fourteen, and
also improvement took place in the character of the product. In 1756,
the weavers asserted, there were three times as many Dutch looms in use
in Manchester as there ever had been single looms. As a consequence
of the improvements, the scope of employment had widened and many of
the poorer sort of people had entered the trade, while the generality
of manufacturers had acquired such large fortunes as enabled them to
vie with some of the best gentlemen in the county. With the weavers
the case was different, owing, they asserted, to their own conduct in
taking too many apprentices on any terms, and for any length of time,
and also, for a small sum of money, taking persons into the trade who
were immediately recognised as journeymen. As a result, the trade had
become overcrowded with labour, and many who had entered it had gone
back to their old occupations, while others had turned to day labouring
in the summer and returned to the loom only in the winter, when they
were content to work on any terms, which soon became the general rule.
Moreover, men who had served only a year or two lowered the standard
of workmanship, as in such a short time they were unable to learn the
theory of the trade.
[Footnote 145: _Cf._ Ogden, _ibid._, p. 82, also Chapman, _Lancashire
Cotton Industry_, pp. 19-22, where the loom is described.]
The first article, dated 1747, laid down that no undertaker should
take apprentices for less than seven years, unless they were fifteen
years of age, when they might be taken for six years. Masters taking
apprentices had to enter them in the weavers’ register-book, twopence
to be paid on entry, and, when an apprentice had served his time,
a blank had to be taken out for which fourpence had to be paid.
Afterwards the apprentice was free to work either as a journeyman or
as an undertaker. In a later article it was agreed that if any member
went to work, or undertook work, for any master that had never made
goods before 1st January 1753, “the same shall not be accounted one of
us.” Later in the year, it was agreed that no undertaker should take
more than three apprentices, and, in the next year, it was further
agreed that every undertaker should demand a blank from any journeymen
or journeywomen when they came to work with him, and if an undertaker
failed to comply with this regulation he must forfeit five shillings
to the box. In the last article, dated 11th August 1753, it was agreed
that any undertaker bringing up his sons or daughters to the trade
should enter them in the register at twenty years of age, when they
should receive a blank which would enable them to work as journeymen
or undertakers for any master in the trade.
There are several points of interest in these articles. In the first
place, it is evident that the master manufacturers as well as the
weavers took apprentices, and that the weavers wished to bring them
under their control. In the second place, it appears that women were
recognised in the trade as subject to the same conditions as men.
Thirdly, the increasing stringency of the articles suggests either that
the combination was developing, or that the articles were not attaining
the end in view. Probably both suggestions are correct.
In 1756 the problem of remuneration had become acute, and the
organisation was evidently on the point of taking an active interest
in the matter. This increased activity was the beginning of trouble
which culminated at the Lancaster Lent Assizes in 1760. To understand
the position during these years it will be advisable to glance at the
general situation in the country.
As early as 1753 there had been serious disturbances consequent upon
a rise in the price of food. At Bristol it had been necessary to
call out the military to prevent the plundering of corn vessels in
the harbour, and similar measures had been adopted to maintain the
peace at Manchester and Leeds, which was only accomplished with loss
of life.[146] At the beginning of the year the price of wheat in
Manchester ranged from 18s. to 20s. per load--20 Winchester pecks--and
other cereals in proportion. Then there began a rise which in August
had brought the average price of wheat to 25s. to 26s., which continued
throughout 1754.[147] Early in 1755 the prices had come down, and
remained almost without change at 21s. to 22s. for more than twelve
months. From about May, 1756, prices began to rise again. In June they
stood at 27s. to 28s., in December at 34s. to 36s., in February, 1757,
at 39s. to 40s., and in July at 43s. to 45s. Then they began to fall,
reaching 30s. to 31s. in December, and in October, 1758, the old price
of 21s. to 22s. had been regained.
[Footnote 146: Smollett, _History of England_ (1818 edition), iv., p.
177.]
[Footnote 147: The prices of cereals in Manchester are given weekly in
_The Manchester Mercury_ until 1766 and spasmodically afterwards.]
Reports of rioting in every part of the country began in the autumn
of 1756, and were constantly repeated until the end of the following
year,[148] and the distress extended to Scotland and Ireland, the King
subscribing £20,000 for relief in the latter country.[149] At Liverpool
in November, 1756, it was decided to buy several thousand pounds’ worth
of grain, at the expense of the town, to be retailed to the poor at
cost price, and a subscription list was opened at Manchester in the
following month for a similar purpose, when between £700 and £800 were
immediately subscribed.[150]
[Footnote 148: In _The Manchester Mercury_.]
[Footnote 149: _Ibid._, 21st June 1757.]
[Footnote 150: _Ibid._, 11th November, 28th December 1756.]
In the view of the populace the evil was due to the action of trading
middlemen engrossing and holding back supplies, and in Manchester, as
in other places, when a riot broke out, in which a number of colliers
from Clifton took part, the object of attack was certain corn dealers,
who vainly protested that, instead of engrossing, they had imported
corn from remote parts of the kingdom and thus lowered prices.[151]
A proclamation of the King against the forestalling, regrating and
engrossing of corn was issued in Manchester,[152] and apparently in
every other town in the country, while threats of prosecution, of which
the gentlemen of the town were prepared to bear the expense, were
issued against the guilty persons, could they be discovered.[153]
[Footnote 151: _Ibid._, 14th and 21st June 1757. Rioting took place in
Stockport in September. _Ibid._, 30th September.]
[Footnote 152: _Ibid._, 14th December 1756.]
[Footnote 153: _Ibid._, 8th November 1757.]
It was in these circumstances that the worsted smallware weavers
of Manchester began to show a greater activity than hitherto, and
issued their _Apology_. They complained of the rise in the prices
of provisions and asserted that, eighteen or twenty years before,
undertakers could have kept five apprentices for what it now cost to
keep three. In 1756 they had commenced to hold meetings once a month.
The hands employed by each manufacturer were regarded as a “shop.”
Each shop appointed a person to represent the whole shop, and when the
representatives met once a month they formed the trade society.[154]
Already the manufacturers suspected that the proceedings were to their
detriment, and the weavers were aware that they were likely to meet
with a great deal of censure and scornful sneers, but they consoled
themselves with the thought that they were as the Nazarenes, and those
who held them in contempt were as the Jews.
[Footnote 154: _Smallware Weavers’ Apology_, p. 9. There is no reason
to think the word “shop” referred to a workshop in the ordinary sense.
Possibly the place where work was given out and taken in was called a
shop.]
The next evidence of the existence of the society appears in January,
1759, when the following notice was issued in _The Manchester
Mercury_[155]:--“Whereas all combinations and meetings among Weavers
or other handicraft workmen or servants to consult how to raise wages,
or make other rules or orders among themselves that have a tendency to
ruin and destroy the trade in which they are employed is contrary to
the Laws of the Kingdom. And whereas there is at this time in and about
this town an unlawful combination among the Worsted smallware weavers,
under the name of being members or being connected with or payers to
a Box. This is to give notice that all persons who are in any ways
concerned in those unlawful combinations, or are in any ways aiding
or assisting thereto, will be prosecuted to the utmost rigour of the
law; and that no weavers will be taken to work that are in any ways
concerned in those unlawful combinations.”
[Footnote 155: 9th January.]
The next important act in the life of this association was performed
at Lancaster Assizes in the following year, when a number of worsted
smallware weavers answered to an indictment for a combination to raise
wages. The prosecution was not proceeded with as the defendants handed
in the following submission, which was read in the open court, and
afterwards signed by them. “We do hereby, each for himself, and as far
as we can for the other weavers of the same Trade agree to work for
the prices already agreed upon with our respective masters, or such
other wages as the circumstances of the Trade make reasonable for the
time being. We hereby promise and engage, each for himself that we will
never enter into, or promote, or encourage any Combination whatsoever,
for the raising wages, or any other unlawful purpose whatsoever. And
we declare against, and will oppose, any agreement or Combination ...
or that any money shall be applied ... to the support of any person,
or persons, who shall refuse to work for reasonable, or the usual
wages, being able and requested so to do, or in any wise whatsoever
towards the forming or supporting any combination to raise wages or
other unlawful purpose whatsoever. That the Box or contribution may
be permitted till the debt already incurred be discharged and the
defendants promise to produce the Box and show their accounts therein,
to any of the Masters in any part of Manchester upon a reasonable
notice for that purpose, and that when the Debt is discharged, the
contribution shall cease and the Box be destroyed, and in the meantime,
the Indentures shall be delivered to the Parties thereto if they desire
it.”[156]
[Footnote 156: _Manchester Mercury_, 25th March 1760.]
The combination of the worsted smallware weavers was not the only
one in the Manchester district in the late fifties of the eighteenth
century. As already mentioned, the check-weavers had also combined.
So acute had the position become that at the Autumn Assizes held
at Lancaster in 1758 Lord Mansfield “had been informed of great
disturbances in Lancashire, occasioned by several thousands having left
their work and entered into combinations for raising their wages, and
appointed meetings at stated times, formed themselves into a committee
at such meetings, and established Boxes and fixed stewards in every
Township for collecting money for supporting such weavers as should
by their Committee be ordered to leave their masters, and made other
dangerous and illegal regulations; that they had insulted and abused
several weavers who had refused to join in their schemes and continued
to work; and had dropt incendiary letters, with threats to masters that
had opposed their designs; his Lordship sensible of the pernicious
consequences of such illegal proceedings as being not only destructive
of Trade and Manufactures, but of the Peace of the Public adapted his
charge to the occasion, and strongly urged to the Jury the necessity
of suppressing all such combinations and conspiracies on any pretence
whatsoever; gave them an account of all the attempts of the like nature
that had been made at different times and in different parts of the
kingdom, and told them that an active and vigilant execution of the
Laws in being, had always been sufficient to suppress such attempts,
and, if properly executed, would have the same effect upon the present
that it had always met with on similar occasions.” As the judge had
spoken without notes, he could not oblige the Grand Jury with this
charge in writing, as they requested, but he issued a warrant for
the apprehension of nineteen stewards concerned in the combination,
and prosecutions were recommended against others as being equally
culpable.[157]
[Footnote 157: _Manchester Mercury_, 5th September 1758. _Gentleman’s
Magazine_, 12th August 1758. Smollett, _ibid._, v. 439-440.]
The judge’s charge was intended, no doubt, to be of general
application, but it appears that it had particular reference to the
check-weavers. The story of their combination can be gathered from
the pages of _The Manchester Mercury_, supplemented by _A Letter to
a Friend: occasioned by the late Disputes betwixt the Check-makers
of Manchester and their Weavers_, written by Thomas Percival[158] in
1759. Mr. Percival had been mentioned to the judge as one who had
assisted the weavers in their efforts to combine,[159] and his letter
was a pungent reply to the charges. It appears that originally there
were two main points of dispute between the check manufacturers and the
weavers: first, the question of a standard length of cloth for weaving,
and second, the question of “unfair weavers.”[160] Ultimately these
questions led to a combination and a turn-out of several weeks in which
the weavers in Manchester and for many miles around were involved.
[Footnote 158: Mr. Thomas Percival (1719-1762) must not be confused
with Dr. Thomas Percival who, later in the century, became prominent
in his endeavours to improve the conditions in the cotton factories
particularly as regards children. The Thomas Percival referred to in
the text lived at Royton, near Oldham. The check manufacturers spoke
of him as “a landed proprietor” and as one who was “known to be an
enemy of oppression of all kinds.” He was a Justice of Peace, a Whig
in politics, and wrote in opposition to the High Church clergy and
the non-jurors in Manchester. In his day he was well known as an
antiquarian and was elected F.R.S. in 1756 and F.S.A. in 1760 (_Dict.
of Nat. Biog._, xliv., p. 383).]
[Footnote 159: _Letter to a Friend_, p. 5.]
[Footnote 160: _Ibid._, App. I.]
According to Mr. Percival’s account, he was approached by some of his
neighbours, check-weavers, about a year before he wrote his letter,
when they informed him that they had been solicited to enter a Box to
oppose the unlawful practices of their masters. At the time he advised
them not to do so, but some of them became members and later the
dispute became an open breach.[161]
[Footnote 161: _Ibid._, p. 10.]
In April, 1758, a notice was issued in _The Manchester Mercury_ drawing
attention to the fact that “Weavers employed in manufactures carried
on in Manchester and neighbouring towns, had formed themselves into
unlawful clubs and societies, and had entered into combinations and
subscriptions,” and that anyone who would not enter, or would withdraw,
would be protected and employed.[162] This notice had not the desired
effect, and it seems probable that the turn-out began in May or at the
beginning of June. Early in July the situation had become acute and
the weavers of Ashton sent to ask Mr. Percival whether they were doing
right, to which he replied that “if they were doing what the world
said, they were doing excessive wrong.”[163]
[Footnote 162: 25th April 1758.]
[Footnote 163: _Letter to a Friend_, p. 12.]
About this time the weavers met at Manchester, and put forward a set
of proposals for a settlement of the dispute, which was followed by
two other sets, one drawn up at Ashton, and the other by Mr. Percival
himself.
In the first, the weavers proposed that a statute length of eighty
yards should be fixed for check, and of sixty yards for cotton
hollands, cotton linen and similar articles, and that, if the length
was different, the price paid for weaving should vary in proportion.
Also, that the masters should not employ unfair weavers, so called
because they would not subscribe to the charity stock to assist poor
weavers and to prosecute offenders. The weavers insisted that they had
no other object in view but to support and maintain their trade with
experienced and honest workmen, and to bring it under the statute 5
Eliz.[164]
[Footnote 164: _Letter to a Friend_, App. I. The Act referred to is the
Statute of Apprentices, 1563, and it is evident that the check-weavers
were giving to it, as did other workpeople during the eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries, an interpretation which was not in the
minds of its originators. The two clauses of the Act upon which they
invariably fixed were those relating to the assessment of wages and to
apprentices. The original Act, among other things, authorised Justices
of the Peace to assess wages, taking into account “the plenty or
scarcity of the time.” The wages thus assessed were maxima not minima,
and penalties were provided for those who paid or received more than
the maxima. In 1603 the statute was re-enacted, and, at this time, so
far as the workers in the woollen industry were concerned, the rates
fixed were to be minima, but it appears that few assessments were made
on this basis--they were made on the “not more” basis, not on the “not
less.” In the industrial changes of the eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries workpeople desired the latter, and frequently requested
the enforcement of the Act with this object in view, and it figured
prominently in the demands of the rising organisations. The clause
relating to apprenticeship laid down that after the passing of the Act
no one should exercise “any art, mistery, or manual occupation” without
first serving a seven years’ apprenticeship, and why the workpeople
in the eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries desired the
enforcement of this clause is clearly explained by the same reasons
as underlay their desire for the assessment of wages. The Statute
of Apprentices cannot be fully understood unless it is read as a
whole, with a background given by the conditions in the middle of the
sixteenth century. When this is done the statute becomes important not
as a great constructive piece of statesmanship, but as indicating the
outlook of statesmen on the social and industrial problems of their
day, and as a futile attempt to check the operation of forces which
for long had been irresistibly making for change. The wages clause was
finally repealed in 1813 and the apprenticeship clause in the following
year, but long before they had become practically obsolete (Unwin,
_Industrial Organisation_, pp. 137-141, 252; Tawney, _The Assessment
of Wages in England by Justices of the Peace_; Cunningham, _Growth of
English Industry and Commerce_, pp. 25-44; S. and B. Webb, _History of
Trade Unionism_, chap. i.).]
It appears that, about this time, a suggestion was made that the
dispute should be referred to the country gentlemen for settlement, or
to Mr. Percival alone, and also that he saw the above proposals, and
that he disapproved of them.[165]
[Footnote 165: _Letter to a Friend_, p. 48.]
In any case, a second set of proposals was addressed to him from Ashton
by the weavers, with the request that, if he thought proper, he would
put them into form and make such alterations as he might find necessary
for bringing about an accommodation between the parties.[166] In these
proposals, it was suggested that seven men should be appointed by each
side, including one or two magistrates, and that the magistrates should
choose (presumably from among those who had been thus appointed) four
persons who had been in the trade, but who had no present connection
with it, to settle the differences. Cases of spoiled work, which the
master and weaver concerned could not settle, were to be referred to
two persons chosen by them, both parties to submit to their decision.
The masters were to allow the weavers to keep a charity box, and
the weavers were to have liberty to take two or more apprentices,
but not for a shorter period than seven years, and no person was to
be acknowledged as a weaver unless he or she had served that time,
although all weavers then engaged in the trade were to be recognised.
The weavers still asked that a standard length of eighty yards should
be fixed for certain kinds of goods, but the length of other kinds was
to be fixed by the committee, and wages were to be agreeable to the
times as heretofore.[167]
[Footnote 166: _Ibid._, p. 13.]
[Footnote 167: _Ibid._, App. II.]
Evidently Mr. Percival did not consider that these proposals would
effect a settlement, and proceeded to draw up a set of his own.
Generally, his proposals did not differ from the proposals from
Ashton, except in the vital point of the “box.” He proposed that a
box should be kept up for the relief of poor weavers, and for the
prosecution of offenders, but that the funds should not be used to the
detriment of the masters. To disarm the suspicion of the masters, he
proposed that they should become contributors to the box, and that no
money should be taken out of it (except for the relief of the poor)
without the knowledge of at least two of them, which arrangement the
weavers thought very hard, and Mr. Percival himself was afraid that
they would not agree to it, but they did so.[168] A further proposal
made by him was that an Act of Parliament should be moved for, on the
joint-petition and at the joint-expense of the masters and weavers, to
fix the lengths and breadths of cloth, and to enforce a seven years’
apprenticeship in the trade.[169]
[Footnote 168: _Letter to a Friend_, p. 14.]
[Footnote 169: _Ibid._, App. III.]
Mr. Percival’s proposal as regards the box, and also the proposals
from Ashton, will be best understood by noticing the masters’ case as
it was stated in a letter addressed to him by one of them. In this
letter it was claimed that it was impossible with justice to fix a
standard length of cloth as the weavers proposed, but that the masters
were willing to agree upon a length “as near as possible.” Further,
it was insisted that the weavers must give up their combination, and
sign a paper to that effect, and that the masters must not be obliged
to turn off unfair weavers. Apparently, the master who wrote this
letter was an extremist, as Mr. Percival expressly excepts from his
indictment some masters who did not take up this attitude concerning
the combination.[170]
[Footnote 170: _Ibid._, p. 8. As another example of the number of
people employed by one concern in the early eighteenth century, it may
be noticed that one check-maker stated that he would employ 500 weavers
if he had not to turn off unfair men.]
The paper which the weavers were required to sign appeared in _The
Manchester Mercury_ on the same date as the letter sent to Mr.
Percival, and ran as follows:--
“We whose names are hereunto subscribed being members of the Weavers
Society, and contributed or promised to contribute to their Box, do
hereby engage that we will quit the said Box; and neither by ourselves
or (_sic_) any person for us, pay towards supporting it, nor have
any further concern therein.”[171] In the following month the charge
already referred to was delivered by Lord Mansfield, and in October a
notice was published setting forth that “The Manufacturers in the Check
Trade having found on Enquiry that the principal Boxes are destroyed,
and the collections or contributions ceased, Work will now be delivered
throughout the Town, and the Weavers may apply where they choose as
usual.”[172]
[Footnote 171: 25th June 1758.]
[Footnote 172: _Ibid._, 17th October 1758.]
In the meantime, however, it appears that the threatened apprehensions
had been effected, and at the Lancaster Spring Assizes in 1759
thirteen check-weavers from Manchester, two from Pendleton, two from
Salford, and one from Rusholme, were charged with “having unlawfully
met and assembled together and illegally and unjustly combined and
confederated that they would not work at less than 2s. the piece
above the usual wage or price of eighty yards check.”[173] At the
trial a plea for lenity was put in, and, as the weavers conducted
themselves in a correct manner, the only penalty imposed was a fine
of 1s. each. In his address to them, Lord Mansfield suggested that
they had been drawn into the combination by designing men, and pointed
out the danger of combinations in raising wages above what had been
customary and what the trade would bear, thus driving capital away. His
remarks on the apprenticeship clauses of the Elizabethan Act deserve
notice, seeing that they were made more than half-a-century before the
clauses were repealed: “If none must employ, or be employed, in any
branch of trade, but who have served a limited number of years to
that branch, the particular trade will be lodged in few hands, to the
danger of the public, and the liberty of setting up trades, and the
foundations of the present flourishing condition of Manchester will be
destroyed. In the infancy of trade, the Act of Queen Elizabeth might
be well calculated for public weal, but now when it is grown to that
perfection we see it, it might perhaps be of utility to have those laws
repealed, as tending to cramp and tie down that knowledge it was first
necessary to obtain by rule.” In conclusion, the Judge admonished the
check-weavers to “Go home and sin no more lest a worse thing happen
unto you.”[174]
[Footnote 173: _Letter to a Friend_, App. VIII.]
[Footnote 174: _Manchester Mercury_, 3rd April 1759.]
This account of these two combinations in Manchester and district in
the fifties of the eighteenth century is of considerable interest
in several respects. Mr. and Mrs. Webb have drawn attention to the
fact that, in these years, we get the final breakdown of the mediæval
authoritative system of regulation of industrial relationships, and the
above account supports their view.[175] Also they have shown that from
the early years of the century combinations of wage-earners were coming
into existence in various trades. Such combinations were especially
prominent among the West of England textile workers[176]: it is evident
that the textile workers in Lancashire were proceeding on similar
lines. But even more interesting is the link which these Manchester
combinations provide between the older forms of association on the
one hand and the modern trade union on the other. The proposals put
forward by Mr. Percival, which the check-weavers reluctantly accepted,
would have involved almost exactly the same arrangements as those
described by Professor Unwin as existing between the members of the
Yeomanry Organisations and the members of the Livery Companies.[177]
As the arm of the law intervened, it is not likely the proposals came
to anything, but this does not necessarily mean that the law quashed
the combinations. Judging from the later history of the smallware
weavers, it appears that they gained in strength. The next glimpse we
get of their combination is in 1781, when a dispute was in existence
which certainly continued for more than two months. The first evidence
of it is a notice which the weavers delivered to their employers, in
which it was stated that the whole trade had unanimously resolved that
if they did not set their men to work, agreeable to a list of prices
accompanying the notice, no smallware weaver in Lancashire would
ever work for them again.[178] On their side, the masters asserted
that they were willing to adjust wages, but insisted that the real
difficulty was that the weavers had adopted the “extraordinary” step
of “swearing two masters out of the trade,”[179] which, they claimed,
was contrary to all law and equity. Ultimately the masters delivered
the following proposals to the weavers, which are interesting not
only as an indication of the respectful way in which the weavers had
to be dealt with, but also as the reference to the “shop” suggests
that even if there had been a break in the life of their combination,
re-establishment had taken place on the same basis of organisation as
that of twenty-five years before: “It is hereby mutually agreed between
the smallware manufacturers and their weavers (the masters and one of
each shop having subscribed the same) that all differences are settled
and adjusted, and that all the said weavers look upon and esteem all
their said employers as fair and upon an equal footing in the Trade,
notwithstanding whatever may have been inconsiderately said or done
during our late difference or dispute; and we the said weavers on
behalf of the whole trade consider every workman at full liberty to
take work for any of the said employers without exception.” Apparently
these proposals were not altogether satisfactory to the weavers, who
replied that it had been unanimously determined by the whole trade that
no other notice except one that they transmitted should be published:
“By mutual agreement betwixt the Smallware Manufacturers and their
Weavers the differences respecting prices subsisting between them are
amicably settled to the satisfaction of both parties.”[180] The masters
seem to have been equally reluctant to accept this notice, but as no
others appear we may assume that the dispute was near its end.
[Footnote 175: _History of Trade Unionism_ (1911), p. 44.]
[Footnote 176: _Ibid._, p. 28. The first instances given by Mr. and
Mrs. Webb from _The Journals of the House of Commons_ of combinations
in this district are in 1717. Earlier instances appear in 1706 from
Taunton and Bristol. In the Taunton petition it is stated “that within
4 or 5 years” weavers in most towns where woollen manufactures are made
have formed themselves into clubs (_J.H.C._, xv., p. 312).]
[Footnote 177: _Industrial Organisation in the XVIth and the XVIIth
Centuries_, pp. 51, 58-61, 123, 135, 198-199, 208-210, 229-234.]
[Footnote 178: _Manchester Mercury_, 7th August 1781.]
[Footnote 179: _Ibid._, 11th September 1781.]
[Footnote 180: _Manchester Mercury_, 2nd October 1781. In addition
to the smallware weavers there is evidence of organisation in the
following trades before 1790: silk weavers, hatters, calico and fustian
printers, cotton-spinners, and paper-makers. The hatters were presented
with the “document” as early as 11th February 1777 (_Manchester
Mercury_).]
Sometimes it is implied, particularly in popular writings, that the
transition from the domestic system, as it existed in the early
eighteenth century, to the factory system involved a great change
in economic relationships, almost that it marked the emergence of
capitalist employers. If disproof of this view were required, this
account of the disputes in the smallware and the check trades in
Manchester, a generation before factories definitely appeared in the
district, would do something to supply it. The fact is, of course,
that the domestic system was a system of capitalist employers, and the
typical workpeople were in every essential respect related to these
employers in the same way as after the factory made its appearance.
In the domestic system the employer’s capital was mainly embodied in
the materials that were given out to workpeople, and they received
a wage remuneration from him for the operations they performed upon
them. Between the journeymen and apprentices, and the employer, there
frequently intervened persons such as the “undertakers” mentioned in
connection with the smallware trade, but these men were essentially
employees, even though in many cases, no doubt, they might own three
or four looms. In the factory, the workpeople, who previously had been
scattered over a more or less wide area, were drawn together under one
roof, and their operations supervised by foremen and managers; the
capital of the employers was now embodied in materials, buildings,
plant and machinery; the least change was seen in the economic
relationships between employers and workpeople. If it is true that
labour became more dependent upon capital, it is equally true that
capital became more dependent upon labour--on both sides the dependence
involved was one of a greater co-operation in the processes of
production.
But there was an important social change, closely connected with the
decay of authoritative regulations which had been proceeding from the
seventeenth century. As these regulations disappeared, the way was
opened for the workpeople to begin to organise themselves as a new
social class. Along with the development of the system of organisation
which became dominant from the eighteenth century, the modern trade
union movement was born, and through the greater part of the century
it was also developing. Unfortunately, before the end of the century,
under the stress of conditions consequent upon the Revolutionary and
Napoleonic wars, its natural growth was checked, and it did not begin
to thrive again until these conditions had passed away.
III
To complete this brief account of the organisation of the Lancashire
textile industry before the coming of the factory and the rise of the
new cotton manufacture, it is necessary to say something of the ways
in which the manufacturers were connected with their workpeople, and
also of their connections with the markets for raw materials and for
finished products.
As regards the first point, it must be borne in mind that, while
Manchester was the centre where the greater number of manufacturers
were situated, a large number, particularly in the fustian branch,
lived in the surrounding smaller towns and country districts. A glance
at the following tables and the accompanying map will show that the
country fustian manufacturers formed an outer semicircle of Manchester,
with three outstanding points at Leigh, Bolton and Oldham. The country
check-makers formed an inner circle, while the crofters (bleachers)
were distributed in another circle, with a tendency to concentrate in
the neighbourhood of the town.
Owing to this distribution of manufacturers, it is evident that most of
the workpeople would be within easy reach of an employer, and probably
the most usual thing was for them to fetch their materials from his
house, or warehouse, and after working upon them, to return the
product. The smaller manufacturers no doubt performed the “putting-out”
function themselves, but the larger manufacturers employed men for this
purpose, as the frequent advertisements for “putters-out” show. Also
we can gather from the same source that in some cases “putters-out”
for the town manufacturers lived in the country, and that country
manufacturers sometimes worked on commission for men in the towns.[181]
That some of the manufacturers were men of considerable wealth may be
surmised from the frequent mention of their marriages into prominent
families, and to ladies possessing “genteel fortunes.” In this way it
is not unlikely that much capital found its way into the Lancashire
textile industry, and proved useful in enabling the manufacturers to
extend their concerns.[182]
[Footnote 181: For “putting-out” system, see Radcliffe, _Origin of
Power Loom Weaving_ (1828), pp. 13, 16, 68. Gaskell, _The Manufacturing
Population of England Anterior to the Application of Steam_ (1833), p.
17.]
[Footnote 182: In Mr. Percival’s _Letter to a Friend_ the following
passage appears which is none the less informative because it is
satirical: “Another objection against me in common with other
gentlemen, is, that we envy these check-makers; really, sir, I wonder
what any country gentleman can be supposed to envy them for! Is it
their houses? What country gentleman has reason to envy the possessor
of a house of four, five, or six rooms of a floor with warehouses under
and warping rooms over?... Is it their furniture? See one room drest
out like a baby house.... Is it their equipages? Surely no, when one
sees their chariots or post-chaises, with a pair of callender tits, and
the callender lad for coachman, it must set any spectator a-laughing at
the grotesque, did not the honest horses by hanging down their heads
shew that they were ashamed of their employment. Is it their cookery?
Here indeed I am almost at a stand to find a reason, which a Manchester
check-maker will allow for a good one, why the country gentlemen do not
envy their cookery; but on recollection I have one; they must allow it
as a maxim, _that the heart grieves not at what the eye sees not_; and
no country gentleman that I have ever heard of, could ever yet certify
what was for dinner in the house of a Manchester check-maker. The
reason their good wives believe we envy them their cookery, is, that
when they move into the country for some weeks in the summer, the cook
is too covetous to move his shop after them, and, as they know not how
to get in their own families, anything more than plain boiled or roast,
they are wise enough to believe nobody knows more, and because they are
half starved whilst they are out of the town of Manchester, imagine
there is no good livelihood anywhere else. Is it their fine clothes?
Upon my honour I know many country gentlemen better dressed. Is it
their handsome perriwigs? to comfort us country folks, I know few with
worse heads ...” (pp. 9-10).]
In the seventeenth and the early eighteenth centuries, as at the
present day, little of the raw material used in the Lancashire textile
industry was produced in the county; one way in which wool reached the
worsted manufacturers is given in a quotation below.[183] But more
important than wool were linen-yarn and cotton. Until the West Indian
colonies and South America became important sources of the supply of
cotton, it was chiefly imported through London, indeed it was not until
cotton-growing had developed in the United States that London lost its
position to Liverpool as the chief port of entry.[184] Early in the
eighteenth century, however, much was imported by Liverpool merchants,
and it was also imported through Whitehaven and Lancaster, both these
ports having an important trade with the West Indies in the eighteenth
century and into the nineteenth.[185]
[Footnote 183: _Infra_, p. 61.]
[Footnote 184: _Treasure of Traffike_, p. 32. Ellison, _Cotton Trade of
Great Britain_, p. 170.]
[Footnote 185: _J.H.C._, xxii., pp. 566-567. Slack, _Remarks on Cotton_
(early nineteenth-century pamphlet). Aikin, _England Delineated_
(1790), pp. 39, 83. Aikin, _England Described_ (1818), pp. 26, 87.]
Of the linen-yarn used, some was spun in this country, and Scotland
also contributed to the supply, and, as already noticed, in the reign
of Henry VIII., merchants from Ireland carried on a trade in linen-yarn
with Manchester, which they sold to the inhabitants on credit.[186]
In the eighteenth century, that country with the Continental towns
of Hamburg, Bremen, Dantzig, and Königsberg had become the important
sources of supply, so far as the Manchester district was concerned,
where English and Scotch yarn were little used.[187] The finest quality
was Irish web-yarn, which was used in the Blackburn manufacture,
Drogheda yarn and Sligo yarn occupying the second and third places,
with Hamburg and Bremen yarn as substitutes; fine Sligo yarn was also
used as weft for African goods and for handkerchiefs.[188] The yarn
from Dantzig and Königsberg (known as Ermland yarn from the bishopric
of Ermland) was used in the manufacture of sheeting, and this yarn
and Derry tow yarn were also made into checks and other goods for
exportation.[189]
[Footnote 186: _Ante_, pp. 30-31. In 1639 the Town Jury of Manchester
ordered “that Anne Thorp, widow, shall have the keepinge of the scales
and waights usuall for wayinge of Ireish yarne” (_Court Leet Records_,
iii., p. 321). It was stated in evidence before a Committee of the
House of Commons in 1736 by one witness that he bought linen-yarn, from
a person in Northumberland, in one transaction, to the value of £1000
(_J.H.C._, xxii., pp. 566-567).]
[Footnote 187: _Life and Correspondence of Samuel Hibbert Ware_ (1882),
pp. 96-98.]
[Footnote 188: _Ibid._, p. 98.]
[Footnote 189: _Ibid._, pp. 97-98.]
Both cotton and yarn reached the manufacturers through cotton merchants
and yarn merchants, of whom there were many in Manchester.[190]
Trading connections with Germany were maintained through travellers
who sought orders from Manchester merchants and manufacturers, and
German houses had branches in the town; also, Manchester tradesmen went
to Germany themselves.[191] In addition, both cotton and yarn were
sold by Manchester shopkeepers, who advertised these commodities along
with such incongruous articles of merchandise as Dr. Daffey’s elixir,
Anderson’s pills, tea, toys, jewellery, fiddle-strings, etc.[192]
[Footnote 190: _Infra_, p. 68.]
[Footnote 191: Ware, _ibid._, pp. 17-18. In these pages some memoranda
of a commercial traveller for a Dantzig house preserved among Dr.
Ware’s papers are given. _Manchester Mercury_, 3rd March 1772, contains
a notice of the funeral of Daniel Kahl, eminent yarn merchant, partner
of Delius & Kahl, Bremen.]
[Footnote 192: In every issue of _The Manchester Mercury_.]
As the raw materials reached the manufacturers through Manchester
merchants, so did the finished products reach their markets.[193] In
the case of the Chethams at the beginning of the seventeenth century,
as we have seen, one part of their establishment was in Manchester and
the other in London, and the same system was in vogue with firms in the
eighteenth century. The Chethams appear to have confined themselves
to home trade, mainly to that with the London market, although they
had dealings with Irish manufacturers and sent goods to the Irish
markets.[194] In the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, however,
Manchester goods were exported to foreign countries, and during the
first part of the next century considerable progress appears to have
been made particularly in trade to the British Plantations.[195]
[Footnote 193: While there apparently was a distinction between
merchants and manufacturers it should not be drawn too rigidly.
_Cf._ Radcliffe, _ibid._, p. 131: “All those great merchants were
manufacturers with scarcely an exception.”]
[Footnote 194: Raines and Sutton, _Life of Humphrey Chetham_, pp. 13,
127.]
[Footnote 195: _J.H.C._, xiv., p. 498; xvi., p. 311; xviii., p. 543;
xxiii., pp. 76-78.]
The statement of Aikin that in the first decades of the eighteenth
century the trade was carried on through wholesale dealers at London,
Bristol, and other ports, is probably correct, and there is also
evidence of the accuracy of his later statement that, during the
twenty or thirty years before he wrote (1795), “the increase of
foreign trade has caused many of the Manchester manufacturers to travel
abroad, and agents and partners to be fixed for a considerable time on
the continent, as well as foreigners to reside in Manchester.”[196] The
fact that, in 1770, a group of Manchester merchants were sufficiently
interested in the effects of a destructive fire at Antigua Island to
open a subscription for the relief of the sufferers, suggests important
trading connections with the West Indies, and in considering how these
connections were maintained, an announcement in the previous year of
the death of a Manchester merchant at Jamaica is significant.[197]
[Footnote 196: Aikin, _Manchester_, pp. 182-184. Radcliffe, _ibid._, p.
93.]
[Footnote 197: _Manchester Mercury_, 29th November 1769; 6th February
1770.]
As already noticed, cotton goods were manufactured for the African
trade about the middle of the eighteenth century, and Guest informs
us that about that time fustians began to be exported in considerable
quantities to Italy, Germany and North America.[198] Writing of the
time prior to the great changes in the cotton industry, Radcliffe
states that the Manchester manufacturing merchants either themselves,
or through merchants at London, Bristol, or Hull, carried on a large
trade with the Levant, sending goods as “adventures” to the fairs of
Asiatic Turkey which afterwards reached the markets in the interior
of Asia. But, according to Radcliffe, the most important trade,
particularly in fustians, “the old staple, by which these manufacturing
merchants were raised to their princely rank,” was that with the North
of China, carried on through Russia, a portion being “sent up the Black
Sea, or overland from Smyrna by the Turkey Company,” and “another
portion found its way, in modern times, through Leipsic to Moscow, and
down the Volga to the Caspian Sea.”[199]
[Footnote 198: _Ante_, p. 29, note. Guest, _Compendious History of the
Cotton Manufacture_, p. 12. About this time Manchester traders figure
in the petitions against the African and the Hudson Bay Companies.]
[Footnote 199: Radcliffe, _ibid._, pp. 131-133.]
An indication of how Manchester goods were distributed about the
country at the beginning of the eighteenth century is given in
two petitions presented to the House of Commons from some of the
inhabitants of Manchester and Stockport in 1704.[200] The petitioners
protested against their being regarded as hawkers and pedlars under
an Act passed a few years previously, whereas in reality they were
wholesale dealers who distributed goods to many parts of the kingdom
by means of horse carriage. Aikin’s account of the position at this
time supplements their statement: “When the Manchester trade began to
extend, the chapmen used to keep gangs of pack-horses, and accompany
them to the principal towns with goods in packs, which they opened
and sold to shopkeepers, lodging what was unsold in small stores at
the inns. The pack-horses brought back sheep’s wool which was bought
on the journey and sold to the makers of worsted yarn at Manchester,
or to the clothiers at Rochdale, Saddleworth, and the West Riding of
Yorkshire.”[201]
[Footnote 200: _J.H.C._, xiv., pp. 498, 504.]
[Footnote 201: Aikin, _ibid._, pp. 183-184.]
The pack-horse method of carriage was not peculiar to Manchester
trade, but obtained generally. The system of travelling merchants was,
however, especially characteristic of the Lancashire and Yorkshire
cloth area, and these merchants were known as “Manchester men.”[202]
In view of the fact that they were frequently men of considerable
wealth, it is easy to understand why they disliked being regarded as
hawkers and pedlars subject to duties on account of their particular
kind of trade. From Leeds these “‘Manchester men’ used to go with
Droves of Pack-horses loaden with ... goods to all the fairs and
Market-towns almost all over the Island, not to sell by Retale, but
to the shops by Wholesale, giving large credit. It was ordinary for
one of these men to carry a thousand pounds worth of Cloth with him at
a Time; and, having sold that, to send his Horses back for as much
more; and this very often in a Summer.”[203] In all probability the
description is generally true of Manchester in the early eighteenth
century. But, at this time, the public carrier was beginning to
displace the pack-horse,[204] and consequent upon his emergence,
the particular class of merchants referred to ceased to travel with
their goods, instead, they carried patterns and solicited orders, and
afterwards dispatched the goods by the carriers. Thus there arose
a class of men known as “riders-out,” and after the middle of the
century advertisements for them become very frequent in _The Manchester
Mercury_. “It was during the forty years from 1730 to 1770 that
(Manchester) trade was greatly pushed by sending these riders all over
the kingdom.”[205]
[Footnote 202: Smiles, _Lives of the Engineers_ (1862), i., pp.
178-181. Westerfield, _Middlemen in English Business_ (1915), pp.
313-314.]
[Footnote 203: Defoe, _A Tour through Great Britain_ (1769 edition),
iii., p. 126.]
[Footnote 204: Westerfield, _ibid._, pp. 362-363.]
[Footnote 205: Aikin, _ibid._, p. 184.]
But this system could not develop fully until improvements in
communications had been effected. So far as Lancashire was concerned,
a start was made in 1720 with the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Act,
though the contemplated scheme for a navigable waterway between
Manchester and Liverpool was not completed until nearly twenty years
later.[206] In the early fifties, road improvements were attracting
much attention in Manchester, and the next twenty years witnessed a
great advance in this direction in all parts of the country.[207]
This development in road communication was accompanied by further
development in water communication, the Act for the construction of the
canal from Worsley to Manchester in 1759 marking a new starting-point.
In 1762 the Act was passed for the canal from Manchester to Runcorn,
where it joined the Mersey to Liverpool, and when it was completed the
two towns were doubly linked by the old and the new navigations. The
extent to which Manchester was connected with the rest of the country
by road in 1772 may be seen from the number and the destination of the
regular carriers in the town at that time.[208]
[Footnote 206: Baines, _Lancashire and Cheshire_, iii., pp. 84-85.]
[Footnote 207: _Manchester Mercury_, 1752 onwards. Smiles, _ibid._,
p. 206. Between 1760 and 1774 452 Acts were passed for making and
repairing highways.]
[Footnote 208: _Infra_, p. 71.]
With these developments the system of travelling about the country with
goods, although it had changed its character somewhat, had not lost
its importance, nor did it lose it for a long time. It was carried
on by “petty chapmen,” and it was to such men that the terms hawkers
and pedlars now applied. In the eighties of the eighteenth century
a controversy arose, or rather one that had been simmering through
the century reached the boiling point, which shows that men, thus
designated, were still of great importance in inland trade.
As a result of the Seven Years’ War, and the American War of
Independence,[209] the country was faced with a financial crisis out
of which the egregious “Sinking Fund” emerged, and many new taxes were
levied to raise the required revenue. None raised such opposition
in Manchester as the “fustian-tax” and the successful efforts to
obtain its repeal were celebrated by an annual dinner for many years
afterwards.[210] But the agitation against this tax was local, compared
with that which arose in 1785 in connection with a tax on shops, and
a proposal to repeal the licences of hawkers and pedlars, which was
intended to make the shop-tax palatable. The proposal was carried into
effect to the extent that additional duties were levied on hawkers and
pedlars and their trade was regulated.
[Footnote 209: National Debt, 1756, £72,000,000. End of Seven Years’
War, 1763, £136,600,000. End of American War, 1783, £238,000,000
(Bastable, _Public Finance_, pp. 632-633).]
[Footnote 210: _Life and Correspondence of Samuel Hibbert Ware_, pp.
99-101. The Bill was introduced in August, 1784, and was quickly
passed. It was resolved to repeal it in June, 1785. For the agitation,
see _Manchester Mercury_ and pamphlets published during these months.
Details of the tax are given by Baines, _ibid._, p. 328.]
Before the proposal had taken the form of a Bill the manufacturers
of Manchester entered a vigorous protest against it, as they did on
other occasions after the Bill had become an Act.[211] For four years
petitions and counter-petitions rained upon the House of Commons from
all parts of the country, occupying a considerable portion of its
_Journals_ until 1789, when the shop-tax was repealed, and the Act
relating to hawkers and pedlars amended.[212] The chief arguments
of the shopkeepers against the itinerant tradesmen do not require
recapitulation as they are still vigorously maintained. The minor
arguments, that they dealt in smuggled and stolen goods and that they
corrupted the minds and morals of the younger part of the community,
may be attributed to the shopkeepers’ zeal in controversy.[213] What
the hawkers and pedlars--or petty chapmen--did, in fact, was to perform
the useful function of linking up the country districts with the
manufacturing and trading centres. In the first Manchester petition the
chapmen were described as carrying goods from house to house in the
country villages and districts remote from towns. It also referred to
their great number in Lancashire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire
and Cheshire, and stated that their purchases were more considerable
than had been apprehended, which no doubt was true. The manufacturers
of Glasgow attributed to the chapmen no small part in the extension
of manufactures in England and Scotland, through their introducing
goods into places where otherwise they would not have been sent.[214]
The best witness to their importance at this time is the multitude of
petitions presented in their favour from the manufacturers and traders
in every considerable town.
[Footnote 211: _J.H.C._, xl., p. 1001; xli., p. 283; xliv., p. 295.]
[Footnote 212: _Ibid._, xliv., pp. 276, 422.]
[Footnote 213: _Ibid._, xl., pp. 1107, 1109.]
[Footnote 214: _Ibid._, p. 1039.]
From these petitions the organisation of the trade can be clearly
visualised. The custom was for the chapmen to obtain their goods from
manufacturers and traders on credit, and then to sell them on credit.
In this way a considerable amount of capital was used in the trade. The
hawkers and pedlars of Halifax and neighbourhood asserted that they
had outstanding debts to the amount of £40,000, and that they again
were indebted for large sums to merchants and manufacturers in London,
Glasgow, Manchester, Leicester, Nottingham, Carlisle, etc.[215] But
there were also capitalist traders in some parts of the country who,
apparently, were solely engaged in supplying the chapmen with goods on
credit.
[Footnote 215: _J.H.C._, xl., p. 1026.]
This appears to have been the case with a member of “The Society of
Travelling Scotchmen of Bridgnorth” who claimed to have £5000 employed
in the trade.[216] His method was to buy goods from manufacturers in
different parts of Great Britain and Ireland, and to supply them to
the chapmen on credit, and, at the time, he had £3000 owing to him,
while they had £1500 owing to them. Two members of a similar society
at Shrewsbury, who pursued the same method, claimed to have £20,000 in
the trade, with outstanding debts to the amount of £16,000, while the
chapmen whom they supplied were in a similar position to the amount of
£10,000.[217] Even allowing for some exaggeration in the petitions,
there can be little doubt of the importance of the trade thus carried
on at this time.[218] Possibly it was of more importance than some
branches of trade of a more spectacular character, which, for that
reason, often attract more attention.
[Footnote 216: _Ibid._, pp. 1017-1018.]
[Footnote 217: _Ibid._, p. 1020.]
[Footnote 218: The hawkers and pedlars of London and Westminster stated
that they composed part of a body which numbered 1400 in England alone
(_ibid._, p. 1007).]
In the preceding chapter it has been shown that a textile manufacture,
which could be called a cotton manufacture, had become established in
Lancashire certainly by the beginning of the seventeenth century. From
what has been said so far, it will be apparent that the manufacture
was by no means in a state of stagnation during the century and a
half before 1770. Economically and politically, the period was a
favourable one for development. The turmoil of the seventeenth century
had an economic as well as a political significance. It marks the time
when the opportunist regulations of industry and commerce, which
are sometimes regarded as constituting part of a positive policy to
further the welfare of the national community, definitely failed,
notwithstanding much futile effort which continued into the next
century.[219]
[Footnote 219: The year 1623 marks an important date in this
connection. Unwin, _ibid._, p. 190, also _The Gilds and Companies of
London_, ch. xvii. Professor W. R. Scott’s _Joint-Stock Companies to
1720_, is a storehouse of fundamental facts relating to the economic
history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.]
Consequently, the cotton manufacture was comparatively unhampered by
such regulations, and it is not surprising that, particularly from the
early years of the eighteenth century, development was taking place in
all directions. Quite apart from the remarkable inventions of machinery
and the discovery of a new source of power, it is more than probable
that the latter years of the century would have witnessed considerable
changes. Before these events, the developments in industrial and
commercial organisation, and in communications, pointed to the fact
that a wider economy was emerging. It was in such conditions that a new
cotton manufacture made its appearance in Lancashire.
ANALYSIS OF CERTAIN TRADES IN MANCHESTER IN 1772
_All the following tables have been compiled from the first Manchester
Directory_
--------------+---
Fustian |No.
--------------+---
Manufacturers | 55
Cutters | 23
Callenderers | 14
Dyers[220] | 9
Dressers | 2
Shearers | 3
--------------+---
Total |106
--------------+---
--------------------------------+---
Check |No.
--------------------------------+---
Manufacturers[221] | 45
Callenderers | 7
Check and Fustian Manufacturers | 12
--------------------------------+---
Total | 64
--------------------------------+---
-----------------------------------+---
Smallware |No.
-----------------------------------+---
Manufacturers | 37
Weaver | 1
Callenderers | 3
Smallware and Fustian Manufacturers| 5
Smallware and Thread Manufacturer | 1
Smallware Manufacturer and Hatter | 1
Smallware Manufacturer and Hosier | 1
-----------------------------------+---
Total | 49
-----------------------------------+---
------------------------------------------+---
Silk and Linen |No.
------------------------------------------+---
Silk and Linen Manufacturers[222] | 7
Silk Manufacturers and Silk Weavers[223] | 10
Silk Mercers | 4
Silk Dyers | 4
Thread Makers | 3
Linen Drapers[224] | 12
Linen Dyers[225] | 7
Linen and Cotton Printers | 3
------------------------------------------+---
Total | 50
------------------------------------------+---
[Footnote 220: One described as dyer and printer.]
[Footnote 221: One described as manufacturer and printer.]
[Footnote 222: Two described as fustian silk and linen manufacturers.]
[Footnote 223: One described as silk and smallware manufacturer, two as
silk throwsters, and one as throwster and dyer.]
[Footnote 224: One described as linen merchant.]
[Footnote 225: Two described as linen and fustian dyers.]
----------------------------------+---
Woollen |No.
----------------------------------+---
Manufacturers[226] | 9
Drapers[227] | 8
Dyers | 4
Woolcombers | 2
Woollen and Fustian Manufacturers | 3
----------------------------------+---
Total | 26
----------------------------------+---
----------------------------------------+---
Merchants |No.
----------------------------------------+---
Yarn Merchants | 14
Cotton Merchants[228] | 5
Yarn and Cotton Merchants | 3
Yarn Merchants and Check Manufacturers | 3
Yarn Merchant and Thread Manufacturer | 1
----------------------------------------+---
Total | 26
----------------------------------------+---
---------------------+---
Miscellaneous |No.
---------------------+---
Hatters[229] | 15
Reed Makers | 9
Loom Makers | 8
Comb Maker | 1
Drum Maker | 1
Callender Maker | 1
Pattern Book Maker | 1
Fringe Makers | 2
Kendal Stuff Makers | 2
Velvet Dressers | 4
Cloth Dressers[230] | 4
Callenderers | 2
Twister | 1
Dyers[231] | 9
---------------------+---
Total | 60
---------------------+---
[Footnote 226: One described as frieze-maker, one as woollen
manufacturer and paper-maker, and one as worsted weaver.]
[Footnote 227: One described as woollen draper and cloth-worker, and
one as woollen draper and check manufacturer.]
[Footnote 228: One described as dealer in cotton weft.]
[Footnote 229: One described as hatter and hosier, and one as
hat-lining cutter.]
[Footnote 230: One described as dresser and cutter, and one as presser.]
[Footnote 231: One described as twister and dyer, and one as dyer
printer and manufacturer.]
In the fustian list there are 22 partnerships, in the check list
20, in the smallware list 11, in the silk and linen list 9, in the
woollen list 2, and in the merchants’ list 2.
COUNTRY TRADESMEN WITH WAREHOUSES IN MANCHESTER IN 1772
---------------------------
Fustian Manufacturers
-----------------------+---
Locality |No.
-----------------------+---
Bolton | 21
Little Bolton | 3
Cocky Moor (Nr. Bolton)| 3
Horwich | 1
Little Lever | 1
Over Hulton | 2
Leigh | 8
Bedford (Leigh) | 1
Chowbent | 6
Lowton | 4
Astley | 2
West Houghton | 2
Oldham | 5
Lees | 3
Clarkfield | 1
Austerlands | 1
Loeside | 1
Saddleworth | 1
Heywood | 3
Bury | 1
Audenshaw | 1
Ashton | 1
Worsley | 1
Haigh (Wigan) | 1
Unidentified | 3
-----------------------+---
Total | 77
-----------------------+---
---------------------------
Check Manufacturers
-----------------------+---
Locality |No.
-----------------------+---
Gorton | 4
Prestwich | 3
Levenshulme | 2
Rusholme | 1
Fallowfield | 1
Moston | 2
Newton (Manchester) | 1
Collyhurst | 1
Cheetham | 1
Pendleton | 1
Flixton | 1
Middleton | 1
Audenshaw | 1
Failsworth | 3
Werneth Low | 1
Unidentified | 2
-----------------------+---
Total | 26
-----------------------+---
--------------------------------------------
Miscellaneous
------------+---------------------------+---
Locality | Description |No.
------------+---------------------------+---
Ardwick | Yarn Merch’t Chapmen | 2
Collyhurst | Woollen Manufacturers | 2
Cheetham | Yarn Merch’t Chapmen | 2
Burnage | Yarn Merch’t | 1
Crumpsall | Linen and Cotton Merchant | 1
Blackley | Frieze Maker | 1
Audenshaw | Woollen Manufacturer | 1
Patricroft | Yarn Merch’t | 1
Wigan | Cotton Merchant | 1
------------+---------------------------+---
| Total | 12
------------+---------------------------+---
CROFTERS OR WHITSTERS IN THE MANCHESTER AREA IN 1772[232]
------------------------+---
Locality |No.
------------------------+---
Newton (Manchester) | 12
Droylsden | 4
Gorton | 4
Openshaw | 2
Audenshaw | 1
Levenshulme | 6
Kirkmanshulme | 2
Burnage | 2
Heaton Norris | 1
Reddish | 1
Blackley | 8
Moston | 1
Harpurhey | 2
Failsworth | 1
Cheetham | 1
Kersal | 1
Prestwich | 4
Radcliffe | 2
Bolton | 2
Little Bolton | 2
Harwood (Bolton) | 2
Halliwell (Bolton) | 2
Oldfield Lane (Salford) | 3
Pendleton | 10
Worsley | 2
------------------------+---
Total | 78
------------------------+---
[Footnote 232: In this list there are three partnerships.]
[Illustration: Map showing the location of Manufacturers and Crofters
in the Manchester area in 1772
Fustian Manufacturers red figures
Check ” blue ”
Smallware ” yellow ”
Crofters ” green ”
The figures correspond with those in the preceding tables
e. g. Manchester, 55 Fustian Manufacturers.]
REGULAR CARRIERS FROM MANCHESTER IN 1772
------------------+---+------------------
Destination |No.| Days of Departure
------------------+---+------------------
London | 6| 5, Wed. Sat. 1, Tu.
Birmingham | 1| Fri.
Bolton | 2| Tu. Th. Sat.
Bristol | 1| Wed.
Burnley | 2| Tu. Th. Sat.
Bury | 1| Tu. Th. Sat.
Cambridge | 1| Th.
Chester | 2| 1, Tu. Th. Sat. 1, Th.
Chorley | 1| Tu. Th. Sat.
Chowbent | 1| Tu. Th. Sat.
Colne | 1| Fri.
Derby | 1| Th.
Doncaster | 1| Sat.
Halifax | 2| 1, Tu. Th. Sat. 1, Mon. Th.
Huddersfield | 1| Mon. Th. Sat.
Lancaster | 1| Mon. Fri.
Leeds | 1| Tu. Th. Sat.
Liverpool | 1| Tu. Th. Sat.
Macclesfield | 1| Tu. Th. Sat.
Newcastle-on-Tyne | 1| Th.
Northwich | 2| Tu. Th. Sat.
Nottingham | 2| 1, Th. 1, Sat.
Pontefract | 1| Sat.
Preston | 1| Mon. Fri.
Rochdale | 2| Tu. Th. Sat.
Salop | 1| Sat.
Sheffield | 2| 1, Th. 1, Fri.
Stockport | 2| Every day
Wakefield | 1| Tu. Th. Sat.
Wigan | 2| Tu. Th. Sat.
York | 1| Sat.
------------------+---+------------------
One stage-coach ran to London, and one to Liverpool, each on three
days of the week.
On the Old Navigation between Manchester and Liverpool 21 vessels
were engaged. On the New Navigation between Manchester and Warrington
9 vessels were engaged, also a number of open vessels called Tuns,
and between Warrington and Liverpool 11 vessels were engaged. A 40
Tun Boat sailed between Manchester and Altrincham three days a week,
and coal boats arrived in Manchester from Worsley every day.