THE COMING OF MACHINERY: KAY TO ARKWRIGHT
I
The statement made at the close of the last chapter, that a new
cotton manufacture arose in Lancashire in the latter years of the
eighteenth century is justified, notwithstanding the fact that goods
made entirely of cotton had undoubtedly been manufactured in the county
before, possibly to a larger extent than there is positive evidence
to show. From 1770 the cotton industry, as it is now known, began its
growth, and this event must always be attributed in large measure
to the inventions associated with the names of James Hargreaves,
Richard Arkwright, and Samuel Crompton. Their inventions represent
a culmination of a series of endeavours to improve the processes of
cotton manufacture which reach back to the thirties of the eighteenth
century--the time, it may be noticed, when the “Manchester Act” was
secured. Generally these endeavours had reference to spinning and the
processes preparatory to it, but it was in weaving that the first
invention appeared which attained much success.
At this time, in the Manchester district, there were two types of loom
in use, the “Dutch” loom and the ordinary hand-loom. The first was
introduced, apparently about the beginning of the century, for narrow
fabrics of which it could weave several at once.[233] In this loom the
shuttle was sent through the warp by the action of cog-wheels, which
was a slow and cumbrous process, and unsuitable for the weaving of
wider fabrics.[234] In the ordinary hand-loom, the shuttle was sent
to and fro through the warp by hand. The invention referred to was
that of the “flying shuttle” by Kay, of Bury, for which he took out a
patent in 1733.[235] This invention, which was for use in the ordinary
hand-loom, consisted mainly of a “picking-peg” contrivance, by means of
which the weaver could jerk the shuttle through the warp, using only
one hand.[236]
[Footnote 233: _Ante_, p. 40.]
[Footnote 234: Chapman, _ibid._, p. 21.]
[Footnote 235: John Kay was born near Bury in 1704, but lived at
Colchester at the time of the invention. He returned to Bury some time
after 1745, and lived there apparently until about 1753 (Espinasse,
_Lancashire Worthies_ (1874), pp. 310-318).]
[Footnote 236: Ogden, _ibid._ (1783), p. 89, states that “the fly
shuttle” is “in such estimation here (in Manchester) as to be used
generally even on narrow goods.”]
Although exceedingly simple, the invention, when combined with other
improvements, was of great importance, as it enabled the weaver to
work more quickly, with a less expenditure of effort, and weave a
width of cloth which had required two weavers before. For some reason,
the invention does not appear to have been used much in the cotton
industry for about thirty years after its appearance, although it was
used in the Yorkshire woollen industry, regardless of the claims of
the inventor.[237] Besides his invention of the “flying shuttle,” Kay
effected a considerable improvement in the reeds for looms, and in 1745
took out a patent for a power-loom, and also applied his ingenuity
to carding and spinning, but in these latter efforts he apparently
attained little success.[238] In 1760 his son Robert effected another
improvement in the loom by his invention of the “drop-box,” which
enabled the weaver “to use any one of three shuttles, each containing
a different coloured weft, without the trouble of taking them from
and replacing them in the lathe.”[239] In 1764 the elder Kay made an
appeal to the Society of Arts for recognition of his work, and claimed
to have many more inventions that he had not put forward, owing, as
he said, to the treatment he had received from those engaged in the
cotton and woollen industries, and from Parliament. The story of his
difficulties, of his emigration to France, and of his death there, is
so well known as not to require repetition.[240]
[Footnote 237: Guest, _ibid._, p. 9. Espinasse, _ibid._, p. 313.]
[Footnote 238: Espinasse, _ibid._, pp. 310-318.]
[Footnote 239: Guest, _ibid._, p. 9.]
[Footnote 240: Espinasse, _ibid._]
The inventions of the flying shuttle and the drop-box, with the
introduction of Dutch looms, were the most important developments in
weaving in the first part of the eighteenth century. But there was
another development which should be noticed, referred to by Ogden,
which, he states, gave rise to a new and important branch of trade
in the Manchester district. Owing to the greater variety of patterns
attempted in figured goods, a more complicated loom became necessary,
as well as the employment of a boy to manipulate the treadles for the
raising and lowering of the warps which was required in the weaving of
such goods. The goods produced were consequently known by the name of
“draw-boys.” But the complicated loom was also more expensive, and it
is significant that, at this time, weavers were having “looms mounted
for them at great expense which the employers advanced.”[241]
[Footnote 241: Ogden, _ibid._, pp. 76-77. This loom was the predecessor
of the Jacquard loom. Chapman, _ibid._, pp. 22-23.]
With this progress in weaving, and with an expanding market, it was
inevitable that efforts would be made to effect improvements in the
methods of preparing the raw material, and in spinning. In 1736,
before the Committee of the House of Commons which reported in favour
of the petition to allow printed fustians to be freely manufactured,
the statement was made that four spinners were required to supply
one weaver with material, and all the authorities substantiate the
statement and emphasise the difficulties which existed owing to the
discrepancy.[242]
[Footnote 242: _Ante_, p. 23. Ogden, _ibid._, p. 87. Guest, _ibid._,
pp. 11-12.]
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, in this country, the
only thing that could be called a machine used in the operations
necessary in transforming raw cotton into yarn was the spinning-wheel.
One or other of two wheels was commonly used for cotton-spinning:
the “Jersey” wheel or the “Brunswick” wheel, the latter differing
from the former mainly in the fact that it had a treadle, so that
it could be worked by the foot. On these wheels only one thread was
spun, and the spinning was intermittent with the winding of the spun
thread. The “Saxony” wheel was an improvement upon these, but was most
commonly used for flax and wool spinning. With this wheel there was a
contrivance known as a “Flier” which enabled the processes of spinning
and winding to proceed simultaneously, and sometimes two spindles were
attached to it, the spinner thus forming a thread with each hand. The
“Saxony” wheel, however, was not so suitable for cotton-spinning as the
others.[243]
[Footnote 243: Kennedy, _Brief Memoir of Samuel Crompton_, Manchester
Literary and Philosophical Society, vol. v., Second Series (1831), p.
324. _Souvenir of Royal Visit to Bolton_, 10th July 1913, pp. 12, 13.
The sections on cotton-spinning, and on early cotton machinery, were
written by Mr. Thomas Midgley, Curator of Chadwick Museum, Bolton, and
contain a clear exposition of the spinning processes. In the museum
there is an excellent collection of the early machinery of Hargreaves,
Arkwright, and Crompton, as well as of more ancient machinery.]
The cotton, before spinning, was cleaned by hand or, at most, by
lightly beating it with a cane, while the carding operation was
performed by means of hand-cards.[244] These cards were little more
than two brushes with wire bristles, the cotton being placed on
one brush, and by the other being drawn over it, the fibres were
straightened out ready for the next process. Some progress was made in
carding by increasing the surface of the cards, making one a fixture,
and hanging the other round a pulley with a weight to balance it. Thus
the workman was left with the task of moving this card to and fro over
the cotton on the fixed card as required. These cards were known as
stock-cards as distinguished from the hand-cards.[245]
[Footnote 244: Dobson, _Evolution of the Spinning Machine_ (1911), p.
28.]
[Footnote 245: _Ibid._, pp. 33-35. Kennedy, _Rise and Progress of
the Cotton Trade_, Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society,
vol. iii., Second Series (1815), pp. 118-119. Mr. Kennedy states that
before the coming of the great inventions the endeavours to find better
methods filled the cottages with little improvements, and that the
multiplication of instruments was forcing the work out of cottages.
“Here,” he says “commences the factory system” (p. 118).]
It was particularly to carding and to spinning that the inventors gave
their attention, and during more than thirty years before Arkwright
took out his first patent numerous efforts were made to discover
improved mechanical means of performing the operations. Apart from the
invention of the “spinning-jenny,” which, though not patented until the
year following Arkwright’s patent, was in use some years before, the
most notable efforts were those of Lewis Paul, whose title to fame is
enhanced by his friendship with Dr. Samuel Johnson.[246]
[Footnote 246: Cole, _Some Account of Lewis Paul_. Paper read at the
meeting of the British Association, 1858. Reproduced by French, _Life
and Times of Samuel Crompton_ (1859), App. III. The references are to
the pages in French’s book.]
It is now generally accepted that, in the patent taken out by Paul in
1738, the idea of attenuating cotton by rollers was embodied, so that
question need not be discussed.[247] Evidently Paul was born in London
and died there, but during part of his life he lived in Birmingham, and
it appears that the invention was carried through at this place, with
the assistance of John Wyatt as workman.[248] Whatever the merits of
the invention may have been, it is clear that in the hands of Paul and
his friends it did not attain much success. None of them appears to
have possessed the push and business instinct of Richard Arkwright, and
it may have been to this lack, as much as to lack of inventive genius,
that the non-success was due.
[Footnote 247: For the contrary view, Ure, _Cotton Manufacture_, i.,
pp. 237 _et seq._ The proximity of the date of the patent to that of
Kay’s patent and the “Manchester Act” is a fact again worthy of notice.]
[Footnote 248: French, _ibid._, pp. 269-270. Espinasse, _ibid._, p.
341.]
Certainly there was faith in the invention, and Paul himself claimed
that, in the course of twenty years, he made more than £20,000 out
of it as patentee.[249] It was used in at least one factory at
London, in one at Birmingham, and in one at Northampton. The machinery
at Birmingham was turned by animal-power, and at Northampton by
water-power, and at the latter place fifty hands were employed in the
factory.[250] It seems evident, however, that, whatever the reason,
when the term of the patent expired in 1752 faith in the invention had
also largely expired, and Paul attempted to get it introduced into a
Foundling Hospital in London.[251] During the next six years he made
improvements in the machine, and in 1758 obtained another patent for
it, but shortly afterwards he died, and the honour of carrying the use
of rollers in spinning to a successful issue was left to others.[252]
[Footnote 249: _Ibid._, pp. 256, 268.]
[Footnote 250: Baines, _ibid._, p. 134. Espinasse, _ibid._, pp.
349-350.]
[Footnote 251: French, _ibid._, p. 266. Espinasse asserts that it was
introduced into at least one Yorkshire workhouse (_ibid._, p. 355).]
[Footnote 252: French, _ibid._, p. 269.]
But it is not only in connection with spinning that Paul’s name has
to be remembered. Whatever failings he may have had, he was certainly
a man of an inventive turn of mind. It is recorded that in 1742 he
granted a licence in consideration of £200, for the right to use a
“pinking” machine he had invented.[253] But more important in relation
to the cotton industry was his invention of a carding-machine,
for which he secured a patent in 1748.[254] Earlier in the same
year a man named Daniel Bourne had also taken out a patent for a
carding-machine,[255] and after a time the principal processes of the
two machines were combined in one machine, though it is to Paul’s
invention that the most important method of carding the finer qualities
of cotton at the present day is traced.[256] Both these machines,
however, were lacking in that they had no “doffing” arrangement, which
prevented continuous working, but the deficiency in this respect was
afterwards removed by Arkwright with his crank and comb device, while
others improved the imperfect feeding arrangement.[257]
[Footnote 253: _Ibid._, p. 252.]
[Footnote 254: _Ibid._, p. 266. It appears, however, that he may have
invented this machine as early as 1740 (_ibid._, 256).]
[Footnote 255: Espinasse, _ibid._, p. 365.]
[Footnote 256: Dobson, _ibid._, 36-37.]
[Footnote 257: Dobson, _ibid._, p. 37.]
Paul’s carding-machine did not find its way into Lancashire until
about 1760, when it was introduced by a man named Morris, who lived
in the neighbourhood of Wigan.[258] Soon afterwards it was adopted,
or one based upon it made, by the founder of the famous Peel family
at Blackburn, who, in carrying on his experiments, employed James
Hargreaves, best known in connection with the “spinning-jenny.” For a
long time it was supposed that the credit for the crank and comb was
due to Hargreaves, but later it was recognised that it more properly
belonged to Arkwright.[259]
[Footnote 258: Kennedy, _Brief Memoir of Samuel Crompton_, p. 326.]
[Footnote 259: Baines, _ibid._, pp. 177-179.]
By 1760 the need for improvements in spinning had become more than
pressing, and this decade marks a period of great activity and great
achievements, though, as already suggested, it was not so much a
period of new achievements as one in which efforts extending over
more than a generation attained success. In 1754 a patent for a
spinning-machine had been taken out by a man named Taylor, but it does
not appear to have come to anything.[260] In 1761 the Society of Arts
issued an advertisement offering rewards “for the best invention of
a machine that will spin six threads of wool, flax, hemp, or cotton
at one time, and that will require but one person to work and attend
it,” and several were forthcoming, but apparently none was completely
satisfactory. One six-thread machine, however, was examined by the
Committee of Manufacturers in 1763 and a reward granted to the person
who had presented it.[261]
[Footnote 260: Espinasse, _ibid._, p. 320.]
[Footnote 261: Brown, _The Basis of Mr. Samuel Crompton’s Claims_
(reprint, Manchester, 1868), p. 28.]
In the year following the grant of this reward, James Hargreaves is
supposed to have conceived the invention of the “spinning-jenny,”[262]
though it did not become prominent before 1767 and was not patented
until 1770. In the meantime, Arkwright had brought the method of
spinning by rollers to a stage at which he could apply for a patent,
which he obtained in 1769. When the two methods of spinning are
compared, it may be seen that spinning by rollers was the greater
departure from the customary method of spinning cotton.
[Footnote 262: Baines, _ibid._, p. 156.]
When cotton has been carded, its transformation into yarn consists in
gradually attenuating the cotton and twisting it into a thread. In the
eighteenth century, the whole process could be definitely divided into
two stages. In the first, the carded cotton was made into a continuous
but comparatively thick cord called roving; in the second, the
roving was attenuated and spun into yarn. The spinning operation was
therefore a continuation of the roving operation, and with the ordinary
spinning-wheel both were performed in essentially the same way. In
spinning, the roving was attached to the spindle, and the spinner with
one hand extended the roving, and with the other turned the wheel,
which caused the spindle to revolve, and thus gave the necessary twist
to the attenuated roving. When this operation had been performed, the
spinner, with one hand, again turned the wheel, the spindle again
revolving, this time to wind the yarn upon it, while the other hand
was engaged in giving in the yarn for the winding. Clearly this system
admitted of only one thread being spun at a time.
In the invention of the “jenny” the action of that hand of the
spinner which attenuated the roving and gave in the yarn for winding
was mechanically reproduced, but instead of the spinner being able
to operate only one spindle, as many could be operated as could
be conveniently introduced. The bobbins round which the rovings
were coiled, and the spindles, were fixed in a frame. The ends of
the rovings were attached to the spindles, passing between a clasp
arrangement which formed part of a movable carriage. While the clasp
was open, the carriage was first drawn out from the spindles until
the required length of rovings for spinning had passed through. Then
the clasp was closed, and the rovings, thus gripped, were attenuated
by the carriage being drawn further out. Simultaneously, the wheel,
which caused the spindles to revolve, was turned to give the required
twist to the thread. Then, as the carriage was moved back to its first
position, the wheel was again slowly turned, this time to wind the spun
thread on the spindles. Thus the action of one hand of the spinner
remained the same, but the other was now used in opening and closing
the clasp and in moving the carriage to and fro.
From the beginning, the effect of this invention was to multiply many
times the amount of yarn that could be spun by a spinner, and the size
of the jenny was soon increased. In 1767 it was said to contain eight
spindles; when Hargreaves took out his patent in 1770 the specification
mentioned sixteen or more; in 1784 the number had increased to eighty;
and ultimately as many as one hundred and twenty are said to have been
introduced.[263] Although the jenny did not make the rovings, and its
movements depended upon hand power, it represented a great advance in
spinning, and its mechanism was so simple that it could be worked by
children.[264] The thread it produced, however, was not completely
satisfactory for the warp in cotton goods, as it was not “capable of
giving that hardness of twist and fineness which was necessary to form
the threads of the warp.”[265]
[Footnote 263: Espinasse, _ibid._, pp. 322, 327.]
[Footnote 264: Ogden, _ibid._, p. 87.]
[Footnote 265: Guest, _British Cotton Manufacture_ (1828), p. 147.
Ogden states that the larger jennies were used for making warps until
they were superseded by the water-frame (_ibid._, p. 91).]
This defect was supplied by the invention of spinning by rollers
patented by Arkwright--the water-frame as it came to be called--as the
characteristic feature of the yarn thus spun was its suitability for
the warp. The jenny and the water-frame, therefore, were complementary
rather than substitutional machines. When the patent for spinning by
rollers was taken out in 1769, as with the jenny, it was still intended
that the rovings should be made on the spinning-wheel. But with
Arkwright’s method, instead of the rovings being attenuated by a long
stretch, the operation was performed by their passing between rollers
moving at different velocities, which had the same effect. For the
twisting and the winding of the thread the “Flier” spindle mentioned
in connection with the “Saxony” wheel was utilised. Consequently, the
spinning and winding operations proceeded simultaneously, whereas with
the jenny they were intermittent.[266]
[Footnote 266: _Souvenir of Royal Visit to Bolton_, pp. 16-17.]
Before Arkwright obtained his second patent in 1775, sometimes called
the “carding” patent, the roller method had been extended to the
rovings, and as he and others had effected the improvements, already
mentioned, in the carding machine, the whole of the operations required
in transforming the raw cotton into yarn could be performed by
machinery.[267]
[Footnote 267: Espinasse, _ibid._, p. 400.]
In the 1769 patent Arkwright provided for the machinery to be driven
by horse-power. Two years later he erected his factory at Cromford,
where water-power was available. But at this time another power to
drive it was in preparation, Watt having taken out his patent for
his steam-engine in the same year as Arkwright obtained his first
patent.[268] It was not, however, until the last decade of the
eighteenth century that Watt’s steam-engine was much used in the
cotton industry, its first application in this direction being made at
Papplewick in Nottinghamshire in 1785, and it was not introduced into
Manchester until 1789.[269] There had been earlier efforts to utilise
steam, as in 1783 Ogden could state that in Manchester a factory had
been erected in which “Mr. Arkwright’s machines are setting to work by
a steam-engine, for carding and spinning of cotton.”[270]
[Footnote 268: Smiles, _Boulton and Watt_ (1904), p. 111.]
[Footnote 269: Ure, _ibid._, i., p. 286.]
[Footnote 270: Ogden, _ibid._, p. 16.]
The new spinning machinery was not introduced into use without
opposition, but the opposition to its use was small, compared with
the opposition to the patents granted in connection with it. Before
the patents were taken out, both Hargreaves and Arkwright had left
Lancashire for Nottingham. As already mentioned, Hargreaves did not
obtain his patent until 1770, and his removal to Nottingham followed
upon a machine-breaking episode in 1767, when the jenny was the
object of attention. Arkwright removed in the following year, and his
machinery appears to have been immune from attack until 1779--ten years
after he had obtained his first patent.
In that year a rising took place in north-west Lancashire, when an
attack was made upon the factories in the neighbourhood of Chorley,
particularly upon one at Birkacre, owned by Arkwright and his partners,
and the machinery destroyed. Afterwards the mob intended to proceed
to Bolton, Manchester, and Stockport, and finally to reach Cromford,
breaking the machinery as they went along.[271] Consequently, it is
hardly surprising that the inhabitants of Manchester were alarmed, and
called a meeting of magistrates, merchants, and gentlemen, when it
was resolved “to embody and arm a sufficient number of soldiers and
proper persons to defend the town and neighbourhood.”[272] Fortunately
their services were not required, as the rising terminated at Bolton.
In the next year, one of Arkwright’s partners petitioned the House of
Commons for redress for the destruction of the factory at Birkacre,
claiming that he had suffered loss to the extent of £4400, owing,
as he insisted, to lack of protection from the civil and military
authorities.[273]
[Footnote 271: Josiah Wedgwood was an eye-witness of this rising. His
account of it is quoted by Espinasse, _ibid._, pp. 424-426.]
[Footnote 272: _Manchester Mercury_, 12th October 1779.]
[Footnote 273: _J.H.C._, xxxvii., p. 926.]
In the references to the risings which took place in Lancashire against
machinery, there is usually an implication that they were largely due
to the effects of its introduction upon the position of the operatives.
Neither in 1767, nor in 1779, nor on other occasions when such
risings occurred, is this implication strongly justified. Invariably,
a satisfactory explanation requires attention to be paid to conditions
prevailing at the time, due to entirely other causes, and at this
point a slight digression may be permitted for a glance at the general
situation.
II
It is not too much to say that the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War in
1756 marks the beginning of a century of unrest in England, in which
economic causes have to be regarded as the effects of political causes.
No sooner had the Seven Years’ War concluded than the conflict with the
American colonies began, and was a constantly disturbing factor until
long after peace was signed in 1783.[274] Scarcely was there time to
recuperate from this conflict, when the Revolutionary and Napoleonic
Wars commenced, which left a dreadful aftermath the gathering of
which required more than a quarter of a century after the battle of
Waterloo. The position attained by the average workman in 1750 was not
reached again until the end of this period. The price of food suffered
great fluctuations, and at times rose to an enormous height, while
remuneration lagged behind, and employment was uncertain.[275] At
various times the unrest broke out into open riots, and in these riots
resentment against economic changes was an incident.
[Footnote 274: It will be borne in mind that the trouble with America
began immediately the Seven Years’ War concluded, with the attempt to
impose, with increased energy, “the colonial policy” which at once was
met by commercial reprisals that greatly dislocated trade and called
forth loud protests from British merchants. Macpherson, _Annals of
Commerce_ (1805), see under years 1763-1790. Smith, _Wars Between
England and America_ (1914).]
[Footnote 275: Meredith, _Economic History of England_. See Chart B
for variations in the amount of wheat which could be purchased with
the daily wage of a carpenter and an agricultural labourer. Tooke,
_History of Prices_; Martineau, _History of the Peace_; Wilks, _The
Half Century_ (1852); J. L. and B. Hammond, _The Village Labourer_;
_The Town Labourer_; _The Skilled Labourer_.]
Mention has been made earlier of the conditions in the late fifties.
These conditions were matched in the sixties, and in the seventies.
At the beginning of 1759 the price of wheat had fallen to the
neighbourhood of 20s. a load in Manchester, at which it remained until
the spring of 1762, when it began to rise again, reaching an average
of 25s. 6d. in 1763. In 1764 there was a further increase to more than
30s., which continued through 1765 and into the following year.
With the rise of prices the agitation against forestallers and
engrossers revived, and at least one preacher in the Manchester
district took as the text of his sermon: “He that withholdeth corn
the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of
him that selleth it,”[276] but more than admonition was considered
necessary. In 1762 a riot took place in Manchester in which people from
Oldham, Saddleworth, Ashton, etc., joined, which was regarded as so
serious that the King offered his pardon to any two persons who would
turn informers.[277] Early in 1764 Parliament instituted an inquiry
regarding the high price of provisions, when the conclusion was arrived
at, that the evil was due to forestallers and engrossers. Apparently,
however, it was not easy to find a remedy, as a few months later the
King, by the advice of the Privy Council, offered a reward of £100
for the discovery of any unlawful combination to raise prices, and in
Derbyshire, the miners, finding wheat at 8s. 4d. a bushel, decided to
take matters into their own hands, and fixed a price of 5s., at which
they cleared the market.[278]
[Footnote 276: _Manchester Mercury_, 9th January 1762.]
[Footnote 277: _Ibid._, 1st September 1762.]
[Footnote 278: Macpherson, _ibid._, pp. 391, 406-407.]
At the beginning of 1766 Parliament again took action by allowing the
import of prohibited cereals, and prohibiting the export of others.
In September, in answer to the numerous petitions which had been
presented, three proclamations were issued: one, which enforced the
sixteenth-century laws against forestallers and engrossers; another,
which laid an embargo on all vessels loaded with wheat and flour in any
port of Great Britain and prohibited distillation from wheat; while
another prolonged the embargo and extended it to vessels having on
board barley or malt.[279] In November of the same year, an Assize of
Bread began to be issued in Manchester, and was continued weekly for
some months.[280]
[Footnote 279: Macpherson, _ibid._, pp 438, 452.]
[Footnote 280: Regarding this Assize the following notice, based upon
31 Geo. II., c. 29., was issued in _The Manchester Mercury_, 18th Nov.
1766:--“In every Assize of Bread respect shall he had to the Market
Price of Grain and Meal and Flour making reasonable allowance to the
Baker for his Labour and Profit. In order to know the Price of Meal and
Flour in proportion to the Price of Wheat, the Magistrates and Justices
of Peace are to take notice that the Peck loaf of each sort of Bread
is to weigh, when well baken, 17 lbs. 6 ozs. avoirdupois, and the rest
in proportion; and that every sack of Meal or Flour is to weigh 2 cwt.
2 qrs. (not 280 lbs.) and that from every sack of Meal or Flour there
ought to be produced 20 such Peck loaves of Bread.”
“By this rule from every Manchester load of flour weighing 240 lbs.
there ought to be produced 297 lbs. 13 oz. 12 drs., of Bread of each
sort well baken. The price of 296 lbs. 7 oz. 8 drs. of Wheaten Bread
consisting of 1d. 2d. 6d. 12d. 18d. loaves according to the above
Assize is 44s. The Price of a load of Flour is 30s., allowance to
Baker is 14s. The Price of 297 lbs. 10 ozs. 15 drs. of Household Bread
consisting of such loaves is 32s. 10d. Price of a load of Flour is 27s.
6d. Allowance to Baker is 5s. 4d.”
ASSIZE OF BREAD FOR MANCHESTER AND SALFORD 10TH NOVEMBER 1766[A]
_lbs._ _ozs._ _drs._
1d. loaf Wheaten to weigh 8 7
Ditto Household ” ” 11 2
2d. loaf Wheaten ” ” 1 0 14
Ditto Household ” ” 1 6 4
6d. loaf Wheaten ” ” 3 2 9
Ditto Household ” ” 4 2 12
12d. loaf Wheaten ” ” 6 5 2
Ditto Household ” ” 8 5 8
18d. loaf Wheaten ” ” 9 7 11
Ditto Household ” ” 12 8 3
[Footnote A: _Manchester Mercury_, 11th November 1766.]
]
In February, 1767, riots were again reported from Derbyshire, and two
months later the Mayor and Corporation of Chester were threatened
with murder if they did not prevent forestalling. In July, a statement
appeared that, although provisions had been imported into the country,
food was no cheaper, and with pathetic insistence the cause was still
sought in the trading activities of “harpies who prey on the vitals of
the public.”[281]
[Footnote 281: _Manchester Mercury_, 10th February, 14th April, 28th
July.]
During this year an agricultural society came into existence for
the Hundred of Salford, and another in Manchester whose activities
extended over a radius of twenty miles from the town.[282] Both these
societies were exceedingly active for a long period in encouraging
improvements by the offer of premiums, and articles on various aspects
of agriculture became a common feature in _The Manchester Mercury_.
That the distress during these years was widespread is shown by similar
accounts to those mentioned, from all parts of England, from Ireland
and Scotland, and from the Continent as well.[283]
[Footnote 282: _Ibid._, 1st September 1767. The rules and orders of the
Society of Agriculture at Manchester are given, 21st June 1774.]
[Footnote 283: _Ibid._, in various issues.]
The rise in the price of food was no doubt an important factor in
the distress of this time, but as a fundamental cause it had no more
relation to the distress than the manipulations of traders had to the
rise. The fundamental cause was to be found in the conditions created
by the Seven Years’ War and the succeeding trouble with the American
colonies and the consequent dislocation of trade. The conclusion of
the Seven Years’ War was followed by a crisis in which a large number
of commercial houses in Amsterdam, Hamburg, and other German towns,
came to the ground.[284] “The failures were by some ascribed to the
large sums owing by the British and French armies, and by others to
the vast quantity of base money issued by the German princes during
the war, for which the merchants expected to receive the value, or
at least a considerable part of the value it was issued for. It is
reasonable to believe that both these causes operated, and that even
the peace, by suddenly drawing off the trade enjoyed by those neutral
places during the war might be instrumental in producing a derangement
in the affairs of those concerned in it.”[285] Owing to the action of
the authorities in issuing something of the nature of a “moratorium” in
favour of the merchants, and to the assistance of the “Lombard houses,”
in Amsterdam and Hamburg, the acute period of the crisis does not
appear to have been of long duration. To assist the recovery, British
merchants were obliged to extend their credits to their correspondents,
and to send them remittances, and in turn they were supported by the
Bank of England.[286] In these circumstances it is not surprising that
on account of the failures trade on the Continent was said to be at a
stand.[287] The conditions in England are sufficiently indicated by
what has been said, and by the petitions presented to the House of
Commons complaining of high food prices and of the decay of trade.[288]
[Footnote 284: _Manchester Mercury_, 6th September 1763.]
[Footnote 285: Macpherson, _ibid._, pp. 372-373.]
[Footnote 286: _Ibid._]
[Footnote 287: _Manchester Mercury_, 13th September 1763.]
[Footnote 288: Macpherson, _ibid._, iii., pp. 406-407.]
With the passing of the crisis, conditions might have improved but for
the trouble with the American colonies, which hampered trade more than
almost anything else could have done. This was inevitable owing to
the character of the trade with these colonies. The northern colonies
imported much from Great Britain, but exported little directly to this
country. The imports were paid for by the colonies exporting to the
West Indies and to the Continent, and by their carrying trade. Thus a
check to American trade dislocated the circle of commerce and imposed
a check all round.[289] The trade was so important that during a
considerable part of the period over which the trouble extended it was
carried on regardless of prohibitions, which, rather than lessening
the volume of the trade, checked its expansion, and increased its
uncertainty.[290] When the position was more serious, as in the months
intervening between the passing of the Stamp Act in 1765 and its repeal
in the following year, Parliament was belaboured with petitions from
the trading and manufacturing towns, in which attention was drawn to
the character of the trade, to the derangement caused by its stoppage,
and to the effect upon the working population already in a state of
rebellion owing to the high cost of living.[291]
[Footnote 289: _Ibid._, pp. 396-397. “This trade united all the
advantages which the wisest and most philanthropic philosopher, or the
most enlightened legislator, could wish to derive from commerce. It
gave bread to the industrious in North America by carrying off their
lumber, which must otherwise rot on their hands, and their fish, great
part of which without it would be absolutely unsaleable, together
with their spare produce and stock of every kind; it furnished the
West India planters with those articles without which the operations
of their plantations must be at a stand; and it produced a fund for
employing a great number of industrious manufacturers in Great Britain;
thus taking off the superfluities, providing for the necessities,
and promoting the happiness of all concerned.” _Cf._ Bryan Edwards,
_History of the West Indies_, Book IV., ch. iv. (1801 edition). Pitman,
_The Development of the British West Indies_ (1917), pp. 212, 256-257,
271-273, 320, 360, also the charts (pp. 244, 264), showing the balance
of trade between the West Indies and England.]
[Footnote 290: Macpherson, _ibid._, p. 589.]
[Footnote 291: _Ibid._, pp. 442-443.]
Such were the general conditions when the jenny was introduced into the
cotton manufacture, and, in the circumstances, the attack made upon it
is not difficult to understand. A riotous and destructive spirit was
abroad, engendered by the conditions of the time. To smash a machine,
which apparently would reduce the demand for labour, must have appeared
to a disinterested spectator almost as a praiseworthy act.
When the attack was made upon Arkwright’s machines in 1779, the
conflict with America and its consequences still dominated the
situation. In a petition of cotton spinners in and adjoining the
county of Lancaster, presented to the House of Commons in April, 1780,
and in the evidence given before a Committee of the House two months
later, the position was described in detail.[292] In the petition it
was stated that before the beginning of the dispute with the American
colonies the cotton manufacture in Lancashire had employed thousands
of men, women and children, but of late years it had much decreased,
and the workpeople were destitute of employment and in extreme
distress. When Spain entered the war, exports to that country and to
its dependencies had been prohibited; trade to the West Indies and
Africa had been checked; and British ships had been excluded from the
Mediterranean ports.
[Footnote 292: _J.H.C._, xxxvii., pp. 804, 925-926.]
In addition to the stoppage of trade from these causes, an evil
of great magnitude had arisen in the cotton industry through the
introduction of patent machines and engines, which, with the other
events, threatened the workpeople with total loss of employment, and
had reduced them to despair. It was owing to these facts that, in the
preceding September, several thousands had assembled and demolished
one of the largest patent machines and a number of smaller ones,
and in order to appease them, the magistrates, inhabitants, and
manufacturers of Wigan had held a public meeting, and had engaged to
lay their grievances before Parliament. In the meantime the use of
the machines and engines worked by water and horses for the carding,
roving, and spinning of cotton had been suspended. Still further,
it was claimed that the goods thus produced were inferior to those
produced by hand, and this, it was feared, would diminish trade still
more, as the reduction of price was not equal to the difference of
quality. Moreover, the machines were a monopoly for the advantage of
patentees and proprietors, to the loss and detriment of the public, and
Parliament therefore was asked to grant relief.
Evidently this petition was an _ex parte_ statement, in which the
antagonism to Arkwright’s patent of others besides workpeople
engaged in the cotton trade found expression. Shortly afterwards a
counter-petition was presented by the agent for cotton manufacturers
in the town and neighbourhood of Manchester, in which it was insisted
that, if the previous petition received favourable consideration, evil
consequences would follow, as the patent machines and engines would be
used in the cotton manufacture abroad.[293]
[Footnote 293: _J.H.C._, xxxvii., p. 882.]
At this juncture, the questions at issue were considered by the
above-mentioned Committee of the House, and in the evidence the
assertions of the first petition were repeated, with additions.
Referring to the stock hand-cards which had been in use before the
patent machines were introduced, it was claimed that they not only
performed better work, but that they found more employment, as it
required nine persons working by hand to do as much as one with a
patent machine. From the evidence, it appears that by 1780, although
the larger jennies were still regarded with disfavour, the jennies
containing twenty-four spindles had come into favour, and were set
against the patent machines to show that they were not required,
particularly as there were many looms unemployed, and as people were
generally out of work in winter. Possibly the reason for the partiality
shown to the smaller jennies was contained in the assertion that they
were in the hands of the poor. As regards remuneration, it was stated
that sixteen years before, a woman with a single spindle could earn
10d. to 15d. a day, but then only 3d. to 5d.; those on jennies of
twenty-four spindles could earn 8s. to 9s. a week, but then, only 4s.
to 6s.
As may be expected, this evidence was not accepted without question by
witnesses on the other side, although some of it was not altogether
controverted. It has to be recognised that the first effect of the
introduction of the new spinning machinery was not to improve the
position of the spinners so much as that of the weavers, and just as
one side stressed the case of the spinners, the other stressed the
case of the weavers. It was, therefore, admitted that the earnings
of spinners had varied of late years, and that in the preceding year
a spinner with a single spindle could earn only about 3d. or 4d. a
day, but it was claimed that by working on the jenny, at the time the
evidence was given, 2s. to 2s. 6d. a day could be earned. Further, the
argument of the opposing witnesses that the Poor Rates had increased
was admitted, but this increase, it was asserted, was due to various
causes unconnected with machinery.
More positively, it was stated that during the preceding ten years the
cotton manufacture had doubled, that the number of looms had trebled,
that the wages of weavers had increased, and that if more looms existed
they could be employed.[294] Owing to the introduction of the patent
machines by which cotton warps could be produced at a lower price,
a calico manufacture had been established and the manufacture of
quiltings improved, and without the machines it would be impossible
to meet the demand for these warps. The complaint regarding quality
was altogether repudiated; on the contrary, the opposite was strongly
affirmed, and a great expansion was anticipated, as the patent cotton
warp had been found to answer as well as linen warp for many goods
other than those for which it was then used.
[Footnote 294: A fustian-weaver was said to be able to earn 1s. to 2s.
a day. Fustian-weavers appear always to have been a poorly paid class.
Cf. _Report on State of Children Employed in Manufactories_ (1816),
p. 99, Evidence of Mr. George Gould: “In the fustian trade I think
there never was a period when a good hand could get above thirteen or
fourteen shillings.”]
The evidence in favour of the patent machines so impressed the
Committee that the gist of it was embodied in a series of resolutions,
and agreed to by the House without opposition--indeed there was no
other reasonable course. The evils complained of in the first petition
were due to the use of the patent machines only in a small degree; they
were much more the social consequence of the conflict proceeding at the
time.