CHAPTER II

THE ORGANISATION OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE 30-71

I.--Clothiers in the Northern cloth district; Martin Byrom of Manchester (1520); statute (1543) refers to Irish merchants and others who sell linen-yarn and wool on credit in Manchester; petition of Lancashire clothiers against restrictions on middlemen (1577), 30-31; wealthy men engaged in Lancashire cloth trade--e.g. the Tippings, Mosleys, Chethams; their charitable bequests; extent of their concerns, 32-34; Humphrey Chetham bought goods for London market; employed workpeople in spinning yarn and in weaving and finishing cloth; typical clothier of the domestic system, 35-36; small independent producers not typical workpeople in Manchester district in early eighteenth century; evidence of statutes; changes in organisation of fustian manufacture; testimony of Ogden and Guest, 36-39.

II.--Organisation of smallware trade; manufacturers, undertakers, journeymen, apprentices; changes in first half of eighteenth century; combination of workpeople; articles (1747-1753) aim at enforcing apprenticeship and limiting number of apprentices, 40-42; increasing price of food and consequent disturbances; smallware weavers attempt to raise wages; prosecution and submission at Lancaster Assizes (1760), 42-45; Lord Mansfield’s charge on combinations in Lancashire (1758); combination of check-weavers; dispute with employers and strike in Manchester area; the “document”; demand regulation of trade under statute 5 Eliz.; proposals for settlement of dispute by weavers and Mr. Percival; submission and prosecution at Lancaster Assizes (1759); Lord Mansfield’s comments on Statute of Apprentices; later history of smallware weavers’ combination; economic and social significance of the combinations; their relation to earlier associations and to modern trade unions, 45-55.

III.--Distribution of manufacturers and workpeople in Manchester area in first half of eighteenth century; connections maintained by “putting out” system, 56; trade in raw materials; cotton imported through London, Liverpool, Whitehaven, Lancaster; wool reached manufacturers through inland traders; linen yarn spun in England and Scotland, but Ireland and the Continent most important sources of supply; qualities of yarn, and goods in which used; cotton merchants and yarn merchants in Manchester; foreign trading-connections; Manchester goods exported to West Indies, Africa, Italy, Germany, North America, Russia, Asiatic Turkey, 57-60; inland trade carried on by travelling merchants with pack-horses; partly displaced from early eighteenth century by “riders-out” who solicited orders; goods forwarded by carriers; development of communications; importance of petty-chapmen; links between manufacturing centres and country districts; organisation of their trade and capital involved; economic development during century preceding great inventions in cotton industry, 60-66; tables relating to manufacturers, merchants, crofters, and carriers in Manchester area (1772), 67-71.