This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
426
SCOTLAND
[MANUFACTURES

making of cycles, motor cars, railway coaches and waggons and carriages and other vehicles. In the whole group of industries connected with the working in metals and the manufacture of machinery, implements and conveyances the total number of persons employed amounted in 1901 to 205,830.

Manufactures. (a) Wool and Worsted.—Although a company of wool Weavers was incorporated by the town council of Edinburgh in 1475, the cloth worn by the wealthier classes down to the beginning of the 17th century was of English or French manufacture, the lower classes wearing “coarse cloth made at home,” a custom still prevalent in the remoter districts of the Highlands. In 1601 seven Flemings were brought to Edinburgh to teach the manufacture of serges and broadcloth, and eight years later a company of Flemings was established in the Canongate (Edinburgh) for the manufacture of cloth under the protection of the king; but, notwithstanding also the establishment in 1681 of an English company for the manufacture of woollen fabrics near Haddington, the industry for long made little progress. In fact its importance dates from the introduction of machinery in the 19th century. The most important branch of the trade, that of tweeds, first began to attract attention shortly after 1830; though still having its principal seat in the district from which it takes its name, including Galashiels, Hawick, Innerleithen and Selkirk, it has extended to other towns, especially Aberdeen, Elgin, Inverness, Stirling, Bannockburn, Dumfries and Paisley. Carpet manufacture has had its principal seat in Kilmarnock since 1817, but is also carried on in Aberdeen, Ayr, Bannockbum, Glasgow, Paisley and elsewhere. Tartans are largely manufactured in Tillicoultry, Bannockburn and Kilmarnock, and shawls and plaids in several towns. Fingering and many other kinds of woollen yarns are manufactured at Alloa, the headquarters of the industry. In 1901 the number of operatives in the woollen industry (including combers and sorters, spinners, weavers and workers in other processes) amounted to 24,906. In 1850 the employed numbered 10,210.

(b) Flax, Hemp and Jute.—The manufacture of cloth from flax is of very ancient date, and towards the close of the 16th century Scottish linen cloths were largely exported to foreign countries, as well as to England. Regulations in regard to the manufacture were passed in 1641 and 1661. In a petition presented to the privy council in 1684, complaining of the severe treatment of Scotsmen selling linen in England, it was stated that 12,000 persons were engaged in the manufacture. Through the intercession of the secretary of state with the king these restrictions were removed. Further to encourage the trade it was enacted in 1686 that the bodies of all persons, excepting poor tenants and cotters, should be buried in plain linen only, spun and made within the kingdom. The act was renewed in 1693 and 1695, and in the former year another act was passed prohibiting the export of lint and permitting its import free of duty. At the time of the Union the annual amount of linen cloth manufactured in Scotland is supposed to have been about 1,500,000 yards. The Union gave a considerable impetus to the manufacture, as did also the establishment of the Board of Manufactures in 1727, which applied an annual sum of £2650 to its encouragement, and in 1729 established a colony of French Protestants in Edinburgh, on the site of the present Picardy Place, to teach the spinning and weaving of cambric. From the 1st of November 1727 to the 1st of November 1728 the amount of linen cloth stamped was 2,183,978 yds., valued at £103,312, but for the year ending the 1st of November 1822, when the regulations as to the inspection and stamping of linen ceased, it had increased to 36,268,530 yds., valued at £1,396,296. The counties in which the manufacture is now most largely carried on are Forfar, Perth, Fife and Aberdeen, but Renfrew, Lanark, Edinburgh and Ayr are also extensively associated with it. Dundee is the principal seat of the coarser fabrics, Dunfermline of the table and other finer linens, while Paisley is widely known for its sewing threads. The allied industry of jute is the staple industry of Dundee. In 1890 the number employed in the linen industry was 34,222, which had declined in 1901 to 23,570. Inf 1890 the operatives in the jute and hemp industry numbered 39,885, and in 1901 they were (including workers in canvas, sacking, sailcloth, rope, twine, mats, cocoa fibre) 46,550.

(c) Cotton.—The first cotton mill was built at Rothesay by an English company in 1779, though Penicuik also lays claim to priority. The Rothesay mill was soon afterwards acquired by David Dale, who was the agent for Sir Richard Arkwright, and had the invaluable aid of his counsel and advice. Dale also established cotton factories in 1785 at New Lanark, afterwards so closely associated with the socialistic schemes of his son-in-law, Robert Owen. The counties of Lanark and Renfrew are now the principal seats of the industry. The great majority of the cotton factories are concentrated in Glasgow, Paisley and the neighbouring towns, but the industry extends in other districts of the west and is also represented in the counties of Aberdeen, Perth and Stirling. As compared with England, however, the manufacture has stagnated. The number of hands employed in 1850 was 34,325, in 1875 it was 35,652 and in 1901 (including bleachers, dyers, printers, calenderers, &c.) it was 34,057.

(d) Silk and other Textiles.—The principal seats of the silk manufacture are Paisley and Glasgow. In 1885 the number employed amounted to 600 and in 1901 to 2424. The weaving of lace curtains has made considerable progress, in 1878 only 45 hands being employed against 2875 in 1901. Hosiery manufactures, a characteristic Border industry, with its chief seat at Hawick, employed 11,957 hands in 1901. The total number of persons working in textile fabrics in 1901, exclusive of 21,849 drapers, mercers and other dealers, but including 43,040 employed in mixed or unspecified materials (hosiery, lace, carpets, rugs, fancy goods, &c., besides a large number of “undefined” factory hands and weavers), amounted to 174,547 persons.

(e) Whisky and Beer.—Scotland claims a distinctive manufacture in whisky. Though distillation was originally introduced from England, by 1771 large quantities of spirits were already being consigned to the English market. The legal manufacture of whisky was greatly checked in the earlier part of the 19th century by occasional advances in the duty, but after the reduction of 2s. 4¾d. per proof gallon in 1823—the duty amounted in 1904 to 11s. per proof gallon—the number of licensed distillers rapidly increased, to the discouragement of smuggling and illicit distillation. In 1824 the number of gallons made amounted to 5,108,373; by 1855 this had more than doubled; in 1884 it was 20,164,962; in 1900 it reached 31,798,465; and in 1904 it had receded to 27,110,977. More than four-fifths of the distilleries at work in the United Kingdom are situated in Scotland. The leading distilling counties are Argyll, Banff, Elgin, Inverness and Aberdeen, Perth and Ross and Cromarty, while the industry is found in seventeen other shires. In 1893-1894 the total net duty received for home-made spirits amounted to £5,461,198 and in 1903-1904 to £7,276,125. The production has attained to colossal dimensions. In 1893-1894 the quantity of proof gallons in bond was 61,275,754, and in 1903-1904 it amounted to 121,397,951, the production having practically doubled itself within ten years. Ale was a common beverage as early as the 12th century, one or more breweries being attached to every religious house and barony. So general was its use even in the beginning of the 18th century that the threatened imposition of a tax on malt in 1725 provoked serious riots in Glasgow and clamour for repeal of the Union; and sixty years afterwards Robert Burns in certain poems voiced the popular sentiment concerning the “curst restrictions” proposed by the Excise on beer and whisky. Though ale has been superseded by whisky as the national beverage, brewing is extensively carried on in Edinburgh, whose ales are in high repute, Leith, Alloa and elsewhere. In 1885 the number of barrels of beer, duty-paid, amounted to 1,237,323; in 1893-1894 to 1,733,407; and in 1903-1904 to 1,877,978. In 1893-1894 the duty (6s. 3d. the barrel) yielded £473,311 and in 1903-1904 (7s. 9d. the barrel) £649,080. After 1893-1894, when the number of brewers licensed to brew for sale numbered 149, there was a steady fall to 117