Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/248

232 IRELAND [MANUFACTURES. statistics supplied by Arthur Young and M. Moreau, sliows tlie increase of the linen manufacture so far as this can be judged from a comparison of the exports of linen cloth and yarn to all parts of the world at various periods from 1710 to 1823. Arthur Dobbs estimated that in 1727 the value of the whole linen manufacture, including both that exported and that used for home consumption, was about 1,000,000 sterling. The Linen Board ceased to act in 1830, the trade having since 1825 been in a very depressed condition owing to the importation of English and Scotch yarns made by machinery, which undersold the home-made article. A flax-spinning factory had indeed been erected at Cork in 1805, but appears to have been unsuccessful, and no further attempt to introduce machinery seems to Lave been made until after the discontinuance of the Linen Board, when an experiment on a large scale was made on the Bann near Belfast, from which period may be dated the rise of the great linen trade of Ulster, where, with the gradual dis appearance of the hand spinning in the other provinces, nearly the whole linen manufacture of Ireland became concentrated. Statistics as to the acreage and produce of flax will be found under " Agriculture," supra. It is in the province of Ulster that flax is chiefly grown, but the soil has in many instances been much deteriorated by a too frequent rotation of the crop. The flax of Irish pro duction in 1880 was estimated at 24,508 tons, of British production at 1398, while the foreign imports of flax into the United Kingdom amounted to 94,812 tons. The cessa tion of the duties on exports from Ireland to Great Britain deprives us of the means of tracing the progress of the modern development of the linen industry. It was calcu lated that in 1855 the total exports of linen from Ireland to Great Britain and foreign countries was 106,000,000 yards, valued at 4,400,000, and undoubtedly since that period it has more than doubled. According to the report of the Flax Supply Association of Belfast for 1876, it was esti mated that in 1875 the consumption of fibre in all the mills of Ireland was about 45,897 tons, or about one-seventh of that consumed by all the flax mills in existence. It was also estimated that the total quantity of yarns produced per annum was 21,373,700 bundles, of which 10,479,040 were supposed to be manufactured into cloth by power- looms, and 5,850,000 by hand-looms, in addition to which about 2,000,000 bundles were supposed to be imported from Great Britain and the Continent, leaving for export 7,044,660 bundles, fully two-thirds of the production and imports into Ireland of yarn being converted into linen fabrics in Ireland. According to the report made to parlia ment in 1837, the number of workers employed in the .flax factories of Ireland was 7810, and according to the returns relating to factories for 1839 the number of mills engaged in the manufacture was 40, employing 32 steam engines with a horse-power of 928, and 37 water-wheels with a horse-power of 1052, the total number of persons em ployed being 9017. Table XXV. gives returns at various periods from 1850. In the report of the Flax Supply Association for 1881 the number of spindles is estimated in 1881 at 927,295 and of power-looms at 21,177. In 1880 there were 1182 scutching mills, a decrease of 317 as compared with 1871. The number of persons employed in the jute and hemp factories is over 1000. Cotton Manufacture. The cotton manufacture was introduced into Ireland in 1777, and a mill for spinning twist with water-power was erected in 1784. Under the protection of high import duties and bounties the manu facture increased with such rapidity that in 1800 it gave employment to 13,500 workers, chiefly in the neighbour hood of Belfast. At the Union it was arranged that the duties, which then stood at 68 per cent, ad valorem, should remain unchanged for eight years, when they were gradually lowered by eight annual reductions, until in 1816 they stood at 8 per cent., and were shortly afterwards abolished. According to the statistics given by M. Ce"sar Moreau, the manufacture between 1804 and 1820 had more than doubled, the cotton, cotton yarn, and twist imported into Ireland for the three years ending in 1804 amounting to 2,244,582 K>, whereas for the three years ending in 1820 it was 4,787,071 Bb. The value of cotton goods exported from Ireland to Great Britain rose from 708 in 1814 to 347,606 in 1823, and between 1814 and 1826 the value of those exported to other parts of the world rose from 37,569 to 201,196. According to a statement made to the House of Commons in 1817, the number of hands employed in the manufacture was 12,091; and in 1822 they had increased to 17,756. It is evident that the in troduction of machinery had prejudicial effects on this industry as well as on the linen trade, for, according to the returns relating to factories for 1839, the number of cotton mills is given as 24, employing 19 steam engines with a horse-power of 517, and 22 water-wheels with a horse power of 572, the number of persons engaged being only 4622. The manufacture of course suffered greatly during the famine of 1846, and in 1850 the number of factories was only 11, employing 2937 persons. In 1861 the number had declined to 9, employing 2734 persons, and, although in 1870 it had risen to 14, employing 4157 persons, the check experienced during the American war has never been surmounted, the number of factories in 1874 being- only 8, employing 3075 persons, and in 1879 declining to 6, employing 1620 persons. For some time a large manufacture of lace and sewed muslin has been carried on in Ulster and some parts of Munster and Connaught the sewed muslin trade being much the more extensive of the two. More than 300,000 persons, chiefly females, are employed in it, many of them being girls in the convent schools. Of late the trade has, however, been declining. Silk Mamifacture. This was introduced into Ireland about the end of the 17th century by French Huguenots, who after the revocation of the edict of Nantes settled in Dublin, where great perfection was attained in the fabrication of a mixture of silk and wool called tabinet or Irish poplin. According to Lord Sheffield, who wrote in 1785, 1500 persons were employed in the manufacture. M. Moreau gives the quantity of raw silk imported into Ireland in 1803 as 27,384 11), and that of thrown silk as 59,441 K>, while in 1823 the quantities were 27,869 and 21,195 respectively. He also inferred that in 1823 be tween 3000 and 4000 persons were employed in the manu facture. In 1825 a company was formed in the south of Ireland for the purpose of obtaining a supply of the raw material by rearing the silk-worm, but after considerable expense had been incurred the scheme was abandoned as impracticable. With the abolition of the protective duties in 1826 the manufacture gradually declined. In 1874 the TABLE XXV. Linen Factories in Ireland, 1850-79. Factories. Spindles. Power Looms. Persons Employed. 1850. 1SU1. 1870. 1879. ISoO. 1861 . 1870. 1879. 1850. 1861. 1870. 1879. 1850. 1861. 1870. 1879. 69 100 154 144 396,338 592,981 916,660 826,743 58 4,666 14,834 19,611 21,121 33,525 55,039 56 342.