Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/521

COTTON 489 a communication across the country with Timbuctoo, and to have found there a market for cotton cloths. Increased commercial intercourse with the interior of Africa, and the opening up of markets there for British manufactures, are still objects to be earnestly pursued. The manufacture of cotton goods in Europe is said to have been first attempted by the commercial states of Italy, before the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope. These enterprizing communities were the entrepots through which the cotton fabrics of India passed to the different markets of the West ; and being situated in the neighbourhood of countries where cotton was grown, and familiar with manufacturing processes, it is supposed that they were led to attempt the imitation of articles so much valued, and bringing so high a price. Another account assigns the introduction of the cotton manufacture into Europe to a later date, and gives to the people of the Low Countries the honour of having been the first manu facturers of these articles, in imitation of the cotton fabrics which the Dutch, about the beginning of the 1 7th century, began to import from India. But this last account cannot be correct : for Guicciardini in 1560, in a very full list which he gives of the different articles annually imported into and exported from Antwerp, 1 then the greatest com mercial mart in Europe, specifies fustians and dimities of many fine sorts among the manufactured articles imported from Milan, and mentions cottons generally among those brought from Venice. But in the articles exported from Antwerp, although we find linens sent to almost every country, cotton cloth is not once mentioned. Italy, there fore, at that time had a cotton manufacture, which, it is probable, soon after made its way to the Netherlands ; for we know it was brought from the latter country to Britain by Protestant refugees about the close of the 16th or early in the 17th century. That this manufacture was carried on in England at a pretty early period of the 17th century we know on good authority. Lewis Roberts, in his Treasures of Traffic, published in the year 1641, says, " The town of Manchester buys linen yarn from the Irish in great quantity, and weaving it, returns the same again in linen into Ireland to sell. Neither does her industry rest here ; for they buy cotton wool in London that comes from Cyprus and Smyrna, and work the same into fustians, vermilions, and dimities, which they return to London, where they are sold, ind from thence not seldom are sent into such foreign parts, where the first material may be more easily had for that manufacture." These goods were woven chiefly about Bolton, and were purchased there at the weekly market by the Manchester dealers, who afterwards finished them, and either sent them to London for export, or sold them to their customers over the country. At this period, and for a long time after, the weaver provided his own warp, which was of linen yarn, and the cotton wool for his weft ; but as much time was lost in seeking these materials, agents for their sale were estab lished in the different villages by the Manchester purchasers. Each weaver s cottage formed a separate and independent little factory. The yarn for his warp was bought by him in a prepared state, the wool for his weft was carded and spun by the female part of his family, and the cloth was woven by himself and his sons. It would be impossible to enumerate all the descriptions of cotton goods which, in succession, were brought forward from the commencement of the manufacture. 2 The pattern 1 See Macpherson s Annals of Commerce. 8 The fustians that were made at this early period of the manufacture were those denominated herring-bone, pillows for pockets and outside wear, strong cotton ribs and barragon, broad-raced linen thickset and tufts, with whitened diaper, striped dimities, and jeans. At some cards of the principal houses in the trade, which were cir culated from time to time through the kingdom, and over the continents of Europe and America, exhibited specimens of nearly two thousand kinds. For the introduction and after improvement of many Wilson of of these articles England is indebted to John Wilson of Ainsworth. Ainsworth. This gentleman was originally a manufacturer of fustians at Manchester, but had early engaged in the manufacture of cotton velvets. His improvements in the mode of dressing, of finishing, and particularly of dyeing these goods acquired for them so high a character, that both in the home and foreign market his articles sold in preference to those of every other manufacturer. His plan for cleaning off the loose and uneven fibres was by the use of razors. He afterwards successively employed, for this end, singeing by spirits of wine and the -applica tion of a hot iron resembling a weaver s drying iron. At a later period he effected his object by drawing the goods rapidty over a cylinder of cast-iron heated to red ness, by which they were in a superior manner cleared of the down or pile which had been raised upon them in the various operations of weaving, washing, bleaching, or dye ing. Wilson, having a turn for chemical inquiries, investi gated the different known processes of dyeing; and by the improvements he introduced in the application of them to his own manufacture, materially advanced that art. The many valuable improvements introduced by Wilson into the different processes connected with the cotton manu facture had the effect not only of establishing it more firmly, but of rapidly enlarging its extent. A considerable share of the calico-printing business was Lancashire transferred, about the year 1760, from London to Lanca- manufac * shire, in consequence of the cheaper accommodation for u carrying on the work, and the lower wages of the workmen. A fall in prices thereupon took place, which produced an increased demand for calicoes. These goods were at that time made of linen warp and cotton weft, it having been found impracticable, before Sir Richard Arkwright s dis covery, to spin cotton warp of sufficient strength. At this period the dealers from Manchester, in place of buying fustians and calicoes from the weaver, as had been the practice before, began to furnish him with materials for the cloth, and to pay him a fixed price per piece for the work when executed. Along with the portion of linen warp, they gave him out a portion of cotton wool, which he was obliged to get spun into the weft he was to use. But so fast was the manufacture by this time outstripping the process of spinning, that it frequently happened that the sum which the master weaver was allowed by his employer was less than what he found himself obliged to pay to those whom he employed to spin it. He durst not, however, complain, much less abate the spinner s price, lest his looms should be unemployed. In this state of things, the further progress of the manufacture must have been stopped, if a more productive mode of spinning had not been discovered. It has been said that the yarn produced at this time in England, by the one-thread wheel, the only spinning machine known, did not exceed in quantity what 50,000 spindles of our present machinery can yield. To have reared and trained hands sufficient to have doubled this quantity, had it been possible, must have been the work of a length of time, and the amount of the manufacture would still have been insignificant. A change in the system, therefore, had become indispensable ; and we find that different ingenious individuals had already begun to employ themselves in contriving a better mode of spinning. distance of time there were added to these, cotton thicksets, goods figured in the loom, and, at a still later date, cotton velvets, velveteens, and strong and fancy cords. (Aiken s History of Manchester.)

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