- Late 1700s & early 1800s England - economic indicators growing at noticeably faster rate;
- New wealth supported city growth.
- London popn of 130,000 in 1631; more than 900,000 in 1801;
England tremendous market;
- Relative ease & low cost of transport & communication.
- Rising average income, consumer activity & investment.
- Important new business opportunities.
- Starting 1550s, English trade with Russia, East Asia & Mediterranean.
- One of England's potential primary exports cloth;
- textile industry pacesetter of change.
- Entering 1600s, British textile industry still weak low production, poor quality.
- People preferred light, comfortable cotton imported from India & China.
- British weavers frustrated by unemployment, worried by foreign competition.
- Brit government concerned - philosophy of mercantilism;
- 1700 protectionist laws barring imports of cloth from India & China.
- Huge potential market for cotton cloth in Britain,
- Problem of speeding up production, improving quality;
- flying shuttle for weaving - John Kay 1733.
- 1753 riot - mob of weavers attacked Kay;
- manufacturers reluctant to pay royalties.
Textile manufacture as series of interlocking steps spinning and weaving.
Technological change upsets balance of system.
- 1765 James Hargreaves - spinning jenny (from "engine")
- eight separate spindles.
- Later models up to 120 spindles;
- workers smashed machines;
- textile-making cottage industry - merchants purchase raw materials, distribute to workers in their own homes
- 1768 water frame for spinning claimed by Richard Arkwright.
- 1771 Arkwright establish textile-making workshop;
- 1779 several thousand spindles & 300 workers.
- first successful factory in mechanized textile manufacture;
- Arkwright s industrial empire.
- 1779 rioters set fire to factory.
- factories 150 to 600 workers;
- 1779 Samuel Crompton - spinning mule (hybrid of spinning jenny & water frame.)
Jenny fine-textured thread but weak. Water frame thread stronger, but coarse. Mule combined advantages of both.
- Later versions - over 1000 spindles each,
- Social problems - shortage of skilled weavers;
- 1785 power loom - Edmund Cartwright.
- factory burned.
- 1813, 2,400 power looms in England; by 1850, 224,000.
- 1820, 250,000 skilled hand weavers; by 1850, only 50,000.
- Textile price dropped, demand soared.
- Exports to British empire - mercantilism.
- 1797, 900 cotton mills all across Britain,
- by 1816, a few employing 1,500 people.
- 1760, Manchester 17,000 inhabitants; 1830, 180,000,
- problems of location;
- steam engine new power source, solves problem of location;