Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Textiles/Cotton and Wool
English Cloth Manufaturing
Seventeenth-century textile industries represent the “before factory” time frame where factories, and what we would think of as an actual industry, hadn’t yet emerged. During the 1600’s textiles and the production of material goods such as cotton and wool was usually confined to the domestic sphere. “Cotton weft was spun by the people in their own cottages, chiefly by the women, literally the ‘spinsters’ of the family.”[1] Regardless that there was no official cotton or wool ‘industry’ in place, the seventeenth-century—as early a date this may seem—had a considerable organization that existed for the purchase of raw material as well as the marketing of the finished products.[2] The industry of manufacturing cotton and wool gradually grew until it became a prominent industry with factories and various jobs attached in the beginning of the eighteenth-century. As a result of the manufacturing of cotton and wool being carried on in the homes, the industry wasn’t huge and it is “suggested that the industry had become established by 1620.”[3] By the mid seventeenth-century some 40,000 persons were employed in the industry, they held jobs such as merchants, tailors, sleeve makers, shipbuilders, weavers, silk-throwers and dyers.[4]
“The word ‘cotton’ itself, we need hardly say, is of oriental origin, taking one back to India, the old-world birthplace of the plant.”[5] At this point, older coarse woolens began to decline and a new hybrid of fabrics was adopted. Flax is introduced in the sixteenth century and began to be imported largely both from Ireland and the Continent, and at last all the materials, cotton, wool and flax were combined.[6] “Flax was used for the ‘warp’ or longitudinal threads, which in weaving require to be stronger than the ‘woof,’ while cotton was employed only for the latter—technically the ‘weft.’”[7] The combination of all these materials came to be known as fustians. Often considered to be the birthplace of a large number of mechanical inventions, Lancashire is also considered to be the center of the cotton and wool industry. The production of fustians became known for being manufactured in Lancashire, specifically south Lancashire.[8] Once the cloth was manufactured, the household members would commonly sell the cloth to ‘chapmen’ who would act as a middleman and sell the cloth abroad. By the 1620’s, the export of cloth fabrics were being shipped to Spain, Portugal and France.[9]
English Textile Export
The export of English cloth plummeted during the Anglo-Spanish War under Elizabeth. The Hapsburg ban on English wool and cloth to the continent caused a serious recession in the English textile economy.[10] The rise of English wool also led to a rise in the cost of English textiles. An export customs in 1560 raised this price of cloth export even higher. Due to these economic changes England's heavy cloth exports were severely damaged and struggled to compete with countries on the continent, primarily the Netherlands. In the 1560's Flemish refugees worked alongside English textile workers to create what they referred to as "new drapery" cloth.[11] "New drapery" cloth includes cloths such as "bays, says, and grograms", all of which can be classified as semi-worsted cloths. These cloths were made from combed long-stapled wool. "New drapery" cloths were especially suited for southern European climates due to their light weight. Their diverse colours and types were also highly regarded as fashionable.[12]
The cost to produce "new drapery" was also significantly less. The production was more time consuming, but the amount of wool used was far less than in heavy cloth making "new drapery" more profitable. The production of "new drapery" was more appealing because the minimal use of wool kept production costs low even while the price of wool was steadily increasing.[13] "New drapery" cloth could be produced cheaply and as such found many markets abroad making it far more profitable than English heavy cloth. The export of "new drapery" cloth grew rapidly. By the time of James I the new cloth already accounted for one fifth of England's exports. By the middle of the century it had become England's single most important export. New drapery cloth had become well established which allowed English merchants to expand their trade to more distant nations.[14]
- ↑ L. H. Grindon, “Lancashire: Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes.” New York: Macmillan & Co. (1892), 84.
- ↑ Rollin S. Atwood, “Localization of the Cotton Industry in Lancashire, England,” Economic Geography, 4, No. 2 (April, 1928), 187.
- ↑ E. H. Varley, “The Occupations of Protestant Refugees in the 17th Century,” Geographical Association, 24, No. 2 (June, 1939), 131.
- ↑ Ibid, 131.
- ↑ Grindon, 80.
- ↑ Ibid, 83.
- ↑ Ibid, 83.
- ↑ Atwood, 188.
- ↑ Grindon, 85.
- ↑ 280 Martin Rorke, "English and Scottish Overseas Trade, 1300- 1600," Economic History Review 59, no. 2: 280, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed January 19, 2012).
- ↑ Rorke, 280.
- ↑ Rorke, 280.
- ↑ Rorke, 280.
- ↑ Rorke, 281.
BN: What was gentry's involvement in this industry? Also, it is long enough that it could be organised, either with headings or with sub-pages somehow.