The number of cotton mills belonging to Glasgow, situated in the town and different parts of the country, is 52. The spindles in these are calculated at 511,200 ; and the capital employed in the buildings, machinery, and in carrying on the manufacture at about 1,000,0001.
Two of these mills, not yet finished, and now filling with machinery, (1816) will cost 50,0001. each.
The fir st spinning works were established at a distance from town, for the convenience of water for the machinery ; as the Badindalloch and Down mills, which are in Stirling shire, the Catrine mills in Ayrshire, the Lanark mills, and the llothsay mills in the island of Bute, all the property of houses in Glasgow.
No positive estimate of the amount of the cotton ma nufacture, in all its branches, can be given ; but some facts may be mentioned, from which an idea of its extent will be derived.
Belonging to Glasgow there are eighteen wor ks for weaving by power, which contain 2800 looms, producing about 8400 pieces of cloth weekly. The number of hand looms employed by the manufacturers of Glasgow, at this date, appear, upon a pretty careful investigation, to be about 32,000.
There are eighteen calico printing works belonging to Glasgow ; and there has lately been added to this branch, an extensive manufactory of Bandana handkerchiefs, in troduced by Messrs Henry Monteith, Bogle and Company, the cloth for which, being dyed a fine turkey red, the pat tern is afterwards produced, by discharging the colour of the figure by a chemical process.
There are 17 calendering houses in Glasgow, containing 39 calenders moved by steam, which execute more than four times the quantity of work performed by the same machinery when moved by horses. One of these houses employs 119 hands in calendering and folding the goods ; and the whole of these establishments are able to calender in a day 118,000 yards, besides dressing 116,000 not calen tiered, and glazing 30 000.
There are nine iron foundaries in Glasgow, and several extensive works for making steam engines, with the ma chines and machinery required for the different processes of manufacturing. It was not before the year 1778 or 1779 that the power of the steam engine, in consequence of Mr Watt's inestimable improvements, was found to he ap plicable to manufacturing operations ; and it was many years after that period, before it was brought into general use. There are now 73 steam engines in Glasgow and the
immediate suburbs, of a power of from four to fifty horses, employed in the different processes of manufactures.
The war of 1793 having for a time brought into our pos session the West India colonies of the other European states, the West India merchants of Glasgow obtained a large share of the trade which this circumstance threw into the hands of this country. The connection with Demerara in particular, which it gave them the means of forming, proved valuable, and is now likely to be lasting. The im ports of west India produce into the Clyde, ler the three last years, have been as follows.
The removal of the royal family of Portugal to Ameri ca, having opened the trade of the Brazils to foreigners, the merchants of Glasgow immediately formed establishments there, and have continued since to have a profitable inter course with that country. Establishments were also made at Buenos Ayres and the Caraccas, as soon as these parts of America began to assert their independence ; but the commerce with these states has hitherto been fluctuating and hazardous, from the situation in which their affairs have beer, kept.
Upon the conclusion of the peace of 1783, an intercourse was opened by the merchants of Glasgow with the differ ent states of the American Union; and the introduction of the cultivation of cotton wool, a few years after, into the southern states, furnished the means for a great increase of this trade. Indeed, without this new field to supply the quantity of the article which the growing demands of the manufacturers required, and of the qualities suited to the different fabrics to be made, this important branch of in dustry never could have reached that high state at which it has arrived. The bringing home this article for the ma nufactures of Glasgow, and sending out the returns, be came a great trade, and led to the formation of establish ments for carrying on this part of the business at Charles ton and New Orleans. The imports of cotton wool into the Clyde, for the last four years, have been as follows.