As far. as we are able to judge of the increase in our woollen manufactures from the quantity exported, it does not appear to have been considerable from the end of the I 7th century till the year 1777, as will appear from the following statement of the value of the exports of it, at the former period.
In 1783, a pamphlet was published, containing an estimate of the annual produce and condition of the prin cipal manufactures of this country, in which the woollen manufacture was rated at 16,800,000/. ; but the data on which the author builds this calculation are not given. About this period, the demand for fine cloths seems to have been increasing, for in an account of the quantity of the principal articles imported and used in the manu factures of Great Britain, on an annual medium of five years, commencing 5th January, 1772, laid before Par liament, it appears, that from the year 1772 to the year 1776, the annual medium quantity of Spanish wool im ported was 1,578,605 lbs.; and in the period of five years, endingl 787, the annual medium quantity was 1,975.327Ibs. The account was continued down to 1799, and it proved a greater rate of increase in the quantity of Spanish wool imported, during the two next series of five years : there being, on an annual medium from 1787 to 1792, 3,174,429 lbs.; and on an annual medium from 1792 to 1799, 3,800,583 lbs.
In the year 1799, an account of the total value of the woollen manufactures exported, agreeable to the esti mates of the inspector-general's books, (and consequent ly at least 50 per cent. below the real value,) during the ten years preceding, was laid before Parliament ; from this account, it appears, that the official value of these manufactures, during 1790, was 5,190 6371. ; during 1791, 5,505,034/. ; in 1792, 5,510.668/ ; in 1793, 3,806,5361. ; in 1794, 4,390.9201. ; in 1795, 5,172,884/. ; in 1796, 6,011,1331. ; in 1797, 4,936.3551. ; in 1798, 6,499,339/. ; and in 1799, 6,860,939/. The effect of the first year of the war is very visible in the diminution of the value of the exports for 1793. As this account gives the value of woollen manufactures exported to each different country, it affords a further insight into the state of the export woollen trade during this period. By far the greatest quantity every year appears to have been ex ported to the United States ; in 1790, the value of the exports thither was 1,481,3781., and in the year 1799, 2,833,4901. Before the commencement of the war, Spain and Portugal seem each to have taken to the amount of between 300,000/. and 400,9001., and Holland nearly an equal quantity. Ireland, in 1790, took to the value of 394.7901., which increased till the year 1793, when the value was only 173,0711. In the year 1794, the value again rose nearly to what it was in 1790 ; and continued to increase to the end of the period, it being in 1799 as high as 916,1901. The value of the woollen goods exported to India, (probably nearly all the manu facture of the west of England), varied, during this period, between 362.5091. and 668,161/. France, before the war, does not appear to have taken, on an average, woollen goods to the amount of 100,000/. official value.
In the month of April 1800, the principal manufac turers of woollen goods in Yorkshire, and in the West of England, were examined before a committee of the House of Commons relative to the state of that manu facture : We shall, in the first place, give the results of their evidence on this occasion, and afterwards offer some remarks upon it ; premising, that where no preju dices or interests intervene, to conceal, exaggerate, or distort facts, more information is to he got, on the ma nufacturing and commercial state of the kingdom, from evidence given before Parliament, than from any other source, or by any other means; since no otherwise can access be had to the information, experience, and opi nions of so many persons, who must necessarily be so extensively, accurately, and minutely informed, on the subjects on which they give their evidence.
The first point to which the evidence of the manu facturers examined before the committee of the House of Commons relates is, the number of sheep kept in England and Wales; these they estimated at 28.000 000; and the produce of the fleece from these sheep they rated at 6u0,000 packs, of 240 lbs. each pack. Some of the witnesses, however, were of opinion, that the number of sheep, and consequently the produce of wool, had diminished between the year 1784 and the period of their examination. On the supposition that the number of packs was 600,000, they rated the total value of the wool in the kingdom at 6,600,000/., being at the average price of Ill. per pack. The next point to be ascertained respected the increase of the value of the raw material, after it was manufactured. This in crease evidently varied very much; in some kinds of goods it was double only, while in other species of goods, the increase was ninefold. As the quantity of goods, in which the former rate of increase took place, consumed a much greater proportion of the raw mate rial than the latter, the increase was supposed, on an average, to be threefold. According to this supposi tion, the total value of woollen goods manufactured in the kingdom amounted to 19,600.000/. Having thus ascertained these points, or at least gained the opinion of intelligent and experienced manufacturers respect ing them, it next became a question of considerable importance to determine the number of people engaged in this extensive manufacture. On this head, the evi dence is uot so distinct and satisfactory ; we are merely informed, without any detail being entered into, or any satisfactory calculations given, that the woollen manu facture was supposed to give employment to three mil lions of men, women, boys, and girls: this astonishing number was given in evidence, as being actually em ployed, though at the same time it was admitted, that, by the use of the machinery in the various processes previous to the weaving, 35 persons were enabled to do the work, which about the year 1785, when ma chinery had not been introduced into the woollen ma nufacture, required the labour of 1634 persons. It is evident, that though, by the introduction of this ma chinery, the quantity of human labour necessary to ma nufacture the woollen goods was diminished, yet the capital requisite to carry on the manufacture must have been considerably increased ; and it was given in evidence, that the capital vested in machinery and buildings appropriated to the woollen manufacture, was, in the opinion of the witnesses, supposed to be nearly equal to the value of the raw mateiial, or 6,000,C001.