For several years after the commencement of the pre sent reign, the whole value of the cotton manufactures of this kingdom, (including Scotland as well as Eng land,) was estimated to be less than 200,0001.; and in the spinning of cotton yarn, for this amount of cotton goods, not above 50,000 spindles were employed. In the year 1781, when, as we have already noticed, mus lins were first made in this kingdom, only 5,101,920 pounds of cotton wool were imported. In 1782, in consequence of the increased demand for muslins, the quantity of cotton wool was more than doubled, and the amount of cotton goods was estimated at nearly 4,000,0001. During the years 1783 and 1784, there was no increase in the importation of cotton yarn, and consequently no increase in the value of cotton goods. In the year 1784, the patent which Sir Richard Ark might had obtained, for his invention of water ma chines, expired, and they were immediately erected in all parts of the kingdom ; and although the mode of spinning weft by machinery was yet scarcely known, ye' the spinning of it by the hand engines nearly kept pro portion with the increased supply of warp. This year, the importation of cotton yarn amounted to 11,280,238 pounds, and the estimated value of the cotton manufac tures was 3,950,0001. In the following year, a great in crease was visible; the quantity of imported raw mate rial having been 17,992,8881., while the value of the goods had risen to the sum of 6.000,0001. In 1786, the quan tity of cotton wool imported, amounted to 19,151,867 pounds, which was manufactured into goods of the value of 6,500,0001. And in the year 1787, the quan tity of cotton wool was 22,176,887 pounds, which pro duced goods of the value of 7,500,0001.
A writer, who investigated the subject of the cotton manufactures at this time, estimates the supply and ex penditure of cotton in the year 1787, in the following proportions : This estimate, however, is not correct, with respect to the quantity imported from the British West India colonies ; since it appears, from the report of the com mittee of the privy council on the slave trade, that the cotton imported from Jamaica, Grenada, and Barbadoes, in the year 1783, exceeded the quantity here stated as imported from all the British West India Islands. In order to reconcile this with the estimate of the quantity of cotton, which is stated above, to be used in the ma nufactures of this kingdom, in the year 1787, viz.
22,176,887 pounds, it must be observed, that there was always a certain proportion re-exported ; so that, pro bably, the quantity actually retained for home consump tion was very near what it is here said to have been. It may be proper to point out the view of the state of the cotton manufacture at this period, which is afforded by the comparative quantities of the cotton wool em ployed in its different branches. Fustians, as we have seen, were the oldest cotton manufactures in the king dom, whereas muslins and calicoes had only been intro duced six years before, viz. in the year 1781 ; and yet the quantity of cotton wool employed in the latter, in the year 1787, was, according to this statement, very nearly double the quantity employed in the manufac ture of fustians. The same author gives an estimate of the number of water-mills, or machines for spinning twist cotton yarn for warps, both in England and Scot land. We shall lay before our readers his estimate for both countries, in order that they may be enabled to take a comparative view of the state of the cotton trade in them both.
The whole number being 143, the cost of which was estimated at 715,0001. There were at the same time 550 mule jennies, or machines of 90 spindles each; and 20,700 hand jennies of 80 spindles each, for spinning yarn for the shute or weft, the cost of which, and of the auxiliary machinery, together with that of the build ings, is stated to have been at least 285,0001., making
the total expenditure on the machinery and buildings 1,000,000/. It was, moreover, calculated, that these establishments, when in full employment, produced as much cotton wool as could be spun by a million of persons, upon single wheels. At this period, it was calculated also, that there were employed 26;000 men, 31,000 women, 53 000 children, in all 110,000 in the operations of spinning ; and 133,000 men, 59,000 wo men, and 48.000 children, in all 240,003 in the subse quent stages of the manufacture; there being, in all, 159,000 men, 90.000 women, and 101,000 children, and a total of 350,000 persons employed in this manufac ture ; nearly one-third of them in the calico and mus lin branches. In these most important branches, at this time, the raw material was advanced in value from ten to fifty fold.
From the data which these statements afford, we may he able to ascertain several particulars respecting the state of the cotton manufacture in England at this time, separately from the state of it in the kingdom at large ; taking it for granted that the capital and number of people employed in England, bear the same proportion to the total capital, and number of people employed in the whole kingdom, that the number of water mills in the former did to the number in the latter. Now, as the number of water mills in Great Britain, vas 143, and in England 123, we may consider the proportion in the latter as six-sevenths of the whole, which will give us, us the cost of the water mills in England, about the sum of 600,0001:, and as the cost of the machines for spinning weft, and the necessary buildings, the further sum of at least 240,0001., nuking the total expenditure in Eng land to be about 840,0001., the number of people employ ed in spinning the cotton wool about 94,000, and the number of people engaged in the subsequent stages of the manufacture to be about 205,000, in all about 300,000 people employed in the cotton manufacture in England. About this period, several very large cotton-works were established in different parts of England. The most ex tensive and considerable of which were those of Sir Ro bert Peel, at Bury, in Lancashire. By the report of the committee of the House of Commons, in 1785, on the subject of the commercial intercourse with Ireland, ia appears, that this gentleman, at this period, employed 6800 people, and that several thousands were employed by Mr Smith, and numbers proportionally great, by other manufacturers of cotton. From the time of the invention of the mule, till the breaking out of the first French revolutionary war, the cotton trade of England flourished in a most astonishing manner ; fortunes were made, especially in Lancashire, where it was carried on to the greatest extent, and with the greatest spirit and enterprise, with almost unparalleled rapidity. The im provements in the steam engine seconded the improve ments in the machinery for spinning cotton, while im provements equally great and important were made in the mode of bleaching and dying the goods. Indeed, it may well be doubted, whether it could have been pos sible to have bleached, by the old process, all the cotton goods which were now made; so that the discovery which chemistry made in this art, came very oppor• tunely to the assistance of the cotton manufacturers.