Different usages prevail in different counties respecting the counec tion between employers and employed, buyers and sellers, in the woollen and worsted manufactures. In the West of England the gene ral plan of operation is this :—The master-clothier buys his foreign wool from the importer, and his English wool from the wool-stapler. Ile employs in all the different processes through which the wool passes in the course of manufacture, distinct classes of persons, who some times work at their own houses, and sometimes in the factory of the master-clothier. Each workman confines himself exclusively to a par ticular branch of the manufacture ; and this has been supposed to have led to the excellence of the West of England cloth.
A second mode is on the factory system, now extensively adopted in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The master-manufacturer, who gene rally possesses a large amount of capital, employs a great number of workmen in one or more buildings, under the inspection of himself or a superintendent In this system, as in the master-clothier system, the workman has no property in the material on which he is employed.
In the domestic system, which was the one originally adopted, the arrangement is altogether different. Under this system the manufac ture is conducted by a number of small masters, who are generally possessed of very limited capital, and who, besides their business as manufacturers, mostly occupy farms of a few acres, partly for the support of their families, and partly for the convenience of their manu facture. The domestic clothiers have in their houses from one to four looms, on which they employ themselves, their wives, and children, and perhaps other assistants. During harvest their wives, children, and servants are sent out into the fields to work. Formerly these clothiers used to carry the wool through all the stages of its manufac ture, till it MI brought to the state of undressed cloth ; but of late years they have availed themselves of public mills, which are esta blished in and among the clothing-villages, for the performance of some of the processes. These mills have been erected on a joint-stock prin ciple, by shares of 501. or 1001. each, principally subscribed by the domestic clothiers. When machinery began to be extensively em ployed in the woollen manufacture, in the early part of the present century, the clothiers became violently excited, under the apprehension that their trade would be taken from them by the newly invented machines. A parliamentary committee was appointed to inquire into the probable operation of machinery in respect to the well-being of the domestic clothiers : and after examining numerous witnesses they made a report, in which they detailed the distinctive features of the factory and the domestic systems, and came to a con clusion that "the two systems, instead of rivalling, are mutual aids to each other ; each supplying the other's defects, and promoting the other's prosperity." " Experience," says Mr. M'Culloch, " has proved
the correctness of these conclusions. The number of small manufac turers, and the quantity of cloth produced by them, have both increased since 1806 ; but, as the number of factories, and the quantity of cloth made in them, have increased still more rapidly, the former constitute, at present, a less proportion of the trade." One circumstance which has enabled the domestic system to maintain its ground, is, that the great width of woollen cloth has been a difficulty in the way of power-loom weaving ; the hand-loom cannot compete with steam in the stuff trade, but it can in broad-cloth. The domestic system would nevertheless have succumbed, bad not the clothiers prudently adopted the joint dock principle for their mills. Each shareholder takes his own wool to the mill to be cleaned, dyed, carded, and spun ; brings it home to weave by himself and family ; takes it to the mill to be fulled, washed, and tentcred ; and sells it at the cloth halls to merchants who employ dressers to finish it.
As respects the sale of the cloth, balls have been established for this purpose at Leeds, Halifax, Bradford, Huddersfield, and other towns, which are attended on the public market-days by thousands of the smaller class of manufacturers. The halls are divided into long walks or galleries, consisting of rows of stands, each of which is marked with the name of the person by whom it is occupied. On these stands the cloth is exposed for sale ; and when the market opens, the manufac turers take their stations at the stands behind their goods, the mer chants or buyers passing, to make their purchasers, through the avenues between the rows. The time during which the halls are open is limited usually to about one hour and a half ; but in this short interval purchases to a very large amount are made. The cloth-halls at Leeds are appropriated exclusively to the use of those who have served regu lar apprenticeship to the business of cloth-making. They are managed by trustees, and many of the stalls are the freehold property of tho persona who occupy them. All the cloth sold in the halls is rough and undressed. Those by or for whom it is bought have what are termed finishing-shops, where the cloth is shorn, dressed, and fitted for use. This is analogous to a system pursued by the bobbin-net manufacturers at Nottingham, where the net is sold by the maker in the rough state as it leaves the loom, and purchased by other parties, who singe, dress, and finish it ready fur the market..