COVENTRY. In the time of the Edwards and Henries, the tradesmen of Coventry were famed for their affluence. In 1448 they equipped 600 armed men for the public ser vice. Until the war between England and France in 1694, the staple manufacture was woollens, broad-cloths and caps ; and previous to 1580 there existed a famous manufacture of blue thread ; the water of the small river Sherbourne, which passes through the city, being an excellent menstruum for dyeing this colour. During the 18th century there was a flourishing manufacture of tammies, camlets, shalloons, calimancoes, gauzes, &c., but it is no longer continued. At present the staple manufactures are ribbons and watches. The ribbon manufacture was introduced about 1730, and is supposed now to give employment to about 6,000 persons in the city; it is said that 20,000 are employed in ribbon weaving in Coventry and the vicinity. The weaving has hitherto been almost entirely performed by the hand-loom, and the weavers are in general a poor class ; but steam factories have been of late increasing, and are probably superse ding the loom at the workmen's dwellings. The leaders of the trade are not the mann facturerS, but a comparatively small number of wholesale firms in London and Manchester, whose agents attend at Coventry. Gimp and other trimmings are also made in Coventry, and there are large establishments for dyeing silk. The making of watches has been carried on here probably as long as the ribbon manufacture, and is now so extensive that as many watches are said to be made in Coventry as in London.
The Report on the Government Schools of Design for 1850 contains a statement relating to the branch school of Coventry well worthy of attention. Of the beneficial influence of the school on the manufactures of the town, the manufacturers entertain a strong and increasing conviction ; for the employment of designers in the strict sense of the term, the ribbon manufacture affords but a narrow basis ; and until the prejudices of the public in favour of French ribbons is removed, there can be but little production in England of that de scription of goods upon which designs of highest class can be exhibited; but it is certain that during the last five years there has been a marked improvement in the Coventry pat.
terns, accompanied by improved quality and closeness of texture in the fabric, and that a superior class of Coventry goods, to some extent, under the name of French, is gaining ground in the market. These results the manufacturers unhesitatingly ascribe to the superiority which the rising generation of pattern draughters have attained through their education in the school. Nor is it only in the greater refinement and better execution of the patterns that an advantage has been obtained ; they are also drawn and draughted at a much less expense than formerly, an evi dence that it is the young hands and appren tices who excel in the art.' There are several guilds, or incorporated trading companies, some of which are pos sessed of considerable property, which they spend in charity and festivities.
The local position of Coventry is favourable for commercial operations, being nearly cen tral between the four greatest ports of England —London, Bristol, Liverpool, and Hull; pos sessing great facilities of water communication by the Coventry and Oxford Canal, which opens into the Grand Trunk navigation, and having one of the main roads from London to Birmingham passing through its streets. The London. and North Western Railway passes close to the town ; and there are two branch lines, one turning northward to Leamington and Warwick, and another (not yet finished) to Nuneaton.