Iron, Steam & Money
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16 Kidd (1993) p. 27.
17 Quoted in Aspin (1981) pp. 29–30.
18 Slavery became an issue in the industry when cotton supplies were disrupted during the American Civil War (1861–5). Once Lincoln made his declaration of emancipation, Lancashire cotton workers and many mill-owners publicly supported the Union cause, though the war was harming their trade. See Walvin (1999) for the movement of slaves to the cotton fields of the Deep South.
11. Spinning and Weaving
1 For the history of spinning see Leadbetter (1979).
2 For full details of the mechanisation of spinning see Catling (1970, 1986).
3 Boulton to Watt, August 1781, quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 12.
4 Quoted in Downs (2010) p. 11.
5 Arkwright to Strutt, 2 March 1772, quoted in Fitton (1989) pp. 31–2.
6 Quoted in Catling (1970, 1986) pp. 31–2.
7 Quoted in Catling (1970, 1986) p. 34.
8 For the history of weaving see Benson and Warburton (1986) and Aspin (1981) pp. 19–21.
9 Quoted in Aspin (1981) pp. 19–20.
10 Quoted in Downs (2010) p. 33.
11 For details of Lee’s life and work see Harte (1989).
12 For William Gardiner see Felkin (1867).
12. Richard Arkwright: The King of Cotton
1 The definitive modern biography of Arkwright and his son Richard is Fitton (1989).
2 Fitton (1989) p. 12.
3 Fitton (1989) p. 26.
4 Elizabeth Grant, quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 31.
5 Arkwright family papers, quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 28.
6 Quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 28.
7 Quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 30.
8 Letter quoted in full in Fitton (1989) pp. 31–3.
9 Quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 39. The Strutt Collection is in Derby Central Library.
10 Quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 39.
11 John Byng, The Torrington Diaries 1781–94 (republished 1935), quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 152.
12 The Atholl MSS collection at Blair castle, quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 152.
13 Wedgwood to Thomas Bentley, quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 51.
14 Masson Mill now contains a museum with a collection of working spinning frames, as well as looms and other devices which have been brought from elsewhere.
15 Watt to Joseph Wilkes, 1784, quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 69.
16 Quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 72.
17 Evidence to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Factories prior to the 1833 Factory Act, quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 153.
18 T. Rees, The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature (1802–20).
19 John Byng, The Torrington Diaries 1781–94 (republished 1935), quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 152.
20 Atholl MSS, Box 65, Bundle 5, 171, quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 184.
21 Macclesfield Courier, 13 June 1818.
22 Manchester Mercury, 27 March 1787, quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 185.
23 Gentleman’s Magazine, 1793, p. 506.
24 Quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 219.
13. Arkwright on Trial
1 For full details of the first three trails see Fitton (1989) Chapter 4 ‘Arkwright on the Offensive’, and for the final trial see Chapter 5 ‘The great patent trials: Rex vs Arkwright’.
2 Quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 93.
3 Quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 95.
4 Quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 97.
5 Quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 102.
6 Quoted in Uglow (2002) p. 396.
7 Quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 128.
8 Quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 136.
9 Quoted in Fitton (1989) pp. 138, 139. A copy of the broadsheet was found in the papers of Richard Guest II.
14. Manchester: The First Industrial City
1 De Tocqueville (1835) pp. 107–8.
2 Hall (1998) Chapter 10.
3 For full details of the history of Manchester see Kidd (1993).
4 Richard Cobden was perhaps its best-known advocate.
5 Aikin (1795) pp. 3–4.
6 Wrigley (1988) p. 84.
7 Moffit (1925) p. 298 quoting Richard Brooke (1775–1800) Liverpool As It Was.
8 Kidd (1993) pp. 24–5.
9 Nathan Mayer Rothschild was one of the five sons of the Frankfurt founder of the banking dynasty, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, four of whom were sent abroad to establish businesses across Europe. The later mid-Victorian warehouses were among the glories of the city; a surviving example is now the Britannia Hotel on Portland Street.
10 Bamford (1849) p. 278 quoted in Kidd (1993) p. 29.
11 Honeyman (1982) p. 62 et seq.
12 Hall (1998) pp. 339–40.
13 Aikin (1795) p. 178.
14 Aikin (1795) p. 172.
15 Aikin (1795) p. 176.
16 Advocates of Manchester point out that it had the world’s first railway station, and municipal airport; that the atom was first split, and the world’s first computer built, in the city. More recently the development of graphine in Manchester put it at the forefront of material technology.
15. Abraham Darby’s Blast Furnace
1 For the history of smelting of iron and other metals see Tylecote (1976) esp. Chapter 9.
2 Historical Manuscripts Commission 13th Report, Vol. II, p. 275.
3 Daniel Defoe, quoted in VCH Worcestershire, Vol. I, p. 272 and Vol. III, p. 412 (1901–13).
4 For the history of the Darby family and business see Raistrick (1953).
5 Quoted in Lewis (1971) p. 10.
6 Plot (1686) p. 128.
7 Thomas Fuller, quoted in Galloway (1898) I, p. 205; see also Hatcher (1984–93) Vol. I, p. 454 et seq.
8 Tylecote (1976) p. 105.
9 Quoted in Addy and Power (1976) p. 23; see also Ashton (1924) p. 50.
10 Tylecote (1976) p. 106.
11 Flinn (1984) Table 7.11, p. 242.
16. Henry Cort and Cheap Iron
1 Charcoal was in plentiful supply in the Baltic region, while the quality of Swedish ore made bar-iron easier to make. Iron made up 75 per cent of Swedish exports in 1720. See Tylecote (1976) p. 94.
2 Journal of the House of Commons xxiii, 20 April 1737, p. 854.
3 Whitworth (1766), quoted in Ashton (1924) p. 88.
4 Quoted in Ashton (1924) p. 90.
5 For details of Cort’s life and work see Mott and Singer (1983).
6 Cort was granted Patent Nos. 1351 and 1420. Full details are given in Mott and Singer (1983) Appendix 2.
7 David Hartley, Dr J. Black et al., Brief State of the Facts relating to a new method of making bar iron (1787): description by David Hartley. See Mott and Singer (1983), p. 45.
17. Crucible Steel
1 Tylecote (1976) p. 126 et seq. Eighteenth-century steel was slightly higher in carbon than modern mild steel.
2 Leader (1901); see also Swank (1884).
3 Samuel Smiles (1863).
4 Addy (1969) p. 52.
5 See Addy (1969) for details on the Walker family. Their journals are in Rotherham Archive.
6 Young (1768–70), quoted in Addy (1969) p. 14.
18. Rivers and Roads
1 See Hatcher (1984–93) Vol. I.
2 Atkinson (1966).
3 Matthias (1983) p. 102 et seq.
Maps of turnpike development are adapted from Daunton (1995) pages 300 to 302.
4 Blind Jack Metcalf’s life was first recorded in 1795 in an anonymous biography The Life of John Metcalf, commonly called Blind Jack of Knaresborough; recent biographies are by Hogg (1967) and Kellett (2007).
5 Young (1768–70), quoted in Gradwin and White (1967) p. 10.
6 Gifford (1990) p. 111.
7 Quoted in Ashton (1948) p. 242.
8 Quoted in Ashton (1948) p. 243.
9 Cumberland & Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, 1982–3, extra series, xxiv, p. 12.
10 Defoe (1724) p. 66.
19. Canals and Locomotives
1 Smiles (1861–2) ‘James Brindley’.
2 Uglow (2002) p. 112.
3 Burton (2011).
4 One branch of the canal went direct to Elsecar where a Newcomen engine was installed in 1795; the engine ran until 1923 and is still in position.
5 For more on William Smith, see Osborne (1998) Chapter 4.
6 Pennant (1779) p. 55.
7 Bye (2003).
8 Quoted in Addy and Power (1976) pp. 61–2. There is a further letter from Blenkinsop to the agent of Sir John Sinclair dated 1814 answering questions about the possibility of running a railway from London to Edinburgh; see Ward and Wilson (1971) p. 105.
9 The Mumbles to Swansea service ran until 1960, latterly as an electric tram service, making it the longest continual railway service in the world.
10 See www.welshwales.co.uk/mumbles_railway_swansea.htm.
11 See Davies (1977, reissued 2004) for the life of George Stephenson.
12 Northumberland Co. Record Office, Cully MSS, Folder 35; Addy (1969) p. 63.
13 Observer, 25 April 1830.
14 Quoted in Carey (1987) pp. 304–6.
15 Sheffield Telegraph, 30 June 1923; see Addy and Power (1976) p. 70.
16 Matthias (1983) Chapter 10.
17 Welsh coal was preferred by the navy as it raised steam well, did not produce ash and, crucially, did not smoke – warships did not want to advertise their presence to the enemy.
20. Producers and Consumers
1 Allen (2009) Figure 2.1.
2 See De Vries (2008) p. 52 et seq.
3 Mun (1664), pp. 180–1.
4 See, for example, De Vries (2008) p. 44 et seq.
5 Home consumption of sugar in 1669 was 2.13 lb per person per year; in 1750 it was 16.94 lb; and in 1790, 24 lb. Imports of tea, including smuggled tea, are estimated in 1700 at 0.01 lb; 1750, 1.1 lb; 1790, 2.1 lb.
6 Weatherill (1988).
7 De Vries (2008) p. 44 et seq.
8 Defoe (1726) p. 73.
9 Mandeville (1714, 1724) p. 69.
10 Steuart (1767) pp. 53–4 and throughout.
11 De Vries (2008) p. 52.
12 Hume (1752) p. 287 et seq., quoted in De Vries (2008) p. 65.
13 White (1788) quoted in Downs (2010) p. 21.
14 Quoted in Downs (2010) p. 21.
15 De Vries (2008) pp. 1–3.
16 Eden (1797) Vol. II, pp. 433–5, quoted in Allen (2009).
17 Ibid.
18 Shammas (1990) p. 98.
19 Allen (2009) Figure 8.2.
20 Mui and Mui (1989) pp. 135–47.
21. Money for Industry
1 Matthias (1983) Chapter 5.
2 Mokyr (1990) p. 249.
3 See Matthias (1983) Chapter 5; Pressnell (1956); Cameron et al. (1967).
4 Uglow (2002) throughout.
5 The key proponent of this interpretation is Robert Allen; see Allen (1992) and Allen (2009) Chapter 3.
6 The Crown was keen to protect the so-called yeoman farmers against overbearing feudal lords. But after the Civil War Parliament gradually reversed the position and gave big landowners extensive rights; many became fabulously wealthy as a result – this was the era of the building of the great stately homes.
7 per cent for soil improvement compared to 12 per cent for harvesting and 9 per cent for ploughing; see Wrigley (1988) p. 44.
8 See Hajnal (1965).
9 The age of marriage fell among working-class women at the end of the eighteenth century as economic conditions worsened and the range of employment choices narrowed.
10 Pressnell (1956).
22. Adam Smith and the Industrial Economy
1 See Heilbroner (2000).
2 See Mandeville (1714, 1724).
3 Smith (1776) Book IV, Chapter 2, pp. 291–2.
4 See Brown (2000).
5 Smith (1776) Book I, Chapter 8, p. 78.
6 See Malthus (1799).
7 Smith (1776) Book I, Chapter 11, p. 144 (unabridged edn).
8 See Ricardo (1817).
9 See Wrigley (1988) pp. 22–3.
23. The Nature of Work and the Rise of the Factory
1 De Vries (2008) Chapter 3; see also Wrightson (2002) Chapter 14.
2 Many societies needed to expand their communal sufficiency beyond the household, generally to the village; in medieval Europe the most interesting exceptions to this household economy in Europe were monasteries and other religious houses. The Benedictine Rule, drawn up in the sixth century for the guidance of abbots and their flocks, was the first work schedule in history; but the monastery was a self-sufficient community.
3 Smith (1776, OUP edn) Book IV, Chapter 2, p. 292.
4 See, for example, Thompson (2002).
5 Derby Mercury, 12 May 1785, quoted in Fitton (1989) p. 77.
6 Townsend (1786) p. 23.
7 See Ward (1970) for early accounts of factories.
8 The building was damaged by fire in 1910 but restored and now houses the Derby Industrial Museum.
9 Berg (1985) pp. 225–8.
10 See Fitton (1989) for a full biography of Richard Arkwright. For the difficult relations between owners and artisan workers in the eighteenth century see Darnton (1984), also Safley and Rosenband (1993).
11 Quoted in Ward (1970) p. 39.
12 T. Rees’s Cyclopedia (1802–20) ‘Manufacture of Cotton’ (1812).
13 Guest (1823) pp. 46–8.
14 Reach (1850) Letter XIV quoted in Ward (1970) p. 161.
15 See Davidoff and Hall (2002) for a full discussion of changes to family life in this period.
16 See Davidoff and Hall (2002) for a full discussion of women in the workplace. Reach (1850) Letter XIV, p. 1.
17 See Wrigley (2004) for a full discussion of population changes.
18 Wrightson (2002) p. 311.
19 Reliable birth dates were not registered until 1846 (1854 in Scotland).
20 Aikin (1795) p. 219.
21 Robert Owen, 26 April 1816, in evidence given to a House of Commons committee chaired by Robert Peel.
22 John Brown, A Memoir of Robert Blincoe (1828) p. 71; see Burnett et al. (1984) and Humphries (2011) for autobiographies of child labourers.
23 ‘Report of the Parliamentary Committee on the Bill to Regulate the Labour of Children in Mills and Factories’ (1832) quoted in Carey (1987) pp. 295–8.
24 Ralph Wright and Thomas Bellamy, Manchester JPs, 1810; see Honeyman (2007) p. 193.
25 Destitute children then became an increasing problem in the nineteenth century. People used forced adoptions to acquire servants while 80,000 pauper children were sent to Canada as agricultural and domestic servants in the half-century after 1868.
26 Quotes from Thomas (1945) pp. 49–50, 52–54.
27 Strutt Papers, Derby County Library.
28 Leeds Mercury, April 1812, quoted in Aspin (1981) p. 8.
29 Quoted in Crump (1931) p. 229.
30 Felkin (1867) p. 234.
31 Cobbett (1816).
32 Letter from Henry Blundell to Henry Dundas, Home Secretary for Troops, 1792, quoted in Addy and Power (1976) pp. 95–6.
24. Life in the Industrial City
1 Dr Hawkins, quoted in Thomas (1945) p. 15.
2 Dr Ferriar, report to the committee for the regulation of the police in Manchester, quoted in Downs (2010) p. 80.
3 De Tocqueville (1835) pp. 107–8.
4 Engels (1845) p. 27.
5 Reach (1850) quoted in Aspin (1981) p. 11.
6 Quoted in Buer (1926) p. 92.
7 See Thomas (1971).
8 Quoted in Buer (1926) pp. 82–3.
9 Clayton, ‘Friendly Advice to the Poor’ (1755), and Henry, report to Manchester Lit and Phil (1786) quoted in Buer (1926) p. 84.
10 Quoted in Buer (1926) p. 87.
11 Reach (1850) quoted in Ward (1970) p. 163.
12 Buer (1926) p. 95.
13 Because the figures are derived in a number of different ways, all of which are to some degree unreliabl
e, the contribution of each of these factors is the subject of fierce debate. I am using the interpretations of the Cambridge Group of the History of Population and Social Structure. See Wrigley (2004) for a full discussion.
14 Figures of stillbirths were not kept by parish registers and the definition is itself contentious. One exception was the parish of Hawkshead in Cumbria which recorded 106 ‘abortive’ children in its burial register between 1658 and 1705; in the same period 1,299 children were baptised, giving a stillbirth rate of 75 per 1,000.
15 Wrigley (2004) p. 425.
16 Wrigley (2004) p. 337; life expectancy, Wrigley (1988) p. 88.
Epilogue: Britain in the 1830s
1 Macaulay (1830).
2 Colquhoun (1815) p. 68.
3 Baines (1835) p. 215.
4 Wrigley (1988) p. 85.
Index
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
Aberdeen 43, 201
Act of Toleration, 1689 14–15
agriculture 8, 10, 11–12, 16, 22, 35, 60, 68, 73, 257, 276, 298, 299, 341, 344 see also farming
Aikin, John 216, 218, 223–4, 324
Albion Mill, London 133–4
American War of Independence, 1775–83 198–9, 254, 296
Ancoats, Manchester 218, 219, 220, 325–6
Anderson, Professor John 111
Anglicans 14, 181, 221–2
Anne, Queen 17
Antwerp 35, 157
apprentices/apprenticeships:
Arkwright pioneers use of in factories 202–3
artisan 36, 37
Blenkinsop and 272
desire to learn and 16–17
factories, use of in 202–3, 324–6, 328
medieval system of 13
Newcomen and 92–3
patents and 48
pauper 202, 324–6
provides human capital needed to exploit opportunities 46
restrictions on the number of 305