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Wednesday, 30th July 2003

Cottonopolis

Why Manchester?

A repeated part truth is that is has a wet, humid climate ideal for spinning yarn. More importantly south-east Lancashire's steep streams provided power for the mills and gave soft water for the washing and bleaching of cotton. Nearby there was a coalfield to fire steam engines, salt supplies for developing chemicals and easy access to the west coast for importing the raw material and exporting the finished product. Crucially Lancashire's industrial organisation was fluid. Manchester was unhampered by guilds and trade restrictions. Entrepreneurs were encouraged.

Beginnings

Traditionally textiles arrived with an influx of Flemish Weavers in 1363. By the reign of Elizabeth I wool and linen production was important, followed by manufacture of fustians, a mix of linen and cotton. But it was the manufacture of pure cottons in the mid C18 that really made Manchester. The process was run on the 'domestic sysem'. Merchants 'putting out' raw cotton to spinners, weavers etc... who worked from home. Technological advance gradually swept this method away and the factory system took over. Key invented the Fly Shuttle in 1733, between 1760 and 1790, Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny, Arkwright, the Water Frame and Crompton, the Spinning Mule. Meanwhile good turnpike roads were improving communications, cheap coal arrived with the Bridgewate Canal in 1761 and the first steam mill fired up in 1783. Cotton was being imported at a rate of 1000 tonnes a year by 1751, and stood at 45.2 thousand tonnes by 1816.

Heyday

By 1841 imports of raw cotton had risen to 205,000 tonnes and would peak in 1914 at almost a billion tonnes. The character of the city changed. The cotton mills employed less as the century wore on, by 1840 only 18% of the work force worked in cotton manufacture. Manchester became the commercial centre of the industry. The dominant building was the stately warehouse for the display of finished goods or the ornate bank and office providing loans for the production of cotton. Above all it was the town of the Royal Exchange (pictured). Production became concentrated in the outer towns, spinning nearby in Bolton, Oldham and Stockport, weaving in towns to the north such as Preston, Burnley and Blackburn. The trade in cotton amounted to 50% of British exports in the 1830s, and stood at 80% of global cotton piece goods in the 1880s.

Decline

Reliance on a distant raw material made the trade vulnerable. The American Civil War showed this, when the supply from the Confederate States had been blockaded by the Union North. Sourcing raw cotton from India and Egypt and the growth of trade with the British Empire maintained the industry until after WWI. But business declined as production rose in countries close to the raw material and with cheaper labour or with more up-to-date methods. To shore up the industry, there was a rise in tariffs for cotton imports plus schemes to reduce excess production. It was too late, a reluctance to develop new business practices and to invest in new machines, e.g. move from spinning mules to ring spinners, cost the trade dear.